Julia's Blogfest

First week of September — a bust!

Julia — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:54:36 +0000

Hello faithful blog readers! I have not posted in over a month but am happy to be back! I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer in my new home and work was something I did not do much of — or at least the bare minimum. Lots of unpacking and summer camps and just enjoying life. Blogging was not on the to-do list! But I return. School is back in session and my fall portrait season is really picking up so I’ll be back here some more.

This past week was riddled with all sorts of exciting adventures which I’ll share thru photos, of course. For starters, we were all eagerly awaiting and nervously anticipating the boys new school which embarked on Tuesday this week. The absolute LAST county in the US to start the school year! I never had to switch schools in elementary — I attended one for 7 years! K-6! Loved it. So i have been unable to impart any wisdom or advice to my young chaps on this process of acclimating to a new school; making new friends and finding community again. Poor Harry had just done this last year as his preschool was also where he attended an impossibly great kindergarten year. So 3 schools in 3 years for him now. He should be a pro and kinda is the way he draws kids and adults to him.

So as part of our awesome new home, Jack decided to add all sorts of fun outdoor activites for them since our last house was built on a postage stamp of grass. For one, he put up a 100′ zipline and it’s fun, no doubt. But last Monday night, Harry took a fall off it — losing his balance at the dismount and landed flat on his back with his right arm underneath. Yes, you can figure out where this goes. Not good. I ran like a bat of of H-E-double-hockey-sticks (as my kids say) to him and cradled him — ran back (and I have a large yard) without stopping into my house. His scream was more than I could process…and I knew we were getting in the car and going to the ER. This kid does NOT cry and does NOT complain. I was devastated. So we rushed to our “new” hospital (for 10 seconds we had NO idea where to go we are that new here) at Fair Oaks. They did an outstanding job of seeing us right away and taking care of him. Morphine and all. 7 hours later at 2am we headed home with 2 very tired boys and parents….and Harry in a huge splint and sling. The pain for the first 48 hours home was nothing I have ever seen…I was helpless and the narcotics prescribed didn’t seem to take any pain away. I slept (and continue to sleep) with him to ensure he’s in the right position with pillows and to medicate if necessary at night (it’s MUCH less frequently now). Moving him from the laying down position to the bathroom took 10-15 min. Inch by inch….it was unbearable pain for him. If I moved his legs, he told me it hurt his arm “b/c it is all connected”. I had a ruptured disc in my back in 1989, appendicitis in 2001 and another surgery and all were very painful but this was just awful to see. I was afraid to move him. He is only 46 pounds and I felt like I would break him. But we did turn that corner after 2 days and his sense of humor returned….a sure sign of my Harry is when he is trying to make you laugh. And he’s quite good at it.

Fast forward to last Saturday. I was 2nd shooting for my good friend, Armin, at a wedding that was in DC and McLean. I headed into town around 1pm and when I was on 14th street in DC, was rear-ended by a Nissan. Pretty hard. I was in utter disbelief and no pain — totally fine. Our biggest fear as a wedding photographer is when something potentially grave happens to us precluding us from shooting. Car accidents no less. I was just grateful this was not my wedding even tho I felt like I was letting my friend down by not shooting the first 4 hours which is what I missed. I had to deal with the police report and get towed and find transportation to the venue to finish my job! And I did and worked until 10pm with no problems but no car too. Jack came into DC to ‘rescue’ me and I was ready to get home and sleep.

So here are some pix illustrating our week….

(taken with my iphone on day 3 — when he was up and around and feeling better)

2nd day of school photos — have to be different. I don’t do 1st day.

My 5th grader….sniff, sniff.

and sassy 2nd grader.

This was today getting the cast on. It was a bit rough…..(this sequence of shots today was taken by Jackson on my D700 using my 50 — he did okay!)

you can see the bruising up on the humerus bone which is still very visibly broken (by xrays I saw today). YUK! Harry’s wrist is also broken but hard to tell on xrays now.

Getting the BLUE cast. and this is waterproof!

From last Saturday’s accident….

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Barton Family | Northern VA Family Photographer

Julia — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:07:46 +0000

This is a session where I just appreciate the warm, summer evenings all that much more. Great light, great temps, and it certainly helped to have a happy, sitting up baby! Funny enough, this family found me thru the internet but lives in my old community!

Family FUN on the Chesapeake Bay

Julia — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:20:53 +0000

Just wanted to share some fun pix from our last outing on the Bay yesterday. We have been boat club members for 5 years and decided not to renew since we just moved. It’s been such fun to cozy-up for quality family time on the water when we did go out. No TV, no computer….just swimming and hot, summer air hitting our skin.

About 2 hours before we got in, we noticed a huge storm brewing west of us on our GPS — and my iphone weatherbug map. We tracked it for a while from Hart-Miller island where we were anchored and decided to cut our day on the water short by getting back to the other side of the Bay where our marina was. We are so glad we did as this storm was fierce! We hung around the marina swimming and relaxing until the last minute constantly watching the weathermap. As we were near the dock, our dockmaster called on our cell and told us about the storm — duh! A little late! He should have called an hour before. Thank goodness we made it….we docked, jumped in the car and within 5 min this storm hit. Many boats were still out and I don’t know how they did it. Sadly, I heard on the news a jet skier actually lost his life on the Bay not far from where we were b/c he was unable to make it back before the storm hit. It was that bad and moved in that fast. this was shot around 3pm. LOOK HOW DARK!

Joe and Kuei-I | MARRIED!

Julia — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:25:53 +0000

Joe and Kuei-I came to me in April looking for a wedding photographer for their June 5 wedding! There has only been one other wedding where I was booked with that short of a timeframe. But they are just a super busy couple and waited until last minute to find a photographer – no other reason than that! I am so happy I was available because they were just so easy and laid back. Here’s a lot of why I say that….

A couple days before their wedding their DJ bailed on them b/c his mother died so they had to scramble to find another DJ (which they did). Moreover, when I was chatting with them the day before about the logistics of their day, I could hear in Joe’s voice a bit of congestion and he informed me BOTH of them had been sick, in bed, with fevers that week. Anything else? Can you imagine? All these people waiting to celebrate your most important day and you’re exhuasted with a fever and trying to call DJs around town to find someone to emcee the event? GEEEEEZ.

So I arrive on Saturday and as always, get to the hotel a bit early. When Kuei-I arrives a few minutes late, we start going into the hotel room and the key doesn’t work. So one of her bridesmaids goes to the front desk to get help and they send up a very S L O W moving building engineer who then tries with his master key — and nothing. So believe it or not he proceeds to say, “I need to go downstiars and work on this — go grab a cup of coffee and come back in about 15 minutes” to which I say ‘ Um….we don’t have 15 minutes — can’t you see she’s getting married and we are already running behind!!!” No joke, he saunters down the hallwall to do whatever he needs to do — we wait…and then I run to the front desk to LIGHT A FIRE UNDER their YOU KNOW WHAT’s…..Long story short, 15 min does pass, Mr. Engineer comes back up and opens that darn door. She is as calm as a clam. Love that. So while we did rush a bit to get her dressed, I at least, has some time to get some getting ready pix in the room. The rest of the day was perfect and aside from the DC summer heat, no storms presented themselves so we were able to get portraits done at Glenview Mansion where they DID NOT get married. We snuck on the grounds and snapped away! PERFECT!

and Keui-I changed into a fabulous red dress towards the end of the reception…

Summer Camps

Julia — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:33:27 +0000

(Video recorded on my iphone by Master Harry MacInnis (age 7))

Both my boys just finished up their first round of summer camps. Harry did a 2 week 9-4pm, Tennis & Sports camp (yes, my non sports kids wanted to do this) and Jackson finished up a full week of Dayjams, otherwise known as Rock Music Camp for his 2nd year in a row. He LOVES it and I’ve never seen him happier. Jackson came home beaming each day. Harry won the hearts of his counselors (they called him “Butters” but I never found out why!) and spent more time with them than the kids from what I understand. He was the youngest in the 7-14 year old group. And I was quite worried the first week as DC was experiencing record heat with some days at 100 or more with the humidity.

Enjoy some quick, unedited snapshots…

Harry is wearing the tie-dye shirts they made this week and he’s posing with his counselor who asked me to babysit Harry! How funny!

Dalley Family Session | Northern VA family photographer

Julia — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:03:57 +0000

This was an EASY family to photograph — great day in terms of weather, everyone was in a great moods, such a pleasant family to be around! Look at these children…..precious….and their eyes sparkle!

Make-A-Wish Foundation Session

Julia — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:01:50 +0000

In late April I photographed a beautiful 17 year old named Allison from outside of Baltimore, MD on behalf of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Last fall a local photographer sent out an email to a group of us asking if anyone wanted to volunteer for this project. I offered up my services and was contacted by Make A Wish to discuss the request and needs of Allison’s WISH. Her “wish” is to go on a Hollywood audition as she is very involved in her school’s theatre group and as such, needed a portfolio for casting agents. Her audition is still TBD but should happen sometime this summer or fall. The good news is Allison’s diagnosis is not life-threatening but it’s very rare called Swyer Syndrome which was accompanied by cancer. She lost all her hair last fall following chemo but it’s growing back….and curly! Apparently, it wasn’t before! In thinking thru what was needed, I asked another photographer for a local make-up artist that could help us make Allison look great in front of the lens. I was put in touch with Kevan Palmer of MakeUpByKevan who did an amazing job bringing out Allison’s gorgeous eyes and perfect skin. Thank you Kevan! I really appreciate you donating your time and talent!

Allison was giggling most of the session.

and the 3 of us! such a fun day.

Facey Family Session | Northern VA family photographer

Julia — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:09:47 +0000

My apologies on slacking with my blog world. I have had a few sessions and weddings to show off from the past 2 months but no time — my computer was at new house while the boys and I lived at my mom’s for the past 6 weeks until school ended 2 days ago. I am finally in my new digs FULL time. It has been a bit surreal to realize I will not need the day to day of my hometown of Alexandria. But I am adjusting and it’s glorious in this new spot here in Fairfax Station. I just hope our friends do not forget us since they will not see us as often! We love our Alexandria roots! And for me, a sense of comfortable that I’ll never let go.

Anyway, on to the Facey family. I actually did their session twice! I never do this but once in a while I have to for various circumstances. In this case, we had an April session and it was a crisp, breezy late afternoon when we met. But strangely, when our session started, the winds picked up to some 25mpg gusts. So couple that with spring cool air, and it’s cold! So snotty faces, red noses and hair everywhere were the result. I usually micro manage my weatherbug app on my iphone to check for session conditions and saw breezy, but not WINDY. It was ridiculous. So we persisted and after reviewing the images when I got home and had time to edit, I wasn’t thrilled with my results and asked them for a reshoot. So we did and it was more than perfect. yeah!

Simone Carvalli Trunk Show at Chevy Chase Bridal

Julia — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:32:04 +0000

A few months ago I met a FAB hairstylist at a wedding I shot. Remona Soleimani is an AMAZING hairstylist. The more I see her work, the further my jaw drops to the ground. She asked me if I wanted to shoot a trunk show at Chevy Chase Bridal today and I was eager to check this out. I had a great time today meeting the owner of the shop, his wonderful employees, Nour Kazoun of MadeupArt, Ashley Robinson of Charles Schwartz & Sons Jewerly and working with Remona again. Our models are sisters and wore several differnt Simone Carvalli dresses. All breathtakingly beautiful. Check them out!

Georgette and Jason | Maryland Wedding Photographer

Julia — Tue, 25 May 2010 02:54:58 +0000

I am long overdue with blogging this beautiful couples extraordinary day on May 1 at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club. I had a ball spending the day with them and in the sun! Props to my good friend and amazing 2nd for the day, Armin de Fiesta. I was having major knee issues that week and he really saved me.