All The Hugs And Kisses In The World Are Not Enough

If there is one day out of the year when true love is in the air is on….No, not Valentine’s Day or Christmas Morning,  is “Mother’s Day” Yes, that’s right! Despite our busy lives, work schedules, meetings etc. We all tend to make time for Mom and assure she feels all the Love we can give. It is the one thing we make happen no matter what. On this day you will see flowers being delivered, restaurants completely booked for brunch and kids holding drawings with pink and red hearts waiting anxiously to see her face.

It’s a universal truth that moms deserve all we can give and more – it’s their unconditional love and care for us that makes them so special. The ability to look at our imperfections and see only perfection, the talent of having the patience when no one else in the world would, and the need to protect and defend us against all odds even when it means giving up their own lives.

A mother should be celebrated and appreciated every day of the year whether is a quick call or text to ask how  her day is going, or a gentle kiss accompanied by a hug should let her know she is loved and appreciated and it’s probably the best gift we can offer her.

Time flies, today’s moments become distant memories in the blink of an eye and sometimes regret will crawl in. Don’t ever take your mom for granted or your Dad for that matter, but that’s another post. Do things with her, spend time building memories or simply hanging out. If you live far away from her, then visit more often, life is short and often we don’t realize what we have until; we’ve lost it.

Finally, take lots of photos with your mom, some of the best photo shoots we’ve had at Jasmandii Studios have been with our moms. Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful Moms in the world!

Why an Amazonian Warrior Queen Photo Session?

Why not!…I think we can all agree that there is nothing sexier than a female in power and let’s face it,  what a great way to creatively honor the strength of women though out history who have bravely battled against many odds. Ok, some of you girls might say… its too extravagant, it really doesn’t reflect who I am, blah blah blah. The truth is we all have a warrior inside even if for some it remains dormant for most of their lives, its still there and letting it out through this art form is sometimes just what we need to remind ourselves that we are strong and we can fight the darkest battles in our lives. At the end of the day we all want to be different, stand out, and be unique, so I say forget about those boring portraits from the past – We live in a world today where “different” is the new trend and that is our religion at Jasmandii Studios. Dare to do something you have never done before, live your fantasy through your photo shoot and become who ever you desire. Take a risk, dance the dance, and be bold!

We are thrilled to have finished our brand new “Amazonian Queen” photo session this past Sunday – We are now offering this package along with our existing “Boudoir, Pin-Up, and Belly Dancing” sessions! Unleash Your Inner Warrior Queen! Please feel free to comment If you have an idea for a fantasy photo session that you would like us to consider, let us know – We are always open to embrace new styles of photography – To view more photos from the “Amazonian Queen” Photo Shoot this past Sunday click here or visit our website at www.jasmandii.com

What is Boudoir Photography?

The term Boudoir derives from the French verb bouder, meaning “to sulk” or boudeur, meaning “sulky” and it was a lady’s private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room around the 1800’s.  Although a popular genre in the world of photography today, Boudoir is not a new concept and was very much a trend from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Boudoir photography can have many styles and suggest very different images. Typically shot in a photographer’s studio or luxury hotel suites, it has become fashionable to create a set of sensual or sexually suggestive images of women in “boudoir” although nudity is more often implied than explicit.

It is the art of photographing the body and personality while showing the feminine side, creating images where women can see their beauty reflected while providing them with a fun, refreshing and sexy experience. All women, regardless of age or constitution can convey sweetness and seduction. Generally boudoir sessions are intended as a special gift for someone, but it can be an absolutely empowering gift for ladies to celebrate their beauty for themselves. “At the end of it all, it is about the experience itself”

At Jasmandii Studio, we like to bring it up a notch and mix in the style of “Burlesque” using many props and accessories, we create a vintage atmosphere with a cabaret/carnival touch, but mostly artistic. It works perfect for clients who wish to show less skin, but still desire to achieve that sexy look. The Hair and make-up are a vital part of evoking an image of another era and allows us to complete the look that together with the lighting, the costume and the accessories will end up being a resounding piece of art.

No doubt that any woman can fall in love with this style! So be it “Boudoir”, “Burlesque” or simply glamorous and splendorous lingerie detailed session…. Jasmandii Studio, will know how to best highlight your feminine beauty.

Always remember that every woman is beautiful, and confidence and self-esteem are not given to us by other people – It is up to ourselves, we should learn to love our bodies and appreciate it.  Our photography allows us to help our clients discover not only their external beauty but also their inner goddess!

Bringing Back The Old Flavor

Recently I have been obsessed with turning every photo into a classic old relic. Mainly I blame my friend Yaime who introduced me to the Hipstmatic App on the iphone which lets you choose different lenses and films from different eras giving the photo more substance and a unique quality setting them aside from your average cellphone snapshot. I have been experimenting quite a bit with this app and I absolutely love it but last week I took it up a notch with another app called “LO-MOB” who Yaime aka Inception Master also managed to add to my addiction. This app lets you age the photos on so many levels you will do back flips when you see how awesome they come out….anyways I wanted to share some of my little experiments:

Myself March 2011

My Mom October 2010

Biscayne Bay February 2010

Siboney Beach, Cuba December 2010

Miami August 2010

Tower of Freedom, Miami May 2010

My Friend Yaime, April 1997

MOM…..You Still Got It Going On!

Who says women pass a “certain age” can’t have glamour photo shoots? My mother sure can put that theory to the test! I won’t say her age because she will be reading this and I will never hear the end of it but I will be 29 years old this year so you get the picture. I hope that by sharing these photos I can inspire some of you to spend a whole day with your mother and give her photo shoot – I promise you won’t regret it and it will be a great memory that will stay with both of you for the rest of your lives. We take our parents for granted and don’t make enough time to see them and enjoy them before they are taken from us too soon. We think they are eternal and don’t like to imagine a life without them but unfortunately that will come for all of us and the only thing that remains are memories which somehow has the magic to help us re-live a moment that was special to us. I wanted to do this for a long time take my mom and spend a whole day just taking photos and laughing – I can say I loved our day together, we both had tons of fun and even her husband who is not to easy to please had a couple of laughs along the way! I recommend this to anyone with a camera and a willing mother! lol here we go…

From He 2 She: Digital Plastic Surgery?

Anyone who has witness a crossdresser knows the amount of work it takes to transform a “testosterone-shaped face and body” into a “glamorous estrogen beauty.” The world of digital technology has evolved immensely in the last decade specially when it comes to digital images and the way we can manipulate them to achieve our desired results. One software stands out from the rest since it has been widely used in the professional and top of the line media outlets to retouch and finalize their images to perfection, “Photoshop” yes magic is possible at least inside the computer monitor.  This program allows us to be creative in ways we ourselves haven’t even thought of!  I have been teaching myself for years  on how to use some of the tools to ensure I get the best out of my photos.  Now I wanted to share with you guys some of the things I have done in the last couple of weeks. I will be showing how I retouched a series of images in order to achieve the feminine results of some photos that began with a man simply dressed up as woman.  This is my friend Neftali, he was nice enough to pose for me. Please note that he is not wearing any padding or waste reducer – all he is wearing is a wig, feminine clothing , and some regular make up.

Neftali Before

Neftali After

Ready To Party

Eleganza

GIrls Just Wanna Have Fun

Vogue

Winter Laughs

Divalicious

Ichimura Japanese Garden in Miami, a Hidden Oasis of Peace

If you are looking to get away from the city within the city look no more this magnificent garden is the ideal spot for a peaceful walk, long meditation, yoga, etc. and is all free!!!

In the 1950’s, Mr. Kiyoshi Ichimura became enamored with the City of Miami and began sending dismantled objects and materials from Tokyo along with carpenters, gardeners and a landscape architect to design and construct, what in 1961 would become, the “San-Ai-An Japanese Garden.”

The original location of the garden was Bayside Park in downtown Miami. It was moved to Watson Island when Bayside Park was redeveloped in 1960s. It was again moved to its present 1-acre site to facilitate construction of Jungle Island in 2001.

The City of Miami and landscape architect Lester Collins Pancoast and architect Thorn Grafton worked cooperatively with the Japanese Consul and The Friends of the Japanese Garden to redesign and reconstruct the Ichimura Japanese Garden.

Hours of Operation
Monday to Friday 7:00 am to 3:30 pm – Saturday and Sunday 9:30 am to 6:00 pm

Admission
Free. The garden is not generally staffed, so you are on your own.

Location and Parking
Located beside Jungle Island on Watson Island on the westbound lane of I-395 (MacArthur Causeway) between Miami Beach (South Beach at 5th. Street) and the City of Miami. Regrettably at present there is no official parking. To one side is a boat ramp which has a minimum US$ 10.00 parking fee, and on the other side is Jungle Island which charges US$ 7.00 for parking. You could of course park across the MacArthur Causeway for free, but would risk grievous bodily harm trying to cross over this speedway.

Beautifully Deadly

From time to time I visit the Everglades, I drive around and stop whenever I see something interesting, it’s my way of capturing decent photos when I don’t have the money to get into the actual National Park. These shots are from the surrounding areas of the Tamiami trail road. Again I forgot how dangerous the wilderness really is as I ventured into the other side of an old wooden bridge that divides the canal adjacent to the main road from the actual wilderness. I was lured by the presence of a sort of friendly young gator that kept getting closer to the shore as if he was intrigued by me. After taking many shots of the young reptile I started to gain confidence and thought we had become buddies so I decided…STUPID ME… to get really close to him(about 3 feet) thinking well he is not that big he will get scared of me if anything and flop away…yeah right! What was I thinking? Clearly I have been watching too much the Discovery channel. So there I was so close to this gator he could shake my hand or me for that matter when I suddenly realized he was not flopping away instead he slowly started to approach the shore and that’s When I completely panicked and tried moving backwards and I fell back hitting my tripod behind me which made a loud noise…Bam!!!! and the gator turned away and went under water, I flew out of there at the speed of light with my heart in my hands. Never again Joan I said to myself as I walked back to my truck heavily breathing, never again!!! I have a whole new respect for those scientist that get in the water with those Alligators on “Animal Planet”. I will be posting some more photos of my scary buddy later in the week, for now enjoy some of the other landscapes I shot which didn’t involve me risking my life. I hope my mother doesn’t read this post or she’ ll be pissed.

Gone With The Wind

My Buddy

Dreamy

A Piece Of The Puzzle

Solitude

A Leap Of Faith

Serenity

Connected

A Window To A Brighter Tomorrow

Wandering Far Away

These photos below I took before I had a professional camera, some of them are with my iphone and regular digital camera, but never the less I still think they are quite beautiful and I wanted to share them in hopes of inspiring people to take beautiful photos even with their cellphone.

Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina

“Agora,”  Grant Park, Chicago -by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz

Farm by the Road, Wisteria, Ohio

Old Building, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Autumn, Nashville, Tennessee

River Path, Park City, Utah

My City Like You Never Seen Before

Miami has many enchanting places but nothing brings out the romance in me like standing by the venetian causeway at dusk, it simply transports me to another world. If you haven’t passed by here I absolutely recommend it during the twilight hours.

Summer sunsets in Miami can be magical too, California has nothing on us! Well maybe not, but still if you cant afford to travel at least you can spend an afternoon biking around downtown and you can be mesmerized by the sun rays turning Miami into a golden city of wonder! It’s not having what you want, is wanting what you got!

Miami can also be cold and charming in the 2 weeks of winter we experience here, specially because everyone seems to be in a good mood, maybe is due to the fact that we can show off our winter clothe which we all buy too much of considering how short our winter is here.  Never the less we Floridians prefer the summer for obvious reasons: the beach

Ok so our city might not be known for its historic architecture glory but its still there and everyone should check it out along with the museums and historical sites. Get to know your “neck of the woods” you might discover things you never knew! Be a tourist in your backyard!

Brickell Key is enchanting, taking a walk, gazing at the bay and spotting a dolphin here and there are just part of the magic. Seriously people if you get a chance stop by this mini city of wonder.