My Family: Lifestyle Portraiture in Bergen County, NJ

Category Archives: My Family

My Kids Turn 16!!! | Ridgewood teen studio photo session

I’ve been doing a birthday studio photoshoot with my kiddos ever since I got my first studio over 10 years ago! They were adorable first graders when we did our first studio photo session and I cannot believe that we just did their 16th year birthday photoshoot! How are they 16th?? I am still having a hard time believing it!

If you have teens you know how busy they are during weekdays and on weekends alike – and between their after school and Saturday/Sunday activities and our travels it was almost impossible to find time for a photo session. But one Sunday morning we were able to squeeze in a super quick session – and when I say super-quick I do mean it – we were in and out of the studio in just under 15 minutes! I did not get to play with studio lights and do all kinds of cool things I had in mind but something is better than nothing right?

So I present to you – my kids at 16!

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A few days in Portugal

Next year we are planning to spend every school break and every free weekend doing college visits (I still have a hard time believing we will be looking at colleges soon!). And that’s why we are spending every school break this school year traveling:)

This February break we headed to Portugal. Why Portugal you may ask? Well, I will tell you – there are direct flights from NYC metro area to Lisbon, they got great food, its not a super long flight and the weather is nice-ish there this time of year:) We only had 4 nights (we pulled our kids from school for a day) and it was perfect for a trip trip to Lisbon.

We took a food tour (as must in my opinion) and learnt a whole lot about history of Lisbon and Portugal, ate great food (we are all obsessed with pastel de Nata so had plenty of those), headed to Belem for cool views, walked all over the place, checked out Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (very interesting!), took a trolly tour, did a self paced graffiti tour through Graca, walked windy roads of Alfama, listen to Fado, climbed hills of Bairro Alto and even had time for a day trip to Sintra where we finally checked out Quinta de Regaleira and Well of Initiation.

So if you are looking for a quick and easy trip (or a longer trip) definitely check out Portugal – it’s a beautiful country with lovely people, cool sights and delicious food!

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Photographer of the Year | THE BIGGEST NEWS OF MY CAREER!

You guys – this literally is the biggest thing that has happened to me in over 15 years of being a professional photographer. I was just named Photographer of the Year by National Association of Portrait and Children Photographers!!!

When I started Live Love Laugh Photos 15+ years ago, never in a million years did I even dream that one day a professional photography organization that I belong to – an organization that’s well known and respected in the photography world – would choose me as Photographer of the Year.

I came to the US 29 years ago and right before I started college, in the summer of ’95, my first job was to sit outside a clothing shop in Brooklyn to make sure that clothes displayed on racks were not stolen; I got paid $4 an hour and was thrilled about that. And then 29 years later my name and images were displayed in the middle of TIMES SQUARE – if that’s not an American dream, I don’t know what is!

My whole family went to see the billboard in Times Square and I must say it was pretty surreal seeing my name, my picture and my images displayed in the center of NYC for the world to see! – as my husband says ‘we are famous now’:)

So if you’ve ever had a photo session with me, you can now say that you had your photos taken by a celebrity photographer:)))

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RHS Jamboree – a 78 year old tradition of raising scholarship funds for RHS seniors

Having lived in Ridgewood for over 15 years, I’ve heard about RHS Jamboree – a variety show that parents of Ridgewood High School students put together to raise funds for college scholarships for graduating seniors. I saw my first Jamboree show last year when a friend of mine participated in it – I was so amazed by the show that I decided to participate in it the following year. And I am so glad I did! For the 5.5 weeks starting in January, I rehearsed for hours and hours and hours with many other parents of RHS students (our cast was over 130 people!) – we sang, and danced and performed in skits and did all kinds of things! Those 5.5 weeks as exhausting and definitely sleep deprived (I finally caught up on my sleep deficit) but I had a blast!!

We put on a great show (Victor said he liked it better than more than 50% of broadway shows he’d seen!) and raised over $244K for graduating seniors. And in case you were wondering who the top newbie fundraiser was – wonder no more – it was ME:)

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A Quick Trip to London

My kids are high school sophomores now (how did this happen??!!!) and before we know it, they will be away in college. I am still wrapping my head around that but in the meantime I am trying to fit in as much family togetherness as I possibly can.. And of course for us that means family travel!

This November break Victor could not get away (his work schedule is not nearly as flexible as mine!) so I figured this would be a great opportunity for a mommy/daughters trip! I wanted a destination that would be easy to do in four days and we chose London because my kids have not been and it’s a great city! In 4.5 days we had there we did, ate and saw ‘all the things’!

We did touristy things such as a walking tour and seeing the sights