http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm Tira J Photography Blog en-us http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=648&Phoenix-Family-Portrait-Photographer-Tira-J http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=648&Phoenix-Family-Portrait-Photographer-Tira-J Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:14:00 PST
You have seen the two little cuties, Carlin and Owen on the blog before. Remember them from last summer? Click here!

Shelley, Mike, Owen and Carlin live in Silver Spring, Maryland, which means they traveled the furthest for this fun week of family time in Arizona.

David and I have visited them before in Maryland, and it was when Carlin was 6 months old. Crazy right? Time goes by way too fast. Anyways, aren't they just the most adorable family? I still can't get over how photogenic everyone in this family is, so it was really hard to choose my favorites. This is a long post with lots of amazing images of them, so enjoy!

*Shelley, Mike, Carlin and Owen, you guys are AWESOME! Thank you for allowing us to photograph you guys while we were in Arizona, we had so much fun! Our cameras are truly in love with you! ha ha. We hope you enjoy all of the images and can't wait to see what you do with them in your home. Hope to see you again real soon! We love you! Love, Tira and David

Sweet Carlin. Growing up way too fast. Oh, and now it's Carly!

Can you ever get enough of Owen? He is so much fun, and he LOVES the camera!

Cutie patootie!

Always lovin' and laughin' with Mama!

Two gorgeous ladies!

Again, I am sure you have figured this out by from all of the previous posts about this family, but Mike and I have been friends since we were two! That's a lonnngggg time!

Never a dull moment!

Such a sweet picture of Mike and Carly.

One of my favorites of Mike and Owen.

The sun is really bright and sometimes awkward in Arizona.

LOVE!!!!

Another favorite! Mike, this one is a must for your office at the big white house!

And here we are at my new favorite spot for the week! The hill!

Finally, a favorite image, which I think needs to be a BIG canvas!

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=647&Leather-Craftsmen-Albums http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=647&Leather-Craftsmen-Albums Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:09:00 PST big list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I'll admit, I feel a bit behind. Let's catch up together!

This post is about #23 on the list; Order a Newborn Sample Album.

I had actually ordered a newborn sample album months ago, and never blogged about it, because something needed to be fixed on it. Can I just say, that the entire Leather Craftsmen team is amazing, and they are here for our industry 100%. When I walk into their office in Orange County, they make you feel like family. And that is why I use them.

Right after the holidays, I was at one of our clients homes for a little New Year's party. Half way through the evening, she brought out her gorgeous 11x14 Leather Craftsmen album from her session last summer. I've never seen so much love and pride poured over an album, not only by Amy and Hany, but by everyone who was viewing it. That evening, it was definitely confirmed that we are offering just the right products for our clients to preserve their memories. I got a little teary eyed when people asked who did that for her and when she said, Tira did, they gasped and then said WOW!

The first album in this post is a newer one to our collection. It is a 10x10 3500 series in Euro white with Miss Phoebe Rose. I accidentally asked for a raised frame cover photo with a silver lining. Even though it was an oops, I still love it, because it makes it even more unique.

How can you ever get tired of the gorgeous Phoebe Rose? And I LOVE how awesome the images look when they take up a full page! I'm telling you, if you want to have all of your favorite images from your session, this is the way to go.

All of these albums lay flat and have their gorgeous thick pages.

Above is the original newborn sample we had ordered which has a collection of some of our favorite newborn images from early last year. This album is Euro Black and a Copper Pebble cover.

Ah! Our newest album, which just arrived last week. David actually picked out this leather color from Leather Craftsmen's new Euro Leather Collection. This is the Euro Olive leather with a custom brown paper liner.

A HUGE thank you to Carol and Wanda at Leather Craftsmen West, and David Willis for helping us finalize this album with the paper, and the imprinting on the spine. Wanda sent us a leather sample with some of the different inks to see which one we really loved. The winner was gold!

This album is an 8x10 3500 series in Euro Olive and is a collection of images I did for the Alvis family in Colorado. It really is a gorgeous album.

The awesome thing about these albums is that not only do you get to preserve all of your memories in this heirloom keepsake, but we can make it completely custom to suite your needs.

I am in the process of finalizing a fun album planning guide for our clients and can't wait to share it!

Happy Wednesday!

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=646&Savannah-Tristin-Cathy-and-Brian-Arizona-Family-Photographer http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=646&Savannah-Tristin-Cathy-and-Brian-Arizona-Family-Photographer Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:19:00 PST
Here we go with part 3 of my most favorite families! Meet Savannah, Tristin, Cathy and Brian.

Brian is the middle brother of the three Boots guys. He and his wife and kids just relocated back to the Dallas area, which I love, because not only is Cathy back home, they are much closer to us! Georgia was just too far. They are such a fun family!

*Cathy, Brian, Savannah and Tristin, it was so wonderful to see you guys in Arizona! We have missed you, and can't wait to come visit you in Texas. David promised! ha ha! We love you, and hope you enjoy the pictures! Love, Tira & David.

A special request for Cathy.

Can they be any more good looking?

Love this image!

I've known Brian most of my life, and I do have pictures of him from when he was a little boy. And, you wouldn't be able to tell if it was Tristan or Brian. Both are totally handsome!

LOVE!

Gushing over how beautiful Miss Savannah is. She is so photogenic, and I can't wait to take more pictures of her someday.

My faves!

Swooning over how beautiful they are!

*You will notice a BRAND NEW feature here on the blog today! Below each image, you will see a "Pin This" button. You can now share some of your favorite images on Pinterest and save them on your own boards. A huge thank you to Brock and Dave over at Infinet Design for adding this for me. Have Fun!

You can follow me on Pinterest here!

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=645&Zachary-Rhonda-and-Jeff-Arizona-Family-Photographer http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=645&Zachary-Rhonda-and-Jeff-Arizona-Family-Photographer Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:59:00 PST
And, here's part 2 of 4 from our awesome time in Arizona. If you missed the first part, you can see it here.

Jeff is the oldest of the three Boots guys. He and his wife Rhonda have a handsome and fun little .....growing up too fast guy by the name of Zachary. He just turned 8 a few days ago, which is hard to believe, because one of the times we were at Grammy and Gramps house, Zachary was there. Guess how old he was? 6 months, and we did his pictures then. Time really does fly by too fast. Of course, we had fun photographing Jeff, Rhonda and Zachary. Jeff is like a brother to me, so as you can imagine, there were crazy jabs and comments going back and forth. All done in love of course.

*Jeff, Rhonda and Zach, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to photograph you guys. We love you, and hope you will treasure these new memories. Hope to see you in a few weeks in Vegas! Love you, Tira & David.

Zach is so handsome!

My favorite image. Love!!!!

Okay, so this image is for my Mom. We have always joked about rolling your tongue and the fact that people from Wisconsin can't do it. He adores my Mom.

Love the image above, and the image below.

Zach and Jeff are HUGE Dallas Cowboys fans. On our way back to the house, we had a little fun in the street. Later, I almost got run over by Zach and Tristin on their scooters and then Brian in the car. Because I was doing what I love, and that is to take pictures while laying on the ground.

Last image of the day and the light was GREAT on my favorite hill.

Stay tuned, tomorrow is part 3!

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=644&The-Boots-Family-Arizona-Family-Photographer http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=644&The-Boots-Family-Arizona-Family-Photographer Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:46:00 PST
Ah! Where do I begin again? Oh yeah, this entire family is AMAZING and we LOVE them SO MUCH! Right after Christmas, David and I traveled to Arizona to photograph the entire Boots family. All 13 of them are all together every two years, so this was the perfect time to get some updated pictures of the family. Remember Carlin & Owen from last summer? Yep, they belong to this amazing family. You can go back to their post to get brought up to speed as to how we are practically family members of this wonderful family.

All the grandchildren! L to R: Zachary, Tristin, Owen, Savannah and Carlin

*Thank you Sharon, Jerry, Jeff, Rhonda, Zachary, Brian, Cathy, Savannah, Tristin, Mike, Shelley, Carlin and Owen for giving us the opportunity to document more family memories for you. We love you all and enjoyed our time together. Can't wait for you all to see the rest! Love, Tira and David.

We did all of the pictures around the country club Grammy and Gramps live at, so when I found this awesome hill, I knew it was perfect. And check out the blue sky!

Sharon and Jerry. They celebrated their wedding anniversary while we were in town, so it made it extra special. And, today (January 25th) is Jerry's birthday! Happy Birthday!

The first part of our session was in the bright early morning sun, which was tough. And add the bright Arizona sun to that mix, well, look at Owen's eyes, you get the drift.

We purchased the Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8L II a while back, and I have been having loads of fun with it. Like getting the shots on the hill and this one of all 5 kiddos.

Brian, Jeff and Mike

Cathy, Shelley and Rhonda

Grammy and Gramps having fun with the kids!

I asked Savannah to kiss Gramps on the cheek, and this silly face is what I got. Classic!

I took Zachary and Tristin out in the afternoon before another big family session and we had a blast. These two rarely get to see each other, so I know this image means a lot.

We had to pay tribute to Tim Tebow!

Cousins having fun!

And sometimes, you have crazy moments like this happen! Please don't drop her!

These guys have been like brothers to me over the years. I sure wish we all lived closer so we could spend more time together.

Thank you to my Mom for getting to know Sharon all those years ago in choir at the church so we could all remain wonderful friends.

I love this last image of everyone. I think the part I love the most is Sharon leaning over to kiss Carlin on the cheek.

Stay tuned, there are a LOT more images from our time in Arizona. Next up, Zachary and his parents.

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=643&Its-their-tree http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=643&Its-their-tree Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:57:00 PST
It's their tree, and nobody is allowed to play on it! Savannah, Tristin, Zachary, Carlin and Owen mean business!

While we were visiting Arizona, I came across the grand kids tree out back at Grammy and Gramps house. I am sure you have heard the old phrase, "what happens at Grammy and Gramps house, stays at Grammy and Gramps house". Although, I was offered the opportunity to climb the tree with sweet Carlin, so there are some people that are allowed.

I've got SO MANY images to share from Arizona, and starting tomorrow, they will be making their debut. There are tons of great ones! So many that it will be a total of 4 posts, so please make sure you keep coming back.

p.s.. both images above where taken with my 50mm f/1.2 lens at f/1.2. I've neglected to do posts for my Project 52, so I will do my best to keep sharing them. They just won't be every single week.

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=642&Project52--Shooting-images-with-the-widest-aperture-possible http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=642&Project52--Shooting-images-with-the-widest-aperture-possible Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:26:00 PST Project 52 Images. So, the image below will be for week two and I'll post this weeks in a few days.

This image was actually taken on our trip to Arizona a few weeks back while we were photographing a beautiful and fun family. I've finally started culling those images, and I can't wait to share them with you all. When I came across this image and saw that it was taken at f/1.2 with our 50mm, I knew I had to share it.

This is a Saguaro Cactusand they are just beautiful in my opinion.

50mm f/1.2L ISO 100 f/1.2 1/8000

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=641&Favorite-Images-of-2011-by-Tira-J http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=641&Favorite-Images-of-2011-by-Tira-J Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:48:00 PST
Drumroll please.....

Your favorite image of 2011 was the image of Abigail and Madison! These two cuties just turned a year on December 21st and I'll be doing some new images of them next week.

I must give a shout out to Miss Hailey, because she came in at a close second place. I think her family from all over the world voted for her which is AWESOME! Miss Hailey will be receiving a little extra something for her excellent finish in the contest.

And I have to give a shout out to our very close 3rd & 4th place finishers. 3rd place was Tyler & Angela and 4th place was Jeff & Nicky.

To see all of the images from the contest again, click here!

Again, thank you so much for voting, and I can't wait to do this again next year!

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=640&Checking-In-Vol-XVIII-Warm-Januarys-Marketing-Contests http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=640&Checking-In-Vol-XVIII-Warm-Januarys-Marketing-Contests Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:41:00 PST
Enjoying: The warm winter weather. We have had some fantastic weather lately here in Southern California. Normally, in January, it is a lot cooler and we get some rain. It has been such a blessing to see the sun in January.

Watching (ed): Last week, I watched a LOT of TV, due to being sick. I am all caught up on the news and what the Kardashian's are doing. I know, you probably shouldn't mix the Kardashian's and news in the same sentence, but hey, it's fun to see why people are going crazy over them. One movie I did watch was Bridesmaids. What a crazy movie that was. It was super fun to see that the wedding portion of the movie was filmed in my hometown of Arcadia at the Arboretum.

Currently Reading (ed): I am currently reading Tamara Lackey's newest book about Family Portrait Photography titled, Envisioning Family: A photographer's guide to making meaningful portraits of the modern family. She is so gifted and has already written one amazing book on Children's Portraiture. This one does not disappoint and I can't wait to share more about this fantastic book.

Looking forward to: Seeing who is going to win the Favorites of 2011 contest. It's been a fun to see who is getting all the votes. Have you voted? Be sure to share it with your friends.

Thankful for: My health. I was very sick last week and am happy to report that I feel so much better this week. Not really how I wanted the year to start off but I am kind of glad that we got out of the way.

Listening to: Sarah Petty, the Photographers Marketing Genius! I have learned so much from Sarah over the past few years, and I am looking forward to hopefully meeting her in person next month. Every week, Sarah shares a video about marketing for photographers filled with tons of great information. One of the big things I am really focusing on this season is Marketing and how to bring it all together in my business.

Have a great week!

Here's one of the images we used on our holiday card this past Christmas. We had our pictures done by our friend Amber Fox, who also did my pictures for this new website.

]]> http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=639&Favorite-Images-of-2011-by-Tira-J http://www.tirajphotography.com/index.cfm?postID=639&Favorite-Images-of-2011-by-Tira-J Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:34:00 PST
I am SO GRATEFUL to all of the amazing families that gave me the opportunity to document them with my camera in 2011. I was able to photograph so many beautiful people, and it was really hard to narrow down my favorites. All of my clients hold a special place in my heart and I wish I could have posted one from every single session this year. If I did, you would be here a long time. So, in order to keep it somewhat simple, I was able to narrow down the images to 26. Hey, give me a break, there were 75 to start off with. Even if one of your images isn't posted, know that you are still my favorite! I can have hundreds right?

Every single image represents the love, joy, laughter and hope of the families who trust me to document their lives.

So, here we go! It's a contest to find out which image below is your favorite. The clients image that receives the most votes will win an 11x14 custom print.

**Please leave a comment in the comment box below with the names of the clients (as listed below each image) and why you love it.

You have until Midnight, PST on Thursday, January 12th.

Are you featured below?

Becky and Matthew

Miss Jacinda

Scott and Kenzie

The Shahbaz Quads

Erin and Tanner

Jacob

Grace

Tyler and Angela

Jeff and Nicky

Naomi

The Malak Family

Audrey, Annika and Abby

Carli and Owen

Lincoln

Madison and Abigail

Hailey

Koen

Mia

The Alvis Family

Lauren and Adam

Max and Finn

Phoebe

The Hoff Girls

Eliana and her Daddy Wade

The Gaudy Family

Billy, Kayla and Johnny

Please share this post with your friends and family so your favorite image can get more votes! You can share in a variety of ways on the left in the comment box.

*THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR VOTING. THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. YOU MAY STILL LEAVE A COMMENT, BUT IT WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE FINAL TALLY.

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