http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm Tira J Photography Blog en-us http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=388&Sophie-6-Graham-3-Laguna-Niguel-Childrens-Photographer http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=388&Sophie-6-Graham-3-Laguna-Niguel-Childrens-Photographer Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:48:00 GMT
Last weekend, I met Graham, Sophie and their father Simon down at their home in Laguna Niguel and let me first say, that the drive was worth it! Meeting these kiddos made me so happy! And this session was extra special because their awesome dad acquired the session through a silent auction at a Megan's Wings fundraiser event. More on Megan's Wings soon.

When I arrived at their home, Sophie and Graham greeted me at the gate, like their new playmate for the afternoon had just arrived. Well, actually that's true. Because when I do a children's or family portrait session, I LOVE to have fun! At the last minute, I brought along the infamous pink chair for Sophie and the little blue chair for Graham. The moment those chairs hit the pavement, they had already been deemed his and her's.

Sophie, Graham and Simon, It was wonderful to spend the afternoon with you and get to know you better. Thank you so much for the joy you brought to my heart! Love you guys, Tira J.


Princess Sophie, you are beautiful! Sophie fell in love with the chair, and I am sure she didn't plan that headband to match perfectly!!! Sophie is a little firecracker and was so much fun to photograph and was busy talking a bazillion miles a minute the entire time, which I loved!

Oh Mr. Graham! You literally stole my heart. You are so sweet and handsome. Thanks for being a good sport and giving the Hawaiian shirt a chance! It was pretty funny because he wanted to wear his Lightning McQueen shirt for the entire session and keep stashing his race cars in his pockets. It wasn't until the very end of our time together that he was willing to change his shirt.

This is my most favorite image from the entire session! I just love the looks on all their faces, and they each have so much love and joy in their eyes.

Sophie and her Daddy.

Father and son. Another one of my favorites.

Enjoy the gallery below for more images from their session! Just give it a few minutes to load.

Click here to view photo gallery

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=376&Class-of-2011-Model-Reps-Wanted-Senior-Portrait-Photographer http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=376&Class-of-2011-Model-Reps-Wanted-Senior-Portrait-Photographer Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:49:00 GMT © Tira J Photography, LLC. Please do not republish without permission.

I am finally ready to start accepting model reps from local high schools & colleges to represent Tira J Photography to help build my senior portrait business. This piece of my business has been in the planning stages for a long time and I am proud to say that I am ready to rock the class of 2011 and beyond!

There are a LOT of young men and women who are gearing up to begin their senior year next month at a ton of high schools and colleges across the country. And a lot of you have maybe already had your senior picture taken in the studio and received just one boring pose. I am looking for some excited young men and women who will help me take "Tira J Seniors" to the next level. If you reside in Southern California, specifically in Los Angeles, Orange or San Bernardino County, I want to talk to you.

Here's the skinny! I need one young man and one young woman from each high school. I've created this great application for you to fill out to see if we will be a great fit CLICK HERE TO APPLY.

If you don't see your high school listed, you can still apply!

And now I am sure you are wondering what you will get for representing Tira J Photography.

*Two senior portrait sessions. One in the fall and one in the spring. Both sessions are FREE with three referrals sent in by November 1st and three sent in by March 1st.

*Lots of great goodies like custom referral cards to hand out to your friends, a custom blog post with the top images, discounts on prints and albums, and a slideshow set to your favorite song. And.....for sending referrals my way you can get tons of great stuff like free prints, websized images for facebook, accordian albums, image boxes, print credit and gift certificates to your favorite stores.

I am looking forward to meeting a lot of amazing young men and women who want some fun, fresh and fabulous senior portraits. More details will be posted soon about our new model rep program.

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=386&I-can-fly-Sneak-Peek-Laguna-Niguel-Childrens-Photographer http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=386&I-can-fly-Sneak-Peek-Laguna-Niguel-Childrens-Photographer Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:00:00 GMT

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=378&What-a-month http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=378&What-a-month Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:37:00 GMT
After having an amazing time in Arizona, I made my trek home in my husband's car. I only made it to Palm Desert because the transmission decided to have some major issues with leaks and smoke all over the 10 freeway. To make a reealllyyy long story short, I will just say that I have an amazing husband who came to pick me up in the middle of the night, in the middle of the desert. We got the car fixed, and that only lasted a week. We didn't want to put a whole lot of money back into this 10 year old car that had been so good to us, so David made an executive decision to purchase a new car, which is fantastic by the way.

Here's a sneak peek from a mini workshop with Beth Forrester, Senior Photographer Extraordinaire from West Virginia.

Wait, it gets better...

Our kitties needed to go to the vet for an exam and shots, but when the vet said that Buzz needed to come back on Sunday to have his teeth cleaned along with some extractions, I just knew it was going to be another expensive weekend. Buzz came back home after his time at the spa aka vet and it was rough. Tinkerbell didn't want anything to do with him, so we had three days of hissing and fighting until my friend Kelli suggested putting vanilla on their noses and tales to skew their scents. It worked, and they were friends again. Thank goodness, because I lost a lot of sleep due to them not getting along.

Nope, it gets even better. If we didn't already have enough going on with all these crazy events and expenses, our dryer almost burned our house down. Our still fairly new 5 year old dryer had a major design flaw where the lint that didn't make into the lint catcher ended up below the dryer and caught fire. We weren't willing to risk our lives, our kitties lives or our home, so we invested in a new washer and dryer.

This past Thursday, my life finally resumed some normalcy when these beauties were delivered on our 10 year wedding anniversary. Yes, our 10 year wedding anniversary was last week and it's hard to believe that it has been that long, even though it seems like yesterday that our own wedding photographer was telling us to look at the Mickey Mouse sticker on his camera. In the 10 years that we have been married, we have survived some major life challenges. Thie things mentioned above were a series of inconveniences.

I spent all day Friday catching up on a LOT of laundry and getting our home back in order after this crazy month. Apparently it really does occur in "three's" or "four's".

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=377&Whip-It-Up-Wednesday-Jeans-Summer-Pasta-Salad http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=377&Whip-It-Up-Wednesday-Jeans-Summer-Pasta-Salad Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:44:00 GMT

Jean's Summer Pasta Salad

3, 12oz packages of rainbow rotelli pasta
1 Large package of Gallo Salami (cubed)
2 Medium cans sliced black olives
2 Packages of grape tomatoes
1 Can of artichoke hearts in water (small pieces)
1 Large block of cheddar cheese (cubed)
2 Bottles of Red Wine Vinaigrette dressing *
½ Red onion chopped
3-4 Cups of broccoli flowers
*you can substitute this dressing by making your own or choose another flavor. We just love this one.

Directions

Boil pasta 8-10 min. and chill with cool water.
Cut up salami, cheese and broccoli and set aside.
Don't cut up the grape tomatoes, as they will make the rest of salad soggy.
Cut up red onion and artichoke hearts into small pieces as well.

Once you have prepared all of the ingredients that needed to be cut up, start mixing everything together with the pasta in a large bowl. We have the huge Tupperware bowl that we use for just about everything.

Take one of the bottles of red wine vinaigrette dressing and mix it in with the salad. The other bottle can be used to spice up your serving later. Enjoy!

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=375&Finn-Wiliam-9-days-Upland-Newborn-Photographer http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=375&Finn-Wiliam-9-days-Upland-Newborn-Photographer Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:58:00 GMT this post when Maxwell's parents announced they had another bundle of joy on the way?

Well, 9 months later, allow me to introduce, Finn William who was just 9 days old when we did these.

Finn, Maxwell and his parents visited my home to do some newborn portraits a few weeks ago. Finn has got one strong personality already and he just didn't want to sleep, or lay on his tummy. So, we made due with that we could get, which is still one adorable 9 day old baby boy.

Maxwell is still adjusting to his new little brother, but I hear that he just loves him to pieces!

*Thank you Kathy, Jerry, Maxwell, Susan (Nona) and Jerry (Nono) for trusting me to document your growing family. Love, Tira J.

"Yep, I am not going to sleep for you Tira J, so you are going to have to deal with it". Thanks Finn!

"Okay, maybe I will fake it just a little so you can get one shot."

One of my favorites.

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=374&The-Grisanti-Family-Marina-del-Rey-Family-Portrait-Photographer http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=374&The-Grisanti-Family-Marina-del-Rey-Family-Portrait-Photographer Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:38:00 GMT
Last week, I had the true pleasure of meeting up with the Grisanti family who traveled from all over the country in order to enjoy a great vacation here in Southern California and to have some updated family portraits done. We went to Burton W. Chace Park in Marina del Rey, which actually provided some awesome light and backgrounds. I had never been to Marina del Rey, and neither had the Grisanti family, so we sort of scored.

Chris, Suzan, Meyer (9 mo) and Elia (3 years) traveled from San Francisco. Donna & Russell (Chris & Stephen's parents) traveled from Tuscon, and Stephen aka Uncle Stephen traveled all the way from New York City.

*Thank you so much to each of you for giving me the opportunity to document your beautiful family. I hope you enjoyed the remainder of your vacation. Peace and Blessings, Tira J.

Isn't Elia a little dream? And I especially love her dress! My favorite color! Wondering if Mom planned that.

Chris, Suzan, Elia and Meyer together. Mr. Meyer was hilarious, he was all smiles, all the time.

We had a little "incident" between Chris & Elia and Chris' lip got injured. I think Elia was trying to make the "ouchy" better.

At all of my portrait sessions, I love to ask my clients tons of questions in order to get to know them better. And I just love to ask couples how long they have been married and how they met. Suzan and Chris will be celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary this year. Happy Anniversary! I love this image!

Meet Donna and Russell. They have been married 39 years! That wasn't a typo my friends! They are still so in love and we had some entertainment in the park, so they danced a little.

One of my family favorites.

Stephen is from New York, and he was so great to have along at the session. Not only as a family member, but he worked really hard in order to get the kiddos to smile for me. Thanks Stephen!

I love this one of Meyer and Uncle Stephen having loads of fun.

Grandpa and Meyer

Another one of my favorites of Grandma and Elia.

Meyer was all smiles and such a happy little guy!

I saved the best for last! This is my absolute favorite from the entire session.

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=105&Coming-soon-Tira-J-Photography-HS-College-Model-Rep-Program http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=105&Coming-soon-Tira-J-Photography-HS-College-Model-Rep-Program Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:04:00 GMT © Tira J Photography, LLC. Please do not republish without permission.

Sign up for our newsletter here for more information coming soon regarding our new model rep program. Are you graduating in 2011 or know someone who is? Sign them up too!

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=372&Two-little-monkeys-in-a-tree-Marina-del-Rey-Childrens-Portrait-Photographer http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=372&Two-little-monkeys-in-a-tree-Marina-del-Rey-Childrens-Portrait-Photographer Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:41:00 GMT
And, it's Elia's birthday, so leave her some birthday love!

]]> http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=371&Appreciation-of-the-Arts-Pageant-of-the-Masters http://tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=371&Appreciation-of-the-Arts-Pageant-of-the-Masters Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:55:00 GMT Pageant of the Masters down in Laguna Beach. If you aren't sure what the Pageant of the Masters is, you should really check it out. We were given some truly amazing seats by one of our friends, and this really is something you must see at least once in your lifetime. Here is the exact description from the website, because I don't think I could say it any better,

Ninety minutes of "living pictures" - incredibly faithful art re-creations of classical and contemporary works with real people posing to look exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces. An outdoor amphitheater, professional orchestra, original score, live narration, intricate sets, sophisticated lighting, expert staff, and hundreds of dedicated volunteers have won recognition for the Pageant as the best presentation of its kind.

When we saw the very first "living picture", I had to pick up my jaw that had literally dropped to the floor in amazement. Each artist can only be in one living picture because the amount of time it takes to do their makeup and costume, and it was all so breathtaking. Wow.

Before the show began, we had the opportunity to walk around the Festival of the Arts and look at all the different pieces the new artists had finished. Wow! I have such a greater appreciation for the time it takes to put some of those pieces together. The thought process alone of creating a piece of tile that would sell for $500, or a beautiful necklace with a rare pearl, and even a canvas gallery wrap of a beautiful meadow in Canada where the artist had obviously spent hours in to capture just the right image with perfect exposure.

As an artist, it is my responsibility to do the same for my clients, take the time to capture the image, continue to stretch my creativity, but not go overboard. I always think about the shots/images I want to capture for my clients, and partner with them on some of the images they may want. Not every client may appreciate an image where I have rotated the camera to give the image a slightly different look. My clients hire me for my clean and pure images (at least I hope so), and maybe my personality. Hence the reason I shoot a lot, for me and my clients. After last night, I also have a greater appreciation for the investment families are making to commission me to document their lives, and to have my art hanging in their homes.

Happy Wednesday!

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