Yesterday I had my first Real Home shoot in ages. I can’t remember the last one but that would have to be a few months before I joined JFM in August 2014. What is surprisingly vivid to me is the familiar, comforting feeling of being in a home shoot: chatting up the owner and/or the interior designer, having him or her give us a tour of the spaces, surveying the rooms and details on my own as the photographer and stylist fuss over the perfect angles, partaking of the merienda or lunch lovingly prepared by the host and the light talks shared alongside the nibbles.

Shoots are usually scheduled in the morning at around 10 or afternoon at 2pm. It could stretch up to hours like yesterday’s shoot of a sprawling vacation house in Batangas that had started at 11am and wrapped up at 4pm. “Ang lakas makatamad nang bahay na ito!” enthuses a former colleague who is also the project’s interior decorator with his characteristic gay charm. Weather was wonderful and time trickled in the early afternoon as we spent it chatting in one of the inviting vignettes outdoors. That time of day just a few weeks ago, I was at my desk in my former office. How time flies.

Anyway, thought of sharing some BTS and personal snaps from four of what must amount to about a hundred homes (including those for makeovers) I had been to since 2007 (!).