Author: Ali Carras

At a very young age I lost site of my mom in a local grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. I did, however, have the smarts to go to the customer service counter. The kind woman at the counter asked "What is your name little girl?" My reply: "Assi." The woman gave me a look like, "Are you playing with me you little devil?" but she proceeded to blast on the loudspeaker the "We have a lost Assi at the front of the store." Customers throughout the store gagged and giggled, but my mom knew exactly who the woman was referring to: the mullet haired little girl with a tongue too big for her mouth, wearing a leotard, skirt, tights, and jelly shoes (with florescent green laces in them...even though they didn't need the laces). A shy little character for whom every little detail in life was a huge thing. I am pleased to report that today I am able to fully pronounce Allison (aka Ali), but the Assi pseudonym has always stuck, evolving into Aszi. As for the shy little character for whom every little detail in life was a huge thing? Some things never change. I have closed my comments due to mass amounts of spam that no filter could ever control. Feel free to contact me abeckord [at] gmail.com!

jump up and get down. pop-up fall dates announced!

By golly our schedule for the next few months is filling faster than I can keep up. To help tame the madness I have a few dates reserved for our pop-up mini shoots. This is my effort to help you collect awesome pictures of your offspring because hey, YOU MADE HIM/HER/THEM! And, this is a chance to get a quick family portrait for your holiday card…while the focus will be on the kiddos I know you want something with all of you in it too!

The basics:
A 20-30 minute portrait session for up to two kids (max) aged 6 months to 6 years (ish). If you have more than two kids you’ll need two sessions. We’ll have a preset backdrop and lighting set up for all studio shoots and we’ll use natural light for all outdoor shoots (see below).

The dates:
Sessions happen on the hour between 9am and 3pm and time slots must be reserved in advance. Additional days may be added based on demand and availability.

Sept 13th | Location: Studio in Emeryville
Oct 12th | Location: Outdoors, weather permitting (exact location TBD)
Oct 26th | Location: Studio in Emeryville **this will be a Halloween costume themed shoot (SO FUN!) but before the costumes come on we can do a normal family portrait with a gray background.
Nov 1st | Location: Outdoors, weather permitting (exact location TBD)

How much and what do I get?
$200
20-30 minute session
Private online gallery with 10-15 photos
5 high resolution digital files for download
15% off print purchases

Location:
Our studio loft space in Emeryville or outside as noted above.

Snap, can’t make it on the dates above, will you be doing this on any other days?
Potentially. We’ll see how the demand is and how much insanity I can handle over the next few months. Email me if you are interested and can’t make it and I’ll get a sense for need. More pop-ups to come.

Give it to me! How?
Email ali[at]aszichild.com and let me know:

1.) Your name and the name/s and age/s of your offspring. Two kids max per each session. If you have more than two kids you’ll need two sessions.

2.) The date you wish to reserve.

3.) Your top three picks for time slots in order of preference (i.e. 9am, 11am or 1pm). Reservations are made on a first come first served basis and will start on the hour.

things as of late

In no particular order a few things that have happened as of late that have brought a good old pile of joy to my plate:

1.) While in a busy Berkeley Bowl grocery shopping trip a stranger and I agreed that we are all dancing around one another trying to make our way through the aisles. And then randomly as I tried to cross the aisle and she tried to cross the aisle we both danced by each other at the same time (literally danced). I guess I would classify my moves as contemporary dance. For the record, I am not a good dancer and kind of don’t like dancing in public but this moment was special.

2.) I treated myself to a big bunch of fresh lavender and have it placed next to me while I work. Getting a big whiff of lavender as the great bay area breeze passes through our loft makes me one happy woman.

3.) MaLou rocking her chemo treatments this go round.

4.) We had an old banana and some hot days which then turned into a little rash of fruit flies. I feel really accomplished because last night I made a fruit fly trap and today I see successful results! The little things, right?

5.) Baby child talking up a storm, giving the tightest unsolicited hugs at random, looking up to big cousins, watching a little boy through a tantrum using so many “No! No! No’s!” and then little F learning how to say the word no two seconds later, using the potty, making friends, playing with friends, wanting to read…I could go on and on. I just love this little person.

6.) Enjoying what we have while we have it.

taking a big step

(photo taken with VSCO app for my iphone)

You should see this one section of my hair that is so so gray you’d think I was a 70 year old in a 33 year old body (i.e. it is time to get my hair did). It is actually a really pretty shiny silver gray and part of me wants to just let it go and embrace being a silver fox (ha!) but another part of me thinks I’m not quite ready.

“I’m not quite ready.” Lordy, this seems to be the theme of our lives at the moment.

We’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately thinking about our future and where we want to be, what we want to be doing, what sort of life we want to provide our kiddo and how we might go about this thing called survival. One night we made up our minds and thought we had an answer and got all excited/scared. The next day after some venturing we decided we aren’t quite ready. It is really hard to take a big step when there are a lot of unknowns, self-employed factors to consider and dependents to provide for. I fear a little that maybe we are making the wrong choice by doing what is comfortable but I also fear if we made a big change we’d regret it.

But, it never hurts to take some time to think about the possibilities, enjoy what you have while you have it and try to grow some cojones, ha!

black & white pop-up THANK YOU!

A massively large T H A N K Y O U to all the kiddos, parentals and cats who participated in our black & white pop-up this year. You guys were awesome!

Black & White Pop Up What?!

Fo schizzle yo nizzle…time for another pop-up! This time the focus of the mini pop-up session is to capture a stellar black and white portrait of your little one. The biggest challenge will be trying to get your mini you to sit for more than 2 seconds but the end result will be a striking, classic, black and white image that 60 years from now you still can’t get enough of.

The basics:
A 20-30 minute portrait session for up to two kids (max) aged 4months to 8 years (ish). Your offspring should be able to sit up on his/her own and/or have the capacity to sit still for at least a few seconds (ha!). We’ll have a preset backdrop and lighting set up and ready to go. This is not a family portrait session, so sorry. The framing of the shot will primarily be upper body (i.e. portrait) so I’d encourage dapper hats or costume items that may accentuate the personality of your kid/s (i.e. crowns, tiaras, glasses, etc). We’ll do some photos with/without costume items.

When:
May 24 from 9am-3pm. Sessions happen on the hour and time slots must be reserved in advance. Additional days may be added based on demand.

How much and what do I get?
$200
20-30 minute session
Private online gallery with 10-15 photos
5 high resolution digital files for download
15% off print purchases

Location:
Our studio loft space in Emeryville.

Snap, can’t make it on the 24th, will you be doing this on any other days?
Potentially. We’ll see how the demand is and considering that it is a holiday weekend and not too far away we’ll probably offer another date in June or July. Email me if you are interested and can’t make it and I’ll get a sense for need. More pop-ups to come.

Give it to me! How?
Email ali[at]aszichild.com and let me know:

1.) Your name and the name/s and age/s of your offspring. Two kids max per each session. If you have more than two kids you’ll need two sessions.

2.) Your top three picks for time slots in order of preference (i.e. 9am, 11am or 1pm). Reservations are made on a first come first served basis and will start on the hour.

to be put on a pedestal

{photo taken with VSCO app for my iphone…I really do know how to take photos with good cameras, I’m just lazy more often than not}

Things I’ve come to learn about baby child: She likes order, she likes routines, she likes predictability, she likes her independence and she likes hedgehogs. I guess this could be true for most kids (plus or minus the hedgehogs) but it is interesting to realize what she needs to feel happy and secure. In the case of the hedgehogs, she likes these specific items placed on the mini green chair on our photo ledge…she doesn’t need any other toys or items up here, just the hedgehogs. And she gets SO excited to see the hedgehogs on the chair on the ledge. And actually, I find a lot of joy in seeing the hedgehogs on the chair on the ledge too. If I were back in college I might consider doing a psych study to see if in having a hedgehog on a chair on a ledge elevates positive neurons in your brain. Because honestly I think it does.

a year in review

{photo taken with VSCO app for my iphone}

My goal this weekend is to recap all my favorite memories from 2013 before they vanish from my little brain. So, in no particular order:

**disclaimer! This was “the year of the baby” so the majority of my memories revolve around baby and her milestones. If you don’t like babies then you’d better look away fast.

-The first 3 months of 2013 pretty much revolved around boobs. I knew breastfeeding would take a lot out of me but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of time it would take every single day for a long, long time and how little else I would get to do. After about the first few months it became second nature but man, it was like a wild African scene in our loft. Sorry to any neighbors/friends who saw things they were not prepared to see. In Vancouver, Canada ladies are whipping their man made nursing utensils out left and right which was awesome, but you just don’t see that as much out here.

-Lots of little travels in 2013. Fbombs first trip was to Palm Springs, CA at around 2 months then to Olympia, WA at 3 months then to Colorado at 4.5 months then back to Palm springs at 5 months then to San Luis Obispo for a weekend trip, then to Tahoe, then to Chicago at 9 months, then to Ashland, OR and back to Olympia with a quick trip to Vancouver at 10 months, then back to Colorado for her one year birthday. She has been such a good traveler both by car and plane. I’m guessing our easy travel days are coming to a close but man, she is such a travel buddy.

-Halloween in Colorado was pretty memorable. I had had too much coffee the day before Halloween and decided we needed to bring the old Beckord tradition back and scare the kiddos again. So my wild mind got going and I formulated lots of plans on how to raise the biggest fright. Then I realized, “I’m a mom and baby will have to go to bed.” So, my good old pops did all the scaring and he did one heck of a good job. Nothing like giving used golf balls out as treats, right?

-Ma’s bladder cancer came back a number of times throughout the year but before the holidays she was disease free. Yippee!! Now thinking happy thoughts for 2014.

-Cdawg shooting his first magazine cover. Exciting to see him branch out more and more.

-Waking up the morning of Fdizzle’s 1st birthday to snow! On the teepee!

-Sleeping on the bathroom floor with food poisoning when I should have been camping with my sister on her 40th birthday. But then getting to surprise her as she floated on Eel river. I love my sister.

-A dear friend’s wedding at the most magical place on earth (it wasn’t Disneyland).

-The death of our old Audi and the birth of our “we are parents now” hot red used Volvo station wagon.

-Seeing baby child sit up, eat real food, crawl, pull up, cruise and walk. I’m so so so so so so thankful I’ve been home to see all this stuff even if it means I’m not saving a lot of dough.

-Catching baby child’s first steps on video. Not sure how we were quick enough to do it but we did. She had no idea she had walked so it was no big deal to her. Just another day playing with the salad spinner.

-Spending lots of good time with friends who also have offspring. Thanks, friends, for also having offspring.

-The birth of the first Beckord BOY. Finally, we have someone to carry on the Beckord name. And I’ll never forget meeting him for the first time WHILE watching a Bronco game with my bro/sis-in-law in the recovery room, while drinking a beer. That is the way to do it.

-Doing a mini shoot with such awesome, awesome families. I’m really grateful and can’t wait to do more!

-Back to Olympia then Palm Springs then Olympia to start the new year.

holiday card 2013

“Freya-zilla takes over Tokyo”

Yip yip! Big baby girl has made her second debut in our holiday cards. Not sure how long we can keep this up but we’ll try as long as we can.

very last minute pop up photo shoot for kiddos!

Is life happening at warp speed and the holiday madness has prohibited you from taking any new/fresh photos of your offspring? Shazam! A last minute mini session at your service!

The basics:
A 20-30 minute portrait session for up to two kids (max) aged 6months to 6 years (ish). We’ll have a preset backdrop and lighting set up and ready to go. This is not a family portrait session, so sorry.

When:
Dec 15 from 9am-3pm. Sessions happen on the hour and time slots must be reserved in advance (but are already filling up fast so get on it!)

How much and what do I get?
$200
20-30 minute session
Private online gallery with 10-20 photos
5 high resolution digital files for download
15% off print purchases

Location:
Our studio loft space in Emeryville.

Tell me more:
Session fee due at the time of booking to reserve your time. The fee is non-refundable. From the online gallery you will choose your 5 favorites photos and send your selects to me. I will electronically send you the high resolution digital files for you to download. You can then make prints or late holiday cards, ha! The download will include a permission to print release for personal usage only (copyright still belongs to me). Turn around time for the digital files will be one week from the shoot date. As long as you get on it right away there will be plenty of time to get prints made to use as holiday gifts (side note: prints ordered through me **may not** make it in time, just a heads up).

Snap, can’t make it on the 15th, will you be doing this on any other days?
Nope, this is it for this year but if you are nice to me this go round future pop-ups may happen in 2014.

Give it to me! How?
Email ali@aszichild.com and let me know:

1.) Your name and the name/s and age/s of your offspring. Two kids max per each session. If you have more than two kids you’ll need two sessions.

2.) Your top three picks for time slots in order of preference (i.e. 9am, 11am or 1pm). Reservations are made on a first come first served basis and will start on the hour.

start fresh

My wild mind got going last night and I thought of all these things I want to do and see and create. I think my brain was trying to tell me it is malnourished in the creativity department and I need to feed it BIG TIME! So, I’m gonna. And I’m gonna share. And even though I stay up too late and get up too early trying to do all that I have to do I’m going to carve just a little more me time to make these things happen. Push/encourage me! Say “Assi, it is time to get your saucy creative pants on and go wild!” And if you push me enough I will buy these. Or maybe these are more fitting?

{photo taken with VSCO app for my iphone}