Filipinana Dress shoot in a 1730s old Jesuit priest house.

On a recent trip to Cebu, I had a chance to do a photoshoot with some local models and photograph local native costumes. I met with an old friend, Jessica, from Guam. After chatting a bit and at my suggestion of doing a photoshoot, Jessica ran with the idea and organized a shoot, complete with location, mua, hair stylists, and models.

The result was traditional, and some that were not so traditional, more modern takes on the "Filipiñana," the mestiza, and the Barong. I've heard it called many names, but it's a beautiful outfit made with Pina or Abaca.

The three models were terrific. Jessica was one of them, as was Elaine and Darlene. The last two were professional models at one time, but not so much anymore, as they decided to back off from modeling to start a family. In addition to our crew, our makeup artist was Sol Congmon, a wonderful mua, and our stylist was Rallion Santos; the dresses were from Glady Rose & Bree Esplanada. The location was an old 1730 Jesuit house in Cebu City, Cebu.

It was amazing, but there was not enough time to shoot the whole house or properly shoot all of the fashion. I wanted to do more than I was able to. I truly should have scheduled this into two days of photo shoots!

Because the shoot was indoors, we had to have artificial light, so I brought my trusty Profoto A2, my B10, and some modifiers. I used the windows as much as possible because the old house was inside a warehouse with a transparent tin roof. It was like one giant lightbox above the old house.

We wandered throughout the house, looking for perfect places to shoot. I used my Leica Q2 for black-and-white photos and my Fujifilm X-H2s for color photos and video. I also used my GoPro Black 12 to capture behind-the-scenes videos.

Makeup: Sol Congmon

Hair: Rallion Santos

1730 Jesuit House: Jaime Sy

Fashion: Glady Rose & Bree Esplanada.

Models: Darleen Elaine Hopkirk, Elaine Ezpleta-Tan, & Jessica Shaw Ledesma.