Marisol Izaguirre Photography: January 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

CONTEST!!! Tell me about L.O.V.E.

Close your eyes and slumber,

fall deep within your sleep.

I am here to hold you closely

as you dream so carelessly.

- Marisol Izaguirre, 2011

As January comes to an end later on this week I decided it was time to host a little contest, just in time for Valentine's Day. When I was little girl my dad would always send me flowers and candy to school on Valentine's Day. I knew nothing about boyfriends or even thought about getting married someday. I came to know Valentine's day as truly a day celebrating love, love of family, love of parents, love of siblings and, later on in life, as love of a special someone. Every aspect, it is unconditional love.

So yes Valentine's Day may seem overtly commercialized and all about seeing red, but I truly loved receiving valentine's day cards and feeling giggly when the little boys brought you flowers back in elementary school. But the best part, the best part was receiving flowers and chocolates, tons of them, from your family.

So as for the contest, here is what I am proposing...

The Details - Are you in love? Odds are, you most probably are. Love is not merely about being married or engaged. Don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend? That's okay. Love is caring for your family, your mom, your sister, your friend. Love is caring about your husband, your fiance, your boyfriend or maybe your pet. Whatever love is for you, I want to know.

The Contest - Tell me who you are in love with!!! Contest begins today and ends on Friday January 28, 2011. To participate, you must post a comment on this blog or on my facebook page telling me who you love or are in love with and a short statement about why. It can be a sentence or it can be a couple. On Saturday January 29th I will place all of the comments in a big bowl and my fiance will do me the honors of reading them and choosing the winner. All comments will be anonymous so he will decide the winning statement based on content.

The Rules - Sweet and simple... Leave your comment on the blog or the facebook page. Tell me who you love and why. Deadline is Friday January 28th at 12:00 PM. Contest is open to all and anyone, including past clients. *Please note: future clients whom have already booked a session are ineligible due to the nature of the prize. I hope you understand :)

The Prize - A completely stylized LOVE SESSION... a specially customized Portrait Collection for the winning entry will include the following: A 45 minute on-location stylized session, complimentary web-ready images (a minimum of 3), private online gallery, and a completely FREE and custom designed 20 page 6x6 Flush Mount Album {A $300 value on its own!!!} and you get to hang out with me for a while ;)

So what do you say, will you enter and hopefully win?

Spread the word and THANK YOU!!!

Portraits - Arianna

Arianna is such a beautiful young lady. She has increasingly blossomed into a true natural beauty and I have had the pleasure of photographing her twice. Ariana is diving into the modeling, acting and singing and I am delighted to watch her in the beginning stages of a promising career. I look forward to watching her grow into a young woman and when she makes it big I hope she remembers her little photographer back home.

The first session we did was literally last-minute and put together extremely quick. Literally, our session was about 35 minutes long. Right before the sun set, we managed to get some really cute and youthful-looking shots.

Arianna, I wish you much success!!!

Her adorable dogs showed up early during our session and I just couldn't help but snapping a few photos of them...

Happy Monday!

Please Note: Clients free to use these watermarked images on your social networking sites. Please refrain from altering the photo in any shape or form. Re-editing of images is strictly prohibited and infringes upon copyright law. Otherwise, please don't steal my images :) Thank you!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Itzel and Nathan, Engaged - Pharr, Texas

During one the summer's bridal sessions, I met a lovely young woman who was helping the bride for her bridal portraits. Itzel was quiet and somewhat timid. But very helpful and always looking out for the beautiful bride. As we struck conversation, Sarita - the bride - mentioned Itzel was her brother's girlfriend. Itzel and Sarita's mom said soon it would be Itzel's turn to have bridal portraits. So, naturally, I asked Itzel if she was engaged. She smiled and said no. Then I said, well, when you become engaged you'll make a lovely bride and maybe I'll get the chance to photograph you.

A few weeks later at the wedding, I met Nathan. Nathan was a groomsmen and Itzel was a bridesmaid. Fast forward a few months and I received an email from Itzel... "I'm engaged!..." I was beyond excited :) Photographing Sarita's (Nathan's sister) wedding allowed me to meet and interact her family. I feel honored to be asked to come back for another wedding.

Itzel is the ideal bride... in the sense that I completely see her as a young woman delighted to be engaged to the man of her dreams and eagerly awaiting the day she can begin the rest of her life completely with him. I am really looking forward to photographing their wedding because I can't wait to see what Itzel has planned. She is always on top of things and puts a lot of thought into every aspect of their wedding. Her and Nathan's engagement session was so well thought out that I was so delighted and simply just had to click the shutter and snap a picture.

Okay, so it wasn't that easy... I did kneel down a time or two, which totally makes my job a little harder ;) Kidding aside, spending an afternoon with them was fun. We began their session with some casual photos in their favorite basketball team's jerseys. How fun and cute is that?! Tons, trust me. Then we moved to Nathan's grandmother's house which has such an exquisite yard, all around. It is absolutely beautiful and very natural.

Nathan and Itzel are completely in love with one another. After dating for a few long years, it is evident neither one wants to be without the other. That is truly amazing. The love they share for each other is apparent in the subtle ways they look at and speak to each other. But most importantly, they are wholeheartedly caring individuals, with everyone.

I must add that Nathan is an exceptional pianist. He played throughout this whole segment and I was delighted to hear some amazingly played classical music. I almost wanted to put my camera down and just hang out and listen. But I had to be professional, of course ;)

The light was golden that late afternoon, so romantic ;)

Itzel and Nathan, Congratulations on your engagement!!! Thank you for spending a lovely afternoon with me and I am so looking forward to your wedding day!!!

Be blessed :)

Please Note: Clients free to use these watermarked images on your social networking sites. Please refrain from altering the photo in any shape or form. Re-editing of images is strictly prohibited and infringes upon copyright law. Otherwise, please don't steal my images :) Thank you!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Candace & Billy, Wedding - Weslaco, Texas

I booked my very first wedding back in December of 2009. I sat with the alumnae chapter of my sorority (Delta Zeta, wohoo!) during our Christmas dinner and I mentioned how I had decided to turn a hobby into a business.

I am pursuing a career as a photographer this coming year. Now I just hope I book one wedding so that I can get on a roll... {Okay, so maybe I didn't think that exactly, but it went something like that...}

If I could just get someone to book me for their wedding, that was what I wanted the most back in December of 2009. Then it happened. Candace, in such a non-chalant way, said it. "You could photograph my wedding. I'll hire you." The room went silent. I'm not making this up because I myself was silent - somehow bewildered by her coy remark. Though my sisters may not admit it, I know they must have been shocked as well. Perhaps one of them even slightly choked on a Chick-fi-la nugget because there she was - hiring me as the person to photograph her wedding. I had only just done my first paying portrait session a few weeks before. Zero weddings. Zero.

Fast forward all of 2010 and we stop the last few weeks of December. Over the past year I have photographed about 8 weddings and have learned so much from each one. There was no better way to end my first wedding season than to spend the last wedding photographing Candace. Candace is my sorority sister so she obviously holds a special place in my heart. Candace was the first person to book me as their wedding photographer. She trusted me without having seen any professional work on my behalf. But she did it.

Candace, thank you.

You gave me that nudge I so desperately wanted back in 2009... someone to hire me. And you did.

Candace and Billy are perfectly made for one another. Billy is so kind and caring for his beautiful bride and Candace enjoys being Billy's number one lady. When Billy proposed to Candace back on her birthday two years ago, we were all excited for her. She had found someone so loving and caring. Someone who wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Someone who was completely head over heels for her.

Billy is lucky. Candace is an amazing young woman with a very caring heart. I met her as the president of my sorority when I joined. Tall, with long beautiful blonde hair, she exuded a caring personality while still leading our collegiate chapter.

I had so much fun spending the day with her. The day she married.

Billy and Candace, Thank you so very much for trusting me with your wedding day imagery. I had an absolute great time at your wedding... it was so much fun! I even got to put away my camera and dance the night away, oh the perks of photographing your close friend's wedding ;) I wish you both a healthy and blessed marriage filled with a lifetime of happiness. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!