Twist your body! (How, Toy? When one has fats all over the place, twisting anything becomes a challenge.)
Turn your neck! (While twisting my body?! Are you purposely trying to break my veins?!)
Look down! Look Up! (Where, for God's sake, do you really want me to look?!)
Re-touch! She's sweating. (Well, anybody would under these lights.)
Move the electric fan to her face. (Yes and give me pneumonia while you're at it.)
The blazer is too big. (Darling, we buy suits for comfort. If I bought them in my actual size, I cannot move to pick up my stapler without bursting a seam.)
Relax your face. (I don't know how to relax. You should know that by now.)
Say "A" (A. I feel like an idiot.)
Unbutton your blouse. (WHY?! In case you have not noticed, I have no cleavage!)

4 hours later, voila! The official marketing consultant's photo.

But the work doesn't end there. We now move the photos to the computer where the Adobe magic begins.

Erase, erase the eyebags. (You had a scheduled photo shoot, why didn't you sleep early?!)
Blur those lines. (YEGADS! I have wrinkles now?!)
Blur the cheeks. (Damn, I have pores the size of moon craters.)
Smudge the blemishes. (Moral of the story? Don't dive if you don't want to have the map of Asia on your face in your 30s.)

10,000 years later – TADAHN!!! Damn, I gotta agree with Dean. I look hot. Sizzle, sizzle.

Wally jokingly refers to my photos as the Pantene photos. "Hailed as one of the most beautiful." Oh yes. Move over, Gretchen!

The verdict from the general public? 10 stars.

Sadly, no. I was not born looking that way although I like to delude myself that I was. Those amazing photos are a testament to the photographic talents of the gifted Toy Magtaas who does not create mere photos but works of art. I swear the boy can make a boring piece of meat look so succulent, you go hungry just staring at it.

I've always used Toy for my shoots unless the client has specified a particular photographer. He has spoiled me for all the other photographers. Plus, Toy possesses the uncanny ability of taking an image from a client's mind and transforming it into a photo that sells. Ultimately, that is what all advertising photos should do.

Unlike other photographers, I don't need a stylist, creative director or art director with Toy around. He knows exactly what I want him to do even though the creative briefing I gave him was explained in only 3 sentences. Toy delivers because he gets it that photographs must sell the product. It is not what he likes or wants that matters. It's the client's needs and wishes which, really, is the command of all photographers.

Well, of course, the shoot was free. Such is the beauty of a marketing consultant who brings referrals to the doorstep of her suppliers.