wow. hold on a second. let me catch my breath for a minute. that was amazing. your comments had me laughing, crying, shaking my fist at thieves, and laughing again. because seriously, who CAN concentrate when a cat's around and why can't mommy have a penis?!!? what i didn't expect was how hard it would be for me to not just say "well shit, i'll just give away 88 sessions!" lucky for me, the internet lords have come up with a site that will randomly pick the numbers so i don't have to. so, if you want to be mad at anyone, go yell at random.org

i am so very excited to announce the two winners!!

first up, we have : Katie Roman August 11, 2011 at 7:01 pm # Edit

My family has never had professional pictures taken! We have a 4-year old, a 2-year old, and a 3-month old. The other day someone asked us for a picture of our family…and we didn’t have one (not even one we had taken ourselves). We went to MIT campus and asked a stranger to take our picture…which he did, wishing us a fun vacation–we were not on vacation! =)

and second winner is : Tirzah August 12, 2011 at 2:58 pm # Edit

I thought I’d sneak in for one more entry since it’s almost noon and my little guy is napping. I agree with the PP….I would love to win, and then pay some love forward as well!

Congrats you guys!! email me at furiephotography@gmail.com and let's get your sessions set up!

i really can't thank everyone enough for participating. i truly wish i could give to everyone and also really, really hope i still get to meet some, if not all of you and your awesome families. and because no post is any good without a picture, henry says congrats!

1/125 f/1.4 iso 2500 @8pm (also, i'm going to start including stats again with my shots. if there are readers out there interested in technical posts etc. please say so in the comments! lemme know what you guys want!!)

xo isabel

well, originally this was going to contain the whole sob story of what happened to my dear, sweet camera and all the beautiful images i took while we vacationed in california. but then i realized two things. one, most of the very few people who read this blog have already heard the story 100 times and if they hear it again their ears (or eyes in this case) might bleed, and two, time to move on. the short of it? well. i was traveling with two kids, stressing out that we were going to miss our connecting flight that would bring us from NYC to BOS, and after i wrangled most things, my dear sweet camera got left behind in the dust. under seat 31E on delta flight 206 from SFO to JFK. i realized it quickly enough that delta should have been able to easily retrieve it, but in just that short amount of time, the camera had been stolen.

but! this post shouldn't be all about all that sadness. trust me, i've cried enough tears. it's about what happened next. my friends and family rallied around me with such great force and strength and love. a donation fund was set up for me (what?!?!?) and my mom, my sweet guardian angel, who i love more than i'll ever be able to put into words, saved my ass. SO! what does this all mean?! it means i'm back in business! and i'm playin with the big kids y'all! my mommy (imagine me saying that like a spoiled valley girl, it's way funnier) believes in me and my talent so much that she bumped me up to full frame. d700 baby. oh, it's so good.

if you're like me you're thinking "well, shit, that ended up pretty damn alright for her" (mind you, the loss of those photos felt like someone died) and you're right! it did! so, because i can't hand write a thank you letter to every person who donated (trust me, i cried and know who every.single.one. of you are!) i thought of something i could do. someone donated, and i wrote to them "this is absurd, i'll never be able to repay you or thank you!" and their response was "sharing your beautiful photos every day is thanks enough"

need a tissue? no? just me? ok...

so i'm giving away two sessions. two FULL sessions. see? just like this fancy flier says:

how to WIN:

in the comments section tell me about the last time you can remember having a family photo taken of you, or the last time you were photographed as a couple for all you lovebirds out there. the more hilarious the better, though it doesn't really help your chances, it just gives me something to laugh at.

you can comment twice a day. giveaway will be open until FRIDAY @ NOON. winner will be picked at random and announced Friday evening. so be sure you already like furie photography on facebook so you don't miss it! it might be YOU!

good luck! xo isabel