Aviva Photography Blog

Well, the weather has not been great, and my clients have had all sorts of things come up from full-arm casts to sudden TADs/TDYs….it’s totally understandable. And now I’ve cleared up the schedule for a 3-week trip to the states for my brother-in-law’s wedding and then to ITALY for our 10th anniversary! (Cannot wait.)

I’ll be posting/blogging along the way…either here or on my personal blog. And check Facebook too! I’ll miss home, but this is the first real trip home for us in almost 3 years, and the trip to Europe will definitely be a first. See you on the flip side, folks!

Oh please. You do NOT think I’d post without a photo, did you? Catch this dude cleaning windows at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. I think this is a great t-shirt.

Back on April 28th! Over jet lag – oh, shoot, well I am hoping by summer.

Like so many around the world, I’m devastated by the disaster in Haiti. We know some Marines who headed there to help (Godspeed to you all), and I know many who have donated (as our family has) but still feel like I can do more. Then I came across Photographers for Haiti recently on one of the blogs I read. Kelsey Bigelow and Kristi Crosson are the photographers behind this effort, and I jumped on board as soon as I read about it. I hope you’ll all help me show them that we want to contribute!

I’m in talks with Alexis of Red Stone Photography about putting together a mini shoot day in February to benefit organizations helping with the relief efforts in Haiti. At the moment it’s looking like it will be on a Saturday afternoon at around 3pm with 20-minute shoots on the half-hour. 100% of the sitting fee (amount TBD) will be donated DIRECTLY (as in, you will bring a check made out to one of the affiliated relief organizations) to the cause. Then at least 50% of the cost of prints purchased will also be donated to the same organizations.

Rally with me, folks – I’d love to have your support for this worthy cause. If you’re interested and want to be the first to know about the date & sign your family up, email me! I truly hope I have too many people to fit in one day.

Photo taken by Damon Winter, courtesy of the New York Times.

Hi, everyone! I have some fabulous photos of a lovely couple to post tomorrow, but wanted to get this out there today.

Some of you know, I’m part of the Okinawa International Women’s Club (OIWC) here in Okinawa. I posted about it back in December. Well I’m the historian on the board for this amazing organization. I say it’s amazing because not only is it a wonderful opportunity to meet women from all over the world and from Okinawa, of course, but OIWC provides an opportunity to learn about local culture, traditions, and most importantly to give back. This organization is a cultural exchange AND a non-profit organization that supports so many amazing causes.

Every fall, the OIWC has a welcome coffee. The club meets at luncheons once a month (alternating between on and off base locations) and then there are smaller culture groups that are part of the whole. The board meets once a month as well, usually right after the luncheon; meetings/luncheons/culture group events take place from September through June. By the way – the FOOD at these luncheons is usually fantastic. I am a fan of the local cuisine, but in general the meals are great!

I am taking the time to write about this because it is the last year (the 2009-2010 year) that I will be participating as Historian on the board. I’d love it if anyone who is local here in Oki would join – it’s a great time even if you’re just a member. But what I’m looking for is someone who’d like to help me document the 2009-2010 OIWC events.

If you have an interest in learning more about photography, if you will be here at least until summer of 2011, and if you would like to work with me as my “committee” for the OIWC Historian, please email me. I’d love to work with you this year, help you to get to know your DSLR (or at the very least a good point and shoot) and to have you join in the rewarding experience of giving back to this amazing place we call home for a short time. You know I love it! It’s my 3rd year as a member and my 2nd year on the board. If you have questions about it or think you might be interested – email me. I’d love to have you along. And if you’re not going to be here until at least the summer of 2011, this isn’t for you – I really am looking for someone who can take over next year. What would this post be without a few photos? I have to whet your whistle – these are some of the amazing things I’ve seen during my time with OIWC.

Hello, everyone! I hope you’ve had a great summer, mine has been fantastic. Today is the first day of school and here I am, hard at work. Not that I’ve been slacking up until now….

Aviva Photography’s pricing has been updated and is now available on the website, and I am booking for the fall. The sitting fee has come way down; I am no longer giving away images on CD with the sitting fee, however I want you to use that money you’re saving on mounted prints, albums or other beautiful keepsakes that you will treasure forever. Here’s the information about booking.

WEEKEND/HOLIDAY SHOOT ($150 sitting fee for up to 4 family members, $25 each additional member): A weekend shoot will happen on Saturday morning or national holiday in the early morning (particularly in September/early October due to the heat). That following Sunday is the rain date. If you wish to book on a holiday (i.e. Columbus Day) we can do that as well, but please have a rain date available just in case. Once you’ve requested your date choice, I will confirm and you will receive a Paypal request for the full amount of the sitting fee. Your session is NOT confirmed nor is the date held until that sitting fee is paid in full!

WEEKDAY SHOOT ($100 sitting fee for up to 4 family members, $25 each additional member): A weekday shoot (a Monday thru Friday date when school is in session) will happen on the morning of your choice, at 8:30am or shortly thereafter. We will plan for a rain date together. Once you’ve requested a date, I will confirm and you will receive a Paypal request for the full amount of the sitting fee. Your session is NOT confirmed nor is the date held until that sitting fee is paid in full!

The available Saturdays and holidays through December are:
SEPTEMBER: 19
OCTOBER: 10, 12, 24
NOVEMBER: 28
DECEMBER: 12, 19

Date requests will be first-come, first served. There is a great deal of flexibility on weekday dates, so if that interests you please let me know (would it kill the hubby to go into work late one day? I think not!). I hope to hear from you very soon – the dates will fill fast! Click here to email me, or visit the website and fill out the contact form.

And you know I won’t post without a photo! Here’s my daughter this morning, her first day of school.

Have you seen this at the stands? Or perhaps you already have one at home…..

(No, that cover is not my photo. I wish it was…she looks very happy.) But that issue – the August one – is home to something very special to me. In the contents there… LOOK. You may have recognized a photo like this from my personal blog…

And then when you look closely in the contents. There! The PHOTO ESSAY: In the Places Between. It makes me so happy to share this with you!

I somehow, by contacting John R. Burgreen III at Okinawa Living Magazine (published by MCCS), fell into this amazing opportunity to provide a six-page photo essay!

Trust me, I didn’t plan it. But who am I to not jump through a door when it opens, right? I kind of almost choked when I saw that I had to fill six pages; I mean hi there, I’m a portrait photographer. I take a lot of scenic and travel photos for fun, but this wasn’t an assignment. I had to throw it together in one week; before leaving for Hawaii. Before the people at Okinawa Living went on vacation. So there was no time to compile something new – I had to put something together fast! Not only that – but write captions… a story of some sort to tie it all together! I’m not going to lie, I had help. Thanks to Betty, Rena, Meredith, and Jen, I bounced a lot of ideas, brainstormed, and finally felt we had something to relate to the people who are new to Okinawa int he summer time. Get out there and explore! It’s the journey as well as the destination, so definitely slow down to enjoy the wonderful details of Okinawa.

I sent a bunch of photos to John, and some caption ideas to go with them, and he picked the ones he felt impacted him the most… and here it is. My first published photo essay!

As a side note, that photo of the sea wall up there is available on the FINE ART SITE – which, since a few have asked is in that “COOL LINKS” drop down up there at the top of the blog. There’s no password, you can go there and poke around any time you want! I have it as a 24″x36″ canvas gallery wrap in my living room, and let me tell you; that magazine doesn’t even do it justice. Colorful photos like that are meant to hang BIG on your walls!

I picked a few faves and a few new ones.

And all-in-all – I couldn’t be more proud and excited. (I still have a huge pile of issues in my house and feel like I need to grab MORE. A HUGE thank you to everyone. You know who you are. Mere – you brainstormed with me about verbiage during your last moments of pregnancy and I appreciate you endlessly for that. Some of you who were following my Facebook (hi, Denise…Bambi… you know who you are) were looking for it before it even hit the stands! Karen asked the delivery guy to grab one when it wasn’t even out of the plastic wrap yet. Ebeth literally grabbed it out of her friend’s hands. And I happily mailed copies to my amazing friends and clients who have PCSed and can’t just pick one up at the shopette. I got phone calls, emails, kudos – I feel the amazing suport and kindness from ALL of you, and I still pinch myself that my photos ended up in this magazine. The very same one I picked up in June of 2007 at the WestPac Inn and said to my husband, “I could work for this magazine. This is GOOD.” HAPPY DAY! A portrait post coming soon, and this weekend I get my camera on a baby boy! I’ll be back. I’m hard at work. Fall launch is coming…chugga chugga.

Hi again! It has been awhile… I’m working on some back-office type of things (you know, getting ready for the fall and such) which aren’t nearly as exciting as showing photos to you. So I know you keep looking to see what I’ve got; here are some photos from our Hawaii trip.

One morning after having some delicious breakfast, we headed out to Puli Lookout to get a lay of the land. WOW it was windy! But so beautiful. I could’ve stared out at that view all day.

After that stop, we went to the Punchbowl National Cemetery. I had honestly not heard of it before (my hubby is the history freak… just art history for me) and not only is it a big and beautifully landscaped national cemetery, but Kanoe’s father was buried there. So the kids had been before. The flag was flying at half mast (we weren’t sure why) and I love this shot of the sun behind the stars & stripes.

Ernie Pyle was buried there. Obviously there are countless others (Punchbowl is now filled to capacity with 33,230), but he’s famous so I took a photo of his stone.

There’s a monument at the end of the road, and it’s surrounded by walls with the names of service members who died during World War II. The walls are divided up by branch of service.

The statue at the memorial is huge:

and on either side there are walls with mosaic maps of each battle fought in the Pacific during WWII. It’s beautifully done.

Looking out over the cemetery from the memorial steps is just incredible. I put one here with my kid in it for scale.

That was just one afternoon! (Not even the whole afternoon.) More to come – including the luau…

And the north shore.

Sigh. Beautiful!

I’m hard at work – trying to think up a good promotion for the fall launch which is also – get THIS – the one year anniversary of Aviva Photography! WHERE did that year go? Unbelievable.

More soon! Stay tuned…

And I repent. I’m not posting enough. Mea culpa.

A couple of shots from our recent trip north to Onna and beyond… and a bit of news.

We’re trying like the dickens to get to Oahu (Hickam) via Space A in July. I HOPE we get out around the 10th and we’ll return no earlier than the 18th. IF you are in Oahu, I can probably schedule a shoot or two (or several minis perhaps?) – so if you’re interested please email me or comment here and I’ll get in touch. PRAY that we get that flight! We are staying at a friend’s place while they’re gone, and I REALLY want to see Edith and Athena. Really.

So. Here are a few from Father’s day. First stop, Manza-mo (Cape Manza):

Those of you who have been, know it’s really that gorgeous – and it was HOT. I wanted to dive in. (can you see the little tiny people on the edge of the cliff in the middle? Just to give you an idea of the scale. BIG cliff.

We headed up toward Nago Castle Park (where we saw some cherry blossoms back in February) – now there are other blooms.

That’s it for now – some artsy stuff here for you. More soon – I did have another shoot this past weekend, I’ll post peeks stat!

Hi, everyone! It’s been busy here at Aviva Photography. I know a lot of people are PCSing and trying to squeeze in that last session. I’m waiting to hear back from a couple of families that sent inquiries, but I’m otherwise completely booked, with one slot left on Saturday, June 13th.

Except for newborn sessions and bump & baby sessions, I will not be booking shoots until September. Several factors involved in that decision include:

• It’s ridiculously hot and sticky in the summer, even in the early morning. Editing doesn’t fix sweat and cranky overheated faces.
• My daughter is out of school and that drastically cuts my editing time.
• Many people are on vacations in the states and wherever else over the summer, or they’re new to the island (WELCOME!) and don’t know about me. YET.
• Rescheduling due to typhoons and other inclement weather is very difficult.
• I plan on traveling a bit this summer as well – to climb Fuji with my family (wish us luck!) and to Hawaii for the first time ever!
• did I mention it’s HOT?

The GOOD news:

• For those who are here, I’m finally going to have time to get to GAMU – I WILL be putting together digital photography/get-to-know-your-camera sessions which will take place on Saturdays, somewhere air-conditioned. Promise.
• Newborns don’t mind the heat one bit – so if you’re due this summer and wish to schedule a newborn session, I’ll be doing a few of them – please email me if you’re interested. (If you’ve already scheduled – I know who you are.)
• If you’re on the island of Oahu over the summer, and you’d like to schedule a session let me know! I’ll keep you posted on my travel dates.
• I’ll be around until at least June of 2010, but we’re looking to extend until June of 2011 – so I’m still here! I’ll be opening the fall calendar during the summer and will let you know the information as soon as I have it together. The fall weather is glorious!

Just wanted to keep you posted, my friends. I’ll be around for most of the summer and if you have something else in mind (i.e. an indoor shoot or some other special case) I’m open to it! Just email me.

I know I can’t post without photos, so here are a few from the recent dragon boat races on May 5th. (Army & Air Force girls, I have galleries online with your photos, if interested, email me. Navy – I’m ALMOST done. THIS WEEK, promise!)

I really did not saturate and mess with the color of the water. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and this was in the late afternoon during one of the men’s final races. I loved getting in close with my 100-400mm from the dock; the spray was so cool! (I wanted to jump in SO badly.)

No, they weren’t in a swimming pool.

There are food stands everywhere, and lots of carnival games; one in particular gives away colorful chicks. I still hope this doesn’t do them any harm – they come in pink, green and orange. I know they lose their fuzz and don’t stay this color, and they seem fine.

And Mia – with her new friend, the Orion Girl. Doesn’t Mia look HAPPY?

What?

I was her DD. But I did have to wrestle the car keys from her.

More soon. THREE shoots this weekend – no rest for the busy! But I’m ON it, my friends!

My mother sent me a link to ABC News and asked me to find the video for “Portrait Power”. I’m glad she did, it was totally worth watching – click here and see if you can watch it. If not, just go to the ABC News site and search for that title. It’s about an amateur photographer who decided to take family portraits for people who are homeless or live in shelters, for free, as holiday gifts.

In a similar vein, Kristen, at Essential Imagery, also found a way for portrait photographers to give back using her photography. She started Giving Is Awesome. The idea is to have folks nominate someone they know who doesn’t have the means to afford a family portrait session or photographs to get free services and products.

These are amazing ideas, aren’t they? Though we live in Okinawa where, thankfully, most of the Americans that live here make enough to put food on their tables and have family photos in their home, there are many needy people here. Okinawan people. I feel that as a guest in this country, and as someone who has time and money to give (not just in December, but year-round), I should find a way to help.

Some of you know that I’ve been a member of the organization OIWC, the Okinawa International Women’s Club. It’s something I found out about in 2007 and quickly joined. As you can read on their website, the OIWC is an organization made up of women from all over the world (but mainly American and Okinawan), who gather at monthly events to promote cultural exchange and friendship while raising awareness and funds for local charities. The OIWC is non-profit, and has been in existence for 55 years – in which time it’s donated food, clothing, money, and many other items to those in need.

Last year I was asked to be the historian on the Board of Directors for the OIWC. I obliged, and am happy to say it’s a very small way in which I feel I’m giving back to the community. I was lucky enough to attend a Christmas Party for the Friends House in Okinawa City, which was funded by OIWC, and staffed by OIWC board members and other members. Friends House is a community center for handicapped people, and the holiday party was for the members of Friends House and their families. There was music, dancing (LOTS of dancing), pizza and other food, and baked goods galore. Later in the festivities, Santa came to visit.

It’s one thing to fundraise and to donate money or time for this organization, but to actually have worked this event and met these people was so rewarding. The language barrier didn’t affect my ability to understand their appreciation and happiness, and it certainly didn’t stop me from feeling very happy to be a part of it. My position on the board allows me to understand even more about what they do and how much in need these organizations are that we help, and to make decisions on how the money is distributed. I’m truly honored to be a part of it, and I encourage any locals to join if you see fit. I’m happy to say that at the December luncheon, a bake sale and craft bazaar was held and over $8,000 was raised. But we can do better. We can make more.

If you would like more information, please do visit the OIWC website and find out how you can join. You may join at any time. The dues for the year (through June) are ¥3000. The monthly luncheons usually cost ¥2500-¥2800 (which includes great entertainment and food). You also get to attend culture group meetings and learn things about Okinawan culture and food and teach things about American culture and food! And if you’re looking to donate money to a local organization, this would really be a great one.

Happy holidays, everyone. Thanks for indulging me on a more personal post, and if you know of other ways to give back here on Okinawa, feel free to post them in the comments. Here are a few photos from the Friends House event.