Aviva Photography Blog

That’s Kelly’s blog title, so I thought it only appropriate to coordinate it with their photo post!

I feel like I say this a lot – but oh my GOSH I had a great time with this family. They came ready to have fun – with 3 boys, I’m sure every day is an adventure. As they got out of the car, Scott (Dad) told the boys, “Ok, remember – what is today?”

“It’s MOM’S DAY,” they half yelled half whined in unison. I giggled.

“I promise, we are going to have a FUN morning, you guys, OK?” I’m pretty sure I delivered.

These five were blessed with crazy gorgeous blue eyes, and a crazy gorgeous morning! WOW was it beautiful. As we began, I caught Scott holding Kelly’s face in his hands and saying, “It’s going to be JUST LIKE our wedding day! OK?” So stinkin’ cute.

Those were some of the first shots of the day. These two are very very busy people with these three. I present A, K, & S – top to bottom.

Apparently the bribe for the nice trim new haircuts (which apparently the boys were not big fans of) was that A would be allowed to bring his guitar along for a couple of shots. Like this kid isn’t enough of a heart-breaker already? He’s a guitarist too.

Beautiful.

Probably taking first place as my all-time favorite dad & kids photo (so sad there’s NO love here, huh?):

And then there’s the ever-popular they’re the only people in the world shot.

After that we walked to a grassy area and I commanded the three boys to get on the grass. And when I got down there with them, THIS happened. And I lost my breath and made hysterically happy noises while looking into my viewfinder.

Then I turned to Kelly and Scott and said, “Get on them. Like a pyramid. Go ahead, smush the heck out of them like you have wanted to for years.”

So this happened. (Tell me A’s face on the lower left isn’t priceless!)

I finished giggling and we stood up and wiped the grass and little prickers off our shirts, and headed to the shade. Here’s a tip, folks; during the session, at times I WILL be telling you what to do. And if you come ready to say, “Sure, Aviva, you’re insane, but that sounds great,” the day will not only go smoothly but I’ll come home and love shots like these.

(Admittedly this photo above also makes me laugh because it looks like Scott has a toupee made of Kelly’s hair. Sorry, had to share that.)

ANOTHER FAVORITE!

They’re looking down at me and laughing at me. And I was laughing even harder at myself.

Lastly – a very sweet shot of hubba hubby dimpled Dad and beautiful bright blue-eyed Mom. I’m so happy, as our mutual friend, Michelle put it so sweetly, to put an exclamation point on the end of your 6+ years in Okinawa. Good luck at the Pentagon, Scott – Okinawa (and your friends) will miss you all.

In other news, I’m heading off the island for a few days this Friday. I’ll be emailing you if you have a gallery up and you haven’t placed an order yet so that you know I’ll place it when I return. If you have any other needs or questions, I’ll only be M.I.A. from the 24th thru the 30th. I’ll holla back atcha on May 1st. Have a great week!

Sadie and Rick welcomed beautiful little AJ into the world on April 7th. I love doing the maternity shoot and then getting to be among the first to lay eyes on the new baby! And then, Sadie went and jinxed it all – “She is a GREAT sleeper! The shoot will be easy!” she said. Yeah, until I get a hold of her! I don’t know what happened, she was obviously sleepy.

But it was so apparent so quickly that she was comfortable and safe in her mama’s and daddy’s arms.

(Oh my GAWD I love baby wrinkles.) And this photo just personifies MOTHER, doesn’t it? AJ is actually smiling a little bit. A mutual friend of Sadie’s and mine, Jen the jewelry designer, made this matching mom & baby necklace and bracelet set for Sadie and AJ – SO precious. (Jen, I am not lying, that bracelet was still huge on her.)

By a stroke of luck, Sadie’s parents arrived just as AJ was about to be born. They were at the hospital in time to meet her, and now they’re home with the new parents. I’ll bet I’ll say this every time – but this lucky little girl has SO much love in her family.

(Don’t you love how it looks like Grandpa is holding a conversation with her?)

And then… the HAT. “I DON’T WANNA WEAR THE HAT!” (Sadie told me later that this was the angriest she had been in her first week of life. I’m so glad I could provide that for her….kidding.)

But a little feeding and some rocking and she curled right up for us. PERFECT!

Ahem. Do you have tickets to the gun show? (I’m a cornball. Get over it.)

And then it happened. She fell asleep.

With her butt in the air.

And then it happened. The last shot of the day. Perhaps my all-time favorite daddy/baby photo. I told Sadie that this needs to sit HUGE on the wall in their bedroom – or AJ’s. Be still my heart…

I hope you have an easy move, you three! I’ll have photos ready to decorate your new place soon… congratulations, she’s just lovely.

I won’t bore you with the details of my communications with Beth before the shoot. We rescheduled a time or two due to the military getting in the way. Beth was worried about being photographed too. “Orlando is insanely photogenic. He’s one of those people who can look good mowing the yard. Me, not so much.” Well, Beth – you were right. He IS that photogenic. But guess what? You contacted me for a reason, right? TRUST ME.

We went to a very special place in their hearts. I will always travel to the place that suits my clients. And what I witnessed that morning was nothing short of true love. I instantly felt a connection with these two, and that helped so much because we laughed, they spent a romantic morning snuggling and looking into each other’s eyes, and I made happy noises while looking through my viewfinder.

The weather cooperated. My subjects were relaxed and totally in love. Did I mention that?

We wandered around and we were the only ones there. They kept staring at the water with this glazed look in their eyes…so I said, “Get in there.”

Sigh.

We were leaving the beach for “part two” of the shoot – and I snapped this as we headed to the path toward the car. It might be my favorite of the whole session. HAPPY!

I wouldn’t normally post a photo like this, but when it’s attached to a funny story, why not? We met back in town near a coffee shop. We sat for a moment and had a cup of coffee, and since it’s a regular occurence for these two, I snapped a quick photo. Cheers!

We were engrossed in conversation, and left the shop to take some more photos when the owner came running after us yelling. We had forgotten to pay for the coffee! YIKES! We apologized in English, Japanese – heck we would’ve apologized in SPANISH if it would’ve helped! Then we had a good laugh.

Orlando is from Puerto Rico, and he’s one of the friendliest men you’d ever hope to meet. He looks at Beth with SO much love, it melted me the whole morning long. He also has an incredibly warm and genuine smile… (You’re right, Beth. Photogenic for sure.)

Ahem. Get a ROOM, will ya?

And I’ll end this post of love with a  tender moment between these two. This is like the cover of a romance novel.

Beth & Orlando – Val and I enjoyed meeting you SO much. I hope upon hope that your dreams come true. Every single one of them. You’re beautiful inside and out, and I’m so happy to have gotten to know you! (Perhaps as my neighbor one day soon…crossing fingers…)

I met Kayleigh’s family on a bus ride home from Dragon Boat races in Naha almost a year ago. This idea of a photography business was in its infancy, but the moment I saw their family I wanted to photograph them. And I let Liz, Kayleigh’s mom, in on the fact that I have a special love of doing high school senior photos. Well I am a lucky girl because Liz contacted me a few weeks back and I got to go out and play with Kayleigh. With eyes like this, can you blame me for recruiting her?

(Yes, I just love it when the breeze works like a fan in a studio for my models! SO not planned…)

Kayleigh is probably going to stick around Okinawa with her family until they PCS. I can’t say I blame her, it’s tough to go to another country in order to attend college when your family is so far away. I can say because I’ve met them; this family is tight.

I pretty much had an idea and Kayleigh jumped on it. Or into it. Literally. And by the way – I don’t think I have one photo of her without a smile on her face.

But when I saw the clothes she brought, I knew what I wanted with that bright dress she had… and she informed me that her mother’s favorite color was YELLOW. Yellow? I can definitely do yellow.

But Kayleigh’s favorite color is purple (a girl after my own heart). We had a couple of purple shots – but here’s one of my favorites.

How do you go from the gritty concrete and vehicles by the sea wall to a grassy hill in the same shoot? I’ll never tell…

(Thanks for braving the potential spiders, K.)

Sigh…I still love what I do.

Mom (and potentially Dad) – I stopped by my place to grab the cap & gown. I made her do it…JUST for you!

She wears it well, I’d say!

Congratulations on graduating (soon) Kayleigh! Thanks for doing whatever I told you to do – I’ll have photos to show you and your family really soon.

My neighbors, Maggie & Chuck, PCSed this past Saturday. They had lived here for four years. Over a year and a half of which, was with my family across the hall. They have two girls – C and M. C was only two months old when they arrived, and M was a bit over one year old when they left. (prepare yourself, I got a little peek-happy with this one…)

It has only been a few days, and I feel the gaping hole they left. I am not even going to kid myself thinking that someone as giving and nice and silly and friendly – and well, add a bunch of other great qualities – will move into their apartment. But I’m thrilled to say they were a gigantic part of why I’m doing what I’m doing right now. Chuck shops for the kids with their upcoming photo shoot in mind! LOVE him. Maggie – my SoCal girlfriend – is so encouraging and positive, even when everything is falling apart and her para-rescue hubby is overseas somewhere and she’s stuck with two small kids and a dog to deal with. I know that’s why she has a sense of humor.

So… with a week left in Okinawa, we roamed our little neighborhood to make some memories for them to have in their new home in Virginia.

Since this post started off so mushy & sentimental…. let’s laugh. I think fisheye photos of kids are hystercal. Exhibits M and C:

Ha! SO funny. Even the kids laugh at these.

Maggie has an infectious smile and laugh. She and Chuck are so good together.

The girls… well, they have Daddy wrapped around their fingers. They really don’t look much like each other. I think C is a dead ringer for her father. She’s incredibly bright and VERY independent. (As if I didn’t already know, she was definitely acting that way during the shoot.) Here she is on Daddy’s chest. A wonderful place to be, I must agree.

And little sis – M. She is walking and talking at 14 months – and she’s SO friendly and happy-go-lucky. And downright edible. (even when her face is half smooshed on the chair)

Here you go, Maggie – ALL FOUR of you! (She told me she had NO photos of all four of them together. I’m happy she will have some!)

I knew this day would be fun. I think this series in the truck pretty much says F-U-N, don’t you?

I can hear the girls giggling.

AWW! (Yes, Maggie. I’m still totally jealous of your gorgeous gams.)

They knew they were leaving in a week, and this is our neighborhood. We had to capture them in their home. The only home the girls have ever really known, and the home where Maggie probably walked the sea wall more times than she could count. Chuck had SO many ideas that day… I hope I got everything you wanted, Chuck.

On the day of the shoot, it was also C’s fourth birthday. There were promises of presents & going out to dinner for shots like this. Tee hee.

And last but not least – the girls walking off into the distance. They are SO precious together I can’t even stand it.  You did great – all of you. No words can express how much I’ll miss you all. This neighborhood is just missing something now. I don’t see the Delica and the Honda parked next to me anymore. Or the doorway full of strollers and trikes. I can’t hear Carolina outside yelling for Cowboy. And I already miss helping Chuck while he’s grilling and having a beer. Here’s to drinking wine and watching Grey’s together when we’re back in the states! Good luck to you at Langley – and I hope you had a great trip to mainland & Hawaii. We love you!

I’m happy to announce that the art gallery is UP!

Click here, or cut & paste or type in aviva-photography.com/photocart

Click on “Access Gallery“.

Enter the code: aviva09

You’ll ALL get 10% off of your purchase of $100 or more if you order in the first month! (by May 6th) Facebook fans – keep an eye out for an update – you will get an additional 5% off your order with a special coupon code. Payment is via PayPal on the site, and the pieces can be shipped here to your APO/FPO or to a stateside address. If you live out in town and do not have an APO or FPO, I’ll be happy to have it shipped to me and I can meet you with your order.

Please know that additional sizes and photos are available – if you have something in particular in mind, please email me – I want you to have whichever piece you’ve been thinking of! I’ll also be adding photos from Kyoto and Thailand that I’ve taken recently, but I think you’ll get a pretty good idea of the offerings. Thank you all again for your incredible feedback and loving support. And because I just canNOT post without a photo or two today….

These are a couple of photos I took in Thailand. This was taken at the floating market. The woman on the left was selling produce to the couple on the right. It was so hot; it reminded me of Okinawa where the people are so acclimated that they wear long sleeves when it’s below 80 degrees!

Admittedly I’m a bit of a photographic sniper at times. This young monk was texting on his phone inside a temple in Chiang Mai. He heard my shutter click, turned and smiled sheepishly, and jetted off to another area, but the moment was captured. This makes me giggle; the ancient and modern unite!

Have a fantastic week, everyone! Peeks of this weekend’s shoots to come, I’ve been busy, and a little injured (I threw my back out this weekend) – and it’s spring break, so I might be a little bit scarce, but I’ll do my best to satisfy the clients’ cravings for peeks!

I met Sarah last year – I met her through my temple group. She and Scott are basically newlyweds – and they had a friend take their wedding photos, so she was all about getting some professional ones done here. I had so much fun at the beach with these two! You know it’ll go well when they show up with their coffees ready for anything.

Sarah booked a session and soon found out her mother-in-law was going to be here at that time. A lot of women would’ve either excluded her or rescheduled – but once I met Lynne, it all came clear. Lynne was one fun lovin’ woman, and it was fantastic having her along.

As with Sarah & Scott, I felt like I’d known Lynne for years. And I don’t think I’ve ever taken photos that made me laugh as hard at the computer as these…. (however, it does help that I get the whole Jewish Mother thing; I am one, and I have one!) These just speak, don’t they?

Sarah was so excited for the shoot and to have some romantic shots with her hubba hubby… oh yes he is. And she had a smokin’ turquoise dress and some ideas too – for one, a DIP!

She indulged my love of details…and this is one of my faves.

As we headed to another spot, I noticed GREEN. I love this – so relaxed…and Sarah’s stunning blue eyes just blow me away. Lovey dovey!

And if you thought that was romantic, I think you’ll agree that this one is smokin’….

Just another reason people love Okinawa – spots like this.

And last but not least – another Mom-in-Law shot – adorable!!

What a laugh-out-loud fun morning, THANK you! Can’t wait to show you the rest next week, Sarah, Scott & Lynne!

I’m proud to say that at some point in the next few days I will definitely have a gallery link and password up for your Aviva Photography art photos! Along with a discount coupon of 15% off your purchase. I’m so happy with the feedback I’m getting from the Coffee Casa photos – I kinda want to move in there so I can listen to what people say. I’m so darned lucky…

See you soon!