明けましておめでとうございます｡ (happy new year!)

明けましておめでとうございます｡, to all of my hautties!

Or, in plain old english, Happy New Year!

I have been DYING to share this news with all of you for a few months now, but until I actually held a copy of the beautiful magazine in my hands, and saw the photos on the glossy pages myself, I didn't want to jinx anything. In late October, I was contacted by a writer for Very magazine (a high-end Japanese magazine that caters to fashion-minded women in their 30's, with circulation near 300,000). She writes a column about trends in the US that she thinks the women across the pond might be interested in. She had seen some of my work and was intrigued with the fact that American families have "family photographers": that the photographers grow with the family through the years, a relationship is established between the client and the photographer, and that pictures are taken for many reasons (not just birth and ceremonial occasions). Especially intriguing to her was the fact that most sessions are held outdoors, and not in a studio. Long story short, she wanted to do a little write-up about this trend and to include pictures of me taking pictures of a child, as well as some of my work from the "session". Hiromi (the beautiful writer, who could actually be a model in the magazine) also does PR for two fabulous lines of children's clothing that are worn by haute tots worldwide: Right Bank Babies and Wonder Boy. The pictures I took from this session are going to be used for marketing purposes for Right Bank, and the clothes little Leina wore were absolutely sinful. And I am now a Forever Fan of the clothing lines. Seriously, you can facebook fan them. And while you're there, don't forget to become a fan of haute shot photography!

On New Year's Eve, I met Hiromi for coffee, and she handed me the January issue of Very. And on page 221, right next to Suri Cruise, are my pictures.

And all I could think about (aside from whether or not TomKat happened to be staring at the same page and then brought the magazine with them to lunch at the Ivy, where they ran into George Clooney and decided to show him the pictures of their darling little Suri running all around town in her princess costume, but all George could do was smile and nod and not really pay any attention whatsoever because he couldn't take his eyes off of the teeny tiny picture of my covered face and was thinking, "I have got to see this woman's face. And look at the way she is holding that camera; she MUST photograph my next People's Sexiest Man Alive spread.") . . .

All I could think about was all of you. How, a year and half ago, I didn't even know if I'd last the summer. And now, you've taken us to Japan. You are the greatest clients, the most amazing people, and 2009 was such a fantastic year for me because of all of you. And now, with Japan on our passports, who knows where 2010 will take us. I'm thinking Paris or Budapest. Actually, Lake Como sounds like perfection.

Seriously, dear reader, thank you. Here's to a phenomenal 2010. Until my next post, sayonara!