The girl can whistle!

July 28, 2008 | Filed Under sneak peeks | 2 Comments 

I adore photographing newborns, and today was no exception. I headed down to Santa Clara for a wonderful portrait visit with Miss Nini, who is picking up skills like a madwoman – the girl can already whistle (ok, not really, but she makes the cutest faces, for sure! :-).

A quick sneak peek, and then off to bed!

xoxo,

Lilia

…and my personal favorite:

Storytime!

July 25, 2008 | Filed Under sneak peeks | 1 Comment 

Hi gang,

First off, big apologies to anyone who’s waiting to hear from me – we had a major illness in our house last week, and I am still scrambling to catch up with myself!!

I’ve been getting a few questions lately about what a storyboard is – which is why I’ve included the above proof. Basically, a storyboard is a large printed collage of a few of your favorite images from our session. I arrange them and give you an electronic proof, then print it with my pro lab. The large prints are mounted to prevent warping, and are ready for you to frame.

I usually do 10×20 inch storyboards, either horizontal or vertical, or 20×20 or 30×30 inch squares, depending on the number of images you want to feature.

The benefits of getting a storyboard include the quality of the print, and the fact that you get to feature several images without having to go to the trouble of finding a custom mat that will include all of them (not to mention trying to get them straight and aligned properly).

Because storyboards are standard sizes, you can pick up a frame at the store and get it on the wall a lot faster (hint – 10×20 inch images mount beautifully in most of the frames that are meant for 3 5×7s – just take out the mat, pop in the print, and voila! :-).

I just had to share this amazingly cute little guy with you guys – he is a doll, and has a wonderful mama and papa who are just overjoyed to have him in their lives. A big thanks for having me over!

xoxo,

Lilia

Introducing Sweet Miss R…

July 12, 2008 | Filed Under sneak peeks | 15 Comments 

…her mama, papa, and big brother asked if I would come to the hospital after the birth for a documentary mini-session, so I headed over to El Camino Hospital in Mountain View to visit on Friday morning. It was definitely an inspiring experience, and I may add this to my maternity/newborn portrait package, if other families request it. She’s two days old, and sleepy as can be. Congratulations, everyone!!!

I adore this little squinchy face – we were trying to wake her up, but she was a determined sleeper (one of the reason I love photographing newborns as close to birth as possible – all they want to do is sleep :-)!

We did manage to wake her, though :-):

I asked her forgiveness in advance:

……I promise, mama picked her up after just a couple of seconds, and then all was right with the world:

xoxo,

Lilia

See under, re: gratitude

July 6, 2008 | Filed Under sneak peeks | Leave a Comment 

I feel like I post about this all the time, but it never seems to get less true, or less amazing: I feel so tremendously lucky to be able to do what I do for a living. I get to hang out with amazing Silicon Valley families all day, creating images that just take my breath away with the intimacy and joy that they contain.

While every picture has technical elements (of light, composition, color etc), the thing that makes an image sing is the emotion….and these emotions are not something I did: they’re something I had the privilege to witness. They are the gift of the families who hire me, and who allow their true selves and their love for one another to take center stage in front of a relative stranger with a camera….and sometimes, when I sit on my couch, editing, I get goosebumps..and then I get grateful.  

So I’m back around to the title of this post, and the feeling that I will take with me as I fall asleep tonight. I know it’s cheesy, but it’s true, and I am just filled with it right now. 

Thank you. 

xoxo,

Lilia

p.s. I can never figure out whether to put the peeks at the beginning or the end of the post…so today, they’re in the post script. Honestly, it doesn’t matter where they are…they’re still my goosebumps.

Enjoy!! :-)