Behind every page on a magazine is a story. Each photo shoot is the result of hours of collaboration, coordination, and discussion: Who will we feature, and why? Who will write the story? What will he/she wear? Who will do the hair and makeup?

Usually, an editor’s job is to be on top of all those things. Clinton Palanca once said that the higher you go up the editorial ladder, the less writing you actually get to do. It’s true; the editor-in-chief usually just dashes off the editor’s note, although she does a lot of other things. I used to write a bunch of things for Metro, but lately, I’ve been asking contributors to write instead of doing all the articles myself (I’d rather not spread myself too thin because there are a gazillion other things to do).

But once in a while, we still get our hands dirty. Check out our feature on Julia Abad, the head of the Presidential Management Staff, in the October issue of Metro. I didn’t do the article myself, but I asked questions at the interview. And well, this:

...there I am, holding the painting closer to the frame

The final product

See, who said editors don’t do the dirty work?