This beautiful mama is expecting her first baby. To properly celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided to book 2 maternity sessions. One indoor session where the focus is on the drama and lighting and another one slightly later with dad and big brother Max (the most obedient german shepherd I ever did see) at the beach where the couple reside. For the second shoot we would go more dreamy and bright.

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Mom came all by herself to the valley on a lazy and very hot Sunday afternoon. We decided to stay with monochrome palette to further enhance the drama in the images and boy was she beautiful. Mom was also a complete trooper because this shoot took place before the studio installed central air and boy was it hot that day... I'm so excited for you Taraneh, and so looking for our beach maternity session!

Click here to see Taraneh's second maternity session at Marina Del Rey. She was a vision in purple

Born the oldest of three, I grew up with an inflated and unwarranted sense of pride and prejudice (also the perfect movie to watch with your love interest, in my humble opinion) As I entered my teenage years as a particularly senseless youth, I rebelled against just about everything that came from my parents. If nothing else, maturing into my twenties has been a string of lessons on how very right they were and how very foolish I was. PSA to all my younger readers out there: “listen to your parents, stay in school”

Today I will share about how deeply I regret not keeping up with the written Chinese language. (At least I speak it completely fluently, which is more than I can say for my darling husband) Apparently I’m still prideful… with a touch of defensiveness I might add... joy.

Why, one might ask, am I regretful? After all, I live in America where the official spoken and written language is English. I operate a business domestically; and as I mentioned, my husband if stripped of the English language, wouldn’t get past the communicative skills of a Chinese toddler. Well, inquisitive one, it’s because I’ve officially established a presence on Weibo, the Chinese twitter.

In an effort to market myself to the entire client base here in SGV in SoCal, I’ve inquired into setting up yet another social media account. Last Saturday morning, I set up a marketing meeting with a good friend and ex-coworker of mine in old town Pasadena and registered myself on Weibo. Even though we are just days apart in age, I felt entirely like I was a good few generations older than her, asking a myriad of questions and feeling utterly overwhelmed and inadequate to operate my own twitter. In truth, I am ill-equipped since the whole thing is completely in Chinese.

Here’s the most recent post I put up (an engagement shoot in Malibu), took me a good few minutes using every single brain cell and concentrating like my life depended on it. After just a few words I felt so very spent and so very regretful that I didn’t listen to my parents… I could’ve been a pro at this but instead, with each painstaking word, I am reminded that parents do know best… at least on the subject of keeping up with Chinese.

Shame on me for not listening... and see ya on Weibo!

Thank you!