Heart-Shaped Pizza and Just Being There

One day out of the year, chocolate, flowers, and jewelry are our nationally recognized symbols of romance and love. But my hubby and I have been different since the beginning. Neither of us were ever huge fans of reserving romance for one particularly dictated day, nor were we big fans of the usual spoils of February 14th. Instead, we decided to celebrate in our own way. The steakhouse dinner? Nah. A dozen red roses? Nah. My husband's staged living room performance of "Truly Madly Deeply"? Nah. Recreating some of our favorite dishes from our Indonesian honeymoon for dinner? YES, PLEASE! But that's just us. Seeing images friends have posted throughout the day...heart-shaped pizzas, pink pancakes, dancing to favorite songs with sweet babies, great seats at a basketball game, pink tutus, naked babies covered in cake, and scanned photos from decades ago...make me smile...everyone does V Day their own way. One friend mentioned that just returning home to see her very-busy-always-on-call-doctor husband there unexpectedly for the evening was a gift all in itself. Just like her, I hope you and your valentines (spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, children, best friends) spend time appreciating every little moment that adds up to this crazy good life. Although, I could go for an impromptu living room a capella rendition of Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams"...or "Maneater"...hmmm...something to think about for next year.

My valentine and me on our honeymoon!
Bali, Indonesia

Aliza

It's An Anniversary Today!

Get a cake! Light some candles! Sing a song!

It's my one year anniversary today!

With my blog.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

One year ago, exactly, I shared my first post, which actually took weeks to compose. I wanted no less than total satisfaction with every aspect of the post; the beginning of a journaling experience just as much for my readers, as it is a record for me. Thank you to all of you who follow along and check back regularly! Without you, I'd pretty much just be talking to myself, and I do a fair amount of that anyway without blogging, so I appreciate you taking the time to stop by, and for sharing my words and photos with others.

One year in the books, and I'm only getting started.

Aliza

If You Would Have Told Me...

If you would have told me...

...that twenty-two years after I received my first camera , a red plastic 35 mm Kodak, I would be shooting with an incredible Canon 5D Mark II...
...that I would travel nearly four-thousand miles across an ocean to shoot an international wedding...
...in the dark room of my high school that I would be making photographic art with a digital camera and computer and not with C41 film and chemical baths (which I actually really miss!)...
...that I would be an artist, not an imitator...
...that my summer weekends would be filled with brides, babies, and blogging...
...I would be witness to amazing stories of adoption, growing families, and answered prayers.
...I would be writing this heartbreaking, yet hope-filled post...
...I would be lucky enough to photograph neighbors, life-long friends, in-laws, and a nephew...
...And watch little ones grow and grow...

If you would have told me...

I probably would not have believed you, but I would have thought that whomever experienced all of that would be one lucky chicken. And for every ounce of good fortune I have experienced, I am sure to stop in the middle of life's chaos to appreciate every little morsel of it. At the end of the day, I am the one behind the camera, but more importantly, behind me are friends, family, clients, colleagues, and mentors. There are not enough ways to thank them all...but that's another post entirely...

Here I am, and here I go...setting off on a journey through 2011. So, go ahead and tell me...it's going to be amazing and inspiring, isn't it? I just might believe you this time.


Aliza

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Chanukah?

The holiday season goes a little like this vignette from the Werner household:

(Setting: Werner living and dining rooms. The scene begins as Aliza and Nick walk in. Aliza places the Chanukah menorah on the table and sets up the candles. The room smells strongly of pine. Nick turns on the satellite radio...)

Radio: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...Everywhere you go...

(Aliza strikes a match and lights the middle shamash candle.)

Radio: Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again...With candy canes and silver lanes aglow...

(With the Christmas tune playing on the radio in the background, A&N huddle around the menorah.)

A&N: Baruch atah adonai elohainu melech ha'olam asher kiddishanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik nar shel Chanukah.

(As Aliza lights the first night candle...)

Radio: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...Toys in every store...

(With the menorah's candles flickering a cozy orange glow...)

A or N: Now that the menorah is lit...let's go decorate the tree!

(A&N head to the Christmas tree ten feet away to begin the annual detangling of lights, search for escaped metal hooks, and discovery of memories represented in the collection of ornaments. As each bauble and trinket is hung on the branches, Aliza sees one last shiny item at the bottom of the box. It's a delicate menorah ornament...a gift last year from her mother-in-law. On the tree is goes.)

Radio: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas; Soon the bells will start...And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing...Right within your heart.

Annnnnnd...scene.

The Eighth Night of Chanukah
The lit menorah glows brightly in front of the Christmas tree.

Aliza

Friday Thoughts: The Quiet Season and Sparkle

As the last leaves spiral to the ground, the photo season lulls into its own hibernation. Besides the brand new babes born this winter, I am already looking forward to next year's babies, family shoots, and weddings.

This incredibly beautiful wedding, and many more to share with you as 2010 draws to a close. Images from spring and summer should keep us all warm as the first frozen flakes begin to dance on the chilly wintry winds. So much to still blog, so faithful followers, visit often. If you're new, thanks for stopping by and get ready for more!

Lush and dreamy and accentuated with sparkle.

Aliza

Three Girls in Dark Glasses in Indiana

We ran down hills through tall grasses and reeds. Leaves of gold, rust, and fire, cooled only by droplets of green. An earnest sun. A motionless spider. A cold marble slab covered in carmelized sweets. Bright blue eyes and a ride in a minivan. Holding a day, a moment in time before it races on. Two girls in dark glasses. Racing down the hill. One girl in dark glasses. Click the camera quickly. It looks like they were flying. Click the camera quickly to keep the day. And hold it still.

The day. It flew.

Bloomington, Indiana | October 2010

Aliza

Let Them Eat Cake! The Tale of Thirty

Twenty-nine years ago, I sank my entire face into the corner of an epic cake at my first birthday party. Let's describe this cake...it was most likely some flavor of delicious, but its standout feature was the frosting design. You might want to be sitting for this one. It was layered high in sugary smooth buttercream and covered from corner to sweet corner in, literally, every color of the rainbow. Most parents pick some type of theme for their child's birthday party, like jungle animals or Sesame Street Muppets. I'm guessing my parents' theme had something to do with RAINBOWS! And CLOUDS! And VISUAL OVERSTIMULATION! A huge rainbow splashed its hues across the cake. Plump pastel rosettes were piped around the border. A cotton-ball cloud advertised "Happy 1st Birthday Aliza". It must have been pure joy for the senses as I dove in, sans utensils, for the time honored tradition of slobbering on and grabbing fistfuls of the cake that my parents then lovingly served to our guests.

Now, you realize that a Hall of Fame cake this incredible cannot be retired forever. We agreed, it was time to bring back the champion. The record-setter. The standard by which all insanely decorated cakes are compared. And for no other event than *sigh*.........*sigh again*.....my 30th birthday!

Despite what squinty-eyed disbelieving bartenders who glare at me regularly might insist, I have not, in fact, lied by a decade and a half over on my driver's license. It's simply true. I have hit the big THREE-OH. Instead of celebrating with champagne and caviar (which I eat every night anyway, if not for lunch, as well), we decided to keep humor and color and fun on the table in the form of a to-die-for replica of my first birthday cake, right down to the candle on the cake. Moist chocolate cake, vanilla mousse, and about three feet of buttercream on top. Not just any buttercream, but melt-in-your-mouth primary colors. And pastel, too. As the design was a funhouse of "loud", I closed my eyes, and surrounded by cake-savoring family and friends, took a mouth-watering bite. I couldn't help but smile, thinking how the past thirty years have been a busy and wild ride. And like my cake, life has been a colorful mish-mash of deliciousness. I'm looking forward to discovering even more in life that is colorful and delicious over the next decade with the kind of reckless abandon that makes one dive face first into frosting-topped pastries.

The dive into the first birthday cake...

The thirtieth birthday cake...

Aliza

Friday Thoughts: Up Nort' Wisconsin

Every year my husband's family travels "up nort' Wisconsin" with fifty of our closest family and friends. We rent out the same resort (I use this term verrrry loosely) and bum around for a week. I only took along my little Sony Cybershot point-&-shoot, because, believe it or not, I like to actually just stretch out face down on my pink South Beach Miami towel (talk about a cheap & useful souvenir!) and get my tan on. There's nothing like arriving at this resort (which could be marketed as a "diamond in the rough" or "an antique") after our four-hour drive with full bladders and finding our cottage's toilet sitting in the shower while the owner was crawling around trying to fix the plumbing. Welcome to vacation! At some point in between watching my nine-month old nephew eat half of the beach, mixing up enough bloody marys to quench the thirst of the entire population of a small African country, whacking my 10,000th skeeter, recording an acapella version of "Single Ladies" with my three year old niece on my hubby's iPhone (hours, literally hours of entertainment), building campfires that would make Smokey the Bear quit his job in frustration, having a "tea and crumpets" (read: "cran-apple juice and Cheez-Its") party on the beach with enough children to compose a decent-sized pre-school classroom, making my mother-in-law a salami sandwich so good that when it accidentally dropped in the sand, she shook it off and still ate it, and marveling that the "quaint" and "cozy" cottages have defeated all laws of physics and are still standing...I managed to grab this shot of friends both young, and, um, younger...ahhhh, vacation...nothing like it...

Rhinelander, Wisconsin | August 2010

Aliza

How Many Hearts Do You Count?

Sometimes a girl from the city needs to surround herself with the opposite. The crowded space filled with buildings, deadlines, meetings, emails, appointments, and housework fades away. The space fills up with hikes in the park, wine tastings, crossword puzzles, bookstore browsing, and mugs of hot coffee. Just a few hours in the car and we're there. Door County. Our getaway at times when Italy's not an option.

This is what we saw.
Do you see the hearts? How many do you count?

















Aliza

Back Home & Happy Belated Father's Day!

After some time traveling away from home, unplugged, the hubby and I are back home, and plugged back in. In the meantime, we missed your status updates, the DVR filled up with guilty pleasure reality shows, and some really spiky weeds grew in our lawn. We were busy eating the freshest homemade pastas and gelato, strolling through gardens, laughing with improv comedians, cracking lobster claws, and singing "Sweet Caroline" while taking in a game of baseball in the most beloved park, among a zillion other things, in Boston. Can you imagine giving up the pulls of email, blogging, and Facebook for a few days for that? We try to be vacation purists, staying away from most technology, exceptions only for making dinner and/or spa reservations. Going out to Beantown is like going home for me, after living there for four years in college, and I get homesick when I've been away too long. Boston is also the spot for a very special moment in our lives...and I leave you hanging there, unless you already know, but that's a story for another day.

Besides missing the emergence of way too many ginormous weeds in our yard, we were 1,000 miles away on Father's Day...don't worry, we celebrated early! But I wanted to make sure I wished my dad a belated Happy Father's Day with a photo of us on a pretty good day.

Dad and Me

Lots of babies, families, vacation photos, and other fun summery stuff to catch up on...Baby Wesley coming your way next!

Aliza

The Very Best Part of Spring

"Just now the lilac is in bloom | All before my little room."
~Rupert Brooke

All of these gorgeous lilacs grow in my sweet little backyard. Is there anything more perfect than the day when lilacs bloom to their fullest?

Aliza