Goodbye and HELLO!

My new site and blog are up and ready for your viewing pleasure!

From this point forward, you can see my work and latest blog posts at www.catalinaphotography.com

Thanks and see you on my new site!

Life's too short. You've gotta laugh and have fun!

We've been doing a lot of thinking lately. A LOT. About where we are, where we want to go and where we see our lives from 1, 3, 5, even 10 years down the road....I can assure you that my husband and I are dreaming BIG and are excited about 2009!
(no, no babies just yet).

In the coming days, you will see a brand-spaking new website, a new blog and a whole new identity for Catalina Photography.
I can't wait to share it with you!

I leave you with 3 photos taken by my brother-in law, Herman, on a recent visit to see him and his girlfriend Mariana in Washington, DC.

I think I take life too seriously sometimes, so the reason I love these images is because my husband and I are laughing and being completely goofy.

Life's too short. You've gotta laugh and have fun!



Thanks to http://epaperpress.com/psphoto/ for the 35mm film border used in this image.

Isabella

Here's a portrait of my niece Isabella (15 mos), taken during our recent trip to Florida.
Although at first shy, she eventually warmed up to me.
Seriously, she is THE most attentive and pensive child I have ever met. Isabella is also incredibly observant - she will stare at you very intently and you can see the wheels turning - she is thinking and analyzing - as young as she is, she seems like a grownup.
She's something else. Up until this trip, I had only seen Isabella in photos, so it was wonderful to finally meet her in person.

Florida!

Juan and I recently went to Florida to spend a weekend with my mom, dad and Meme. I had not seen my family since Christmas, and we scored a sweet deal on airline tickets. Off we went to the warm, sunny weather for 3 great and relaxing days. You might see some familiar images here and that's because we had lunch at the same arepera, Doña Arepa, as we did on our last trip to Florida.
That restaurant totally ROCKS. We need an arepera here in Charlotte.....

It's funny how different my parents are, especially when it comes to being photographed. You'd figure after all this time that both parents would be comfortable with a camera pointed at them, right?

Hardly!

Dad is as natural as can be. Being a photographer himself, he is super comfortable in front of the camera. So comfortable, in fact, that he doesn't even realize he is being photographed.



And then we have mom. As soon as I raise the camera, here's what she does:



So it's good practice for me to work different angles and try to capture images of my mom when she's not focused on the camera being in my hands.



a lovely portrait of mom and dad



Speaking of cameras being in my hands, Juan took my camera and took this portrait of yours truly. I recently got some feedback about my blog and that there isn't an image of me anywhere....here you go!



Meme is my incredible 89-year old grandmother. Juan and I had the chance to spend an afternoon with her, catching up on life and having the pleasure of hearing her tell stories from her past. Meme is the greatest. I love you!


And last, but not least, is a photo of the 3 Sagy generations.
Can't deny we're related now can you?!!!

Argentina Favorites

In earlier blog, I mentioned that to celebrate our 3-year wedding anniversary,
Juan and I hopped on a plane and went off to Argentina for a few days.
I have already posted my ABSOLUTE favorite photos (tango), but here are
a few other neat images I captured while in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

All I can I say is "I WANNA GO BACK!!"

I thought this shot was interesting. There's one uber modern hotel, right
next to - literally - a very very old residential building. I like the modern and
old contrast in this image, as well as the beautiful purple flowers on the tree.
These purple flowers were EVERYWHERE and in full bloom wherever we went.



Juan is standing at a street called Avenida 9 de Julio.
Now I can safely say that I have traveled a good bit, but NEVER had I ever
seen a street that had TWENTY (20) lanes of traffic.

YES, TWENTY!

Juan is standing smack dab in the middle of the twenty lanes of traffic.
Behind him is the obelisk.



While exploring, we made our way to Puerto Madero, which
- if you know Charlotte -
reminded us a lot of the South End District. This place underwent major
renovations back in the 80s, after being abandoned for several decades,
and there are 11 residential buildings, which used to store corn.

This is a very cool bridge in Puerto Madero.



And how could I resist? The rest of these images are from our
trip down to La Boca, where we watched some incredible tango dancing.

Chile Favorites, Part 2

Here are some more of my favorite photos from Chile.

This is a photo of the Pacific Coast - we continue our trip with Sandra and Renee up and down the coast, visiting many small towns,
including another one Pablo Neruda's homes.
These trees are something I've never seen before and seem very specific
to this part of the Chilean coast.
They're almost like perfectly drawn swirls and circles that one sees in graphic design work.




As we continue down the coast, we found ourselves at Quintay, which is a small
village that lived off whaling. The kind where sailors caught whales,
killed them, processed them and sold much of their parts.
Fortunately, just a few decades years ago, whaling was banned and
this place became a museum, with photos throughout the area, showing
images of what this whaling plant used to look like in the 1800 and 1900s.







I caught this awesome blue door on our way out, after having
explored the Quintay whaling museum.



This colorful convenience store advertised french fries and rotisserie chicken



One of the great things about visiting Chile (the Southern Hemisphere, for that matter)
is that we went during our winter, which is their summer.
That means that the sun didn't set until around 9pm, so we maximized
daylight hours down to the very last minute.
This is a sunset photographed from Sandra's house.
What amazing rich golden yellows and reds.



Once back in Chile (after our Argentina getaway), we celebrated
Javiera - Sandra's youngest daughter's First Communion.
Sandra hired a chef to cook some incredible meat, and with
many family members, we celebrated Javiera's special day.

Chile Favorites, Part 1

I am finally ready to share my favorite photos from our trip to Chile!


This is where it all began, waiting at the Charlotte Douglas International
Airport, for what would be a Charlotte - Dallas and Dallas-Santiago de Chile
trip. It was an overnight trip, thankfully, which meant we got *some* sleep
on the flight. We left Charlotte at 3pm on a Friday and arrived
at Santiago de Chile on Saturday morning, 9am.


This is Herman, my brother-in-law, explaining the exchange rate
for Chilean Pesos versus American Dollars. I did my share of asking
Herman "y cuanto es esto en dolares" - so much so that he
actually had a dream in Chile where I was asking him the
same thing "so how much is this in US dollars?"!



After we arrived at Sandra's house, and semi-unpacked our stuff,
it was already time for lunch, so off we went to a very
cool sushi place. I shot the table while we
were waiting for food.


This is La Moneda, the Chilean equivalent the White House.


I love the simplicity of this photograph.
We walked around Santiago one day and walked into one
of several churches. This particular church had a courtyard and
this nice arrangement of plants.
I get a sense of peace while looking at this image.
It's very Zen.


Now this is one very cool leather couch. A very cool RED leather couch.
I shot this in what used to be a train station, and has now been
converted into an art gallery space and reception hall.



This is Bella Vista, a section of Santiago de Chile that is very artsy.
There are a large number of walls that are painted as the one below.
In this district is one of the many homes of the amazing poet Pablo Neruda.


Herman's guidebook for Chile.

Ah yes. Sandra and Renee took us to the Chilean coast, where
we visited Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
All day - we drove up and down the coast - and stopped for lunch
at this restaurant that's been in business since 1968.
They served some of THE BEST empanadas I have ever had.



Did I mention they were HUGE?



So there you go. Part 1 of my Chile trip highlights.
Hope you have enjoyed reading and seeing these images as
much as I have putting this entry together!

A Sunny, Florida Weekend

Last weekend, Juan and I went to visit my parents in South Florida. It was a short but awesome trip, full of sunshine, r&r, power naps, great meals, and the wonderful company of my mom, dad and Meme.

on Saturday afternoon, we had lunch at Dona Arepa - a Venezuelan restaurant that mom has been telling me about FOREVER. it was AMAZING! I had an arepa with guayanes cheese - which was the meal i grew up with in Venezuela.

the colors of the restaurant were bright blues and yellows. i loved this palette!


here's a photo of dad's arepa - with beef and avocado. DELISH!


here we see a cachapa, another typical Venezuelan meal made of sweet corn and cheese - we split this as an appetizer and it was also very very good.


two photos of my parents :)




dad made some awesome pasta on Saturday night and we had some pound cake for dessert -



Alberto (dad) likes to dunk his pound cake into a glass of white wine


on Sunday, mom and Juan Miguel played tennis while i took photos - they played a great game!!!











remember these typical tennis team photos?! i couldn't resist!


my family

from left to right - yours truly, Meme, Susy (mom), Alberto & Juan Miguel

It's a BOY!!!!!!!

Erika is one of my best friends. I've known her since our freshmen year in college - back in 1997. We played on the Queens College Tennis team for a season and were part of a close group of friends all throughout college.

I had the pleasure of photographing Erika's wedding (one of my very first!)
back in 2004 and soon thereafter she and her husband Mike moved to Columbia, SC.

Once they came back to Charlotte, we started having breakfast every week, to catch up and know what was going on in each others lives. We have done this for the past 3 years, and it has been my absolute pleasure to see her belly grow and watch her become a mom!

She knew it was a boy, but she wouldn't share his name until he was born.

And so, on Tuesday, September 23rd, Jamison Michael came into this world - a beautiful, strong and healthy boy. I was attending the David Williams Seminar up in Raleigh when he was born, so it was surreal to see the first photo of Erika and Jamison via email. It all was surreal until my husband and I met him, just a few days later.

Here are some photos from the "Welcome Home Jamison" get together that Erika and Mike's family had the weekend after he was born.


this photo was from 2002 - a year after we graduated college


this is the beautiful Jamison!









Congrats Erika & Mike!

Can't wait to watch Jamison grow and keep photographing him!!!

See you Sunday for his birth announcement pix!!!!

love,

-Caty