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

Happy Everything!

A proper adieu to 2010 will be on its way just after the new year. The blog will be on hiatus until 2011, after we dig out from wrapping paper and sugar cookies. In the meantime, we'll be celebrating the holidays in a warm, colorful, and relaxing way. The camera's coming along, so I'll be sure to share our favorite moments.

Happy Everything!

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

These Boots Are So Cute!

I have buckets full of beautiful babies and families and weddings and travel and news to blog...but the spots dancing in front of my eyes are nature's way of saying, "Peel yourself away from the computer!" Those little guys need a rest from the screen tonight. So, just a shot from our weekend away. Our friends N&M invited us along for our annual trek to Green Bay for a Packer game. We. Were. FREEZING! Over the years, I have acquired many fancy pieces of outdoor gear to help get me through the torture that is a Wisconsin winter. This year, my purchase was a new pair of boots! Not just any boots. Not anything like the boots the little girls in the Gap commercial sang about last holiday season ("These boots are so cute! These boots are so cute!"...has anyone gotten that out of their head yet, a year later?!) These are the kind of boots that people see and say, "Hey, killer boots, man!" (to quote my husband quoting an awful Jim Carrey movie). We are talking, learn how to walk again while wearing these boots. Soles several inches thick. Fleece. Fur. Squishy padding on the bottom. Despite ambling along looking like a penguin with bricks strapped to my feet, they were totally worth it. Not a single toe got cold during those hours out on the tundra. They were probably my best purchase of the year, as sad as that sounds.

So bring on the snow and windchill! I'll shuffle into my boots and seventeen layers on top and finally laugh in the face of Old Man Winter. Ha! I can't wait to rock them again!

Hubby and me | Lambeau Field | Green Bay, Wisconsin
December 2010

Oh, and the Packers won! GO PACK!

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

Bennett Eric | Ten Months

"I would like to get one good photo of him for his first birthday invitations," my sister-in-law, Katie, says to me of her son, Bennett. "Can you bring your camera to Sunday dinner for a couple shots?" My husband's family tries to get together every few Sundays for a nice quiet family dinner. Okay, I can't even keep a straight face on that one! By the time we leave, we are always full with mama's home cooking and thoroughly convinced that nieces and nephews and their boisterous ways silence even the most faint ticking sounds of any biological clocks that dare to be audible to my hubby or me. But for all their noise and energy and excitability, we love all three of them to pieces. The youngest is Bennett, who will be one year old this month. Katie and I decided a mini-shoot of Bennett would be sure to capture a moment worthy of his first birthday party invitations. In Grammie and Grampie's backyard we set him down in the grass for what I assumed would be a relatively easy ten minute session.

Twenty minutes later, I walked back into the house sweating like I had just outrun a pack of hungry wolves. Collapsing onto the couch ready for a nap and some of mama's spaghetti, Bennett was just warming up. The previous twenty minutes consisted of him making it as difficult as possible for his Auntie Leez to do her job. He would sit, I would get set, he'd crawl away. He would smile, I would focus, he would look elsewhere. He would kneel in the grass, I would kneel in the grass, and he would roll over. Always two steps behind him, I ran around to shoot in whichever direction he decided to go. Several times I tucked my camera under my arm, scooped up the baby in the other, waddled over to a plush patch of grass, plopped him down, begged him to stay put, finally got set, and off he went. And, of course, his biggest smiles naturally came when I was in the middle of changing lenses. In the end, I had a lot of "action" shots, but also many that caught the essence of the little man. Bennett is ALL boy...as witnessed below in his tough-guy black eye, the blades of grass he mistook for the salad course before his strained carrots hanging out of his mouth, and the "I dare you to get a sharply-focused photo of me" sassypants look in photo #2. But honestly, the photo shoot-slash-aerobic workout was all worth it to have memories of those striking blue eyes, crinkly nose, and tongue wagging out. He'll be walking and running soon, learning to play baseball with his Uncle Nick and helping to grill burgers with his Uncle Andy, and good luck to me to try to keep up! Yup, it was worth it...black eye, sweat-soaked clothes, and all.

Bennett Eric | Ten Months

Aliza

Bennett Eric | Three Months

I was ready to post one of my latest super-cute baby shoots today, but realized I just couldn't without showing you his first shoot at three months. Now, normally, I would not reach back several months for a post, as my images/ideas/equipment are growing and evolving, but this will be an exception to the rule (besides the photo I included on my first post ever!).

First-time parents Katie and Todd snapped baby Bennett into his brand new Brewers baseball onesie, complete with appliqued retro logo, a gift from his aunt and uncle, for his shoot. He was a cool customer resting in dad's arms and hanging out with mom. Dad, a Disney fan and high school basketball coach, influenced the design of Bennett's room. A mobile of Mickey Mouses (Mickey Mice?) holding footballs and basketballs floated above the crib. He even had baby slippers in the shape of basketballs on his feet! What a sporty lad.

I must admit that Bennett is my exception to the rule shoot-from-the-past post because he just happens to be my nephew! And since he is our only nephew, he is also currently our favorite nephew. I am also the cool aunt, if you are following this equation carefully, who bestowed the aforementioned onesie upon him even before he was born (hubby and I could NOT risk any Cubs fans getting a hold of him first!). Another fun fact? Bennett and I are twins. Granted, a couple decades separate us, but we get to share our special day! We have already decided that we each need our own cake should we ever celebrate together...he was totally cool with that...we even shook on it with a highly complicated handshake routine. So, with no further ado...heeeeere's Bennett! His ten-month photos are just around the corner.

Bennett Eric | Three Months

Aliza

Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue....Aquarium Tank

I don't know what it is about this photo, but I just keep staring at it. A baby beluga (cue the Raffi music) followed its mother, swimming through the murkiness of the deep salt water tank at the aquarium. As we watched from the viewing deck, many feet under water, mother and newborn traced circles around the depths of the tank. I couldn't help but wonder if the mother was purposefully teaching her child to swim and glide through the water, or inadvertently demonstrating patterns of boredom in captivity. The circular swim was mesmerizing. Each time their bulbous white bodies darted gracefully (yes, gracefully) past us, I aimed to freeze a moment with my camera, but with the very low light and surprising speed with which they sailed by, the images were nothing but a blur. So, I timed it differently. To get them as they swam towards us. Far enough away. Zoomed in. I love that the moment is so dark. So quiet, almost haunting. Hardly discernible. Just the curve of their bellies-up bodies, a hint of light from above. Just mama and baby, circling their own private ocean.



Aliza

"My Kind of Town, Chicago is..."

We boarded the early crack-o-dawn train, and sat next to passengers on their way to work. Home. Anywhere but here. The red-head in frizzy braids and sweatpants next to us conducted a loud private conversation on her phone. After hearing about her hangover aftermath at her third shift waitressing job due to five too many Red Bull and vodkas the previous evening, I was thankful that I had toasted my own bagel that morning. Newspapers whipped open. Used college textbooks were highlighted. Lipstick was applied. iPhone apps were downloaded. We watched the farm fields and small towns blur past us. And it was no time before we got there. We stepped outside and immediately looked up at the buildings, and the sun streaming through the few cotton ball clouds.

Our bitter rivals in all games athletic, their pride resting on their ketchup-less hotdogs and thick-crusted pizza, chewing gum and wind, gangsters and Oprah. Big buildings. Big airport. Big history. And all that jazz. Chicago. We spent the day 103 floors up, and under the sea before a sleepy, and quiet, ride home on the rails.

Chicago, Illinois
(Willis Tower Skydeck, Shedd Aquarium)

Aliza