conquering winter blah

 I'm almost ready for winter break, fulfilling last orders and looking forward to decorating the tree, Christmas cookie baking, staying at home a lot with warm slippers on, sipping on a hot tea, getting lazy... But it does come at a cost - it's not easy to get out of this winter stagnation and start working with a fresh eye and tons of creativity later on. So why not challenge myself during the cold months of winter and rediscover things that I love. This comes with a little help from Marta Locklear - Thank You!
This week it's an exercise in hue and texture - color brown (one of my favorites). I was doubly challenged - I love to shoot outside but was stuck at home for over a week with a bad cold so had to shoot at home with less light:(-  but I'm up for any task. Here are my browns:

happy thanksgiving to everyone

and bon apetit! :)

pictured our unorthodox Thanksgiving dessert - ptysie or puffs (profiterole)  - will be filled with homemade whipped cream just before serving- yum...

family | alexandria va family photographer

It was way overdue - our last family picture was taken by me 3 years ago. So being in drive from all recent mini sessions I decided to get everybody ready, set the date and time and use the beautiful weather that this fall's been spoiling us with. It all worked pretty well except for the fact that my remote shutter release stopped working and I had to run back and forth to press the button on self timer... it was fun anyway... and no, the pictures are not perfect and I could swap heads forever in photoshop but I'm not going to do it - just leave it as it is :)

november in shenandoah...

...just beautiful

smiley | alexandria va baby photographer

just a sneak peek ....
Thank you guys for sharing your family with me :)

 

best dressed | alexandria va family photographer

and the award goes to................................. Z. family. Thank you Ms.G :) for assembling your family looking like a million bucks! And you made it all look so easy!

mini sessions | alexandria va family photographer

I love it when a mini session turns out like this one. I love shooting boys and since my own doesn't really like the idea of being "shot" - except in video games:) I'm really grateful for other families to bring their boys for me to photograph. And when it yields pictures as beautiful as the ones below I'm happy. I really have the best job in the world!

fall

I love fall...the colors, the crisp air, beautiful light, long evenings...yum

mini sessions | alexandria va children photographer

And just a teaser...haha....and how cute... and sweet... and there is plenty more ...will get my hands on them soon...promise...the pictures not the kids haha...

neighborhood mini sessions

Although October is a busy month, I am ready for even more work and would like to do something I have never done before - oh, I'm feeling adventurous :) - Neighborhood Mini Sessions! Yes, it's that time of year already - let's start thinking about holidays - time to get cards ready! The cards are the main purpose of those sessions - you chose your card I upload a favorite photo from your mini session for free (usual price is $80) and you get your cards ready to be sent, way before all holiday craziness starts!
Here are the details:
Saturday October 30th  every 30 minutes from 8-9:30 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. (possible Sunday dates, too)
Meet me at the playground area at Horgan Ct at your reserved time.
Your session will lasts about 25 min and cost $115 (please add 5% VA tax) - within a week you will get:
- a link to your own online gallery with 10 pictures (or more) accessible for 10 days;
- one free www.tinyprints.com upload for your cards order and...
- 50% neighborly discount on all your regular prints (files, canvas and art prints not included in this offer -regular price applies) with no minimum order required!

For more information on pricing please e-mail me  - malina@malinaphotography.com
Please email me at malina@malinaphotography.com to reserve your spot or if you have any questions.
Hope to see you Saturday!
Malina

Monday morning: got some feedback - so I'm proposing another possible date the weekend of November 6th and 7th - I'll wait for your response and then decide - and for all stay-at-home-moms or working from home moms who are somewhat flexible with their time - the teacher's workdays coming next week could work too. Please let me know so I can work out a schedule.

Week of  November 7 - 14
if you missed 2 previous weeks this is your last chance - I have 2 spots on Sunday afternoon at 3 and 3:30 . Please e-mail me if you'd like to reserve your date.

Marysia

I haven't posted my kids' pictures here for quite some time - there is not enough time in a day to do everything :( - so sad. But here go - slightly outdated, September pictures of my sweet 6th grader.

horses

Marysia loves animals. All of them, but horses have been her favorites since she was a little baby girl. She even announced at age 3 that she wanted to be a horse when she grows up - not a teacher, doctor or a rock star but a horse! LOL
This summer she finally had an opportunity to ride and take care of horses, and her chosen one Sisco, while at a summer camp at local stables. They fed, cleaned, watered and even swam the horses - a lot of hard work and even more fun - and of course rode horses for 3 hours a day. She was exhausted but happy and very, very stinky by the end of each day.
Here is just a random picture of Alfie the alpaca being affectionate.

bishop's garden - washington dc family photographer

I've been swamped with work, all kinds of work, and blogging was a little neglected. But since for a lot of projects that happened in the summer I can see the light at the end of tunnel I hopefully will have more time to spend on the computer - blogging, editing, maybe even browsing ;) So here goes my first post since the beginning of summer - decided to go with little sneak-peeks again - especially foe squeezed in sessions like this one.
Wonderful family of 5 + grandma and grandpa joined the party, too! The weather was beautiful- sunny but not too hot, and the location so, so beautiful - the Bishop's Garden in DC. Could we ask for more? No, even the kids were perfect and everything went smoothly, much better than expected with 9 months old twins and their 3 year old big brother. Thanks Julie and family for a wonderful afternoon!

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project office : choices

Fireplace wall.
I think I'll go with the "coral".

project office continued

The floor is done and ready to be waxed...and then buffed...and then waxed again. I 'd hoped that by now I would have been cozied up at my new desk, all organized and tidied up... dream on...not going to happen soon :)  It's still a lot of work but it means nothing without pictures. Here is the floor - I'm in love - stained concrete minus the stains :) - those left with the old carpet - Hurray!

project office

Some renovations were way overdue in our house. Started with the basement/office/hobby room. I hate the carpet and it was so dirty - the room is adjacent to our garage and tends to be our dump/mud room. So the carpet has to go and I have a nice plan for the floor - pssst it's a secret - you will see in "after pictures". Easier said than done - removing the carpet and ugly vinyl floor from bathroom and laundry room is not an easy task -took me two whole days - boy, that stuff is heavy. And the yellow has to go, too - I grew tired of it, ready for something totally different. Here is how it looks now:

 

strings

Yesterday my daughter participated in a Regional String Orchestra concert in Hayfield  conducted by Ms. Keenan - we were impressed! She is already a pro at doing it - 2 piano recitals a year, 3 string orchestra concerts, two chorus recitals..
We are so very proud of you Marysia!!  Here are the pictures:

new site just launched

I have very exiting news to share with you!
I've been working on my new website for so long that I am really, really happy to have finished. New design, new logo, new pictures...and it is finally up - thanks to my dear husband who worked his magic to put it on the web. Thank You!
You can visit it here
 

site down

my website is down temporarily and will be up soon in new "clothes"