And now for something POSITIVE!

So while I lost my job AND my best four-legged-fury friend this month I have been a total asshole of an auntie and NOT posted the BIGGEST news of the past 35 days - the arrival of my pwerfect litrle man - my nephew Chase Kalman!  Below is the moment I fell madly in love after watching my sister go through 25 hrs of hell to get him here (by the way I think single women who still want children should not be allowed to watch the birthing process from start to finish!)   But 10 mins later he was in my arms and I was in mad crazy love.

October 25th 2011

I am sure there will be MANY posts about him in the future as I have a BAZILLION photos on my phone and we plan to do his first photo shoot in the next few days!  But today when his mom - who shared a life with Asher girl almost as long as I did - read my post and texted me simply...  "Snif..."  :-(  She then did the best. 

She sent this picture of what appears to be his first real (non-gas-related) SMILE

I LOVE my little man!

RIP my girl Asher November 14th 2011

I was to upset to post about this when it first happened - but it's high time now.  You deserve a tribute my loving Asher boo boo - for being my faithful friend and companion for over 12 years.

I am forever grateful for that morning 12 years ago where, hung - over I did not end up calling in sick to my 6:30AM spin class I taught at the Marina Fitness Center.  When I saw the fitness director walk in with you, all 6-weeks-old with floppy-to-big-for-your-body silky, glossy ears you, I couldn't wait to wrap up the class and come see you.  When I asked whose you were, she put you in my arms and said "yours if you want her.  If not we are on our way to the pound" oh that was the moment.

When you looked up at me with those huge chocolate brown liquid love eyes of yours and kissed my face I knew that was it.  You chose me for your human,  life as I knew it was over, and a new chapter was about to begin.

The ensuing years were chaos and love enter-twined daily. You were sweet and playful and damaged enough property for a whole litter-full of puppies.  Shoes, socks, down comforters, car headrests, every single toy labeled "indestructible" we could find, and then the piece-d-resistance....an oriental rug worth more then my car.  You ate anything that was not nailed down (and sometimes things that were nailed down)  A dirti martini, countless loaves of bread, trays of freshly made mancotti - of course Ben and Pagoda helped you with that one - a pot roast for 10 and famously a bag of pot when you were a year old.  That one scared us a little - but you had a tummy of steel and just moved on to the next thing.

You had energy abounds, could catch a bounced ball 3 - 4 ft in the air and your obsessions/joys in life were the ball and torturing Ben.  Later in years you tolerated and mothered a kitty I put on you and mourned the loss of Ben with me for a very long time.

You moved 3 times in Venice with me, road tripped to Colorado and then we embarked on that 2,700 mile cross country trip together, just you me and the cat. You were such a trooper and a great traveling companion.  You never minded me singing in the car and loved to hang your head out the window and smile.

You didn't love it when I traveled all the time.  When picking me up at the airport you would be so excited you were beside yourself, until you remembered you were mad at me so you would of course have to cop a 'tude and turn away from me, with holding kisses for at least an hour.  But you always forgave me in the end.  I will admit it took longer for me to forgive you when you destroyed the one designer suitcase I had ever indulged to buy - but we always came back around for each other.

You kept me safe from intruders, especially that dangerous mailman dude - I mean who did he think he WAS coming up to our house every day like that?  You loved the FedEx and UPS men because they knew to bring you treats and on one of our scariest days you threw yourself between me and a dog 3 times your size who was attacking , getting yourself almost killed and severely injured in the process - all to protect me.

You loved the beach but hated deep water and I am truly sorry I tried to get you to swim in the pool once we moved to Florida. You took your job of protecting gram and mom and I very seriously here in Fl and put up with yet another cat we forced on you.

You were a marvel as you were diagnosed with Cushings Disease at 7 and made it until 12 - farther then all the vets warned me.  In your final days as you were going down, you were the brave one and I am sorry it took me so long to hear you trying to tell me it was time to let you go.

Putting you down was one of the most painful and dreadful days I have had, and I still find myself looking around the house for you, expecting to see you when I walk in the door wagging your tail and bringing me your ball. It's been hard to be without you.

In the end I feel truly blessed that you chose me to be your human and you showered me with unconditional love everyday we were together for the past 12 years.  I will never forget you and I do hope there is a heaven for dogs and you are up there with Ben, on a beach wagging your tail and chasing a ball with that big smile on your face.

 Asher August 5 1999 - November 14 2011

I will love you and miss you forever.

Job Hunt Again

So this is what I get for ignoring my own blog and photography business for a few months.  A blank Blog of my own and back on the job hunt again!

At least in the few months I was employed by the photography studio in Social Media and Marketing I learned a LOT  - well a lot in social media.  Only got my hands on a camera for a shoot of my own one time - pretty poor statistics with all of that beautiful space and equipment - but t was no readily at my disposal.  Sigh

So here we are back on the Job hunt, however this time in my spare time I plan to update with my own life, as mundane and lame as it can be. 

Social Media Maven!

It has been way to long since I have updated my own work and life on my blog, now that I am busy being paid to do it for someone else!

My new gig at Studione1 in Fort Lauderdale is pretty amazing!  Working on their Social Media - marketing and promotions, and getting to use the studio for shoots, sit in on workshops and observe owner and pro photographer Peter Langone at work!   Excellant!

Did my very first studio shoot last week for a good friend who will be traveling around the world for over a year.  Her blog will be interactive and her way to connect to her family and friend from anywhere in the world!  I can't wait to post the photos - but as my "client" I need to let her debut them on her site first!

So my new goal is to simultaneously update my own blog with that of my work.  I am having a blog built for them so that we can update the goings on here daily.

Meanwhile I set up a Tumblr Blog for them!  Check it out!

Happy Shooting!

Life at the top - The Staging begins

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a Penthouse overlooking the ocean?  I have, down here in Florida - land of the high-rise you see them stretch for miles throughout the towns of Hollywood, Aventura, Miami and so forth.  With the housing economy as it is - half of them are occupied by the small percentage of the still obscenely wealthy, and the other half seems to be split between vacant or occupied with people desperate to unload due to financial  change of circumstance, something I can relate to wholeheartedly (The state of our world and my personal economic problems will surely be a rant for another day)

So how to capitalize on this bad real estate market and economic downturn?  As a photographer - gigs for shooting happy pregnant people, smiling babies and loving couples are far and few between these days.  Then for my Mother, a talented interior designer, people are not exactly knocking down the door in droves to pay her to re-do their homes as they once did. 

So mother and her friend Paula have started a company called As You like It (more on that in the future as I help them build their website and Facebook page etc etc) They still do interior design but have branched out to start "staging" residential and commercial spaces to help them sell, as well as designing and organizing events.

The bonus for me is being her daughter - God love nepotism and mothers desire for me to make money so I may one day be able to move out of her house - is, as they get jobs, and book event plans - who do you think the go-to photographer will be?  ME! That was a rather obvious answer I know - just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

I shot the before photos for a job they are pitching on yesterday, and while I am new at real estate photography - and found it trickier then anticipated - I will continue to work on it because I have discovered there is a market for it.  

In the meantime while the 6,500 sq ft 2 story condo was a disaster and a lesson in the perils and bad choices in "collecting" masses of kitschy random shit, the view was astounding and I couldn't resist taking the time to fire off a few shots.

While I still love living on ground level and being able to step outside into a yard , there IS something to be said for highrise dwelling - when you have a view like THIS!

Ahhh living in South Florida - it has it's moments.

Oh how they grow

I've been missing my friends in California lately.  My little friends, who are not all so little anymore.  I am sad that I am missing so many of them as they grow up - beacuse we all know how quickly they grow!

So I found myself going back through old photo shoots and picking out some of my tried and true faves and doing a little re-editing.  (My post production skills have grown a bit since these shoots)

 you lookin at me?

 and THAT's my final word on the subject!

 anyone who knows me knows this is my favorite!  She is my business card for goodness sake!

 my old next door neighbor Seven - she was SUCH a model! 

She LOVED being a test subject for me - I must have shot her half a dozen times at least!

Then there were the family shoots.  This family I am biased in my love for as they have been part of my close circle of friends for well over a decade - pre-marriage, pre- kids and I can't BELIEVE I am missing these monkey's as they grow!  :-(

 What a good big brother.  Jackson and Ryan

 Action Jackson - this kid was hard to shoot as I had to chase him all the time!

Mommy and Ryan

And then my favorite.  The Belly shots followed by the baby a few months later.  I am getting geared up for doing that with my sister in the next few weeks - if it would just stop storming here in South Florida every evening and killing our plans!

 Mom and dad getting ready for the new arrival

 And then comes baby Kaya!

Those little feet are going to be 2 years old soon!  I can't stand it!

I guess I was in a nostalgic mood today - missing my little friends, their parents and southern california.  Sigh.  

Working on getting gigs to shoot little ones here!

and along comes a boy

There has been something/someone that has been on my mind quite a lot these days.  Its the arrival of a VERY important boy into my world.  A boy who will become a major part of my life, a serious commitment ....until death do us part.

No not that kind of lifelong relationship - the girl IS still single and as I am living in Fort Lauderdale I'm not anticipating THAT status update to change anytime in the foreseeable future......

No this boy will be of the infant variety.  My first Nephew.

He is due to arrive in exactly 10 weeks.  10 weeks and our lives will be forever changed in this house of estrogen horror.  3 generations of Italian women will soon be invaded by a little wee babe.....with a penis.  He will show up to be cared for and adored by fun, social, loud, opinionated women galore and a bevvy of fun "fairy godfathers" - a term our neighbor has bestowed upon himself and his friends,  the core group of gay men who are regular fixtures at our Sunday night dinners.  Oh my....this child will be ushered into more feminine energy then should be legal under one roof.  10 weeks of remaining estrogen dominance.....the clock is ticking......

Now granted I am not the one giving birth and living with him 24 - 7, that gig goes to my sister and her boyfriend, who are both in some sort of blissful denial of how different their life is about to be and how a full night sleep is something they will not see again for quite a while, but as we live so close to each other and are the type of family who is constantly up in each others .....business, life, shit etc.. I know that life will change here as well.  Already our garage is filling up with, well...STUFF.  The stuff needed for babies. And I tell you - we only have maybe half of what is needed yet - and it's a LOT of stuff.  It's amazing that something so small can take up so much space!

So being the good sister that I am I threw the baby shower.  The party that honors the glowing mother to be, and allows everyone to get good and buzzed to be able to tolerate watching her open mounds of pastel wrapped presents for the boy.  Also being the crazy gluten-free-martha-stuart-type nut job that I am able to be while still jobless and full of free time, the floral tea party themed, gluten-free desert fest that took me 2 days of baking was received with much aplomb. Thank goodness

 Wanting the deserts to be Gluten Free I contacted the people at Pamela's Products - the company with the best gluten free all purpose flour and cake mixes on the market in my humble opinion) and found them to be SO incredibly accommodating!  They emailed me some special recipes in advance of publication so I could make my sisters request of Red Velvet Cupcakes.  If you have Celiac or ever need to bake for someone who has it, I must urge you to try Pamela's Products goods.  I have raved about them before on my blog and have to say it is WORTH $16 a bag of flour.  Yes being allergic to Gluten is an expensive annoyance but all things being relative - not so bad.

 I did go a wee bit overboard on the amount of pastries and cupcakes I baked, but god forbid there was a lack of sugar at the event was my theory.  I found that the best way to avoid answering probing questions about my own chronic single and childless status was to keep people liquored and shove pastries down their throat. (Well not literally but you know what I mean)

My one disappointment of the day was discovering that being the caterer, host and sister of the mommy-to-be leaves little time for focusing on photographing the event to the best of my ability.  These will suffice, I guess..... although along with being a crazy baking perfectionist I am also hyper-critical of my work.  I guess it comes with the territory.

I am however looking forward to the next few weeks of photographing sister in all her pregnant-ness, and once the little man arrives, well lets just say he will be one WELL photographed baby. My permanent guinea pig for practice.  I can't wait!

Meanwhile, Lucy better enjoy the silence now - I can't wait to see how the animals react to a screaming infant.  Oh joy!