Litrato Photojournalism » Wedding Photojournalism at its finest

Here are some images from my shoot for Jonathan and Kissa’s engagement session at Anvaya Cove Resort in Morong, Bataan, Philippines. Although we almost got rained out that day, we still were able to create some stunning images of this gorgeous couple. The place is just picture perfect…even with the absence of the sunset because of the weather condition that day. Looking forward to their destination wedding in Angeles City, Philippines on 10/10/2010.

Hope you enjoy these!

Philadelphia, PA – January 23, 2010 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Wedding Photojournalism by Ron Soliman has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Wedding Photography!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Wedding Photojournalism by Ron Soliman is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Wedding Photojournalism by Ron Soliman is among the very best Wedding Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at www.weddingwire.com/photojournalism

About WeddingWire, Inc.

WeddingWire is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding vendors. WeddingWire enables engaged couples to search, compare and book over 100,000 reviewed wedding vendors nationwide, from wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding vendors, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. In addition, WeddingWire has partnered with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO) to provide its network of local vendors and online wedding-planning tools in the Weddings section of www.MarthaStewartWeddings.com. For additional information, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

While in the Philippines this Christmas season, I selected few organizations to help out with their charity giving. The first one was the Rotary Club of Metro Clark, who organized “Share a Toy, Share a Joy” event for street children, orphans, kids with disabilities, and aborigines of the Philippines held at the former Clark Air Force Base in Angeles City. Here are some images from this fun-filled event, where underprivileged children lined up to receive their toys and eat their favorite cheeseburger and ice cream. It feels good to see the faces of these children light up when they see their gifts. For most of them the toys they receive will serve as their only toy for the whole year.

The Litrato Photojournalism team is proud to be part of this event. And we thank the Oneill family (from the White Marsh Valley Country Club Portrait Session) for their donation to this cause.

While visiting family in my birth town in Pampanga, Philippines I got the chance to witness the 101st year celebration of the Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul). Below is a little history of this annual festival, which is held few days before Christmas:

The Giant Lantern Festival is an annual festival held in December (Saturday before Christmas Eve) in the City of San Fernando in the Philippines. The festival features a competition of giant lanterns. Because of the popularity of the festival, the city has been nicknamed the “Christmas Capital of the Philippines”.

The first lantern festival was held to honor President Manuel L. Quezon. At that time, Quezon made Arayat his rest area and converted Mount Arayat into a tourist resort. As a show of gratitude to Quezon, the people of San Fernando held a Christmas lantern contest to honor the first family. Quezon himself donated the prize for his lantern contest, which was personally awarded to the winner by First Lady Aurora Aragon Quezon.

In the years that followed, more innovations were introduced to the giant lanterns. Colored plastics replaced traditional papel de hapon. Large steel barrels called rotors also substituted the hand-controlled switches to manipulate the lights. And lanterns have grown in size, approximately 20-feet today, and illuminated by about 3,500 to 5,000 light bulbs.