In the spirit of Black Friday, I am jumping on the bandwagon and offering a special bonus for custom photography gift certificates. For a limited time, gift certificate purchases of $300 or more will receive an additional 20% in gift certificate value.

Be sure to check out my gift certificates page.

Perhaps some of you might want to leave that page up on your computer screen so your husband might accidentally stumble upon it?

Or perhaps it’d better to be direct and simply email a link to the page (http://viviz.net/blog/gift-certificates/) and let him know that a custom photography session would be a wonderful gift!

I’m excited to announce that viviZ has partnered with Tiny Prints this year to offer some fantastic holiday cards. If you’re shopping for holiday cards, look no further. Tiny Prints has an amazing selection and at a variety of pricepoints. There really is something for everyone here.

viviZ clients placing their orders by 11/30 will receive a special promotional price for use of files from your viviZ session. As most of my clients already know, digital files are $100 per file but for a limited time, I will be allowing you to select up to four (count ‘em FOUR!) images from your photo session to use in a Tiny Prints card. So, take advantage. You already invested in your session earlier this year … you might as well show off your investment to your friends and family.

And if we didn’t actually get together for a photo session this year, I still highly recommend you check out the site below. Click on the link and use one of your own photos. (Just consider coming to see me in 2010!)

Lastly, viviZ clients will also have access to exclusive designs offered only through professional photographers. Emails will be on their way shortly …

A mutual friend thought they’d be perfect for each other. And while it may have taken A&B days … weeks … maybe even months(!) to finally get out on their first date, their mutual friend had the right idea. Once A&B got together, there was no looking back. They were were meant to be. Meant to be together. Meant to be engaged. Meant to be married. And soon, they will be! With a San Francisco wedding date set for March 2010, these two were ready to check engagement photos off their long list of wedding to-do’s.

When B first approached me about taking their photos, I was positive she wasn’t serious about the proposition. But on the off chance she was, I think I probably ran away scared. After all, I photograph children and families and pets (you know, subjects that run a zillion miles an hour doing the exact opposite of what I want them to do), not grown-up adults who seek and crave instructions on how and where to pose …! But as we continued talking, it actually started to sound like a good idea. After a couple of emails, we were set! My official debut as an engagement session photographer was in the works. And just as A&B were meant to be, perhaps adding engagement sessions to my repertoire was also meant to be.

A&B: You guys are SO awesome for hiring me to take your engagement photos. As your friend, I had an amazing time photographing you and capturing your love and affection. As your photographer, I felt incredibly challenged and excited for the opportunity to push myself in terms of creativity and vision. What a rewarding and FUN session. Thank you guys for having so much faith in me and my talents. I loved every aspect of our time together and now know that I would love to do this type of session again. Any takers??

OK. So I’ll get on with it. I know you guys are excited to see the fruits of our labor.

We began at the Palace of Fine Arts.

What a beautiful couple!

I am in love with this image.

Am loving this series:

Oh, I love this one, too … I know, I’m starting to sound like a broken record, huh?

It was really important to B that we get some great shots with the Golden Gate Bridge. I hope we’ll find a few to meet her expectations.

The time we spent at the beach was incredible. Not only did we have the beautiful backdrop of the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge (on a clear sunny day!), but we also had an awesome display of marine life before us. There were pelicans, seals and dolphin … a ton of them! They were everywhere – so playful and cool. Breathtaking and surreal. Made for an incredible and memorable visit to the beach.

These kids have got some awesome genes.

If there was a measurement system for good looks, they’d be off the charts. A scale to measure personality and sense of humor? Ummm, off the charts. Wit and charm? Yep, you guessed it … off.the.charts! Seriously, I had *so* much fun photographing these kids … they kept me on my toes and had me cracking up throughout our session. They are absolutely hilarious! Honestly, it was difficult for me to put away my camera. (But I eventually did so that I could hang out with the parents for a tiny bit before dinner.)

A&M: Hanging out with your kids was a blast. There is just something so fun and special about seeing your personalities and mannerisms coming out in the form of your kids. So incredibly awesome. At the same time, it’s also hard for me to believe that your kids are already so grown up and mature. If I close my eyes, it doesn’t seem like that long ago (ok, maybe it does …) that A & I were sharing a cubicle at Deloitte (with 6 other people at that – ha, ha, remember that?!?!) and enjoying our first experience as young urban professionals in the City. So great to see you now – XX years later — enjoying life with your wonderful and beautiful family, the one with the awesome gene pool.

Enjoy your photos! I loved looking through these. They reminded me of a fun kids’ catalog shoot! Your kids could be models.

Just goofin’ around, having fun …

Woohoo! We did it.

And in the spirit of Halloween:

She’s not gonna wear the outfit we picked out for her…
She’ll run away at the sight of the camera…
She threw a fit when a friend stopped by for dinner and tried to take a picture with his camera phone…

This is how M, mom of aforementioned three year old diva, set the stage during one of our pre-session consultations. With a year under my belt, I have seen enough to know that no matter how much a mother thinks that her children won’t perform for the camera, that her children will surely melt down mid-session, that photo success is desirable but not likely, she is wrong. It is my job as a photographer to draw out your children’s personalities and capture them as they are. Before I even think about raising my camera and clicking the shutter, I spend a lot of time getting to know your kids, playing with your delightful little angels (ha!) and making them comfortable in whatever setting we are in. My ultimate goal is to make them forget that my camera is there. We’re having a playdate, not a photo session. That’s definitely how I prefer to set the stage.

I am happy to report that the camera playdate with the H family did, in fact, turn out to be a success. Even the little three year old had fun. She became my little buddy and gave me plenty of time to capture some nice shots. {phew!}

M&E: thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to take your family’s photos! You guys are truly one of the nicest and smiley-est (yeah, I know that’s not really a word but I think it accurately describes you so I’m usin’ it!) families on the face of this earth. You guys just ooze positive energy and fun; it’s hard not to be happy around you guys. Thanks, again, for your hospitality – the delicious dinner, the laptop party on the couch, the Sunday TV marathon, the loads of coffee … and best of all, your company. Can’t wait to deliver your entire gallery … it’s going to be great. In the meantime, check out some images that just screamed out to be posted on the blog.

This little guy has such a great personality. And a killer smile.

Here’s the little one that was expected to bolt at the sight of my camera. No bolting here:

Some group shots:

Look at these baby blues. They just suck you right in!

We were getting ready for one last series of family portraits when Marcus, the family cat, appeared. Just moments before this shot was taken, M had let me know that Marcus had been in their family portraits every year since his existence. We had just resigned ourselves to the fact that Marcus was going to be left out of this year’s shot when he materialized — out of nowhere — to make his guest appearance. I clicked as quickly as I could to capture this shot … it may not be perfect, but it is complete!

When we first met, our conversations revolved primarily around operational excellence, problem statements, pareto analyses and all things six sigma. (Very exciting stuff, right?? I’ve probably lost you already …) We crunched numbers, we role played, we bounced corporate strategies and plans off of one another for feedback. We plotted and planned to determine who in our organization would and could champion our efforts. We always had each other’s backs and helped each other succeed. J and I had such a great working relationship! Soon, however, we were no longer just colleagues, but also friends. We often discussed our professional goals and personal dreams. For me, I often talked about how I would love to pursue photography and open a boutique studio photographing children and families. So … as you can imagine, it was an absolute pleasure to meet up with J and her family in my new role. Not as a colleague, not simply a friend, but as her family photographer. What an honor! And how fun!

J, can you believe how far we’ve come?? When we first met, we were both childless. Now, we find ourselves mothers of two busy and active children. I vividly recall our walks around campus when I was pregnant with Lincoln and you were pregnant with the twins. Man, how our lives have changed since then! It was great to watch you and C in action last week – you guys make fantastic parents and are doing a great job raising the girls to be sweet, happy and healthy. A&A are as sweet and sassy as you described. Thank you for sharing their comments with me after I left … tell them viviZ loves them, too.

Ok, enough of the walk down memory lane. Below are some highlights from your session.

I am incredibly blessed to find myself in a profession whereby all of my clients (so far) have become friends and many of my friends have become clients. Both circumstances are fantastic for me but I have to say, the pressure is totally on with the latter. Don’t get me wrong. I get nervous before all of my sessions and I always, always, always strive to to hit the ball out of the park. But when my friends come to me and trust me with their precious time, I feel an extra level of pressure to perform above and beyond. To give them more than they expect. So, here I am … nervous and hopeful that my first set of Bay Area friends/clients (fri-ents?) are happy with the time they spent in front of my camera.

K&M, I was so incredibly excited to take your family’s photos this year. You both have such infectious smiles that were clearly passed down to your sweet (very sweet!) girls. I knew it would be a lot of fun photographing all of you. Thank you so much for motivating for an early morning session, squeezing it in before a very full day of tailgating and football fun. I really enjoyed the time we spent catching up. Now we just have to work on the frequency of our visits. Our bi-annual visit to Menlo Park for the Stanford/UCLA football game just isn’t gonna cut it. We need to see more of you! Promise you’ll visit us soon. Maybe I’ll keep your photos hostage until you promise to set a date to visit …

Here are a few highlights from your session. Thanks for being patient while I finished up the Bay Area tour!

Clearly, these girls love their Daddy:

No shortage of love for Mommy either:

Look at these eyelashes. Seriously. Those lashes are TDF (“to die for” for those of you not up to speed with internet/texting lingo)!!

Sisterly love:

And this little one’s so adorable in braids. Daddy wanted her hair down for family photos … but after Daddy left (for the game), we put her hair in braids and captured her in her ‘everyday’ hairstyle!!

And the grand finale …. K&S with Ginger!! Poor Ginger had a broken paw and was hobbling around with a cone and cast during our visit. Somehow, we still managed to get a cute shot of the girls with their pup! I’m so glad we rallied to get this shot.

Hope you liked your first look at photos!