2012 Photo Booth

How about a fun photo booth to kick off 2012? I sure love new year celebrations, too bad I have to wait till next year for another one. Here are some of my favorites from the night. And if you like playing Waldo you can try to find me in a few of these photos . Too bad I didn’t find the red and white scarf. Thank you to all of you who participated, it was a blast!

Olesya came all the way from Portland to hang out with us, love this girl!







So sad one of my sisters had to leave early, but here is the rest of us





And yours truly once again . . .

Cheers to an amazing year!

To get a copy of your photo go here!

2011 Celebration

Happy 2011! I could not be more thrilled about last night. I love spending New Year’s with my church family. This time we tried doing something new and added a photo booth to the evening. This was my first photo booth and I loved shooting it. I’m planning to make a few adjustments to it, buy some more fun cloth for the backdrop, and rent it out for weddings. Oh yes, and I will buy a polaroid for next time Cheers!

To view all the photos click HERE.
(To download: 1. Click on the image 2. Scroll to the left corner of the image 3. Select download original)

My lovely sisters.

My younger sister Nadia with her husband Vincent, and the cutest kid, Josiah.




My brother-in-law Vitaly

My older sister Olya with Vitaly and Josiah.

Slavic helped me to photograph throughout the night. Thanks so much













These two did not need costumes


















Some of you might remember my second shooter Aleksey.









My “twin sister” on the right.








And yours truly, Yuliya.

A big thank you to my dad who made the photo booth, to Peter who helped put it together, to my mom for shopping with me for frames, and to my sister Dina who made the mustaches, the awesome polka dot bow, and tried on every single top hat available in the store. Also a big thank you to Slavic for photographing along, and to all the cool people who brought fun and personalities to the photo booth. I enjoyed it immensely.

Looking back and looking forward

I’m looking forward to my extremely busy weekend, but the beginning of this week has been very relaxing for me.

Some highlights of this week were :
…breakfast with Dina at my favorite European bakery
…shopping with Dina at Trader Joe’s
…finishing last assignments for my business class
…receiving great feedback from my last photo shoot
…booking weddings for next year
…planning for Christmas party this Saturday

Some things I’m looking forward to this weekend:
…going to see the Nutcracker for my friend’s birthday
…shooting a wedding at Palo Alto
…attending a Christmas Party
…rehearsing for Christmas Concert

And because posts are always better with a photo. Here are a few we did with Mike, Ira and Katia back in November. I absolutely love this family. I have known them for over six years, and they have been a great blessing in my life. Happy Thursday!

It’s beginning to look . . .

. . . a lot like Christmas.
If you haven’t noticed, I have snow falling on my blog.
The calendar officially says December.
It is actually snowing somewhere, just not where I live of course.
Christmas music is playing on the radio, at least in my car.
Trader Joe’s has more assortments of chocolates and sweets than you can try for the next ten Christmases.
My living room shrunk significantly in size, yet the Christmas tree made it way cozier.
A Nutcracker brochure came in the mail.
Wishzilla has a winter theme up, with pretty ornaments and pine cones.
. . . and families get together for pictures.

On a cold Thanksgiving morning I had the privilege of meeting Anna and Aleksey’s family, a sweet couple from my church. I’m not really good at shooting family sessions, but who can say no to such a wonderful family. They were just ideal. Despite the cold, they kept changing outfits, were always ready for more photos, and meanwhile being completely enthusiastic and fun to work with. Thank you for making my Thanksgiving morning extra special. I hope to learn all of your names the next time around.










A fav






Love the sun flare

The mansion is not bad either


Anna has three sisters, I can totally relate .




That bright blue jacket just makes my day.

A little more casual

I could shoot in front of that building all day, foreeeeal!


And some more of the lovely Anna and her husband Aleksey!

Little Abigail

I felt right at home when I came into the house. Everywhere I looked there was a photograph from the session I did with Katerina and Vitaly in early October. Seeing my work in print is magical. I should print more.

Sleeping, or trying to sleep, in these photos is the beautiful Abigail, who is only six days old. Her parents absolutely adore her and I do too.
Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

A Special Kind of Family

We just could not wait till tonight. Dina and I enthusiastically pulled into the church parking lot, knowing that tonight is going to be special. An immediate family is one of the greatest blessings in life, but a family made up of a hundred different people, with their own unique personalities, backgrounds and gifts is even better. Tonight was a meeting of our church family with no guests, just the parents and the kids, the brothers and the sisters. I loved the sweet time we had, just like an ordinary family would around a table. We talked about the blessing of God on our family, finances, vacations (aka: retreats), a new home for us one day, the kids that gone bad , and goals for our future years. Because of my love for this family, here are a few shots of some people from my church from Tim and Marina’s wedding. Enjoy and Happy Sunday!













The best pastor on the planet, with his lovely wife and one awesome kid!






And yours truly . . . Yuliya