Photographer Magic

My good friend Julia has a part-time business of photographing families, pregnant ladies, and weddings when she's not a full-time photo editor at Backpacker Magazine or mama. I have been watching her take photos of others for years, and I have always been amazed at how beautiful she makes everyone look. What I find amazing about her work is that everyone in her images just looks so lovely--and I don't mean, "Man, those are some attractive people!" (although they are), but it seems that she's able to get their spirits to shine through in the photos and you can see who they truly are. And, of course, since my friend Julia is an amazing person she just attracts more awesome people.

I have been wanting her to photograph us for years, and a couple of weeks ago she came to NYC and my wish came true. Of course, I was nervous. Would I look old, fat, tired, icky? I must admit, my husband--as much as I love him more than anything--takes the absolute WORST photos of me. Don't know what it is, but each time he captures me in a photo I look g-r-o-s-s. I faced Julia's photo shoot with some trepidation. Then I tried the whole get-over-yourself approach and thought that my kids would look adorable, so who cares about me.

Well, I must say, she's got some photographer magic.

I don't even remember the last time I liked photos of myself, and I love these. LOVE. I look at the family in the photos and am like, "Who is that wonderful family? Oh my god, that's us!"

Thanks, Hools. You truly have an amazing talent. Love you.
For her edited view of our session, please go to her blog here.

And, for those of you in NYC, hopefully she'll come back annually and get a base of folks here to shoot. Interested? Lemme know and I'll make a list of us.

(Btw, my kids just plain don't smile for pictures--such surly New Yorkers!)

22

Anyone out there believe in numerology?

The number 22 has been resonating in my life for years now. It started with my dad's death on May 22--that's when the number 22 entered my life. Since then, it keeps seeming to be days of momentous events. Let me make a list:

May 22, 1996: My dad died.
February 22, 1997: My long-term college boyfriend dumped me out of the blue.
June 22, 1998: My first day of solo travel in West Africa.
June 22, 1999: Moved to NYC--drove up in my Toyota to start a new life.
June 22, 2001: Adam & I had our first date.
November 22, 2006: Our first due date of the pregnancy we lost.
September 22, 2009: Nicholas Acer (Nico) our son was born.
April 22, 2010: My freakin' dissertation is officially finished!


Strange, no?

Hopefully, due to the last bit of news, I'll be back to blogging more regularly. Have missed this creative outlet.