How to go about having a glamour portrait of myself done in Zamboanga

a third post about cory's death? sigh. this is backsliding.

but then, it's better than the months-long lull between posts, di ba?

i was just thinking, seeing all those huge photos of cory at the cathedral, maybe i should get portraits of myself done too?

how horrible if i died and my family would display enlarged copies of my passport picture atop my casket.

so my latest project has been identified. have a portrait done.

to do:
1. decide on a look
2. find dress (or blouse -- my portrait will be a bust shot only. no whole body stewardess application photos please)
3. find good local make-up artist
4. find good local hair person
5. find a good local photographer
6. find a good local kunsintidora friend to hold my hand during the shoot
7. go have that portrait taken
8. somewhere between numbers 1 and 7, find money to fund this endeavor

the look of the photo
i would like for it to be a "glamour shot". so shoot me for wanting something very different from my daily life. with the advent of digital cameras, i have too many, far, far too many shoots of me looking the way i do everyday. it will be obviously done in the studio. no location shoots for my glamour shot. right now i am thinking black and white. timeless. something that will look good when it turns sepia with age. something that will look good inside either a golden baroque frame or a plain shaker-style wooden one. yes. i am full of shit. i have heard that said of me before. get over it. i have.

the look of me
i want to look like catherine zeta jones or penelope cruz (my cousin on my mother's side, haha. along with tom cruise). you know, smouldering. big hair, smoky eyes. very aloof but very come hither also. that should give my friends and family something to talk about during my wake.


the great thing about Cathy's photo above is that it came from a site that contained an article called "How To: Look Gorgeous in Pictuers". Don't ask me about the appropriateness of the colon in the title. For my part, I am just happy to have found, all in one site, a great picture of Mrs. Douglas and a helpful article. P.S. My hair won't be as messy as hers here. and i don't know if i can pull off that look-into-the distance thing during the shoot. but i will really, really try.


i have serious misgivings about the material of her gown. nothing wrong with it, per se, but it's so un-me. but doesn't she look gorgeous? her hair isn't big but i like it, like it, like it. Hmm. mother dear gave me a bottle of hair dye. maybe it's time i go to the parlor and have highlights put in....

and why is it that everytime i line my eyes with black pencil like penelope did here, it just looks so.....wrong?

honestly, i am not really into make-up, or into hair for that matter. my last haircut was something i gave myself a month ago in front of the mirror with the scissors i use to cut my beading cords. i call it a "very blunt cut". but since college i have been told this jalandoni guy is great. he used to have a shop on nunez street but i am not sure. when i got married, someone from david's salon on mindpro did my face. he was so happy with his handiwork but i hated it. it didn't help that after the wedding, i managed to pry from my husband his opinion of the makeup. and this is what he said: "kamukha mo kanina si queen amidala." he said this during reception, after i had gone to the bathroom to wipe off some of the brown gunk and my original brows had resurfaced. here's an illustration of my husband's memory of me during our wedding:


the photographer
i know of two good local photographers, rikki lim and keith lorenzo. they'd be rolling on the floor laughing if i tell them all of these things but that's a small price to pay for a good photo for people to remember me by.


this is derrick lim, rikki's son. of course papa took the picture. gwapo 'no? blame his mom's genes, hehe.

now if i were really, really flush with cash, i'd have my glamour shot done by the team over at mimi and karl. i have been making tulo laway over at their site for almost a month now. sigh. i probably have to facilitate 25 writing workshops or sell seven million beads or take my son off his meds or do all three to afford these guys. but i just think they are the greatest.

if you can ignore the obvious fact that she is wearing a wedding gown and we all know how star wars like my wedding look was, this is how i want my portrait to look like. no come hither here, its all just haughty, but you know what i mean. i hope. here are other mimi and karl masterpieces

the friend
my sister maita would only roll her eyes at my kaartehan, so not her. my friend marsha would want to be in the shot, so definitely not her. my friends vina and sheila would be really, really great, and i can imagine sheila taking on the styling tasks, but they are both in the states earning dollars, so it cannot be them. i have a feeling jane and ivy would be tolerant and their taste levels are high. so maybe either of them....
all my other sisters aren't here either. but i can imagine the eldest making kunsinti....since she already had glamour shots of herself taken!

....time lapse....

thirty minutes ago i started to add images i have gleefully ripped off photographers' websites but until now, the orange thing that goes round and round, indicating that blogspot is still working on my command, is still going round and round. and i am losing my patience. so i am going to end this entry, come back to it tomorrow or this afternoon. and add those photos that will illustrate what i am raving about regarding my glamour portrait.