Ana Silva Photography

NYC Portrait Photographer

What Are The 40 Over 40 And 50 Over 50 Campaigns?

Hello everybody!

It’s been a while since I’ve written something. The last time I wrote a blog was months ago and I shared with you one of my 40 over 40 clients.

Today, I’m writing to tell you a little bit more about what the 40 Over 40 and 50 Over 50 are about, the goal and overall why YOU should be part of it.

What are the 40 Over 40 and 50 Over 50 campaigns?

They are campaigns to celebrate women between the ages of 39 and 59. These particular groups of women have been forgotten by society. They have been led to believe that once they reach 40 and up, they no longer matter.

This couldn’t be farthest from the truth!

Women in their 40s and 50s are the most beautiful, confident and go getters. These women no longer care about what others think of them. They don’t ask for permission and definitely don’t take any BS from ANYBODY! These women know what they want and go after it.

You get a complete makeover of hair and makeup plus you get to wear beautiful gowns and tulle robes that will make you feel like a true goddess. You’re more than welcome to bring any special outfits you’d love to be photographed with as well as anyone in your live you want to bring.

These sessions are custom tailored for you.

What is the goal of these campaigns?

The goal of these campaigns is to show women in general but especially women in their 40s and 50s that they are still beautiful, desirable, strong and sexy. That they’re important, that thinking about themselves first should be their first, second and third priority. That it’s OK to be selfish and put themselves first.

Many of these women are moms, wives or take care of other people, putting them in a position of forgetting about themselves.

I’m a mom of four, and for the longest time I forgot about ME. By choice, I always made sure my kids and my husband were taken care of forgetting myself in the process.

I’m not gonna say I resented that because I didn’t, but I’ll say it came to a point where I was not happy about myself resulting in low self-esteem.

It wasn’t until I started taking care of me, that things got better physically and emotionally. So yes, self care is very important and though it sounds selfish, it’s imperative that you do it.

My journey started with self portraits. For the last five years I’ve done a self portrait birthday shoot to see how I age and it has truly helped me to fall in love with me. As narcissistic as that sounds, that’s how I learned to appreciate who I am and that’s what I want other women to do for themselves.

Loving yourself takes time and baby steps are required. So my idea of helping women is with these campaigns to remind them of the goddesses they already are.

I want them to embrace every “flaw” and “imperfection” and realize that’s part of who they are but it doesn’t define them.

Why should YOU be part of these campaigns?

Simple. Because you deserve to be celebrated at every stage of your life!

When you book a shoot, I make sure you forget about your troubles for a couple of hours. The whole focus will be on you, on making you look and feel amazing and for you to leave my studio with a boost of confidence that maybe you didn’t know you needed.

I want you to remember how much you matter and how much you’re worth. I want you to have a gorgeous photo to remember this time of your life and to leave behind as part of your legacy.

So, are you ready to join this movement to empower our fellow women? Check out the correspondent campaigns links below and I look forward to photographing you.

40 over 40
50 over 50

Latest Accomplishments

Over the last few days, amazing things have happened to me!

To begin, I received the results for the images I submitted for accreditation to become a portrait master. I received five bronze and one silver, AND I placed 10th on the top 20 in the boudoir category!
When I saw my image, I screamed so loud, lol. I was shaking from excitement and pride. Though I was expecting a higher score, I was thrilled to have made the top 20.

Two years prior I had submitted two images that got a 67 & 68. I was very discouraged and disappointed. Honestly, I felt very defeated and started doubting myself.

I worked hard in getting better so I could submit again. I literally waited for the last minute before the deadline to submit because I was still debating whether or not I should enter again.

I created a vision board of the scores I wanted to get. I also asked the Universe that all six of the images I was submitting made it past the 60s and to make the top 20.

Granted I didn’t get the desired scoring. But all of them made it AND I made top 20! These things really work!
I placed bronze in children’s portraits.

Bronze in family & group portrait.

My only silver was this one and it’s definitely one of my favorites!
Nicky started as my muse but we’ve quickly become friends. She’s not only beautiful but sweet and kind and I’m so grateful to have her in my life.

To continue with the amazing things that have happened this past week, I was also featured in one of photography’s most respected magazines. I submitted not expecting to be picked, after all the competition was fierce and there was A LOT of fellow talented photographers.

My heart skipped a few beats when I received an email from Shutter Magazine congratulating me on being published. I gotta admit it was a pretty good feeling. Being on the Inspirations section of the magazine was quite gratifying.
It sure has been a thrilling few days. There’s a perfect timing for everything. Things don’t always happen when you want, they happen when they’re supposed to. 

If you don’t get something you really want now, it doesn’t mean you won’t get it. It just means it’s not the RIGHT time yet.

If you submitted to the Portrait Masters and didn’t get the score you wanted, don’t give up. Don’t let that stop you from entering again. Eventually, you will get there. Take it from me 🙂
I hope you enjoy this post. If you want more info about entering for the accreditation, go here https://theportraitmasters.com/
 

Let’s Read!!!

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post. I know, bad me, lol.

Today however, I wanted to share with you my latest session in hopes that it inspires you and your family.

As some of you might know, I have four kids. Ages range from 8 to 16, three girls and a boy. As it is with everyone, they all have very different personalities, likes, dislikes, etc. One thing they all agree on is reading.

Though not all love reading(only three of the four really love reading), they do enjoy going to the library. So I had been thinking for a while about doing a session in the library and finally got it done.

I took my camera with me and hoped for the best in terms of lighting, lol. This is part one of two since this time only my little ones were photographed. 

I intend to do another one with my older ones but for that I want the old, big books to give it a more mature feel.

I hope you enjoy these and are inspire to go to your local library and get your kids reading.


She found this ballerina book and was so excited since she says she wants to be a ballerina 🙂




She’s the least book lover but she would read a series if it catches her attention.



Look at those faces 🙂

Next time you go to the library, try and take some photos of your little ones picking books. It’s a great way to get them excited to read.
See you next time 🙂

Lady In Red

Since I found Sue Bryce, my creative side has always been in overdrive. I find myself constantly getting ideas for photoshoots. Whether with tulle, fabric, flowers, sometimes/almost always all three, I’m always trying to give my creativity life.

The hardest part is FINDING the right person that will help you make that vision come true and they believing such vision.

I had the enormous honor of working with Nicky after DMing each other a few times. By the time we actually met in person, it felt like we had been friends forever!

I told her about my idea of recreating this image by Sue Bryce and she was immediately on board.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Blg9xMYh76t/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

I had the dried roses and had bought the fabric to make the dress. All I needed was a beautiful model and she was it.

We got together and magic happened!
When I saw this in the back of camera and almost cried! Not only had I pulled off the dress but she looked like a goddess and everything I envisioned the image to be.


I took some with this golden dress but my jaw totally dropped when we changed into the tulle dress and recreated this image also by Sue Bryce

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmmUesEB9og/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Nicky was just perfect!

I couldn’t decide between the color or the b&w so I kept both

I have done many sessions that I love but I’ve never ever loved a session more than I did with Nicky.
She let me be as creative as I wanted, went along with my crazy ideas and the results were magical!

Don’t be afraid to do sessions just for you. Yes, it’s nice to have paying clients but sometimes doing something just for us is even more important. 

It keeps our creativity and inspiration fresh; therefore burning out isn’t possible.

I hope you enjoy this post. Be sure to check both Nicky and Sue so you too can get inspired 🙂

My Battle With Anemia And Other Health Issues

Hello everyone!

This will be a very different blog post from the ones I normally blog about. Today I won’t be talking about my recent session or how to make a dress.

Today, I’ll be talking about my chronic anemia and the causes for it.

Let’s go back to about six months ago when I started having major abdominal cramps even when I wasn’t due for my period. I would wake up with severe pain and had no idea why.

I kept wondering why if I didn’t have my period, I was experiencing such painful cramps. I hardly had cramps when I was younger so I assumed the fact that I’m almost 40, my body was gearing up for the inevitable menopause.

I kept putting going to the doctor off since I don’t really get sick and I figured the pain would go away on its own.

Well it didn’t. If anything, it got worse. At this point my mind is playing tricks on me and fear is starting to kick in. By nature we always think the worse whenever something isn’t right about our body. There’s also that little voice that tells us when something isn’t right.

The voice had gone on for a while, before I finally decided to listen to it. You see, we must always listen to our gut because it is never wrong!

I finally decided to go to the gynecologist and find out once in for all what was wrong with me.

It turns out I have three fibroids the size of a plum. That’s why the cramping has been so bad. It wasn’t so much because I’m getting old, lol.

They did an ultrasound to figure out the size and precise location. The doctor said that unless they got bigger, I didn’t need to remove them. Of course, even if they wanted me to remove them, I wasn’t going to make that decision right then and there.

When I went for the results, they asked me when was the last time I had a blood test and I said a while. So they took out some blood. Only good thing about that was that my blood is no longing coagulating like it had been ever since I had the stroke.

I asked the doc when would I find out the results and she said that unless something was wrong, I wouldn’t hear from them.

Unfortunately, I heard back from them the very next day! They called me early in the morning urging me to go to the ER to get a blood transfusion because my hemoglobin levels were at 4.9! She said that I was basically a walking corpse and lucky had not dropped dead.

It was obviously shocking to find out how sick I was. Heck, dying is more likely.

Although it was suggested to get a blood transfusion, I declined. I know blood transfusions save lives but it can also become a problem. Now, with this I’m not saying you shouldn’t get one if you really need it, but for me, it wasn’t what I wanted to do.

As a family, we choose holistic medicine. We barely get sick and when we do, we choose home remedies. 

Our family doctor is one of the best holistic doctors in the U.S. so as soon as we learned about my condition, we contacted her.

She immediately sent me to do a complete blood test that will tell her exactly what was causing the anemia.

That’s when sh*t hit the fan for me. 

It turns out that the mercury fillings I got when I was 14 have been slowly poisoning my body. The poison is now in my tissues which is causing my liver to overwork and I’m not digesting the food which is causing the weight loss. My protein levels are higher than they should be and thyroid isn’t doing it’s job.

She immediately suggested to get them out. Now this is where things might get controversial for some people.

Conventional dentists use chemicals that are harmful for us. So obviously as a holistic doctor, she recommended a holistic dentist. There is only one in the U.S. and one in Tijuana, MX. We’ll be going to the one in Mexico simply because I need one of my teeth removed and the replacement works best for me than the one suggested by the one here.

I have been in treatment for the last 5 and half months. I have been taking iron, magnesium, Omega 3 plus countless others to bring my blood levels up and detox my body from the mercury. But it hasn’t really worked. Until the fillings are removed, the healing is going to take longer and longer.

The last time I had a blood test, it had only gone from 4.9 to 5.4 which is obviously still too low.

And as if things weren’t bad enough, I also develop a breast infection two months ago. This was the third time it happened. 

The first time was during the 2016 Christmas. I was wearing a wire bra that somehow caught parts of my breast squeezing it to the point that it swolled up three times its size. I had a fever and massive pain. Needless to say my Xmas sucked, lol.

I went to the ER and they said that it was abcess(whatever that meant) and that the swelling would go away on its own. It took about a week to feel better but I did get better. 

Then last year it happened again without the bra issue but it didn’t get bad.

But two months ago, I woke up with a lot of pain on my areola. It was as hard as a rock. As the day went on, the swelling increased and I had a huge lump on my breast. Again I had a fever and couldn’t even stand from the pain. 

This time it was ten times worse that the first time and I was freaking out. My consolation was that they say that when you have breast cancer there’s no pain and boy was I in pain!

I waited to see if the swelling would go down on its own, but it didn’t.

I ended up going to the ER four days later and basically it was a waste of time because all they did was give me antibiotics. Which didn’t do anything.

They said to go back three days later and to schedule a mammogram to which I did neither. I opted for a whole body thermogram instead. I went to this fantastic place in North Wales, PA and I was blown away!

What Is Whole Body Thermography?

Unlike other methods of thermography based upon infrared sensors, Whole Body Thermography measures the skin-surface temperature, inputting 119 data-points to a computer memory, which your practitioner then interprets.

It wasn’t cancer, I was obviously happy it wasn’t(which honestly I was praying really hard it wasn’t) but that left the question what was causing it. 

The practitioner told me that the breast infections were also due to the mercury in my mouth. WHAT!? I wasn’t really shocked since everything else wrong was caused by it. But it still surprised me. I still have the lump but it’s not as big or painful as it was before. At least both breasts are the same size again, lol.

The Road To Recovery

It is going to be a LONG and expensive road. But how much is my health worth? I plan on being around for my family for a very long time and I’ll do whatever is necessary to get better. I’m feeling and looking a lot better now. Before I looked like a zombie, lol.
This is me now

In Conclusion

If you have mercury fillings, PLEASE, PLEASE get them removed. Those unknown ailments in your body might be caused by them. 

I know it’s very expensive to go to Mexico but at least you know you’ll get them removed and refilled with the right ingredients that won’t affect your health.

I feel so lucky that I was able to find out what was wrong with me in time. And to think that it was kind of an accident since I went to the doctor because of abdominal pains.

My Advice To You

ALWAYS, always listen to your body. It knows you better than you know yourself. If you feel off for some reason you can’t explain, don’t discard it as being silly. There is no such thing a being silly when it comes to your well being!

Holistic Medicine

You can find more information about my family doctor here, the dentist here and the thermography here. Not everyone can afford them, but it’s worth a try to get the right treatment.

I hope the next time I update this blog post is to give you the wonderful news that I’m completely healed. 

Thanks for reading. See you soon.