{winning}

“That’s what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we’ve changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.”

― The Bridge Across Forever

{W – II}

Here are some more pictures from the W session. I intended to share these a lot earlier but didn’t get a chance till just now. Better late than never, right?!

I am posting more pictures than I usual and I hope that makes up for the delay in some small way. Thank you guys for being so patient. You’re the best!

{beautiful eyes}

{the happy family} Little K is going to be a big sister soon!

I love when kids hold on to a parent’s finger. Maybe because it’s the easiest to grasp but it always seems like they prefer holding on to just one adult finger.

textures, textures everywhere.

To those of you that know Chuck, the next picture won’t come as a surprise. He is quite the champ at balancing himself horizontally on any kind of post. It’s super entertaining to see – we ask him to do this often and he’s always gentlemanly enough to comply. Rumor has it that this is hereditary. I heard that his dad and brothers can do this as well. Who knows maybe little K will make her debut soon?

{sweet smile}

{in deep thought} Pooh happens to be K’s most favorite toy in the entire world.

Normally when I shoot a session the goal is to get 25 – 30 great shots. That’s what the basic session comprises and what, I tell the client, will be shown during the final presentation. Often times I end up with a lot more than that and one of the toughest parts of my job is to figure out which select few will make that final cut.

In this case, I just have so many more than the norm that I couldn’t even try to get the number down. That’s honestly part of the reason it took me so long to get done editing. There were just so many keepers from this session which is a good thing. I hope you like what you see, C&B, and know that there are so many more where these came from!

{picture of the day}

v-day 2008.

{in search of snow}

Ever since we got back from Chicago, Jayden’s been clamoring to build a snowman again. So last weekend, we grabbed all our cold weather gear and set off in search of snow. While finding snow may not be an issue for most of the country, there are slim pickings around Arizona. We threw around the idea of driving up to snowbowl but the weather had been unseasonably warm the latter half of the week and the thought of driving 3 hours each way with three toddlers for what might end up being a half hour of play wasn’t appealing to me. So we decided to drive through Payson and see if we could find a little snow, and if not, we figured, we’d head up to the rim. Well, luck was on our side. Payson did have a few patches of snow and that was more than sufficient to keep our little munchkins happy.

We found a clearing with a little snow, a creek and even a fence (yay – nice spot for a photo op!) and parked. We walked and played around the area some and I managed to grab some pictures.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw the sunlight streaming through the trees and landing on the very spot Nia was perched.  I couldn’t have planned this any better.  Isn’t this fence fabulous?

{M Session slideshow}

Remember this lovely family?

I finally had a chance to meet with the family and show them their slideshow. Here it is for general viewing:

www.sriluviene.com

Look under Slideshows.

Hope you like it!

{a trip down memory lane}

John and I were married a little over six years ago at what was then, a relatively remote set of islands called the Turks and Caicos. Since our families lived on opposite ends of the world, literally, we decided that instead of shafting one side of the family by getting married in the US or in India, it might be fun, instead, to get married on an island somewhere, have a week-long party and hope that our friends and family would be able to attend.

We were mentally prepared that no one would come seeing that we had made it somewhat hard. I cannot tell you how ecstatic we were when not just family but some friends as well, made it to the wedding. We appreciated all the effort they put forth to get there. For one, we got married 6 months after we got engaged thus not giving anyone much time to plan. Secondly, this wasn’t even a month after 9-11 which made a lot of people understandably queasy about flying out of the country. So yes, I’d say it was a big deal for us that so many were able to make it.

We rented three adjacent luxury homes on the beach and stayed there for an entire week. The island was insanely beautiful – the water was turquoise and the sand, white. Since we were on the far side of the island away from the resorts, we essentially had our own private beach. Aah, that was the life.

At ~36 people, our wedding was a small, intimate affair. We got married at sunset, overlooking the ocean. The wedding was a mix of Indian and American traditions and we were fortunate to find a pastor who allowed us to script the wedding, so to speak. And while John and I were swamped with wedding stuff – I have it on good authority that everyone had a fantastic time. Between the snorkeling, sailing, sand-castle contests, drinking fruity and non-fruity drinks, splashing in the pools and swimming in the ocean, being stung by jelly fish (<– ok, that wasn’t much fun), watching sunsets on the beach armed with pitchers of pina coladas, fishing, dinner at the resorts, shopping, hanging out with friends, discussing love, life and politics under the stars and exploring the island – it was hard not to. Which was great since that is all we wanted.

I’m not big into celebrating valentine’s day but I do think it’s nice to celebrate a day of love. Somehow it seemed apt to share a picture of John and I from our wedding day and take that well deserved trip down memory lane. Now that I finished writing all this out, I desperately want to go back. OK – time to start planning that trip!

Back then digital wasn’t as common so besides my 2MP digital camera (and Phil’s) all we had were film cameras. All our wedding pictures were from film so I scanned the ones above that was taken by Danny, our wedding photographer who had the neatest South-African accent. I love the accent – I’m convinced that it’s what sold me on hiring him. Given how much I love pictures and because the T&C’s were pretty unknown back then, we flew in our wedding photographer from Miami. And while I like a lot of his work (and love that accent but we talked about that already!), what I wouldn’t give to have had my wedding shot in digital. The possibilities it affords you are endless.

Here’s reason #54,673 I love John. He lets me practice my photography skills on him with minimal protest (most of the time).

Happy Valentine’s day!

{anything can be}

Ever since I was a child, I have had a love for quotes and poems and for a number of years, have collected favorites that I’ve come across. This is one from my inspiration book that I hope to scrap a page with someday. I haven’t had much time to scrapbook lately.

Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts.

Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts.

Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me…

Anything can happen child, Anything can be. ” — Shel Silverstein

This was a rare capture for me. All 3 of my kids successfully balancing, rather precariously, I might add, on a narrow window ledge. This window looks out the front of our house. The kids like to stand on this ledge and watch the garbage truck go by. I have tried to take a picture of this in the past but before I could release the shutter, someone would invariably fall. So imagine my glee when I finally captured the moment.

{a dad’s joy}

Need I say more?

This is what photography is to me. The ability to capture raw emotion. If I can successfully capture a child’s personality, interactions between loved ones, the raw emotion and the real, honest to goodness this is what we feel — no posing here, moments in a session, I will have fulfilled my goal.

U23D :: Wow!

Last weekend John and I got to see U23D. I had heard good things about the show and John’s a huge U2 fan so I figured we could make an evening out of it.

In one word – w.o.w.

It lived up to everything I had ever heard about it and then some. The show was fantastic. I haven’t seen anything like this. Ever. It was such an immersive experience– allowing the viewer to alternate between the points of view of the band and the crowd. I have only been to one of their concerts in the past and this was like being at the concert but only better — one could actually see the expressions on Bono’s face; the sweat roll off Adam Clayton’s forehead and basically feel the band’s intensity firsthand. There were times that Bono seemed so close that I could have touched his face were I to stretch out my hand. Not that I tried or anything but there were some in the audience that did.

If you’re a U2 fan (Mary, are you listening??), I recommend you check this out. It most definitely lives up to the hype. You won’t be disappointed. <<end PSA>>

And here’s what some are saying…

“The musical documentary “U2 3D,” which stitches together three performances by this Irish rock band during a recent tour of South America, is not merely a technical landmark — shot entirely in digital 3D — but also an aesthetic one, in that it’s the first Imax movie that deserves to be called a work of art.” – Matt Zoller Seitz, NY Times, January 23, 2008

“U2 3D (* * * * out of four) in many ways delivers an experience that’s even better than the real thing.” – Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY, January 22, 2008

“…the film still resonates as a stunning cinematic experience, and the best rock show I’ve never attended.” – Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired, January 21, 2008

{brothers}

A storyboard from the M session. I love how this turned out.

And I love, love, LOVE that picture in the middle. It is filled with emotion.

And because I know that it’s sometimes hard to see the individual storyboard pictures in a blog post, here’s a closer look at one of my favorites.