Sam’s Bar Mitzvah

Sam’s Bar Mitzvah was beautiful and moving. We need to be reminded more often that young people are full of wisdom.

And after the service, everybody enjoyed the great party Katie (Sam’s mom) organized. So much fun!

Thank you to everybody who worked with me:

Venue: Or Shalom Jewish Community

Catering: Beverlee Hassid

DJ: Jeff Werner

Here’s one of my favorite photos from Sam’s Portrait Session. Check out a few more here.

Sam’s Portrait

I am looking forward to taking pictures at Sam’s Bar Mitzvah in March.

Sam and I met a week ago with his mom Katie for this portrait session, so that we could get to know each other before the big day. Sam chose the location and came full of ideas for the shoot.

Half way through, I had to ask: “Are you an artist?” He answered he draws a lot. I was not surprised. He had a great eye for lighting and composition and it was fun collaborating on the shots.

The best part was of course photographing Sam with his dog! I LOVE dogs, so that was a welcome surprise.

We waited for the sun to set on the beach. Perfect light! And not too cold for January.

Katie was so patient and in the end stepped in front of the camera as well!

Make sure to “like” Aurora Meneghello Productions on Facebook, for all the latest photos and blog posts. This year I am blogging several times a week ;)

Best Of Aurora Meneghello Productions: 2011 in Review

I can’t say enough times how grateful I am to all of you who supported Aurora Meneghello Productions this year. 2011 has been its best year ever, and it surpassed all my expectations. If I had to choose one word for 2011, I would say it’s COMMUNITY.

Locally Grown Weddings continued to grow and you will be able to read all about it on its blog in the days to come.

I joined BAIA at the end of 2010, but became active in the organization in January of 2011, after understanding a bit more how it works. BAIA has been just amazing and for more than one reason. First of all, the members of the board of governance are all interesting and talented professionals who excel at what they do and are committed to building a network of Italians who live and work here in the Bay Area. Everybody brings a different set of skills to the group and plans projects and events accordingly. I am learning lots about marketing, entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley. And then of course the best part has been meeting Sara and Veronica, who organize BAIA Aperitivo with me. It’s been years since I had Italian friends my age! So that makes me happy on a professional and personal level as well. BAIA Aperitivo has been a great success from the very first meeting, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, now it’s the time to do so!

What can I say…I LOVE weddings! This year I photographed some amazing weddings (more on next year’s blog posts) and met and connected with more couples than ever before. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my Saturdays than being surrounded by love and family in beautiful locations. Thanks to all of you who entrusted the memories of the first day of your life together to my photography. I wish you all the very best in 2012!

In 2011 I also started photographing Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and was blown away by this rite of passage of which I knew very little. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a time when young Jewish boys and girls become responsible for their actions to their community. They have to give a long speech and read from the Torah and discuss a passage from it, among other things. I can tell you that I would have been so scared of doing something like that at 12 or 13! Listening to these young people talk about peace, leadership, ethics and so on has reminded me how smart and underestimated young people are. Let’s all remember to value our youth, and not to dismiss their thoughts, waiting for them to “grow up.” Thank you to all the families who brought me into their homes and let me be part of this important milestone in the lives of their children.

In 2011 Aurora Meneghello Productions became green certified by Greener Photography and Locally Grown Weddings received its certification from the city of San Francisco. Yeah!

This year has also been bittersweet, with my really good friend Miriam moving to Germany with her fiancee (and now wife!) Doro. I was so honored to take their engagement photos before they left. I hope this will forever remind them of their days in San Francisco. Every now and then I look at the photos as well, when I miss them. But I am so happy to know that now they can pursue their art and passions as a married couple. Hopefully one day nobody will have to move abroad to marry their soul mate, no matter what gender they are.

As some of you know, I have worked for over 4 years on Default: the Student Loan Documentary. It’s been a real labor of  love and so many times I felt discouraged and wanted to give up! But finally we were able to release this important film and now 138 local TV stations are broadcasting it all over the country. More will add it to the list in the coming months (including KQED in SF) and I hope this will help change a system that is crippling the financial life of students across the US. This was possible because of the help of many people who contributed time and resources to this film. Thank you! And thanks to all of you who sent me emails saying how much of a difference this film made in your life.

In 2011, I have had the pleasure of working alongside some amazingly talented photographers, again COMMUNITY is the word! Thank you, Genevieve, Hardy, Anthony, Bryan, Chris and Matt for all your help. Gianluca, I miss you now that you are in LA, working with you was always so much fun! And thank you Craig, Saul and Mark for all your advice and support. It’s thanks to photographers like you that we can all thrive and produce exceptional work.

An last, but not least, thank you, Will, for being there for me when I am happy and when I am sad, when I am ready for a hike, and when I want to sleep until late on Sunday morning. You have enriched my life from the first day we met, even if it took me a second date to figure that out ;)

Happy New Year, everybody. May 2012 bring you joy, peace and happiness!

Thank you, Hardy Wilson, for this photo of me at work!