today…

is my birthday…and this little space second anniversary! Happy birthday to us!

image via the light fantastic

Happy Friday!

pictures in our home

I love taking pictures. Always have. So you can imagine my hard drive has a complete archive, organized by year, by day and event, with thousands of pictures. Birthdays, holidays, important events, milestones, outings, everyday situations. I like to document everything {at least I try}.

From time to time I like to go over my folders, look at the pictures and choose one or two of each important event, or any random ones I like, edit them a bit and print them. Then I find them a place in our home. So of course my house is full of pictures. 

Our main display is our family gallery wall in the Entry Hall with pictures of both our families {parents and siblings} and pictures of us {which by the way I have to update with pictures of G. I know, it just took me a year}. I included some artwork to make the gallery more interesting.

A stone wall in our Living Room was the perfect spot for some other displays {this is a sneak peek into the Living Room. I still need to take more photos}. A couple of pictures of our wedding and a couple of our kids, mixed with some pictures {on ledges} I took of places we’ve been.

Another photo display is in G’s nursery, with pictures of my maternity photo session at 34 months. There were so many I liked that it was hard to choose just three.

And a couple of frames frames in L’s room, with another piece of artwork.

My latest photo display project is the basement staircase gallery wall, which I have yet to choose pictures and artwork for and a gallery wall above the tv in the family/playroom.

I like to mix family, portrait pictures with more photojournalistic ones and buildings, landscapes or details shots. And for the most part I like all my pictures in either sepia or black and white in similar frames, to keep the harmony. I also think adding some type of artwork balances the display and take it to a different level.

We have more photos in our home of course. Frames on our night tables, bedroom, in our closet, in the guest bedroom, on the living room bookshelves and on the dining room console. I guess I’ll have to do a second part of pictures in our home. Yes, I love, love photos! And photos of my little family even more!

How about you? How do you display pictures in your home?

please, vote for my boy!

Since I started this blog I always said to myself that I would never ask for votes or things like that if I got into an online contest or something. Nothing wrong with it. Just a personal choice. But I guess that changes when you have kids! So here I’m, asking you to please vote for my baby boy.

He’s running for Kid of the Week (this week ending tomorrow. I know, I should have posted before but read above) and eventually Kid of the Year in Parents Magazine. He started at #97 and he’s now #6! With your votes I’m pretty sure we can do it!

The contest ends tomorrow night at 11:59 p.m. Please, please help us with your votes. You can vote daily (today and tomorrow) from different devices each day (iphone, ipad, smartphone, laptop, desktop. Every vote counts!) Click “Vote for me” below and it’ll take you to the voting page.

 Vote for me!

 

Thanks so much in advance. You are all the best!

 

 

magical anthropologie

I got my Anthropologie catalogue in the mail the other day and what a great surprise I had. The November catalogue was shot in Peru! Yes, in two of its most beautiful and touristic cities. Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, and Puno, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca, were the perfect background for all those gorgeous Anthropologie clothes.

Here some of my favorite shots.

all images via Anthropologie

my pregnancy – maternity photo session!

We had our maternity photo session two weekends ago, and last night I got our pics! And I love them! Honestly I was a little afraid to have the session this far along in my pregnancy (34 weeks). I read the recommended time is between 7 and 8 months, when the belly is not that big and swelling hasn’t made their appearance yet. But for different reasons we had to rescheduled. And finally did it. And I’m so happy with the results.

 

via alejandra martins photography

via alejandra martins photography

I knew I wanted something different from the bare belly (and sometimes bare everything!) traditional maternity pictures. I wanted something casual, modern and fun. And that was not a problem with our photographer Ale, whose style is precisely that! I met her through her blog. She is Peruvian as well, and very talented. She was very open to my suggestions and very accommodating. We had the session at our house and even though it rained all day we managed to get some nice outdoor pics. I think we got great results! 

 

via alejandra martins photography

If you are looking for a great photographer in the New York area, check out her site. Thanks Ale!

weekend & photography fun

I meant to post this at the beginning of the week but now it’s Friday already! Time does fly!

Anyway, just wanted to say we had a nice, busy, fun last weekend. Spending time with the family, a maternity photo session, eating, catching a movie, more time with the family and more eating! And this upcoming weekend will be as busy and as fun.

 

In other news, I have to say I miss my photography classes. There is so much to learn. And it’s something that really interests me. Photography II, PhotojournalisticPhotography and Portraits are some of the classes I’d like to take in the future. Unfortunately to do a good job you have to commit and give it a lot of time. And with baby G coming anytime soon it’ll be a little difficult for now.

I still want to share some other concepts and things I learned. Like high key and low key photography. I had no idea about this and how amazing and artistic results you can get. Basically you just play with different exposures to get different results. 

low key

high key

 Like I said there is a lot to learn and the possibilities are endless. Hopefully I’ll manage to continue with some more classes.

Anyway, have a great weekend and stay tune because there is a lot more to come!

depth of field

This was last week assignment. We were asked to show depth of field (DOF). It feels I’m really learning how to use our camera. Now, if I could only have more time to spend shooting, I’d be really happy!

shallow DOF

deep DOF

The previous assignment, shooting an object in 36 different ways, didn’t turn out as I expected. I decided to shot an orange, thinking it will be easier to get different situations , shapes and textures, but I really didn’t commit to the project. And I gave it very little time. I got some nice shots, though. Anyway, my photos haven’t been critiqued yet due to lack of time during class. But that’s fine with me since I’m not happy with the result.

Hopefully I’ll do better with this week’s homework!

feliz dia de san valentin

We had little time to complete this project and I’m not that happy with the photos (bad exposure), but I think it turned out very cute anyway.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

photography classes

I’m really enjoying my photography classes. It feels great to be able to use our camera in some other settings than automatic mode. We’ve had two assignments so far and I think I did good. For this week’s assignment we had to shoot blur and frozen motion. It was a little hard to find good subjects to shoot, since the weather didn’t help and I had to do most of my photos indoors.

frozen motion

blur motion

For next week we have to choose a subject (it has to be an inanimate object) and shoot it 36 times. In different ways! I think it’s going to be a challenge. I’ll see what I can come up with.

 

Have a good weekend! And for those in Lima enjoy the nice and warm weather for me!

j & l