san francisco bay area maternity, child and family photographer » San Francisco bay area photographer

ayla

alpana — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:41:19 +0000

sneak peek | Ayla | f100 | ilford hp5 400

Out of office

alpana — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:00:33 +0000

“It is like the water of the great ocean, a single drop of which contains water from all the countless streams and rivers, or like the wish-granting jewel, which, though only a single jewel, can shower all kinds of treasures upon the wisher.”
[The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, No.9, Page 69, col 2, paragraph 8, Content]

Just a quick update from Storybox Art for the coming weeks. We will be out for personal reasons and perhaps a bit slow in responding to phone calls and emails. New bookings will be scheduled August onward unless you are a client with a prior booking for an earlier date. Please be patient in case you don’t hear from us soon.

And just in case you are wondering about this fabulous origami crane art, it was made by the very talented Kedar Amladi. He does pretty amazing Origami and is a budding photographer as well amongst other things

How was your Mother’s Day?

alpana — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:16:53 +0000

Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s day! In celebration of the day, I thought I would share some old pictures of my beautiful mom. The one on the left is a classic studio picture that will stay forever timeless. The one to the right is one of my mom and most likely my sister.

My husband had to work so my son and I spent our day relaxing and hanging out at home. We baked pancakes and ate Chicken Tikka Masala from our favorite Indian take out in the evening. He brought home a lovely card for me from school. For my present, he thought we should make a trip out to Toys R us and pick something for me (um, him). Don’t ya love the simple mind of a six year old?

someone special

alpana — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:13:11 +0000

This K family was visiting San Francisco from the east coast last week so their family portrait session came about rather quickly! Mom and Dad went to law school with a wonderful client that referred them to me. They wanted to craft their story in the city that they love so much and move back to some day. We visited some of their favorite spots and also took some pictures in their family home in Laurel Heights. Amazingly, in the course of the shoot five month old baby Sophie’s great-grandma stopped by. How amazing is that? She is such a sweet heart and I was thrilled to capture some photos of the wee one with great-grandma. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay, K family!

baby sugar | san francisco baby photographer

alpana — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:44:03 +0000

oh, the sweet little pumpkin! What could be better than than two sweet treats in one picture? Daddy came up with the candy idea seeing some pictures on my website and it sure made for some great pics. Thanks mommy for playing along which I know wasn’t easy! I had to post a few more to celebrate the goodness of Halloween of the little cutie from this shoot.

Enjoy the eye candy! and Happy Halloween!

Holiday Mini-sessions have a new date!

alpana — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:40:55 +0000

I have been a bit under the weather and unable to post. I should have some sneak peeks coming up soon and wanted to do a quick post about the mini-sessions. They are rescheduled for November 15th, 2008 at 9.30 am, 10 am, 10.30 am and 11 am. There are four spots (the 9.30 is tentatively booked) only so please email me soon if you are interested. You can also get pictures instead of holiday cards if you would like. The great thing about the mini’s is that you can add up to 5 people and it is included in the price unlike regular sessions. The details for your investment are here.

On a side note..I wanted to share a couple of interesting finds from our local farmer’s market. Both these vendors frequent several of the East bay markets if you want to try to find them. The first was a spicy veggie wrap by Tofu Yu made from flat tofu (who knew it could be flattened like that), fresh veggies and a soy bean paste. They are so pretty to look at too so I had to take a picture. The other yummy product was from India Clay Oven. They had wraps served with vegetable or meat curry. The most unusual was the chicken curry which was flavored with coconut which is not typical for North Indian food. You can also buy the curry by itself with naan if you’d rather enjoy them separately. Hope you can check them out!

Holiday Mini-sessions | san francisco kids photographer

alpana — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:25:36 +0000

By popular demand, I have decided to do a few holiday mini-sessions. This is an opportunity to get some great family photos + holiday cards at a special price which includes the session fee. Please review the mini-session info under specials. Only a limited number of spots are available.

Also, to update my availability for this year – I have only one spot open in November. Please email me to book your spot today!

A few location test shots that my not so willing “model” helped me with…

the journey is the destination

alpana — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:51:24 +0000

The title is borrowed from one of my favorite books called The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon. The book is a rich visual exploration of the young photojournalist’s work before he was killed by an angry mob in Somalia. I bought this book when I chanced upon it at a Borders store during my first years in San Francisco. I had moved to the city on a whim after falling in love with it as a tourist and decided that I had to move out here. It was a period of transition– of me going back to being a student from a full-time paid job. At that time, I was looking at a couple of options for a Masters program in Design. One was to stay in Chicago where I lived at that time and go to the School of Art and Design. The other was to go to the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I picked San Francisco over Chicago, a city I had fallen so in love with during my visit here a few months prior to it. After a short stay at the Academy which didn’t feel like a good fit for me, I went back to work but on a slightly different journey. It was the height of the dot com boom so I got sucked right in….and then out. I loved every minute of it and it was an amazing learning experience to dive into the world of pixels and cyberspace. If you want to take a peek at my really, really, old design site you can see it here.

While updating the bio section for my blog, it made me think about my own transition and journey in photography. The dreams and reflections of where I have come from. Where do I go from here? What is my style? I have seen myself evolve although one thing has been a constant. I have always loved, loved taking pictures of people in their environment (not so much nature) and documenting life in stories. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always real. Recently, someone asked me about my early work and I thought I would share some of it. The pictures below were all shot on 35mm film using a SLR.