Charmi Pena Photography

Charmi Pena Photography will be closed from April 27th to May 24th. We will be checking our email every few days, but all orders placed and all meetings requested will be fulfilled and schedule on May 25th when we return to the office! Look out for one wedding teaser post right before we leave!

During this time, I’ll be brushing up on new techniques, shooting film, and taking a long overdue vacation! I hope to have lots of great stuff for you when I return!

Newborn clients! We know that your birth announcements are time sensitive, so if you already have your proofs, please select your birth announcement so we can get them out to you! If you have not yet received announcement ideas in your gallery, please make sure you have emailed me all baby stats (height, weight, dob, time of birth, full name you’d like to see on the announcement), so I can have these in your gallery by end of day and we can get these out to you asap!

That is all.

Stick with me for this one. It’ll be worth it.

Late one Friday night, a few months ago, it was freezing out and Patrick was working…I decided to go in search of a blog I could relate to. Something I could read, occupy some time. My dad had the Kindle, I had read Harry Potter 1-7 for the 237th time just recently, re-read all the books in my collection recently actually. And aside from that, without getting into it, I was having a tough time of it around then. So, off I went, googling away. Searching for something. Someone like me. And then I came across something else. Matt’s blog. It seemed familiar somehow, and looking back, I remember seeing it on a photography forum too. I was compelled to read it.

I started at the little note. “a warning.” Matt unleashes his feelings for us daily and apparently there was cursing to be expected. Well ok! We can deal with that. I mean have you guys ever heard me after I stub my toe? Or if someone cuts me off in traffic? It’s not pretty. Anyway, cursing. No big deal. Then I started reading the archives. A few hours later, Patrick finished working, came over and asked me to put the computer away. And then he looked at my face. And asked what could possibly have upset me at 1am?? And so I told Patrick the story. Matt started blogging before his daughter, Madeline was born…but didn’t keep at it regularly until his wife Liz, passed away 27 hours after giving birth to Maddy. And Matt decided that day, to be the best father anyone has ever had. Reading the blog, watching his struggle with his loss and yet celebrate his stunning daughter…I’ve known for a while what Matt’s still figuring out. He’s an AMAZING father. Even before I met him in person I knew that. I read that blog through the weekend, stayed up late each night, catching up. Even reading on my iphone if Patrick wanted to go to sleep. By Sunday I was all caught up.

So, when I decided to go out to California for the photography workshop, and I realized I would be about an hour away (err…Matt had to tell me about Cali traffic…I didn’t know!) from where Matt and Maddy live, I got in touch and we set up a dinner. Matt picked a great French place, and if you know me, you know I’m a crazy foodie! It was great food, great conversation. And I saw first hand how great Matt is with Maddy. They make quite a team these two. One of our dinner topics? The Liz Logelin foundation. When Liz passed, people started sending things to Matt. Formula coupons, clothing, money. The outpouring of love and people wanting to help was and is tremendous.

And then it came to him. The Liz Logelin foundation. I’ll let the foundation’s own words speak for themselves.

On March 24, 2008, little Madeline Elizabeth Logelin came into this world.

The next day, her mother left it.

From this impossibly tragic event, a community was born. A community of individuals, united in their desire to help and support Madeline and her father, Matt. This community formed the basis for what would become a worldwide charitable foundation:

The Liz Logelin Foundation – For the Love of Liz.

After the catastrophic loss of his wife, Matt Logelin coped by turning not only to his wonderfully supportive family and friends, but to the internet. He had already begun a casual blog to keep friends and family abreast of Liz’s pregnancy; within 2 weeks of her passing, that blog became what it is today: a place where Matt can share his joys and frustrations, challenges and heartbreaks; where concerned friends, new and old, can meet, talk, laugh, and cry with Matt; and most importantly, where other widows and widowers can offer – and be offered – support and friendship.

So strong and large was the community that spontaneously formed around Matt and Madeline, it seemed not only natural, but necessary to harness the strength of that network and turn it into something – something that could help ease the pain and lighten the load felt by widows and widowers everywhere.

And it all sprang from the Love of Liz.

Welcome to the Liz Logelin Foundation.

So if you haven’t already clicked on the links before, click on the banner. Give of yourself if I’ve compelled you the way reading Matt’s posts compelled me. It’s for a great cause.

And since you’ve put up with SO much typing from me, photos!!! Maddy is so freaking cute. I dare you not to ooh and ahh over her. And the last shot…you can see how I struggled oh so much to take a photo of us in the mirror, lol. Ay yi yi! Hopefully you’ll see more of Matt and Maddy on my little blog, because I’m in the process of convincing him he needs EVEN more photos, lol.

OH! Matt and Maddy are going to be on Oprah Monday! So, set up that DVR. Maddy’s even cuter on TV than in photos (and even cuter than that in person). Oh and her silly face? She was really eating some freeze dried somethings that she loves. Those things kept her happy and occupied all the way through tea! One day, when I have kids, I’m going to have to hit Matt up for all kinds of parenting tips.

I know some of you are waiting on a return call or email from me!  Monday morning, first thing, I will be taking care of all of those.  I’ve been in the OC for the last week and when I came back I came straight to my in-laws and haven’t been home to my calender, little black book and notebook yet!  (My really lovely bed either, but anyway…)  I will be home late tomorrow and back to work Monday morn.

What was I doing in the OC?  I think it’s important to keep on learning and improving, so when I heard Paul Gero was going to have a workshop, I jumped at the chance to learn from the fantastic newspaper guy turned wedding and portrait photographer.  It was…in a word…amazing.  I’ve come back energized for the new season with a few new tricks up my sleeve and I can’t wait to put them to use!  Through the 3 day workshop, we were given four assignments.  Every day this week, I’ll be posting one of them, and my work that resulted from it.

So that covers Mon through Thurs…and Friday, a treat.  I met up with one of my favorite little babies and her dad for dinner and tea.  I’ll post a few shots, talk to you about their story, and hit you up for some donations to their favorite charity.  But it’s for a great cause, so I’m sure you won’t mind

A teaser in the meantime you say?  But of course!  Just a silly one from assignment #2.

A day late, but Happy Valentines Day!  For us Valentine’s Day is a whole different animal, because it’s also my mom’s birthday.  So we headed over to my parent’s house nice and early to spend the day with mom.  What you need to know, is my dad is always joking that for having a photographer for a daughter, he sure doesn’t have pictures of him and my mom, and why don’t I take any??  So when we headed over, we brought along the cameras and I had such plans!  But alas, my brother was also coming home from Boston last minute, to see my mom and during the best (and last) light of the day, my parents were chugging along the turnpike, en route to picking up the Sameer.  Instead of letting my dragging equipment over to their house go to waste, I grabbed my sister and her boyfriend (also my brother in law…Patrick’s brother) and dragged them out for photos.  Kicking and screaming (not really.)

Aren’t they the cute?