Headed towards San Diego

We visited the relative of my wife in San Diego where we stayed for 3 days. We went to Sea World where we met the famous friendly whale "SHAMU".

Successful 2007 WPPI Convention

Date: March 26-29, 2007
Venue: Bally's -Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

The 2007 Wedding and Portrait Photographer International convention was a success. Conventions were better than ever and i have attended for 6 years in a row. Thousands of photographers from different countries attended the convention. Lots of new ideas were learned. Competition was intensed.

Every time I attend, I feel richer as a person, photographer and business person. The more you attend the more you learn. What I gain is worth so much more than a week worth of revenue.



A picture with the famous Photographer "YERVANT"

Accolade of Excellence Awards:16x20 Print Competition:2007 WPPI

Date: March 26-29,2007
Venue: Bally's - Paris, Las Vegas, Nevada

I want to thank the Almighty God for giving me the strength and talent that i should use and share. I now realize that if you stay true to yourself, work your arse off and surround yourself with people who make you want to be the best you can be, you don’t have to prove anything. You simply BELIEVE in yourself and BE yourself. Its then and only then that the most important kind of respect will come your way. That is self-respect

As I was looking at the gallery of winning photos, out of 2,700 entries, less than 200 received an award. I was surprised to see that 4 of my photos got an accolade of excellence awards. I was really blessed considering I was competing against the world's finest. This is my first time to participate in an international print competition.


Thank you to the following:

1. Alex and Rose

2. Joseph and Gem

3. Francis and Pia

4. Rey and Crystal

Las Vegas Experience

Date : March 27, 2007
Place : Nevada, Las Vegas


Monte Carlo Hotel...

View of Ballys Hotel

Bellagio

Shopping Mall at Ceasar's Palace

Lake Meed

Welcome Las Vegas

This is my first time to travel with my 4 kids in United States and my 7th year to attend the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention held annually in Last Vegas. I would say that this would be one of the most memorable things that would happen in my life seeing all of my children so excited to see United States.

Off to Las Vegas

This coming Sunday will be our trip to Las Vegas to attend a photographers convention. WPPI is next week already. I'll be blogging about that for sure, This kind of thing always get me all pumped up and I'm so excited because I know that this is my time to meet new faces and connect with so many friends from past seminars. Since 2002 I have been a consistent participant to Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) Convention held at Paris-Ballys Las Vegas, nevada.I've learned so much and been so inspired by the extraordinary photographers that have shared their art and their business with us.

Keep you Posted

Ciao,

Lito Q. Genilo

Legend Monte Zucker has passed away

Monte Zucker, a very famous photographer from United States, passed away yesterday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He will be sadly missed. A genuinely nice man with a big heart, yes He will be surely missed.

Featured at Manila Bulletin USA

"Lito Genilo is one of the most successful photographers who graced the Kasal Pilipinas 2006. His credentials speak for themselves: Lito Genilo is the first Filipino professional wedding photographer with five international memberships and only Filipino photographer to join the largest association for professional photographers in Europe."
Click to read the full article the here.

Smart Shot at Wedding Expo

WEDDING EXPO March 10-11, 2007 PICC Forum We would like to invite all prospective couples to visit Wedding Expo, the most comprehensive birdal fair. Visit our booth and check our display of wedding albums and video documentation. See you all....

Photos used as colateral, LA Bridal Fair

Thank you for using my photos as collateral for the 1st Los Angeles-Philippine Wedding Expo to be held at Pasadena Convention Center, Los Angeles from April 14-15, 2007

Oath Taking, WPPP

Last night was my last day of being the president of WPPP for two years. The Oath taking of the new set of officers was graced by distinguished guests and it was held at Cafe Lupe.

NEW Canon 1D-series Mark 111

The new camera will replace the 1D MK 11. ISO expandable up to ISO 6400. Canon has today announced the latest iteration of their EOS-1D digital SLR. The Mark III has a ten megapixel APS-H (1.3x FOV crop) CMOS sensor and can shoot at ten frames per second. It features the updated DIGIC III image processor, a new 19 area Auto Focus system, up to ISO 6400 and a 3.0" LCD monitor (with a live view feature). The Mark III should ship in April for US$ 3999.

Key features 10.1 Megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor 10 fps continuous shooting for up to 110 frames Dual “DIGIC III” processors New auto focus system with 19 cross type sensors EOS Integrated Cleaning System ISO 3200 (expandable to H:6400) 3.0” LCD with Live View mode Wider, brighter viewfinder Picture Style1

777 weddings article in NY Times

Click to see the article

A great article about 777 weddings. More than 31,000 members of the knot were getting married on that date. Wow grabeeh its a big number. If this will happen here in the Philippines we gonna experience a shortage of photographers!. Do you agree folks ? For the Asian population this might be a popular date. So be ready for the following dates 8/8/8 definitely going to be huge for next year....9/9/9...10/10/10...11/11/11...12/12/12...

Yahoo Vegas Again !!

We just booked our flight and accomodation for our Las Vegas Trip for WPPI annual convention. It's been my six years in a row to attend the convention. The secret of a succesful business is EDUCATION...

Top Booker, 3 years in a row

smart Shot was Featured in Mannila Bulletin.
For three years, Smart Shot Studio was awarded to be the top booker under photographer's category. For the years 2005 and 2006 we got the over-all top booker and most sought after photographer.
To all our clients, thank you for trusting our service.

Traditions

The on-going history of bridal wear: Veils Part 2 of 2

The wedding ceremony has remained one of the most cherished and practiced rites in probably every culture. In our society, the bride’s ensemble conjures as much, if not more, romantic association as the event itself. Over the past hundred years, the dress and veil combo have been adapted to every possible fashion trend, and yet remained an icon of soft femininity. As the decades progressed, new styles emerged in response to political and economic conditions as well as a reaction to styles that were no longer fashionable.

1930s Art Deco, Hollywood Glamour The stock market crash in 1929 and the ensuing depression jolted the current flapper look out of popularity, replacing it with movie star glamour. Slinky, bias cut, floor length gowns made of silk and satin conveyed a sexuality that had been lost during the previous decade. Accessories were sexier, harder, and the soft look of veils gave way to sparkling tiaras and the original bling, or chic berets. Hair was worn short and coloured for the first time – it was essentially a cleaner, shinier look than the twenties. A second development in dress styles signaled America’s re-accumulation of great wealth. Picture Gone with the Wind. Flounces, wide skirts and Juliet caps attached to veils turned brides into glowing girls and the edge of the early thirties disappeared.

1940s War Brides As World War II progressed, Canadian brides were forced earlier than their American counterparts to embrace sparse material allowances and had to get creative with their wedding attire. Putting on a wedding dress came to represent far more than designating ‘the lady of the day’, wedding gowns came to embody a sense of patriotism or defiance. Some brides wore their nursing uniforms and used parachute silk as veils to save their money, while others struggled to find themselves a white dress to signal the importance of the occasion, in spite of the current political climate. Often, all the women in a bridal party wore veils to designate their status in the ceremony.

The rich, however, continued with their opulent weddings and maintained the importance of the white dress and lavish veil. This was patriotism of another form; these dresses heralded the might, right and purity of the American psyche.

Post war prosperity and film (again) influenced the general public to wear white. It was at this time that wedding dresses stopped being used for other social purposes after the wedding.

1950s Big Bands, Supper Clubs and Foundation Garments Post war North America, the start of the baby boom and a festive mindset that probably sounds a whole lot grander than it really was, were the definitive elements of the fifties. The emergence of big band sound and swing dancing meant that dresses had to allow girls to really move. Picture Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly, maybe swing dancing isn’t the first image that comes to mind, but their shorter dresses, fitted bodices, full skirts and feminine fabrics put them squarely in the limelight of fashion. Wedding dresses also shortened up, flyaway and structured tulle veils matched the girlishness of the dress styles and once again the public were embracing a softer look. This style prevailed until the mid-sixties when there was a brief return to “the simple wedding” – big surprise with all that hippy stuff going on.

1970s Charlie’s Angels get Married Long veils and floppy hats took over from the shorter veils and pillbox hats made popular in the last decade. The return of the long, layered veil did the same for the seventies’ dresses that it did for the twenties’. It effectively bolstered the look and eminence of a bride in a fairly shapeless dress.

1980s Princess Brides It wasn’t long before flip hair-dos and easy-does-it dresses were replaced yet again by the fairytale phenomenon made hugely successful by dear departed Diana. Those gigantic sleeves, yards of train and piles of veil just about smothered the wife to be. Pearl-drop headbands, metallic tulles and huge pouf veils were used drag the onlookers’ eyes from the sheer immensity of the dress and all its details up to the outrageously eye-shadowed, blushing bride

1990s Basic white: the long reign of Vera Wang Almost over night the ultra sleek, unembellished, understated gowns of the nineties glided into prominence. And just like that, the wedding dress was reinvented again and Vera Wang stood at the helm of newly spring-cleaned bridal mothership. The poster child for this new style was Carolyn Bessette when she married John F. Kennedy Jr. Her veil fell lightly over her shoulder and looked like it was just part of the dress as it maintained the absolute lack of ornamentation and ostentation that had been so prevalent a few years before. This look, at first a breath of fresh air, soon took on a cookie cutter feel as every bride looked essentially identical. Reaction to this extreme revision of the wedding dress came quite recently, with a return to a broader variety of looks in the new millennium.

The Millennium Looks Back Pleats, lace, tea length dresses and slinky silk gowns – all less excessive versions than their famous predecessors are popular again. Wedding dresses can dictate the formality and décor of a wedding and it seems that now, more than ever, with the resurgence of dress designers and a boom in the economy, the wedding dress is the material embodiment of the event itself, and says a lot about the personal style and image of the woman at the altar.

all content: The Wedding Co.

Traditions

Whipped in white

And you thought the little black dress was ageless! In 1831, Godey’s, a popular women’s publication, reported that the first veil was used in Sparta, Greece by Penelope to hide her identity to secretly marry Ulysses. The Roman’s used veils to symbolize the dedication of the Vestal Virgins’ devotion to the Gods and so began the association of a white veil with an unblemished and pure spirit. It is believed that the early Christians’ were directly influenced by the Roman interpretation and use of the veil. It became customary for brides to wear them from betrothal to the end of the marriage ceremony (nuns also incorporated them into their uniform as a sign of their commitment to Christ). In the East, the use of veils took on more cultural references, and they were not necessarily white. Historical references suggest that the veil was used to ward off bad spirits and the ‘evil eye’, but they were also meant to protect potential suitors from falling in love with an unattainable woman. Is it only a post-modern woman who sees this as a justification of a double standard?

Fashion takes over: 1499 to 1929 Once the use of veils became an established practice, form and function became the prime consideration and the fashion of each era dictated the appropriate style. In 1499, Ann of Brittany wore and popularized the white wedding gown. It was then that the ‘traditional’ wedding outfit we know began to develop. Veils at that time, and until the Victorian era, were worn under wreaths of orange blossoms. When the Victorians began to carry their flowers, there were more options for the style of the veil. It wasn’t until the Edwardians that veils and their different fashions really took off; a popular look for that time was to incorporate waxed flowers into the headdress. Through the ‘20s cloche and cap veil styles were commonplace. For this fashion, the bride’s head was covered by a hat with a veil falling from underneath. At this point in American culture, weddings were a vehicle to broadcast wealth, women outdid one another with yards and yards of silk veils, heavy with lace and beaded detailing. It was popular to have photographs taken with the veil piled at the bride’s feet. During the roaring ‘20s, veils actually held more status than the dress itself. Dresses were rather shapeless, a direct result of the androgynous flapper fashions and veils were worn long with stunning bands of beads or metallic flowers sitting low on the bride’s brow. This was the height of veil fashion and another turning point in bridal wear. Since then, veils have been relegated to a supporting role; used to highlight and accessorize the dress.

Stay tuned for Part Two: War brides to Princess Di, the evolution continues.

....the wedding co.

Bene + Adine E-Session

Date: March 1, 2007
Venue: Eco Park
Photographer: Lito Q. Genilo
Date of Wedding: April 14, 2007

Bene and Adine had a lovely photo shoot at Eco Park in Quezon City followed by some funny photos. I was so happy that both of them were game for an engagement session in the park.

Enjoy!

View slideshow here