After I posted this picture on Facebook I realized I had a lot more to say about this quote and about how so many of us have big dreams not just one size bigger but two or even three sizes bigger. I don’t know about you, but I am that person that has huge dreams. Having big dreams doesn’t mean to make more money, to be rich, to be the best photographer, but you can have big dreams to help others, to write a book that will help others and so so many other dreams. But so many times we just get discouraged as our dreams are so big and we just give up and say.. well I will never get there, how is it possible to get where I want to get, I don’t have time, I am a mom, I have 3, 4, or even more children. I only have one daughter and I still look at my life and my dreams and think many times, there is no way I can ever reach my dream. But I don’t give up and I try not to fall into the trap that the dream that I have has to be pursued today. No I have it tucked away really good in my heart, I know it’s there and my dad always used to tell me, be faithful in small things first. So what are the small things?

Well, most of you reading this blog are probably moms with little ones that you gave up your carrer to stay home and nurture your children. I know I did that. I did not want anybody else to raise Isadora, I wanted to be home with her and just be part of her life and be able to teach her myself about life and hopefully see the result of all my love and time spend with her when she will grow into a strong, confident and amazing young girl. But while we sit at home, most of us, still miss that feeling that we are important, that we do something more than just play and clean and cook food. We want to be creative, we want to create memories for our family and we pursue that dream and when we reach that dream then we realize… well maybe I can stay home with the kids, take pictures of them and also make some money by trying to take pictures for my friends. And you give that a try and it’s working, you love photography and you love being at home with the kids.

But all of a sudden you have another dream.. The dream to get better and better at pictures, to have a studio, to have a lot of clients and so so so much more. And don’t get me wrong that is an amazing dream but what will happen is, the dream you had to be a stay home mom and be there for your kids will suffer. I know how hard it is to balance a full time business and being a full time mom, trust me. You see that you are getting clients, economy is tough, so how can you turn away those clients? Well, I had to make myself some very hard decisions this year. I know I could work double, triple much more than I work now, I could take clients every single day of the week, travel weekends and just be this amazing photographer. And maybe I did get caught up a little too much into this about 2 years ago when I didn’t have time to even put up the Christmas tree for Isadora, didn’t have time to go at the part with her or just didn’t have time for anything anymore. And as hard as it was I just had to step back and take only very few clients last year and this year I am not taking any new clients. I know my mind goes crazy thinking, well if you say no to those clients they will never come back to you. I know that is one of our biggest fears but I always have to remind myself that I have to be faithful in the small things first. The small things right now is taking care of my daughter. I work from 8 till about 3 when I pick her up from school. After that we have activities going on, dinner, homework and so so much more. Yes I can say I work from home and she is with me but I will be lying if she is home watching TV and I am in my office. I am not home with her. I know that now with FB the big competition is to have sooo many fans and who’s page has more people talking about their page.. I hate that FB put that in there. Another reason to try to work hard to be at the top. I will not fall into the trap of trying to find ways to get that number up, not at all. I can be creative and find ways to do that but for now I do my best WHEN I can. I don’t try to discourage people from being the best they can be, but we all have seasons in life and if that season for you right now is your business then you better go at it with all your heart. But if your season is to be a mom, please, please take it show and just be a mom. I was in shock one year when I looked back and I barely had time to take any pictures of Isadora .. I had time for everybody else but creating memories for her.

If you started photography with the idea to create lasting memories for your family, please be honest with yourself and see where are you today. If you are barely able to be a mommy to your children and never even have time to take their pictures, try to think back on what’s important in life. Our kids don’t want more toys that we can buy with the money we make, they want us to be there for them. I know everybody says.. Ohh time passes by sooo fast, can’t believe that my kids are all grown up and I used to look at those people and think.. hmm are you sure??? cause for me time doesn’t pass fast at all.. when I have to stay home and do the same thing over and over and over again. But next month Isadora is turning 7 and I get tears in my eyes and I have to agree time passes by soooo fast. I look at videos when she was about 3 or 4 and wow, it’s hard to think back on how little she was and how cute she was talking. NOw she is becoming a young lady.

I go through this struggles myself everyday and I had to really switch my priorities 2 years ago but just because I made that decision to slow it then that doesn’t mean that I don’t have to remind myself that I am a mom first of all and be there for Isadora first of all. I want to write so many blogs to help my fans, I want to do video tutorials about so many things that will help you guys, I want to create new free actions that will help those that can’t afford them, I want to do more sales, I want to do more giveaways, I want…. and the list goes on. But I do all that I can and WHEN I can. I will not sacrifies the time I have with Isadora to be the best in the industry. Nope, I would rather be the best mom first.. and if time allows once Isadora is grown up I am sure I can get that that has stayed tucked away in my heart for so long and follow it with all my heart. I could double and probably triple my income if I worked more, and then what would I do with that money?? Spend it on things?? I can never, EVER buy the time I had with my daughter and for me time is so so precious as we are never guaranteed tomorrow! I do want to go to Isadora’s gymnastics and yes I stay there for 2 hours sometimes 3 hours and I love watching her practice. I know that my mind could go on the many things I could do those hours but I try to always remind myself that she is only little for such a short time.

I hope this will help some of you that have been trying to balance this photography thing and your children. I know that when we first started in photography we thought, oh it’s so easy and I’ll edit when the kids are in bed. I did that too but my body will not let me go with very little sleep anymore. I need at least 7 hours of sleep now and I will not push my body by drinking coffee or other things to stay awake and not be able to be a mom in the morning. It is my believe that we have to first be faithful in the small things and I know that when time is right the clients will still be there, if not the ones that contacted you, maybe other clients that will be willing to pay so much more for your services. But please treasure your time with your kids now, don’t overbook yourself by having cheap, cheap rates. You can never buy the time back with your family, set your prices with the thought of how much that time away from your family is worth. For me that time is priceless at the time. I can’t do sessions on the weekends. That’s my time with Isadora, she is in school and gymnastics during the week so for me the time in the weekends is just priceless.

It would sadden my heart so much just thinking of the generation of kids we are raising and for them to say, my mom was a stay home mom but she was never there for me . We do have such an important role in shaping the next generation, don’t think that your role is not important. It is very important! And I was reading in a book, that sometimes God puts dreams in our hearts that are so big that it will take a few generations to make that dream come to life. I think many times that maybe Isadora will be the one making my dreams come true and I better raise her in such a way that she will have the same passion in her heart like I do. I have to be there for her and teach her what’s important in life, when all the kids are cheating at bingo in school she asked me, mama is it ok to cheat just a tiny bit by switching the papers? I could have said, Nope cheating is not ok. But I wanted to take the time and explain to her that when you cheat you actually cheat yourself first because you are cheating yourself from learning new things, you are cheating yourself by not going the hard way and learning and I explained to her that it’s ok to see others win over and over and over again, because God is watching and maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in year, but soon her faithfulness in small things will be rewarded. And when we think about reward we think about money, but that is not always the case, for me the biggest reward is to have peace, to know that you are doing what you were born to do, to know that you are impacting peoples lives for better, that is far more of a reward for me. It is my wish that one day I will get to meet some of you and that you will remind me that you read this blog post, maybe not very grammatically correct, but you made the choice to be faithful in the small things!!

Not even sure how to start this post for today. I haven’t yet mastered the art of words to express my deepest gratitude for those that have believed in me for the past year since I opened the Oh So Posh Photography business page and for those that have believed in me even before I have started my page. Today, April 3rd, 2012 marks exactly one year since I finally decided to open a business page. I had my personal profile and I had a lot of my work displayed on my personal page so I never thought I need a business page. But after many, many requests on creating a set of actions that other photographers can buy so they can create the same look and feel in their pictures like they have seen in my pictures, I decided that keeping everything on my personal page will be too clutters so why not open a business page. So I did, and I first had one fan and that was myself .. in everything we do we have to be our biggest fans, when nobody else believes in us all we have left is us and we have to believe in ourselves. And then I had a few of my amazing friends join my page and wow I was up to 100 in no time!!! I was just in shock to see that I got to 100 in less than I week I believe. Than another photographer Alex Michele Photography somehow came upon my page and I still remember her words when she posted a link to my page so all her over 10,000 fans could see it. “WOW there is so much talent out there” these were her words and maybe she might even remember doing that, but things like this I never forget and it’s these kind of amazing things that I hold on tight when I see things around me just falling apart. Then I posted a picture of Isadora wearing some beautiful clothes from ZozoBugBaby and had no idea that Julie the owner of Zozobugbaby will come upon my page and she posted a link to my page to her over 10,000 fans.

And I was in shock when I started seeing a lot of fans come from just those two links. Soon I got up to 1,000 fans and I was looking at that number and it was hard to believe that I had so many people love my work. I was humbled, touched and forever grateful that even though I never asked Julie or Michele to post a link to my page, somehow they saw the beauty in my pictures and they were kind and confident enough to share that beauty with others. You see, it’s not because I am such an amazing person that I love to help others, love to help my fans, love to see people grow and reach their dreams, but other people have done this for me when I least expected it and I know the feeling and I just want to be able to pay that feeling forward!!!

I never had a vision when I started my page on how I will run my page but I always followed my heart, I was always true to myself and to what I believe in. Even though many of the posts are not very business like, and I risked that some fans will leave because even though I am a photographer I am first and foremost a mom, and yes I do share a lot about my daughter and what we do together, for me being real and open about my struggles, about my life is all worth it. Why do I encourage people so much on my page? Why somebody would think that I live in a lala land where everything is perfect and rosy when they come upon my page? Why do I believe in every single one of my fans and day in and day out I tell everybody that they can do it too.. They can follow their heart and they can make all their dreams come true NO MATTER WHAT!!! There is no ohh BUT.. there is not.. with hard work, dedication and passion anything is possible!! So why am I so “naive” so to speak and believe that anything is possible??

I shared many times on my facebook page a little bit on how I got started in photography but I know that not everybody gets a change to read all the posts, so today I wanted to take a little time to give you a little insight on how I started in photography. This summer it’s gonna be exactly 4 years since I got my first business card to start my photography business and here is my business card from back then.

I decided to follow my dream of my life and be a photographer when all of a sudden at 31 years old I got the scare of my life when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I just had a hard reality check… OMG I am young.. but I can die anytime despite the fact that I am young.. What have I done with my life??? I have this dream that it’s just imposible to realize, it’s even STUPID because I ain’t no artist, I am not even coming from a family or artist, I didn’t even go to school to study art or photography, but I do have this dream and this passion about photography. And with all those negative and scary thoughts that I will never be able to be a photographer I had to fight the more scarier thought: “I have breast cancer and I can die!”. There was really no way I could top that scare, the scare that I will die, that at 31, my daughter was just 2 years old, death really doesn’t care much about age, or that we have to be here for our kids. I can’t describe how scared, depressed, upset and confused I was when everything finally sinked in that yeap I have to go through chemotherapy, radiation and lots and lots of surgeries.

Somehow in the middle of all this I thought maybe getting a camera it will help me cope with all the other negative thoughts. So I got a Nikon D80 camera and it came with the kit lens. I had no idea what a kit lens is.. I was thinking why would I just buy a camera and no kit lens . Once I got the camera I was trying to figure out what all this aperture, shutter spped, ISO.. and all this intimidating terms meant. How can I take a picture in manual I asked a friend… I thought think they knew much either so they said.. put the camera in auto and take the picture, see what those settings are and they put those settings in manual mode… HMMM I thought to myself.. that doesn’t make sense.. why even put it back in manual mode. So I kept practicing and practicing and no luck. I was at a library one day looking for a book to learn more about this manual mode and I met another photographer that she was so sweet and she told me that a great book to start learning about photography and manual mode is called “Understanding Exposure”. I took her word for it and bought that book. But I was so tired most of the time and what I would read today I would forget tomorrow. I remember laying in bed and trying to just practice with the camera and try to photography the things around my bedroom. So wish I had those pictures. I put my computer in bed, I got myself Photoshop Elements and away I went into this photography dream of mine. Here are the very few pictures I have of my laying in bed, learning photography and still managed to smile though the midst of this cancer battle.

I learned about this community on Flickr where you can post pictures and just look at pictures and on the days when reading about aperture and ISO was way too much for my mind and body, I would pop over to Flickr and look at other people pictures. And I posted myself a picture, and this user TOLIS (that to this day I am grateful to) took the time and wrote the comment you see under my picture. WOW.. his work is beyond amazing and he took the time to write that that was a great shot??? WOW.. Well, when you don’t have any hope, when all things around you are falling apart.. you better hang on, on the very little things, the very little hope out there and that is what I did. I thought.. well if he thinks my picture is good, maybe I can be a photographer, maybe I can do this. So I posted another picture. and he again said it was a good picture. The hope, strength and encouragement I got from just two comments are hard to even put into words.

I thought to myself: I can do this, I can get even better, I can learn this photoshop, I can learn this manual mode. And, little by little, one baby step at a time, I started to understand the aperture and how to get the “blurry” background. No I just needed a better lens as the kit lens was not gonna work for what I wanted to do. But with all the treatment and the medical expenses, we didn’t have any money for a lens now. So I found a local store that I could rent lenses from. I would try to rent on a Friday for $35 and use it Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all for $35. I would take the stroller, put Isadora in the stroller and try to find locations and practice shooting with the different light as I could not figure out why the eyes in my pictures where dark and I could not get that sparkle you see in all my pictures now. I was so tired as sometimes I had to push the stroller way over 2 miles of fields and it was so hard to push it through that tall grass. But I was so excited to come home and look at the pictures. Most of the time they would end up looking like this because the light was way too harsh.

But I would learn one thing at a time and I would find something that I like in one picture, like here and look at all my incamera settings, then I would think back what time of the day I shot this picture, how was the background, how far I was from the background, how far was Isadora from the background, where was the sun and many more things and slowly by slowly I noticed a pattern. I didn’t have money for a mentoring session and that was such a burning desire to do a mentoring session and be able to maybe speed up my learning process. But whenever I would get stuck I would just go back and compare two pictures one that I liked and one that I thought it will turn out good but didn’t turn out good and just compared them and see if I can figure out what went wrong.

I know this seems a lot of work for anybody reading this, but when i had no choice and when the other work I had to do was the mental agony that this cancer is taking over my life, that I am bald, that I am too tired to be a mom for Isadora, all this hard work was actually a great distraction for me! It really took my mind off of what I was going through and I was able to put my energy in my passion for photography.

I could go on longer on how my photography evolved but that might have to be saved for the book I want to write one day .

So why did I write all this long blog post about how I started in photography? Like Isadora would say, what does this have to do with the fact that today marks one year since I started my business page on facebook? Well, I wanted to give everybody a little insight on why I am so very passionate about encouraging and supporting all my fans in following their dream and never giving up!! Had that one person not taken the time to comment on my picture on Flickr, who knows where I would be today. We don’t know what people are going through in their lives, but one thing I know is that our words of encouragement can make somebody’s talent really come to life!! There is a lot of talent out there but a lot of it is not able to come to life because so many of us don’t believe we are good enough and those around us maybe tell us we are not good enough. Was I good enough when I started?? Of course not!!! But with practice, passion and determination ANYTHING is possible!!! Don’t let anybody tell you that somehow you have all the odds against you!!! I had all the odds against me too, I came to this country when I was 21, I still have a strong accent, I didn’t have the money to buy the latest equipement, I had one camera and one lens, I had cancer and all those chemo drugs mess up your brain and you barely remember who you are at times and I had even more odds that that. So if I was able to push through and follow my dream you can too!!!

When I would post pictures on Flickr some of my followers would ask me what actions I had used. I had no idea what actions were.. and that was about 3 years ago. Now actions are my passion . I know the ins and outs and everything in between about actions and every time I want to outdo myself and create better and better actions to help all my fans. Now that was 3 years ago.. where do you think you will be 3 years from today?? You might think you are so behind and all this photography language is just way over your head (wide lens, long lens, L or G lens, 50mm or 70-200mm) trust me I still have so much to learn myself and I don’t know all the terms myself. But will that stop me from following my deep, burning passion I have in my heart?? Will I be intimidated that somebody will think I am nuts and don’t know what I am doing and I don’t know how to run a Facebook page?? Well, I think if we are honest with ourselves, many of us will admit that we don’t know many times what we are doing, life didn’t come with instructions, but I sure do my best and I will not look around thinking that my best is not good enough for somebody!! Life is too short to live it according to what others think about me. I have a passion and that passion is so much stronger than all the negative things anybody might say about me.

Don’t fall into the box of what others perceive as art and think your work is not art and will never be art! If what I do makes me happy, makes my clients happy, that is art for me! If somebody produces a big art piece and everybody agrees that is art and it sells for millions and millions but they are miserable with themselves and in the middle of making that art they poison the earth around them with negativity, what good is that for? If you love what you do, you work hard at it, you never give up.. Imagine where you will be in 3 years!!

Here is some of my past work!

And here is my work now!

Nothing came without a sacrifice, but it was all worth it!! The sacrifice was hours and hours and hours of work! And with a lot of sacrifies you can do it to!!!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of my fans, to everyone of my blog followers for allowing me to share my passion, my vision about life with everyone of you!!!

Other peoples have changed my life by the little things they have done for me and now I want to be able to change other peoples lives and be able to pay it forward. I will have a giveaway with 3 mentoring sessions for 3 of my lucky fans. I will post another blog post with all the information on how to enter for the free mentoring sessions with me!!

My little blog would sure appreciate a little TLC. So many things going on in my life at this time that I barely have time to come and update my blog . I mostly post everything on Facebook lately but with all the new rules and so many changes on Facebook I will have to start blogging more and hopefully share more information about photography, about life in general and just anything that I know it has helped me in the past and hopefully it will help all my readers!!!

Things have finally slowed down a bit now after the release of the amazing new collection Once Upon a Dream Collection and I have more time to focus on doing giveaways, sales, and more!! The Bohemian Symphony Collection Limited Edition has been a very popular set and so many of you have emailed me whether I will be releasing it again. Well tonight is the night!!
I am releasing 100 sets of the Bohemian Symphony Collection! You will get 9 of the most popular actions from the full Collection and the actions you are getting are listed bellow!! If you decide to upgrade later to the full Collection you can do that and just pay the difference. Thank you so much for your support and hope this will help so many that are loving the look of Bohemian Symphony Collection but would like to try it first.

Please make sure you select the right software before purchasing!!!

Here are the details for the sale!!

The first 50 sets will be $35!!
The next 50 sets will be the regular price of $45!!

PHOTOSHOP USERS | BOHEMIAN SYMPHONY COLLECTION LIMITED EDITION

$45  ONLY 25 more sets available!!!

$35 for the first 50 sets!!!   SOLD OUT!!!!! 

Limited Edition CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ELEMENTS USERS | BOHEMIAN SYMPHONY COLLECTION LIMITED EDITION

$45  ONLY 25 more sets available!!!! 

$35 for the first 50 sets!!!  SOLT OUT!!!!!!

Limited Edition Elements 6 and higher

To purchase the full Bohemian Symphony Collection click HERE

For this mornings inspirational message I wanted to put it here on my blog rather than on Facebook as it might get a bit too long. I am not a writer at all and one of the things that I always seem to put off is when I have to write something. Maybe because english is my second language and I am always so self aware that I might not say something right. However, when I have a passion for something, I can write and write and write and no worry about anything.

I always get asked what’s the secret to my success. How did I start my facebook page less than a year ago and we are almost close to 40,000 followers. I think, I view definition of success very different. To me success is not in numbers at all!! I so appreciate all my loyal fans and I love them all but I would not call myself successful because of my number of fans, because of car I drive, because what clothes I wear, because I am published in a magazine, and because so many other things. To me success is to do what I love to do, to lay my head at night knowing that I did my best that day and to treat everybody I come in contact with, not for who they are today, but for what they can be in a few years!!! I have learned that just because somebody is not as “popular” as others, that doesn’t make them less valuable. I go to my daughter’s school and all the kids know me and they all say, hi Mrs. Boicu, and I make and effort to remember their name and I always say Hi… and say their name. It makes their day. One little boy was so amazed that I remembered his name from kindergarden. I am a strong believer that just as I was a little girl and remember every time somebody paid attention to me and how I felt and how it gave me courage to believe in myself, there are a lot of children just like me. I had a dream since I was a little girl that I want to go somewhere and help those that don’t have as much as I do, and trust me, I grew up in the communist era and we were poor. I didn’t see a bottle of coke till I was I believe 12 or so? We didn’t have bananas, oranges, chocolate, gum, nothing. But I still saw pictures in some books of kids in countries that lived in a tent and even though we didn’t have a big house still we had a house so my dream as a little girl was to go one day and help those people.

So why am I writing all this? I got in a bit of hot waters yesterday on Facebook over a picture that I edited and somehow implying that I don’t like people because of their skin color. And no matter how much I try to explain that the picture overall was just underexposed and all I did is edit the entire picture, not just the skin to somehow make somebody’s skin lighter. I grew up not even one time thinking that somehow I am supposed to not like somebody because of their skin color. Since our country was so poor and because the communists were so strict who came into our country, I actually never saw a dark skin person till I was in my teenage years. And that person was a missionary that came and brought us, our first bottle of Coca-Cola and our first bananas. I was about 21 years old when I came here, and when I first heard the notion that for some people the skin color matters. To be honest with you, I am 36 now and I still don’t understand the concept that skin color matters and why some people don’t like others because of the skin colors. I know that there are some words that are politically correct and non politically correct to say and if I ever say anything that offends anybody, please understand that I try so so hard to say things right but some concepts are still so hard for me to grasp in a culture I didn’t grew up in. Sometimes, I google certain terms before I post something to make sure nobody will be offended. I love what I do, I love encouraging my fans on facebook, but I don’t want to live in fear, in fear that I will say something wrong and offend somebody. I respect everybody and if I ever say something that is not “politically” correct please email me in private.

I see potential in each and every one of my fans, I see potential in anybody I meet in my day to day life, I treat people with respect not because I am somehow better than everybody else but because I remember how I grew up, I remember how hard it is to work hard, hard to try to make a living. In the hot Texas summer days, we have some people that help us with our lawn, and it’s over 100 degrees outside and they come and cut our grass and you can see on their face how exhausted they are, and I always make sure I go and get them something cold to drink and ask them if they want a snack!! I respect what they do!! I know they have a family and they have to make a living!! Why do I do that?? Well, maybe because I remember how hard it was when I grew up, during the communist times, we didn’t have the luxury to have sugar, oil, or rice. We had to take eggs, milk, chickens to the state in order for us to QUALIFY to even buy just a tiny bit of sugar, once a month. Since I was the oldest in the family, my parents always send me to the store and I would not even open the door all the way to enter the store and the man in charge of the store would say… “Grigorean (my maiden name)… and he would wave his hand for me to leave the store… you can’t buy anything today.. tell your parents you didn’t send eggs, or chickens or milk so you are not allowed to buy anything!! ” I mean this concept is almost unreal to me just thinking about it now.. but that’s how I grew up!! And I am not complaining.. I am so very thankful of how I grew up because I appreciate everything so much more today!!! But, to me all those events and so so many other more where I was turn away from a long line that I have been waiting for, for over 2 hours to buy some bread, and I was turn away because I didn’t have a “CITY” ID (we lived in the country), all this to me is hard imprinted in my brain that life can take people to places we never thought possible!!!

I can’t tell you how hard it was for me to come to a new country and people to say to repeat again what I am trying to say because they can’t understand me. I struggle so hard to learn a new language and I am already afraid that they will know I have an accent the minute I open my mouth and then when they say to repeat cause they didn’t understand me I just get terrified. Well, I used to not so much anymore. I was working at a bank call center answering phone calls 10 hours a day and even with an accent and all the new terminology in a new country, I worked hard, and I was always in the top 5% from the company. I always loved to work hard and do my best. But one day when I answered call somebody heard my accent and they didn’t even want to talk to me, they just said, give me somebody that speaks English!! Wow!! I didn’t know what to say!! I did cry and cry and cry that day and many days after that but honestly I am thankful for that because that’s the reason why I treat everybody today as if they were gonna be the president of the United States tomorrow!!!

There are a lot more things I could write about on why I treat everybody with respect and that I never, ever would try to put somebody down!!! Why should I ruin somebody’s dreams and tell them they are not good enough, that their photography is not good enough, why would I want to ruin somebody’s whole dream with a few words!!! We don’t know why some people do photography and even some of the pictures that are posted on my wall get criticized sometimes and it makes me sad. I can’t put here some of the emails I get from my fans, on why they are doing photography, maybe they have lost somebody and photography is their way of coping, I did that too when I started, I got into photography as a way of copying with cancer. It was the only thing that gave me pleasure and joy!! My pictures where not anywhere close to what you see now, but in my mind I was happy and I was so eager to learn more things!! We never know people’s lives, their struggles, I want my facebook page to be about support not about trying to prove who can win or who can use the meanest words!! My goal in life was never to be published on a big magazine cover (even thought I have the highest admiration for those that are published) but that is just not where my passion is. My passion is to support people!!

Here are some of my pictures from only 4 years ago. What if somebody told me I am not good enough? I would have probably put that camera down and never looked at it again.

I know that drama in life is inevitable, but many times we have a choice on what to say or what to write!! Our words are so very powerful so please use them to built people up and not tear them down!!

I am sorry if maybe some things I wrote don’t make sense . I wrote from the heart and if I try to re read I question myself too much so this is just me from my heart!!! A very simple girl, with a big dream!!!

Happy Birthday to me !!!! My dream came true and after months and months of hard work and research I am so happy that I am able to release the beautiful and amazing new action collection for photoshop and photoshop elements. I released the Bohemian Symphony Collection last year on my dad’s birthday (it was his 3rd birthday up in heaven). I love to do things in life that have a lot of meaning into them so I wanted to release the Once Upon a Dream collection for my birthday. So here we are today, February 22nd, 2012 and I am turning 36!!! I really don’t feel 36 .. In my mind I am about 20 or so ..

The new collection is a bit different than the first one but it will also help you leave the “oh so posh” touch on your pictures. This time mostly for the indoor pictures. I know when I first started in photography, I had a hard time removing color casts from my pictures and getting just the right skin tones. Once Upon A Dream Collection is everything I wish I knew how to do back a few years ago. There are 57 actions that will really help your pictures stand out and reduce so much your editing time. I have some amazing actions for the skin that will help take out the most stubborn magenta, red, yellow or any other color cast you might have. The Heavenly Skin Brushes is one action that I just LOVE!!!!! Just like it’s name the Heavenly Brushes will really help you create heavenly skin tones ..

No matter what your style is this Collection will be perfect for any photographer. You can use some very soft actions like Innocence, Barely There, Dulce, Angelic and a few more that will add a very soft, sheer but still very unique tone to your pictures. If you want to be more creative and you like more tone in your pictures there are some actions that will help you create some very fun and artistic tones. One of my favorites is Enchanted and also Counting Stars!!!

Among so many other actions that will really speed up your processing time, I have some one click actions that will help you adjust your white balance, exposure and tone all in one click!!! Sometimes all you need is to run this action and your pictures are done!!! I could go on and on and on about this collection even if it’s almost 4:00 AM here !!! Ok I think you all can tell how excited I am!!! I can hardly wait to see your beautiful pictures come to life!!!!

SOOOOOO THE BIG BIRTHDAY SALE and INTRO PRICE!!!!!!

Since I am turning 36, I wanted to offer a very special price to the first 36 people that will buy the collection!!! The price for the Once Upon a Dream Collection is $125!

The first 36 lucky people will be able to purchase the collection for $65!!!!! Well, it’s my birthday after all

The intro price that everybody can take advantage for Today and tomorrow will be $85!!

The extended intro price that will last through the weekend and end Sunday February26th, 2012 at 11;59 PM CST, will be $95!!!!

The Once Upon A Dream Collection will go on sale today February 22nd, 2012 at 12:00 PM CST!!!    and here is the link where it will be available!!! Shop ONCE UPON A DREAM!!!

Thank you so much everybody for your support and I am soooo excited to see your beautiful before and after pictures!!!!

Are you ready for this?! Pick Your Plum‘s – Pick Your Prize Giveaway. Yes, that means if you win, you PICK your prize from amazon.com. To help spread the word about this amazing promotion, Pick Your Plum has teamed up with 10 incredible websites. Let’s be honest, most of you probably know about most of them because they are a few of my all time favorites. These are definitely sites worth getting cozy with.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you aren’t already faithful followers of these sites, take a peek, and fall in love. Here are direct links: Pick Your Plum, Skip to my Lou, Joy Folie, Make it and Love it, Discount Queens, Sugar Doodle, How Does She, Gracylu Originals, Oh So Posh Photography, Kara’s Party Ideas, and College Fashion.

Good Luck!!!

—

*This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. We hereby release Facebook of any liability. The sponsor, Pick Your Plum, will ship all prizes within 7 days of giveaway end. The prizes have no monetary/cash value. Giveaway starts Monday, Feb 13th at 8 pm EST and ends Monday, Feb 20th at 8 pm EST. Once the giveaway ends, Rafflecopter will randomly select winners. Winners will be contacted within 24 hours by email. The Rafflecopter widget will be updated with winners names.

If you have been following me on Facebook, you probably have seen my most recent posts about a Juice fast. What is this juice fast and why do I do it? Well, a lot of people do the juice fasts to loose weight. I am doing it for health benefits. As most of you know I am a cancer survivor and with all the treatment from cancer and all the surgeries I had to have, my body is just not the same. I am always tired, always in pain, I take a pill for one thing and the side effects of that pill make something else in my body hurt. Most recently I had a cortisone in both of my hips. For some reason the cortisone shot flared up something (most likely ulcers) in my stomach and for 2 weeks I was in so much pain and no matter what I did I was just miserable. I got pretty scared so in the frenzy of it all when I was so sick I ordered a Breville Juicer and I said that once I am feeling better I got to figure something out about my health because just going from one doctor to another is sometimes so frustrating. I don’t want another pain pill, I just want to feel better. Don’t get me wrong I love my doctors and they have helped me so much and i am here today because they have helped me but my body was so run down that just popping more pills into my system was not the answer this time.

So finally this Monday I started the Juice fast. I don’t follow any kind of recipe. I was raised in Romania, a very poor country back when I grew up, and I guess growing up in a poor country had its advantages as we had to be creative about our food so I never cook by a recipe . I just taste something and think.. Oh I think it has this and think and this in it and most of the times whatever I am trying to cook turnes out pretty good. So I do the same with the juice diet. I went to the store and just loaded my card with as many greens as possible and whatever else I thought will be good for my body. I know Kale is really good for our bodies so I try to use a lot of kale in most of my juices.

Today is day 4 and I have to say that the massive headaches that I used to have and I had to take at least 6 pills a day for my headaches are gone.. Ok I am the most skeptical person you have ever met and I don’t believe that drinking juice will help the headaches go away but I am sitting her puzzled that the headaches are all gone. My energy level is through the roof today and I don’t remember when was the last time that I didn’t complain that something is hurting. Day 1 and 2 were the hardest and I kept wanting to eat something, not because I was hungry but just because I was used to going in the kitchen when I was bored or when I had been at my computer for too long.

I am planning to do this diet for a week. I might push it a bit and try 2 weeks but I will listen to my body. What is very interesting to me is that I never, ever, EVER have been craving any foods while on this diet. So that tells me that my body is getting all the nutrition and vitamins from the juices I have been drinking and honestly I think my body is getting a whole lot more nutrition just from the juice than from all the foods I was eating before. I eat very heathy, I don’t even have sugar in my house, I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, I don’t eat any processed food at all but my body was always craving something. Since I have been doing the juice diet, all those cravings are gone! Like I said I am the biggest skeptic ever and if this worked for me and I feel better I really believe there are some benefits of juicing!!

I just feel way too good not to share this with others so I decided to help 2 people get a Breville juicer and hopefully this will help them with their health. I know this is totally not photography related but even as photographers we have to take care of our bodies, otherwise we will not be able to do our job. I know that it’s so easy to fall into temptations while we are sitting long hours at the computer and have unhealthy snacks next to us and without even thinking putting things in our bodies that are just not good for us. I am only 35 but my body has been through so much and I always tell everybody, please, please take care of your health. You have no idea what a blessing it is to be healthy.

There is nothing appealing to me about laying down in a hospital bed day in and day out. Our health is a gift that so many of us tend to take it for granted and I used to do the same. But not anymore! Not having to take any pills for 4 straight days and be able to work and feel like I am healthy again, wow that to me is priceless!!!

So to the details of the Breville Juicer giveaway!!!!

1. Please leave a comment bellow with your name and email and a short sentence on why you would love to win this juicer!
2. All entries must be in by Sunday February 12th, 2012 9 PM CST
3. I will have my daughter pick the two lucky winners and post the video on Facebook no later than February 14th, 2012
4. Good luck everybody and even if you don’t win this juicer, please, please try to take care of you health!!! You really deserve it!!!

As my daughter is about to turn 7 in a a few months, I can’t but shake my head in disbelief how far she has come!! Many of you know my story and why I am so passionate about life, about enjoying the little things in life and just live everyday with a grateful heart. Today I wanted to share with you my daughter’s story and just like her mama she is a survivor. I have heard it many times say that she looks wise beyond her years and I think you can see in her eyes that indeed she is wise beyond her years. When I was 5 months pregnant with her I was hospitalized first for a very bad sinus infection, then while pregnant with her I had to have my appendix removed and a few days after that I was hospitalized for over a month with an infection called C-Diff. This infection is caused by an imbalance of the intestinal flora and most of the times is caused by too many antibiotics. Usually C-Diff is cured with some very strong antibiotics and it usually lasts 3 to 4 days. I was not so lucky and neither was Isadora. The doctors said that my stomach sounded like a cemetery, I had a tube in my nose to drain all the gastric juice and everyday instead of getting better I was getting worse. My body started retaining water and no matter what the doctors tried I kept retaining more and more water and in less than 2 weeks I gained 100 lbs. The amount of pain I was in is hard, hard to describe as my whole body was so swollen and nobody could even tell that I was pregnant. All this time my little Isadora was trying to grow as I was just 5 months pregnant. Because the pain was so unbearable, the doctors gave me a morphine pump and very strong pain pills and nothing would work!!!

I remember a lady from pastoral care in the hospital would come everyday and bring me books that I could try to read to Isadora so despite the stress she was suffering because of all the pain I was in and all the medicine, that she would hear my voice and know that everything is ok. Since I was not able to eat anything for my stay in the hospital, I had a PIC line in my arm so that Isadora could at least keep on growing. All the ultrasounds where showing that she was not growing as much as she the doctors wanted to and that was mostly because of the fact that I was just lying in a bed, not being able to even have water, no food and a lot of pain pills. I had to have lots of x-rays and CT scans while pregnant and there was really no way to protect Isadora while they did all the x-rays because the doctors were very concern about my colon and they wanted to keep an eye on it so it would not burst open. Despite all the things that doctors tried to do to get my body to eliminate the water and start working again, nothing seemed to help and we finally sat down and the doctors told us that the only option left would be to transfer me to a new hospital, remove my colon and deliver Isadora at 5 months. They told us what to expect when a baby is delivered that early and it was a scary, scary thought to even think what it would mean to deliver her at 5 months. The night before the doctors said they will transfer me to a new hospital my body started eliminating some water and I believe I lost over 11 lbs one night. When the doctor walked in that morning he said well we gotta get ready for the transfer and I said but look my body has eliminated some water. He didn’t believe me thinking the nurses gave me a water pill and I remember him going outside the room to read the notes. I honestly to this day can’t explain how that happen but I can tell you that for me that was a miracle!!!

I got discharged a few weeks after that but I still had to take very strong pain pills as I was was in severe pain still. And all this time my sweet little Isadora was still trying to grow despite all the strong medicine that it was of course going to her too.

I went on with my pregnancy but I still had to see a high risk pregnancy specialist once a week to make sure everything looks ok. May 20th came and I had to have a C-section and all I remember is that I didn’t get to see Isadora as they rushed her to NICU. All I could hear is that she was born with a hole in her chest and they could see her heart beat. They didn’t keep her in the Nicu for long because she seemed to have been doing ok. My little girl that had already been through so much was born with most of her sternum missing. But she was healthy otherwise and of course my heart broke to see her little body not perfect but I was thankful she was alive. Everything seems fine up until she was 7 weeks old when she started having difficulty breathing. We didn’t think much of it but they she was gasping really hard for air. We took her to 2 different hospitals at the emergency room but after they would give her some steroids she would be better so they said that we shouldn’t worry about anything, she will be fine. We take her back home and she was getting worse and worse and starting turning blue and we kept thinking… well the doctors said not to worry. But after a few hours when nothing seemed to help we went to a different hospital and this time the doctor decided to put a camera and look in her little airway. The exam showed that inside her airway there was a hemangioma growing blocking 80% of her airway. Most of the time hemangiomas are left alone as they will grow for a while and then they will go away but in Isadora’s case she had to have it removed as that would have put her life in danger to have something growing inside her airway. The doctor was also part of a team of doctor researching a new syndrome PHACES and when she saw the missing sternum, the hemangioma in her airway and also a hemangioma on her bottom lip, she realized that Isadora had PHACES syndrome. While we were hospitalized, Isadora had to undergo lots of tests to see what parts of her body are being affected by this syndrome. Poor little girl was poked around and so many nights we could not even feed her and she was crying so so bad but because she had to have different procedures they didn’t want her to have anything to eat.

There is a 75% chance that children with PHACES syndrome will have brain malformation and only 5% that they will have a missing sternum so when the doctors did the brain test I was sure that she will have some malformations of her brain. And she did, when the doctors read me the finding I just looked at them and didn’t even know what to make of what they were saying. Even though it was not very severe what they found, they said that they can’t tell me if she will ever be able to walk, or talk or have a normal childhood. Her heart test came back as abnormal too. As much as I wanted to have at least some good news about my little girl, there was nothing I could hang on. At 7 months she had to have surgery to have her hemangioma removed and the pictures you see bellow is her recovering from that surgery!!! She would just have these big eyes and look at me like saying : “Mama save me ” and I could not do anything about it.

Because of the hemangioma on her lip and also to make sure the one in her airway will not start growing, she was on steroids for the first year of her life. If you see her all chubby in the pictures it’s not that she was a chubby baby but because the steroids made her look puffy. She was such a good baby but I honestly don’t remember her smiling too much. She was behind with her gross motor skills and I was starting to get worried when at almost a year she was not able to roll over.

I tried to research doctors online to see if they can help Isadora with her missing sternum and if there was anyway that they could try to fix it. I called doctors around the country and finally I found a doctor at Boston’s Children Hospital that said he will try to do it even thought he has never done a surgery like this before. We flew from Washington state all the way to Boston and after a 9 hour surgery the doctor said we can go and see her. In the middle of the surgery one of the doctors said that the only way to fix that would be to take some bone from her scalp but the doctor that I was in contact with said: ” I am not going to go out and tell the mom that I will take bone from her scalp!” They took a bone from a cadaver and he explained to me how they tried to put the bone in there in the hopes that it will grow as Isadora grows. Again, no guarantees, just wait and see. Well, the surgery was about 7 years ago and so far the bone they put in there has grown with her. Does it look perfect?? Not at all. In fact when I see kids and look at their sternum it looks so very different to me as Isadora’s still looks like something is missing there. I tell her that an angel came and kissed her there . Will she have to have more surgeries in the future? Honestly, I don’t know!! I was worried that as she started doing sports and mostly gymnastics since her collarbones are shorter that somehow it will hurt her or stop her from doing certain things. But so far nothing seems to stop her from being a normal kid.

She had a few other things that the doctors could not figure out what was going on but all that is behind her now. She has been through so much and I know that everything happens for a reason and she will do great things in life. Why am I sharing her story with you? Well, because I know that each one of us has struggles in this life, some more than others maybe, but if we do the best we can despite our circumstances, if we are patient and never give up, miracles CAN happen!!! I was the biggest skeptic when it came about miracles but I can tell you that I witnessed way to many miracles in my life to still remain a skeptic.

Isadora is my little miracle!! I do worry at times about her since this syndrome is fairly new and they don’t have any adults to know how long they lived or how the syndrome might affect kids as they grow older. But despite the worry I make sure I let my daughter know each day how amazing, beautiful, kind and talented she is. I don’t take any day for granted and each day with her is a miracle!!! She is so smart and even though she is not even 7 yet, she reads big chapter books, she is so funny and silly and had I given up 7 years ago and be bitter about why she is not perfect like other kids, I might not have been able to enjoy her as much today!!!

Bellow is a little slideshow with some pictures from when she was born and then I am ending the video with pictures of her today!!! I am in tears every time I look at those pictures when she was in the hospital and my heart will always, always be so so very grateful for the girl I have today!!!

I just now realized how behind I am on blogging my fall sessions!!! Trying to catch up and here is sweet little Weber!!!

Do you have all your pictures backed up? Do you have all your importnat documents backed up? I learned this the hard way and even though I was able to recover most of my files that I lost, I would hate for anybody to go through the scare of loosing all their work, all their pictures or even all your photography tools and resources. I get a lot of emails where my fans lost all their actions because the computer crashed and even though I don’t mind resending them I want to encourage everybody to please, please, please back up your files. There are lots of ways to back up your files and one of them is to back them up online. Here is a company that I use and I love and since backing up is so so very importnat to me I wanted to pass the gift for “piece of mind” to 3 of my fans .

So for a year you can have piece of mind that your computer is backed up!!

Here is what you have to do to enter for this giveaway:

1. Leave a comment here on my blog with your full name and email ( I hate when I pick a winner and there is no name or email that I can contact them )

2. All comments must be entered by tomorrow January 16th, 2012 8:00 CST

3. My daughter will pick the 3 lucky winners and I will announce the winner Friday January 20th, 2012

4. I will do a video of her choosing the winners, the same way I did with the lens..