For Valentine’s Day, I made chocolate covered strawberries. Initially I was attempting to decorate “tuxedo” strawberries, but as you can see in the surrounding berries, they quickly turned into squiggles. I did manage to decorate one HEART strawberry for a special someone….so WHAT if it’s a wonky heart? IF HE CAN’T APPRECIATE MY ATTEMPT, THEN HE IS UNDESERVING OF MY WONKY HEART.

Luckily, he enjoyed the strawberries…the heart was saved for last.

Bebop has this really bad habit. She likes to wake up early. I know what you’re thinking–maybe it’s not a “habit” as much as it is mother nature calling. But even if I take her out REALLY late. Like 2am or later, she still wakes up at 7am…buzzing with the volume and energy of my loud ass alarm.

She’s so friggin cute when she wakes up, too. She’s afraid to jump off the bed so she’ll walk to the edge…dance around it, consider jumping off. Then she’ll come to me and touch her nose to my cheek. Usually I can ignore this and in a sleepy fog pull her into a laying position. A few minutes later, she gets up again and like superman takes a flying leap off the bed. It’s the thud of her hitting the floor that makes me realize that I have .5 seconds to wake up, get my coat and shoes on and get out the door with her before she pees everywhere.

But the most annoying thing about Bebop’s morning ritual is she wakes up long enough to pee, eat and play for about 30 minutes. And after 30 minutes, she conks out again. Lucky for me, it creates picture perfect moments like the photo above with Red. If only I could find a way to push her routine back by a couple of hours…

These were two mini-sessions from this past weekend! If you’re interested in a cheaper option for portraits, contact me about these mini-session deals.

First, we have Raj who bought a mini-session for his girlfriend over Valentine’s Day. She lives in Switzerland, he lives in New York and he really wanted some beautiful photographs of her and also him and her together. They’re such an attractive couple–it’s impossible to take a bad photograph of them!

Also this weekend, I photographed Jorge–an emerging hip hop artist in the city. He had a cool, funky style which was fun to photograph. And even though I soooo obviously knew NOTHING about hiphop, he was still so sweet to me. The loser photographer who had no idea what hip hop sounded like!

There is a new and exciting development for Katana Photography–I’m creating a division of my business dedicated solely to school photography for Preschools and Daycare. It’s a project I’m really excited about! I hated my photographs from when I was a kid…I had one shot to look good in front of a tacky blue backdrop. And it didn’t matter if your smile was forced or awkward. It didn’t matter if you preferred to angle your head a certain way (this was more a problem in high school and middle school). You just sat how they wanted you to and took one shot. And that was the photo you were stuck with for the rest of your life to document that year.

With my program, I’ll be putting together simple but classy sets with solid white or black backdrops and simple, attractive stools with a couple of props for the kids to play with. Maybe a stack of old books. An apple. A chalkboard…you get the idea. And parents will get a chance to choose from about 9-10 proofs and pick the image(s) they want to order. Furthermore, parents have the option to order the digital images and use the photos for Holiday cards, etc.

It’s going to be so much fun! I just booked my first school in Hoboken and I can’t wait for March to get here! If you/your school is interested in booking a new type of school photography, contact me! I also have a “mommy advocacy” program where if you arrange it so your child’s daycare/preschool books me because of your help, I’ll offer you discounts and free prints! Email me if you’re interested…

Here is a small example of the sort of photos I plan on taking (Granted, these are sans the fun “school” props, but you get the idea).