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Doncha’ just love the beach? Well, I sure do. I am excited to offer my Short & Sweets at the beach in October! This date (October 16th) has been “secretly” on the calendar for awhile now and a couple of sly sleuths have already snatched up times slots. Don’t wait! They won’t last long at ALL! Click here to view availability.
Check out some cool shots from the Capitola beach we will be shooting on:
I am so honored to be the photographer for this family. They are from Singapore (dad is originally from the Bay Area) and they come back to San Jose to visit every few years. I photographed Hugo when he was just a little guy and now he is so grown up! And his little brother Felix has since been added to the clan and boy did we have fun. Gotta’ love those cheeks!
This little guy is just too photogenic-seriously! He just worked it for the camera and I had such fun capturing his cuteness. His mama told me that she chose the evening session because it is his “best time” and that was obvious. Little brother was a little less enthusiastic, but pretty darn cute himself.
If you have been keeping up with my blog you know that I recently set up a Short & Sweet on the porch of one of my client’s homes. We ended up booking it solid- with all of HER friends! Which led me to this new offering: If you can show me some great spaces in YOUR home and open it up to YOUR friends (a minimum of 5 friends) who wish to book a session, we will hold a Special Short and Sweet at your home and your session fee will be complimentary. You will also receive your $25 referral credit for each of your friends that books and is new to Images by Anna. Give us a call if your are interested in hosting a Short & Sweet event in your home!
Over the years we have been asked, now and then, if we would consider selling the digital files. We have finally found our answer. As a creative imaging company our main goal is to provide our clients with amazing images of their children, ready to display in the most unique and delightful way. We have tools and tricks to help you design the ultimate wall display, fantastic storybook or amazing greeting cards featuring your images. We are able to take advantage of the finest professional labs to provide the best possible prints and products. We will continue to provide this excellent service and we are sure that you will all continue to look to us for design inspiration and to fulfill your beautiful print orders. But many of you are looking for just one thing more; you want to own your negatives, most often as a safeguard for the future. We are now making those negatives available to you in a most exciting way. Our new “Digital Collection” includes all of your session images as full resolution digital files (negatives) and 25 of your favorites as 8×10 prints (4×5 image on an 8×10 digital mat) with delightful titles in a amazing custom box with imprinting. These are simply gorgeous! Not only will you have these beautiful prints to enjoy in their lovely box, but you can frame, share and display them as well. You can even set up a sweet wall gallery and change out the images from time to time. It is an incredible value and a beautiful product we are sure you will be clamoring for. These are priced only as a set with discounts available with collection purchase. Visit our investment page for more details. This collection is available on any session from 2007 and on.* Isn’t it exciting!?
*If you had a session with Anna in ‘04, ‘05 or ‘06, contact us for special pricing.
Things have been so busy around here with vacation, no school, and two parents working from home while juggling four kids. I can’t believe how small my house gets when they are all home all day, EVERY DAY!! They had a lot of commitments this summer, trips to Minnesota, vacation to Washington, so we didn’t do any classes or camps. That made the last couple of weeks really long . . . I hate to say that I am looking forward to school starting! Don’t get me wrong; I love summer. I love my kids having long, lazy days. I am just craving some structure! So, all that to say: sorry, my blog writing has been sparse. But I am guessing that you are all running around “doing summer” as well. So here is a few from a recent session with two sweet babies. Brought back memories from our season with two kids, just 18 months apart. Exhausting and exhilarating! Enjoy!
Sweet Maria is the adopted daughter of our good friends, Chris and Theresa. She had a pretty eventful start to life, being found abandoned at just a few pounds in her home-country of Guatemala. She survived and was brought to a local orphanage; the same orphanage that her future older brother, Victor spent his early years. Theresa and Chris had already adopted from this orphanage and were really feeling complete as a family with their two boys, Victor and a biological son, Samuel. But God had other plans and through a social worker they were presented with a photo of little Maria and asked if they would consider taking her into their home. They didn’t hesitate, despite her cleft palate and lip, a trait that makes her “difficult to place” in a world where people look to the outside for perfection. They quickly made plans to visit her to begin to establish their relationship, knowing that it would be many months before she would come home. Once they held her in their arms, she was theirs.
Adopting from Guatemala is a long, difficult process. Theres and Chris know this from adopting Victor four years earlier. But the corruption had increased since then, and Guatemala was threatening to close down adoptions to the US. After waiting for many months, and believing that their day to take Maria home was coming soon, last July they got a frantic call from Maria’s orphanage, informing them that men had broken into the orphanage and abducted Maria and three other children! The assumed purpose of the abductions was to sell the children on the black market. This put Maria in peril, as they may have snatched her in the dark, not noticing her cleft lip/palate, which made her “worthless”. Many here in the states prayed fervently for the children’s safe return. Days passed while we all waited in anguish, wondering if we would ever know what became of them all. But a journalist had been in the country working on a story about the corruption in the adoption system and with the help of local police, they were able to put pressure on the kidnappers. Miraculously, all of the children were abandoned by the criminals, unharmed, and returned to their orphanage. Chris and Theresa, along with their family and friends, rejoiced. But a new sense of urgency set in. It would be many MORE months before Maria would come home.
I don’t know how they kept themselves sane during those long months of waiting, the frightful abduction and then more waiting. But their wait had a beautiful reward. Maria is a very sweet, smiley little one who has stolen my heart in the short time I’ve known her. Here she is, today. Happy and healthy and home safe; finally! Thank You, God!
so. . . trains, unlike cars, vans and airplanes, they wait for NO ONE! We had quite the adventure getting on the train on Wednesday night. For starters, I waited WAY too long to do the packing. Note to self: start packing for week-long train trips with four kids more than four hours before departure. :-) And then when Brian started to carry our bags out to the van he discovered a totally flat tire . . . um. So we called in our wonderful, trusty neighbor, Jen, who also has a big family and thus, a big vehicle. She could take us, but had to be to work shortly. Suddenly, I had not 45 minutes to finish up my packing but 15 minutes!!! Yikes! So I scrambled about, tossing the last few things in a big canvas bag and off we went. We made it to the station with plenty of time. We settled in and the kids excitedly explored the station. Train stations are one of the coolest places; the buildings are often large, ornate and beautiful.
Isaiah stared at the ENORMOUS American flag for several minutes. He was awed.
But our relaxing wait changed in a moment, as we realized that we forgot Lydia’s medication at home. Our friend was gone and we had 35 minutes to go before our train was to depart. We went round and round about what to do and finally, Brian hailed a cab and headed home. But while we were anxiously waiting for him the conductor announced the arrival of the train. Brian was still several miles away so I ran up to the counter and asked what I should do. She smiles and says, “He’d better hurry. Trains don’t wait. ” Crap! So the kids and I made our way to the platform and waited anxiously for Brian to join us. He came at the last moment and as I stepped aboard behind the last child, the train pulled away from the station!! They really just don’t wait!!
Once everyone was all settled in, big old grins on their faces, I relaxed and breathed a little prayer of thanks to God for keeping us together and working with me and my last-minute-ness. 
After the little ones were sleeping soundly I sat in the quiet car and watched the cities go by. It is extremely fascinating to see the world from the perspective of “the tracks”. The parts of town we saw were very different than what we would see by car. I loved every thing about it. Very cool. Tyler and I were still awake when the moon came up over Marina, CA. It was the biggest moon I have ever seen. I wish I could have captured it, but my camera was under the feet of my sleeping toddler and I just couldn’t do it. I will just have to savor the memory.
Our night was long and not so comfortable. Lydia didn’t sleep very well and was up at four am. Here she is, just after sunrise. I am sure she was enjoying the beautiful view of Northern California while I enjoyed the view of her beautiful self. Man, I can’t even type how much I love my children. They are more beautiful than the awesome nature we took in on this trip. . .
