Category: Snapshots
The December 5th Fund {St. Louis Lifestyle Photographer}
December 12, 2018 Events, Family Bonds, Snapshots
On Sunday, an incredible organization extended their generosity and kindness to my little brother Jesse, his wife Alecia, and their four children. The December 5th Fund brought approximately 30 volunteers out to my brother’s house to clean up and organize every floor and room, the front porch and back deck, and the garage. Along with local businesses, the organization donated time, furniture, gift cards, plants, bedding, household necessities, and so much more. While they worked to take care of the mess that cancer has brought into Jesse and Alecia’s home, they gave Jesse, Alecia, and their closest friends and family members a very special day to help them forget about the fight that we’ve all been battling together over the last nine months. You can read more about the organization by visiting their website. Here are some images from the first two-thirds of the day…
The day started with a delicious breakfast at Rooster on South Grand. I’m so happy Jesse liked my suggestion to go there since they offer great vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options (there were seven of us picky eaters), as well as lots of meat options to satisfy the rest of the group!
After breakfast, a smaller group had fun bowling for two hours at Pin Up Bowl on Delmar Blvd. in the U. City Loop!
As Jesse, Alecia, and the kids headed to the Blues Game, I went to their house to get some shots of the beautiful job the volunteers had done. What an unbelievable amount of Love they contributed. My heart is swelling.
Thank you to all of the volunteers and businesses who helped make this day special!
The December 5th Fund {St. Louis Lifestyle Photographer}
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I can’t believe our first baby is now a freshman in high school!! She attended her first homecoming last night. Here are some portraits we took at the park before meeting up with her friends for pre-homecoming dinner!
My Daughter’s 1st Homecoming! {St. Louis Portrait Photographer}
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As I’m sure most parents are, I’m shocked that school is already back in session! We now have 5th, 7th, and 9th graders!! Here are their annual first day of school pictures…
1st Day of School 2018-2019! {St. Louis Children’s Photographer}
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My family and I, along with some close friends, met in the path of totality, at one of our favorite campgrounds, Ozark Outdoors Riverfront Resort, in Leasburg, Missouri to witness and experience the amazing transformation of our sky during the 2017 solar eclipse. We were lucky to have 2 minutes and 5 seconds of totality surrounded by the beauty of the Meramec River.
One of the most memorable parts of my experience was the changing of the light, from a typical sunny summer day to a dimming warm light that casted detailed shadows like we had never seen. Hearing and feeling the shared excitement of family, friends, and strangers brought a unique feeling of connection and solidarity. Not only did the sky radiate with the colors of a sunset and the bugs start chirping as we had heard would happen, but our children actually decided to change out of their swimming suits and put on dry clothes because they were “done swimming for the day” as the moon continued on it’s journey past the sun. Only after the eclipse was totally over did they realize that it was still early afternoon and, with a hot summer sun once again blazing above their heads, there was still plenty of time to float down the river a couple more times.
Here are some moments I was able to capture…
Total Solar Eclipse in Leasburg, Missouri 2017 {St. Louis Child Photographer}
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A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join her and her daughters (who are also friends with my children) in crystal mining and camping in Arkansas for a few days during Spring Break. If you know me, you know there’s a slim chance I’ll say no to an invitation to go camping. It’s my favorite thing to do!! We camped on Lake Ouachita at Joplin Campground and had a blast mining for crystals. It was such a beautiful few days away from home!
Arkansas Spring Break {Family Vacation Photographer}
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My sweet blog post about my son’s field trip was hacked so I had to delete and re-upload it. It’s too bad there are mean people in the world who don’t act in Love toward other humans.
Here are some photos I love so much!! “S” had a blast skiing for the first time!
Field Trip to Hidden Valley Ski Resort {St. Louis Lifestyle Photographer}
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I got hacked, so I had to delete my previous blog post with sweet memories of our Memorial Day camping trip with friends two years ago. Boooooo for mean people in the world. Here are the photos I had shared before!
Memorial Day Camping 2015 {St. Louis Vacation Photographer}
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Camp Ben Frankel {St. Louis Vacation Photographer}
October 25, 2016 Kiddos, Snapshots, The Great Outdoors, Vacations
I was so lucky to visit my daughter’s Jewish sleep away camp for four days last summer with a mission to capture the joy and community at this very special place. Here are some of the moments I preserved! For more information about this sweet, small, wonderful camp, visit http://campbenfrankel.com.
Everyone works together to clean up the camp in preparation for Shabbat.
And the boys begin a Shabbat Walk down to the girls’ side of camp for some photo opps with friends.
Havdalah was so beautiful!
I spent my last day at the Maccabi Games!
Thank you to “Chief” for allowing me to experience your amazing camp, and thanks to all of the staff, counselors, CIT’s, and kiddos for making me feel welcome!!!
Lots of love…Neshama
Camp Ben Frankel {St. Louis Vacation Photographer}
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These pictures are fantastic, and perfectly catch the camp experience at Camp Ben Frankel. My daughter, who has been to Ben Frankel, for four years now, cannot get enough of looking at them! My younger daughter cannot wait until she is old enough. I love the variety of activities, the diversity of the children, and ALL THE SMILES!!!
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So glad you like them!! It was so much fun to be there!
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Last month, I traveled to Israel with a group of nine other St. Louis Jewish leaders who had never visited the land before. The trip was jam packed with incredible people and places that have changed my life. Here are some beautiful moments of our time together. Thank you to Pam and Ron Rubin for making this experience possible.
We landed!
Our first stop is in Neot Kedumim where we herded sheep and goats on a biblical landscape reserve and planted trees.
Ahhh…Tel-Aviv! What a fun city! I didn’t include photos of everything we did, but here are a few I took during our walking tour, graffiti art tour, and Segway tour!
Israel is filled with what we affectionately like to refer to as squirrels. Here’s one of them!
We got to surf in the Mediterranean Sea and then watch the sun set!
It was an honor to visit some of the border police…
Here we are, spending a little time with women who live on a kibbutz…
Making bread…
Learning and growing in Nature…
Picking sweet potatoes to be donated! This was so much fun! For more info about the organization, Leket Israel, visit https://www.leket.org/en/.
Moshe, who is 70 something years old, shared his incredible story of surviving a missile attack to his ship. Unfortunately, many of his friends did not survive. He runs a food pantry dedicated to the men who died.
We came to a mountainside and pulsed our love across the world through a heart meditation and the sounding of the shofar.
I created this panoramic shot the old fashioned way by taking nine images and merging them together in Photoshop. It is a LOT harder than taking a panoramic with an iPhone!
Wow, wow, wow! United Hatzalah is an unbelievable organization of super-hero volunteers. Jews, Muslims, and Christians all over Israel remain on call in case of an emergency. There are so many volunteers available that someone can arrive on the scene within 90 seconds from the time a call is placed to Israel’s 911. Volunteers are trained to administer life-saving treatments until an ambulance arrives. You can learn more by visiting https://israelrescue.org.
Here we are preparing to shop in the shuk (the Jerusalem market) for Shabbat dinner, which we prepared ourselves! What a great memory and deee-licious food!! You can do the same thing next time you’re in Jerusalem! Ruthie and her sister-in-law are SO wonderful!! http://www.shukandcook.com
I like the photo bomber in the background… The guy on the guitar was cool too. He told me something extremely profound, but I was too tired to grasp the concept.
Camels can be found at gas stations in Israel…
Masada!!! We were really hoping to climb it, but people are not allowed to climb once the temperature hits 100 degrees. It was 100.4 degrees when we arrived, so we took the tram.
This scribe, who was in the old synagogue on the top of Masada, shared a teaching with us and sounded the shofar!
These are the remains of the old synagogue.
Here we are, floating in the Dead Sea, which is ten times saltier than the average ocean and super healthy for your skin!
These are all photos from my iPhone, which I decided should be my camera of choice during our ATV trip through the Northern Judean Desert (one of my favorite places in Israel).
We visited an amazing school where Jewish and Arab children learn together (there was a squirrel at the entrance). https://www.handinhandk12.org
Our first visit to the Western Wall was at the beginning of Shabbat, so I didn’t get any pictures, but it was an unbelievable experience that I will never forget. As soon as I entered the Old City, a wave of energy washed over me. I was inspired to not speak another word until I touched the Wall for the first time. We came back after Shabbat, and visited the egalitarian side as a group, and danced in Joy!
I also went back to the women’s side one more time before our trip came to an end.
I slept almost the entire way home, but here we are after landing back in Newark shortly before sunrise!
And here’s one of our last cuddly group photos from the trip!! I miss my friends so much, and can’t wait for us to all get together again!! Katie, Dave, Lisa, Steve, Lauren, Sharon, Matt, Mindee, Paul, and Jodi, I love you all so much!!!
For more details of our experience, visit www.rubinisrael.org.
Rubin Israel Experience {St. Louis Portrait Photographer}
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Wow! Chills and longing.!!!
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Yes!! Desperate longing……. Thank you Kalanit!!
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Thanks to the generous hospitality of our wonderful friend Stacee and her son, my family and I were able to visit Florida last month. We are so grateful that we were able to spend a week with our friends in such a beautiful location! We were in Hollywood, Florida most of the time, but also took a family day trip to Miami, had a memorable night on the town sans kids, and took an amazing trip to the Florida Keys. Here are some special moments from our trip!
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Wonderful pictures Neshama. Keeping you & your family in my thoughts.
Thank you so much for the sweet thoughts Jenn!