Sexy & Giving back!

Hi Everyone!!
As a woman who is a few years older than 21 ;-) a few recurring topics come up: feeling not so pretty, getting older and breast cancer.

Yes these three things affect us in one way or another.

-Everyone has a day when they wake up and UGH! I feel fat, I have nothing to wear, I'm having a bad hair day or simply UGH!

-NO matter how hard we try- time cannot be stopped, We all get older (eventually)

-Breast cancer. The C word. It's such an ugly word. Statistically speaking we all know at least one person affected by it. Someone who has been diagnosed or someone who has lost a mother, aunt, sister, friend... to breast cancer.

I am only one person but I can help in more ways than one! I can get you in front of my camera and capture your beauty! I can "freeze" time by capturing you as you are now in an image. And most importantly I can help fund breast cancer research and help build awareness!!!

WOW! HOW you say?

well...

For every Boudoir session booked during the month of October, I will be donating a portion* of each Boudoir session booked to National Breast Cancer Foundation. This goes for all sessions booked by October 31st! If this wasn't enough of a reason. All sessions photographed by November 10th will have prints/books ready in time to give as the sexiest Christmas gift yet!!

I am holding a weekend Boudoir event on November 7th & 8th and offering a very sexy special!
(all sessions held on this weekend will be included towards the fundraiser)

$385 -
- 1 hour shoot session
-Make up artist
-Sexy little Black Book (5"x5" leather, 20 pages)
-20% off prints ordered in first week
-Password protected online gallery
-discount on all your lingerie at a Boutique in downtown Campbell.

If you are interested please email me.

Available times:

Saturday November 7th

10:30 am- CB
11:45 am- KW
2:00 pm- KW
3:30 pm- AH
5:00 pm
6:30 pm- JL

Sunday November 8th

1:00 pm
2:30 pm
4:00 pm - (CB)
5:30 pm- (K)


the details:

• Time is not secured until a $150 deposit is received with signed contract
• Location will be in a boutique hotel I will disclose to you upon booking. I am not disclosing the location for everyone's security- due to the nature of shoot.
• *Donation. I will donate 5% for each session booked.
• Please allow 3 hours of your day for your session, includes outfit review, make up and shoot
  

Please contact me for pricing if you are interested in holding a private sessions in your home, or if you are interested in hosting a boudoir photography party.


And of course because this is a Photography blog... here are a few images from past sessions.

(all images posted with permission)

Introducing Miranda!

This summer has been a busy one. I'm finally catching up with holidays right around the corner I want to be sure to get all my Summer activities up.

At the beginning of summer I got to hang out with an awesome family and have some fun belly finger painting along with a gorgeous view. You may remember them from this session.
Finally! Jose & Angela welcomed their second daughter: Miranda. She's such a cutie! But honestly I couldn't believe she was only days old when I photographed her.. she was already moving around and very willful. Mom said she was just as strong and active in her tummy. Yikes!!

Look how long she is already!!

How cute are these little feet?

I'm really going to enjoy following this little one and her older sister around for the next year!

Welcome to the world! I'm sure together these sisters will surely take over the world. They already took over their parents world. ;-)

Winner Announcement for the 09-09-09 giveaway!

I know you have all been checking back every few minutes. I can see you..... JUST KIDDING!
But seriously ...Thank you everyone for commenting! I appreciate you taking time to read my blog and leave awesome comments. Please keep leaving comments- don't stop just because the contest is over. ;-)
Happy birthday to all you double-digits and wishing the anniversary celebrants many more happy years to come!!
and now for what you've been waiting for...



Today's random winner is Comment #4
Name: Karen Dayan
My husband and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on 06/06/06 . . . and still happily married with 2 beautiful kiddos. We would love to win a family photo session . . .or even just the kids :-)
September 10, 2009 5:17 PM

Congratulations Karen!! I can't wait to meet you. Let's get your session scheduled!
(I'll be emailing you to set that up!)

The random number was generated by :
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
4
Timestamp: 2009-09-17 03:19:39 UTC

Feliz dia de la Independencia!

Contrary to popular belief in some parts of the US, Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is NOT the celebration of Mexico's Independence day. Today, September 16th is Mexico's celebration of it's Independence!

A quick history lesson: September 15th : What is now known as El Grito de Dolores (the scream of Dolores) happened late on the 15th. This started the war by leading the insurgents into Guanajuato where many Spaniards were and on the morning of the 16th the revolution began.

I've talked about my home state, Guanajuato before. The capital is also named the same Guanajuato. Here many battles were fought during the 11 years long fight towards freedom from the Spaniards.

There were many heroes in this story, some had their heads hung in Plaza's by the Spanish, some fought with nothing more than sticks and stones but there was one man ridiculed his whole life for his physical & mental deformities who showed great heroism. He is known as El Pipila (read more about this here). He now stands overlooking the city of Guanajuato ever so watchful. This image (October 2007) is a small tribute to him, taken from el Jardin de la Union.

-disclaimer I am in no way a Mexican history buff. Mexico's history is so rich and diverse as well as dates back many many civilizations worth. However I am proud to be Mexicana ( even if I'm also very Americanized)

How do you maintain your love for Photography...

and not let it turn into a job you hate?

I've been asked this on numerous occasions. It's true sometimes when you take something you love to do and turn it into a job you can become "over it" fast.

I personally have kept my love of photography by always taking time to shoot for myself. When I shoot for myself I don't worry if it will be a perfect shot, or if "they will love it" or if it will get chosen for an album/card/canvas or anything else. When I shoot for myself I shoot to please ONLY myself .. and if anyone else likes it then that's cool too. When I shoot for myself I shoot with whatever camera is handy and don't worry about the "professional quality" of it. This goes for all my Iphone images (not the best resolution ever -but they capture images that mean something to me), my various Polaroid cameras (although they are quite often requested by clients) and mostly I say this for my Holga camera.

It looks a bit umm "ghetto" .. but seriously it's my FAVORITE camera!



and as such the Dreamy images it produces are often my favorite and are the images I love to share here on what once started as "film friday" but turned into "film friday on saturday.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy taking them!

The following images were taken in July at a street festival in downtown Campbell, CA. If you are the owner of one of these beautiful images and would like a complimentary copy please drop me a note (info@marianamaya.com).

*these images have only been altered by the reproduction of the scan and the addition of a watermark. I hope to print these in the dark room soon...







So if you've turned your love/passion/hobby into a job maintain the love for it by remembering to set aside some time to do it for YOURSELF! because in the end YOU are the only one that matters to YOU!

9:09pm on 09-09-09 GIVEAWAY!!!!

Hi everyone- As a total night owl who loves repetition in images. I thought it would be cool to give away one fun "Just Because!" session to one random lucky winner!

What is a Just because session?? Well it's a photo session you book well JUST BECAUSE! no reason at all. They are super fun!!

To enter the giveaway you only need to meet one of the following requirement:

you have to have had any of the following events:

-been married on
-been born on
-celebrated a birthday on
-- ____________ on (this entry must tell me in detail what happened on which date)

any one of these dates:
01/01/01
02/02/02
03/03/03
04/04/04
05/05/05
06/06/06
07/07/07
08/08/08

To enter: Simply leave your name (& email address) and event date and occasion in the comments area below. One entry per person!

The details:

-Copy of marriage certificate or birth certificate (drivers license) may be asked for as proof.
-Session will be up to an 1.5 hours long and must be held within a 20 mile radius of San Jose. ((unless you want to make it a destination session then travel fees will apply)
-$50 print credit is included
-Session must be completed by Nov 15th.
- up to 2 people and 1 pet in session.
-winner will be chosen by a random number generator on 09/16
- I will not use email addresses left here to Spam anyone.

..and just because posts are better with a picture . Here is a sneak peek of a "Just Because" session I did while in Mexico a few weeks ago.

Miguel & Elda: Sneak Peek of the Wedding

Hi everyone! This post will be a Bi-lingual for all my paisanos! (Paisano= someone from your same country.)
-Hola a todos! Este sera bi-lingue para todos mis paisanos. (disculpas por la falta de ortografia)



Sorry it's been a while- I've been crazy busy.
-Perdon que desde hace mucho que no escribo- he esta tan ocupada que casi me vuelvo loca.

I am very tempted to leave you only this image as a sneak peek.
-La tentacion de solo ensenarles una foto es DEMASIADA!

However I know if I did Miguel & Elda would hunt me down and torture me for being such a Tease. So ... I will give you a few more images.
-Pero, se que si lo hago Miguel y Elda me buscan y me dan coscorones por ser tan mala onda. Y entonces ... Les dejare unas cuantas fotos mas.










And say nothing else but ..a full posting will follow!
Y no dire nada mas... pero les prometo mas fotos seguiran!