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 But here go - slightly outdated, September pictures of my sweet 6th grader.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"

doggie

Let me introduce our beloved "designer dog"/mutt aka mini goldendoodle - 25% golden retriever and 75% poodle. He was born on July 28th, 2009 and you can see him at about 8 months here. Isn't he the cutest and fluffiest thing ever?!

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looking for light

lesson 3 :: unexpected light

OK, so it was fun. I love experimenting with light and if I cannot find a source I'll look harder, or create my own :) I wish I could have driven somewhere and try the car lights but we were snowed in for a week, no going out except with the puppy. I'll leave it for later then and for now here are the results of my trials. In the first two the light sources are obvious. In the next I was painting with light - flashlight to be specific:


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develop : on fridays : lesson 2

lesson 2 :: under the influence

It was such an enjoyable and exhausting experience to dig through piles of books and bookmarks to find those more influential. And I dug really deep - time flies so fast and I didn't even realize till now, how many of very important inspirations I managed to forget. Rediscoveries are great and now that I'm a little older I can see clearer what my likes and dislikes really are.
From a very young age I was into art. Any kind - it was something that moved me. And since then I knew I'd always have something to do with it. And so it happened.Somehow I love 2D art a lot, enjoying most techniques. I love chiaroscuro in almost all representations from Caravaggio through Rembrandt to Vermeer. I love how it makes the painting come to live, giving it a 3D effect. And what's interesting - it is not about details for me - the light creating forms is what I'm drawn into.Then I stumbled upon abstract - either color, or form, or order fascinated me and still do. (order less than other two- especially when it comes to my house :-D )
Kazimir Malevich,

Mark Rothko


- big influences with a lot of followers. And William Turner - realistic but in a poetic, moody, abstract kind of way.

How do you connect all of those, together with your love of nature ? You become an architect- ha,ha. I love nature, the calm , uncluttered simplicity of the ocean - very therapeutic and purifying.
Nature inspires me and since architecture is such a "grounded" kind of art ( is it art?) it seemed like the best choice. So what are my biggest influences there:
Frank Lloyd Wright - for his innovative vision, what a cliche, right? :),
Tadao Ando - for the use of light to create the simplest, most emotive forms - genial!!

I love Bauhaus art movement, and though I don't work as an architect I still visit a lot of architectural and design blogs and sites,like these:
iwan baan - architectural photography, really worth visiting;
dezeen - design, art, architecture etc.;
debi treloar - beautiful photography and design;
real life design -very cool to see;
, and furniture stores:
cb2 modern furnishings;
west elm -love the simplicity and the catalog;and IKEA - on foot... and budget :-D;
and etsy (I love etsy!) with all things handmade with love;


And here is what I do with the above, because what would a photographer's blog be without even more pictures:



thank you jefra+liz

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winter calm : develop on fridays : lesson one

Lesson one :: finding your voice

Another snowy day, and a "snow day" for kids. Would be nice to stay under covers, sipping hot lemon tea, reading, but...on a morning like this you get inspired... the snow, the light - you just can't be trapped under the covers.

develop : on fridays

I was looking for a push, inspiration, a little nudge in this gray wintry time and I found this
Since sometimes we all need a little nudge ( at least that's what I'm telling myself) I decided to go for it. So over the next several weeks you will find posts that might have a lot to do with my rediscovering myself

crush it

Crush It! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion.
Yes, that's what I got for my birthday, and can't wait to read it. I'm swamped with reading at the moment and there are several books that I haven't finished yet but there is nothing better than a good manual. Hope for a very creative, eye opening experience. But for now - happy groundhog day to me!

new year - new skin

Hurray!! My blog just got a new skin. I'm so excited and hope you like it as much as I do. Now I may even post more often here :)
And to let you know what I have been up to lately and to whet your appetites a little, here is:

I plan to have this series for sale as giclee prints soon so visit often to get the info as soon as it gets here.
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Happy Holidays!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Just dropping by for a moment during this hectic season to announce my "Holiday Specials".
Please send me an e-mail to ask for more information.

Childhood memories

With friends circa 1978. Salvaged from old slides of my father's.