Archive for April, 2011

San Francisco Child Photographer | Fifty-two on Friday {Mother Earth}

I’m back, I’m back. I was so sad last week to miss my Project 52 and all of the amazing talent in our photographers blog-circle. If you want to learn more about this creative photographic journey that I am sharing with 17 other photographers world wide, check out our other themes such as Vintage, Money, Black and White. As always, make sure to follow the link at the bottom of my post that takes you to the next amazing photographer participating in this blog-circle.

This week our theme is Mother Nature. I was so excited by this theme, because I had a vision of what I wanted my photograph to capture. I wanted to show the human interaction with the beauty of mother nature. The child like awe in the simple natural beauty we encounter on this planet we inhabit.

Fifty-two on Friday: {Mother Nature}

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And my runner up photograph:

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Now, grab your favorite hot beverage, and head on over to the inspiring work of Shea Parker | Clinton Mississippi Family Photographer.  And if you feel so inspired, we all love Blog love!

San Francisco Peninsula Family Photographer | My family twelve times

It is the end of the month again and I am excited to post about my family project. I started this project back in January, where I decided I would aim to take at least one photograph a month of my entire family. I am usually behind the camera, so it is not very often that I am in the pictures with my lovely family. I have to thank my dear friend Tara, for yet again taking our monthly family photo.
For me, this is my most favorite of all the family photographs we’ve taken so far. It shows us! Nicole is in her pink Addidas sweatpants, she tries to wear these pants EVERY single chance she gets. Noah, my sweet boy who will give you the most gorgeous of smiles, but is always looking somewhere else besides the camera. Me, no make up, jeans, comfortable, happy to be with my family. And Nate, my rock, who holds all of us close to his heart, lovingly, happily. All of us together after a wonderful dinner at Steelhead Brewery in Burlingame with the our amazing friends, The Coakleys!

My family twelve times. Just us.

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Black and White Photography | San Francisco Bay Area Child Photographer

Spring is one of my favorite times of year, particularly when we get the “time change” back to daylights savings. For me Spring means that there are even more hours of gorgeous natural light to photograph in. Here are just a few of my recent favs! I’ve been on a black and white photography kick lately.

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San Francisco Child Photographer | Fifty-two on Friday {Money}

Welcome back to my Project 52 post. If you want to learn more about this creative photographic journey that I am sharing with 17 other photographers world wide, start at the beginning. As always, make sure to follow the link at the bottom of my post that takes you to the next amazing photographer participating in this blog-circle.

This week our theme is Money. This was a difficult prompt/theme for me to get excited about. For me, the theme of Money kept bringing to mind all of the things that Money can’t buy or do. Or that I constantly hear in my job, “Time is Money”. I couldn’t escape these two thoughts all week whenever I thought about this project. So I ran with it and let those thoughts bring me to this interpretation.

For me, one of the things that Money can’t buy or do is reverse time. For example, today is my son’s fourth birthday. And as I reflect on the last 4 years, I am brought to tears of joy that God chose me to be his mama. There are moments lately when I look at him and wish that I could go back in time and cuddle him as a sweet newborn just one more time. No amount of Money can take me back in time to be with that newborn, that one year old, two year old, or three year old little boy.

It is a great reminder that while in the business world, time may equate to Money, but in the lives of my children the time I spend with them has greater value than anything Money can buy.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Noah! I love you, more than words can describe.

The first three photos were taken with my faithful point and shoot back in the day!

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First night home from the hospital

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One year old.
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Two years old.
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Three years old

SF-Bay-Area-Child-Portrait-PhotographerAnd my sweet Noah, letting his mama take his four year old portraits.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH


Now head on over the lovely Melissa Deakin | Williamsville, NY Child Photographer for her interpretation on the theme Money.

SF Bay Area Family and Child Photography | I Heart Faces {Shadows}

I am excited this week to participate in another I Heart Faces Photo Challenge. This week’s theme is Shadows.

My sweet little boy given his mama a kiss. I love the long long shadow cast by the setting winter sun. One of my favs.

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There are lots of other lovely photos over at I Heart Faces this week, please go check them out!

For those of you interested this was processed in LR3 using a preset by Cuba Gallery that I tweaked. Love his presets.

SF Bay Area Child Photographer | Fifty-two on Fridays {Black and White}

I am so excited that Friday is here because that means I get to share the day with 17 wonderful photographers from The Bloom Forum. We are participating in a Project 52 blog-circle based on a weekly theme. If you have missed some of our other themes, check out Books, Motion, and Vintage. To catch a glimpse of everyone’s take on each week’s theme link to the photographer at the end of my post. Make it all the way around (collect your $200, hee hee) until you come full circle back to me!

This week, our theme is Black and White. A really great black and white photograph has pure black, pure white and a great tonal range of grey, to give it depth. Oh yeah, and some contrast. And I knew when I composed this shot through the viewfinder that I wanted this photograph to be processed as a black and white photograph. When I uploaded it to my computer my heart jumped, ached and melted all at the same time.

This photograph instantly made me miss my brother. We are only 18 months apart and we grew up by each others side. Either we were fighting with each other or for each other, but no matter what it was always together! We shared the black and white and all of the shades of grey as children! He is grown and has his own beautiful family. He doesn’t live far, but our busy lives don’t allow a lot of time to see it each other. I miss him. This photograph just made me miss him more, that’s the ache!

My heart also melted at the love I see between my two children. They are only 19 months apart. They are at this wonderful age where they just love to be with each other. Yes, sometimes they will fight, but mostly they are just together. I am so happy that I captured this sweet moment when they just wanted to take a “rest” together. That “rest” is sometimes code for lets get all the blankets out and hide underneath them and giggle. Sweet anyway you look at it.

Relationships between brothers and sisters, or siblings in general, are complicated. Thankfully they are never purely black and white, they usually have an entire range of grey in between, and a bit of contrast to make it just right.

{Black and White}

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Please….grab your favorite hot beverage, mine is a double shot soy latte, and head on over to Melissa Deakin Photography | Williamville, NY Photographer to catch a glimpse of her inspiring take on Black and White!

SF Bay Area Family Photographer | Fifty-two on Friday {Food}

I am back this week for my Project 52, or Fifty-two on Friday. This project is an amazing artistic journey that I am sharing with 17 other photographers from The Bloom Forum. As a group we have explored several themes such as Vintage, Books, and Motion. Each of us interprets the theme our own way with our own natural style. As always, follow the link below to the next fabulous photographer in my blog-circle. Grab your steaming latte, you’ll want to hang out a bit!

This week our theme was food. I was stumped for ideas. The rainy dreary weather actually inspired me this time. I was shopping on Sunday and my eye was caught by some gorgeous grapefruits. The fresh smell of grapefruits for me equals summer. And boy do I NEED some of that sunny, warm, short-wearing weather! I swear that I am solar-powered.

For me, I also have some pretty strong childhood memories associated with this fruit. When I smell or see a half sliced grapefruit I immediately think of my amazing great grandmother, Lilly Mae Montroy. She was a firecracker with some definite opinions and a spice for life. I was very fortunate to have her as a part of my life for as long as I did. Lilly Mae was convinced that eating half-a-grapefruit-a-day with a sprinkle of salt for taste was the way to start every morning. And I am not kidding you when I say that every chance I saw her, she would have half a grapefruit in the morning. She was on to something that smart woman. She lived a very full and healthy life until she was 97.

{food}

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Now head on over to check out the wonderful work of Hannah Mayo | South Florida Wedding and Lifestyle Photographer.

And if you make through the rest of the blog circle, take some time to check out some of our other themes and posts.