CNN: Interview by Richard Quest

Brook and I were are pleased to announce that we were just interviewed at our San Francisco studio by CNN anchor and correspondent Richard Quest. He has his own hour long feature program called "Quest" featured on CNN International. Quest will have a special on photographers which will include interviews from Anne Geddes, National Geographic photographer Franz Lanting (who happens to live in our home town of Santa Cruz), Steve McCurry(remember his famous, image of the haunting, green eyes of the Pakistan woman?), Patrick Demarchelier and us. It will be airing on CNN International on February 23rd and 24th. We are thrilled to be included in this group, be interviewed by very high profile Richard Quest, and be on CNN International! Unfortunately, this channel is not available in most of the U.S., but in other countries worldwide. Though we will not see it air, we will be provided with a taping. We were also filmed photographing a wedding in southern California, which will be edited into our segment. Matthew Percival, the producer, was a lot of fun, very warm, and we hope to meet up with him again! Coffee or lunch, Matthew? As for our interview, we had a delightful time speaking with Richard Quest off camera, as we found out one of his all time favorite interviews was Julie Andrews! I love her too!

So for all of you who have CNN International, please tune in that weekend! It will air 5 times each day. And for those of you who do not get this channel, it will be available online after it airs. I'll put it on our website, of course! Unbelievable...

Alisha


Goofing around after the interview!

The A & B Recap

Hi everyone! I'm going to try to give a recap on what has been going on with us.
A week & a half after our baby's birth, Brook left for Indiana to photograph a destination wedding. I spent a few more nights at the hospital without him. It was so sad for me and for him to be away from our new baby! My sister took my spot as a photographer for that event. Thank you, Erika! Poor Brook missed his newborn Giada so much! The shot above and the one below is Giada at about 3 1/2 weeks old.


A month after her birth, Brook was photographing some engagement pictures in Carmel at the beach. Brook took a fall on the stairs. He was sitting there in pain with his knee cap to the side. So what did he do? He punched it back in place!! Which caused him even more pain! Pretty severe pain. I can sympathize with pain as I suffered a broken neck & 3 vertibrae in my back 6 years ago. That is an entirely different story. The contractions and C-section don't even compare to that pain. I highly recommend never breaking any part of your spine! ANYHOW, Brook was driven to the hospital by his good friend, Casey. He found out he had ripped his patella and needed immediate surgery. He was completely laid up for a week because we didn't want just any surgeon. Dr.Deborah Farynairz did a fabulous job on his knee. It was a hard recovery. Brook needed to be cared for, and I needed help with the new baby. Fortunately, my family lives close by. They were a BIG help. The plan was that I wouldn't be working a wedding for 2 months, but due to Brook's injury, I had to get behind my camera sooner. I photographed a wedding with my sister the beginning of October, only a month after my C-section. Darci & Michael's wedding was beautiful!

I'm a new mom so I must discuss my baby a bit! So the first thing we taught our baby at about 3 months old was to stick out her tongue. Once we started her ...she can't stop! Its so cute. It was Giada's first way of communicating! And it makes her smile. In fact, her smile almost always includes the tip of her tongue sticking out. On December 20th, our baby surprised me by saying "Mama" while she was crying. Then she said it again 2 days later (also crying). I was very shocked she would say that this early(under 4 months old). So I am sorry to all of you guys who were betting our kid's first word would be "DUDE"(Brook's word of choice). The beginning of January we took Giada Bella on her first Disneyland trip with my family. She really started saying "Mama" a lot this week when she was fussy. Giada loved the Tikki Room and went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Pinocchio ride, and It's a Small World. And she watched the fireworks! It was awesome! And Giada met Snow White! I thought of you Sheree!

So what's going on with our business? Well, we have a new space in the Old Sash Mill in Santa Cruz that's about 1200 sq ft. A lot of beautiful, natural light. It will be a fabulous place for portraits! We are getting it ready and we'll share more on that later...

Last, and definitely not least, CNN International called us. They will be interviewing us in our San Francisco studio next week. Then they will film us "in action" at a wedding we will be photographing in southern California. Can you believe it?! Brook said they like our website and our BLOG. Yes, this one. The one that was begging for an update! We will let you know how it goes! I'm excited...

Did I mention I just just turned 30? I have officially left my 20's!

Alisha

P.S. Congratulations to Roland & Kelsey, our dear friends, on their adorable new boy, Tyke! Sweet baby!