life

i'm just so happy lately :)



(deise took this picture of me in nyc last year)

((i call it "my attempt to make it to the sartorialist"))

the warehouse

new friends bring a new perspective

the campos family

while in brazil last year, i had the priviledge to shoot my cousin ellen's cute family. ellen is so dear to my heart, we've been "best cousins" since we were 4 or 5 years old. when we were kids, we would write each other letters all year long in anticipation for our summer vacation. i spent every summer of my childhood at my grandfather's farm with my cousins. needless to say, these are the best memories i have of growing up, and ellen is a huge part of them.

every time i go to brazil i stay at ellen's house, she treats me like a queen, takes me around, and fills my cavities for free (she's a dentist) :)
she had felipe in 2008 and he's the sweetest boy ever! i also love her husband lindolpho, he's so chill and laid back.
here are my favorites from the shoot...





















and this is her sister evelyn... i'll post pictures of evelyn and her husband soon :)



i love you lenlen, see you in may :)

2010 wishes

when i see people in love, in a gorgeous background and a perfect light, the moment i press the shutter i feel something wonderful, something hard to describe in words...

i wish i can take many, many pictures like this in 2010



and i wish you can feel what i feel many, many times in 2010

happy new decade!

bike race

my husband eddie has been in love with sports since he was a chubby kid and his dad forced him to play soccer to lose weight. he loves the outdoors like no one i've ever met and has a passion for all things nature.
him and his friends are always doing races, from marathons and iron mans to mountain bike and adventure races like desafio de los volcanes, ecomotion, and XPD (also known as 10 days lost in the australian outback), etc.
they are always pushing their limits to find out how much more pain they can endure and how much more miserable they can feel.
well, to each his own, and if it keeps him happy (and it does!) i try to be there as often as i can to support and register his craziness.
this race was a small mountain bike race they did in northern florida a few months back... deise was there with me because her husband also raced (we took a nice walk and talked photography while they killed themselves).
here are a few shots from the day:

eddie:



our funniest friend, jim:



his lovely wife heather:



notice the energy gel strategically placed for a mid-race snack



eddie's jersey says paradofobia, which is a team he created with his buddies in brazil. paradofobia means "fear of staying still" in portuguese (but don't look it up because technically the word doesn't exist :)



the whole crew:





eddie, his bff pablo, and deise's husband herly:



jim and heather crossing the finish line (notice the mixture of happiness/pain in heather's face):



i'll try to post some of their adventures more often :)

the portfolio + workshop

a few weeks ago deise and i attended ray santana's workshop in miami. deise was one of the models and we had a great time learning from ray, kenny kim, becker, lawrence, and the rest of the gang.
julien diaz put together this video of the day. you can see deise (along with her husband herly) all over the video... and you can spot me at 1:32 hehehe

Portfolio + Workshop from JULIEN for MERGE STUDIOS on Vimeo.

i will post the pictures i took as well as my review of the whole experience soon.

my weekend in 9 squares

(shot with b&w film)

;)

coming soon

you know when you come back from vacation but you can't focus back on real life? my vacation ended weeks ago yet i feel like i'm still on vacation mode!
slowly but surely i am coming back. so here is a preview of what's to come:

priscila and vinny got married and i will be posting their wedding soon...
priscila was a beautiful bride:



and then deise and i went to dallas to shoot a wedding with super talented paula leme (!!!!)
andrea was the calmest bride i have ever seen. i took this picture minutes before she walked down the aisle with her father, and it is probably one my favorite images ever!



i will be posting everything soon, along with the real reason i went to brazil :)

off to brazil

i am going to brazil tomorrow to attend my grandfather's 90th birthday :)
i will try to reply to emails as much as i can.
we will resume our regular scheduled programming on july 1st.
here are the two towns i will be visiting while in brazil:



i have 5 weddings to post, among other things... so stay tuned!

critters

for the longest time i wanted a dog, but chance had it that we found a cat wandering the streets of downtown hollywood one day... we fell in love with him and brought him home.
and so mojito has authoritarianly reined the house for the past two years...


...until two months ago a friend called and asked if i wanted to adopt her dogs because she could no longer care for them.


when i first brought coco and gracie home mojito was not thrilled... but they've become friends and even play together now.


this is gracie, she's a maltese


and this is coco, she's a morkie (maltese/yorkie mix)


we are still adjusting to having 3 pets, but at the end of the day we love our mini zoo...

and that's how we became one big family :)

...but then i had kids

no, it wasn't me who had kids. it was my friend liz.

liz is, as i love to proudly announce, my published writer friend.
she's the epitome of the perfect woman: intelligent, stylish, profound, beautiful, athletic, organized, fun, and a little wild.
i can always count on her (due partly to her extreme type a personality) and she is the main reason why i have this blog and the website (i'll tell that story someday).
anyway, i'm telling you all this because she recently started a blog.
it's a blog about parenting... well, sort of.
see, liz has a very interesting perspective on the whole motherhood thing, which i find very amuzing. her writing is brilliant (did i mention she's a published writer?) and you MUST check it out and add it to your favorites:

but-then-i-had-kids

i'll keep a permanent link here on my favorite blogs list.
go on there now and leave her some love.

rafa & carol

rafa and carol came to visit us from brazil and we took them on our little adventure.
we shared great moments and countless laughs...

i used them as my models, obviously.















loved spending time with you guys... miss you already!

i'm alive

sorry folks.
my life has taken some strange turns lately and i haven't been able to keep up the speed.
all is well though.
thank you for still coming by, sorry if i let you down.

i went away at the end of the year for some much needed away time...
i fell in love with the state of vermont and placed it under the same category that california and colorado are in my heart.
we stayed at our friends shari and mary's house.
just a few shots...

first we stayed 4 days in nyc. having breakfast at dean and deluca everyday and walking around soho never hurts.


vermont...


shari and mary have 3 dogs and 5 cats... they are the godmothers of all rescue animals...
this is mickey:


this is shari, we chased kangaroos in australia together 2 years ago :)


eddie walking with idgy in the morning


shari and mary, thank you so much for showing us vermont and sharing your house and pets with us.
it was great having real syrup in the morning and homemade pizza with beer every night with you guys...


oh yeah... and i learned to snowboard! thanks kevin =)

ok, back to reality now.

2009

i'm away on vacation this week, but i just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year...
hopefully 2009 will have great things in storage for all of us...



our regular programming will resume on january 12th.

recent picture of me

need i say more?

give and take

i just want to say something that's on my mind today.
lately i've had a few client inquiries from brides around the country and a common concern seems to be that everyone is on a tight budget.
i know the economy is not in its best shape right now and trust me, we are all suffering from it. i also know i'm totally biased but let me just say how important your wedding pictures are.
your wedding pictures are the only thing that will stay with you to remind you of those moments for the rest of your life.

when i got married, getting a great photographer was my #1 priority, not just because i love pictures, but mostly because i knew what those images would represent. i hired rafaela the moment i met her because she reflected our personal style and was exactly what i was looking for. she probably cost more than everything else that night except the buffet but hey, it was only 3 years ago and i don't even remember what the main course was! my wedding album however sits on my coffee table now.

i could go on and on about this, but who cares.
yes designer gowns and jimmy choos are fabulous, but honestly, if your photographer is not outstanding, they are not even going to look that great on pictures...
i'm not telling you to hire me, i'm just saying, realize the importance of this decision because everything else will be gone the next day, but your pictures will last for generations to come.
find a photographer that fits your style, even if it's traditional, find the best traditional photographer you can afford.
do not compromise on the most important aspect of your day. you will regret it.

just a thought...

prop 8 the musical

i found this video online yesterday and loved it!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

it's 2009, equal rights already.

days with my father

i love sundays.
i just went outside and noticed it's cold today. it made my heart happy.
eddie went to a mountain bike race and i stayed home to work on pictures and write 3 papers for school.
but of course i'm not writing.

i did come across this beautiful website today on anna's blog:
please check out days with my father



i think i'm gonna go for a run.
=)

ben's first race

the big boys had a race last week, but before they raced, the little kids got to play...
ben did his first official mountain bike race :)











this is not ben:


;)