The rules:
* You cannot nominate yourself, and the person nominated must sincerely be incapable of purchasing my services. (Being unable to make mortgage payments for a two-million-dollar-vacation-home in Paris does not qualify as sincere financial need.)

* The nominee must reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tell me who you know, what they’re experiencing, and why they deserve my artwork. Please include a way to contact both your nominee and yourself as well.

* You must e-mail me the full story : info@storyboxart.com by December 31st, 2009

The winner will be announced on January 9th — get nominating! I can’t wait to read all of your entries!

Open your heart to someone this holiday season — and thanks for giving me the opportunity to open mine.

With lots of love,

Alpana Aras-King

Now on to the shoot that I can’t wait to share. I met Lei of Gyspy Blue a few years back when my son Rowan took her art class at the community center. I bumped into her again a few months back. She mentioned wanting to do a photo session with her family after coming across my work. Lei is a talented artist that makes lovely jewelry. She can be found at the Downtown San Leandro Farmers Market if you want to check her out.

I was so excited to be working with a fellow artist that shared my enthusiasm for doing something different in creating art. When I heard her husband had a red Harly, I was giddy with excitement. I asked if he could bring it to our session. She brought all kinds of cool stuff like hats, a guitar along with her amazing family. I couldn’t wait for the session and it was all I imagined it would be and more.

One of the biggest challenge as a portrait photographer is to create art without a lot of prep work. My past background in advertising as an art director comes in handy while orchestrating a photo shoot to completion. I like to go check out the location ahead of time, work with clients on their clothing and sketch out some rough ideas. I just loved how this shoot came together and might possibly be one of my favorite ones from a creative standpoint.

Let’s meet the fun loving family…

From L to R. Lei’s mom visiting Meg from Australia, sixteen year old Michael that loves to surf, at center-stage eight year old Zebe that is a pretty smart cookie, husband James that was an amazing sport and of course the lovely Lei.

I just love, love this photo!

brotherly hug…

taking grandma hostage. She was a good match for him though!

I was ever so lucky to meet this wonderful family that adopted this adorable little girl from India. We got to hang out and spend a few hours documenting this time in little R’s life. Did I ever say I love my job?

I so wanted to take her home…

Little R multi-tasking at the window. I was running late but really how could I resist taking pictures in this amazing space?

ps. Talking about Urban Babies made me think of of one of our favorite books when my son was little. Check it out here.

Thought I would share one…

What distinguishes Alpana among family/newborn photographers is her AMAZING gift for making photos that are true “art” rather than simply great photos! My husband and I wanted to capture the fleeting and precious moments of our newborn in his first few weeks of life. When we saw Alpana’s work it was love at first sight. Her photos are artistic, passionate, emotionally stirring, and simply magical. We knew we had to work with her and she made working with her so easy. She came to our home and worked around our baby’s schedule, which was very much appreciated as new parents. Alpana made us feel very comfortable and was so gentle and patient with our baby. All of this comes through in her photos. Our photos are amazing and take our breath away each time we look at them. She’s truly a gifted and amazing photographer. We can’t wait to work with her again.
[Submitted by Dana Barton 3/16/09

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For Family Photographer
in San Francisco

I convinced her to book a family session instead of a kids only session and get in on the action. A session in itself is an investment and for a little more you can get to be in pictures which you probably will never take of yourself otherwise.

I wanted this session to be really special for R’s family for having put their faith in me and coming all the way from Texas. I stressed about the location as usual and eventually everything worked out. She even went along with my suggestions of getting some cute outfits for the kids from the Tea Collection. Now, I think she is hooked on their clothes too.

Her adorable twins warmed up to me pretty quickly and we had a lot of fun together mostly with me just hanging out watching them play. The funny thing is that her little guy K could almost be my son’s twin. He has the same twinkle in his eyes and crazy boy energy! It is the twin’s birthday today so I wanted to post the sneak peek for them to enjoy! Happy Birthday K + K!!