Archive for September, 2011

Fifty-two on Fridays | Bodyscapes

We are seriously at week 38 of this Project 52 journey. If you want to learn more about how it all began, click here. As always, remember that at the bottom of my post you can follow the next wonderful photographer in our blog circle and see her interpretation of this weeks theme.

This week our group theme or prompt is {Bodyscapes} or {Body Parts}. Immediately I thought how I would love to photograph the jaw-dropping abs on Paul Walker or the amazingly toned shoulders of Jennifer Garner when she starred on the hit show Alias. Unfortunately, Paul Walker’s abs and J. Garner’s shoulders haven’t made any trips by my house recently, so I worked with what I had (insert sarcastic smile here).

{Bodyscape} Abs, side view.

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Now, head on over and check out the wonderful work by Kristen, Lake Mendocino Child Photographer!

And sometimes they indulge me | Film

I’ve been playing with my lovely new film camera non stop.  I think that my digi is getting a bit jealous!  It should, I am totally smitten.  I am still figuring out how. to. shoot. film.  Just point and shoot you might say.  Well it it not that easy when you can’t look at the back of your camera and make the proper exposure adjustments on the fly, with unlimited card space…you’ve got to GET IT RIGHT IN CAMERA.  The first time.

These are just a few plays using Fuji 400H, rated at 160, and metered using my hand plus half a stop for good measure.  A smidge of editing only to decrease contrast, just a bit.  I am still figuring out the metering thing with film, and it is different for different types of film too.  I had these developed by my local Ritz/Wolf Camera store.  I am not ready to send my film to RPL until I know I’ve got this film metering thing down.  Breathe.  Patience. Decrease contrast.

Anyway, my family is so far humoring me by letting me take them out each night after dinner, just before sunset to take a few photographs.

A Boy and his lovey
A Boy and his doggy
A girl and her Daddy
A Kiss.
Another day, another roll of film.

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Fifty-two on Fridays {Delicate} | Belmont CA Child Photographer

Wow, I can’t believe that we are in week 37 of this 52 week project.  I am so happy to be sharing this creative journey with 14 other amazing photographers.  Without them, I think I would have abandon this project at week 5.  As always remember at the end of my post to follow the link to the next photographer where she has interpreted this weeks prompt/theme!

This week our theme is delicate.  When I thought about the theme this week I kept coming back to my sweet little girl.  I remember the first night I brought her home as a newborn.  I spent endless hours on the couch nursing her, gazing at her, and counting each and every delicate eyelash.  I remember thinking that if a strong gust of wind were to sweep into my living room that her eyelashes would be like feathers and drift away.

Now, the word delicate is not one I would use to describe my almost three year old little girl.  She is anything but delicate.  Rather she is strong, she is sturdy, she is sure of herself.  She is the gust of wind that sweeps through my living room! Though, thankfully, there are moments where I am able to capture an instance when her wide eyes are are downturn looking into a book, that I can still catch a glimpse of those long beautiful delicate eyelashes.  And in an instance I am thrown back in time to those early days with my new baby.

{Delicate Eyelashes}

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Now don’t forget to head on over and check out how Kristen | Lake Mendocino County Photographer has photographed this weeks theme! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Babies are a such a nice way to start people | Matt & Ashley

Almost one month ago I had the very special pleasure of photographing Matt & Ashley as they happily anticipated the birth of their first child. Ashley glowed with love and the excitement that brews in those last few weeks before your new baby is born. Matt was quiet, but clearly excited about the new life that would make their family complete. Thank you Matt & Ashley for allowing me to capture this special and unforgettable time in your lives. I can’t wait to meet the newest little Nunes!

Ashley you said it best. “Babies are such a nice way to start people”

All my love, and many blessings to your sweet baby!

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Fifty-two on Fridays | In the Kitchen

Friday is here!  It’s my Fifty-two on Friday post, and honestly, I didn’t think I would be able to make it this week. What an incredibly long week it has been.  I was traveling for part of this week, so I am sad to admit I had to dig into my archives for this weeks theme.  I hope you don’t mind…I hate missing out on my Project 52 and all of the creative photography that the women in this group share each week. As always remember to follow the link at the end of this post to the next photographer in the circle. Follow the circle all the way around until you get back here. When you get back here check out my new link to Film Photography in my menu bar…exciting adventures abound!

This week our group theme was {In the Kitchen}.  Our kitchen is the hub of our home.  We recently bought  our house this past December, and one of our big criteria was that the kitchen had to be open to our family living space.  The kitchen for us is where things happen.  In the kitchen is where we gather, where we cook, we do projects, we eat breakfast, we eat lunch, and sometime my kids when they are in a mood will even get dressed in the kitchen.  That is just how it is, and most of you know what I am talking about.

My photos this week are simple. Noah having his breakfast {in the kitchen}.  His crazy “grandma Janet” hair, berries on is face, cheeky smile, still  in his p.j.s, and indulging me with my film camera!  I Love This Little Boy To Pieces!

{In the Kitchen}

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Now, for some serious creativity, and wonderful photography check out Krista Keller | Danville CA photographer for her take on this week’s theme!

My 10-on-10 | September Edition

I am excited to share again this month a very personal project called 10-on-10. I started this project last month with 9 other photographers from The Bloom Forum.
In an effort to rediscover why I fell in love with photography, I embarked on this creative journey to capture the realness of my life as it unfolds throughout the day. On the tenth of each month, the photographers in my blog circle will link their blogs together to share ten images taken over the course of ten hours in a day. I want to share how my day unfold through the lens. Whether it be the mundane of morning coffee, the harshness of a tantrum, the warm cuddles after a nap, these are moments that I want to remember and that I want to capture with my photography. For me, I want to be free of rules, not worry about the ISO or the noise, no over the top post-processing, just my honest real life.

This month, I chose September 2, to be the day that I captured. September 2nd was a day I wanted to remember. It was the last day for both of my kids at the preschool/daycare that they have attended since each of them were 4-months old. I am a working mom, so this is the preschool where I entrusted my children each day. As a family we were leaving the familiar, saying good-bye to the comfortable. New adventures await, but remembering a special place and special people is so important.

6:15 am: I want to remember packing up the Captain America cookies I made to celebrate their last day at school. This was a special request from Noah. There were a lot of tears that went into frosting these guys. I wasn’t sure I could pull it all together. But I knew I really wanted to do it for you, Noah!
San-Francisco-Bay-Area-Lifestyle-Photographer-17:15 am: Waking up. I want to remember your not so quiet pitter patter of your feet on the hard wood floor, and watching you peek around the corner from half darkness to see Daddy and I making breakfast. On some days you wake up in better moods than others. Today was somewhere in-between
San-Franicisco-Bay-Area-Lifestyle-Photographer-28:15 am: I want to remember the view from my office, the San Francisco Bay on a warm September morning. My office is right on the bay, and I am quite lucky to have a bay view.
San-Francisco-Bay-Area-Landscape-Photographer9:15 am: Group meeting on Friday’s. I think that my lab members were both entertained as well as perplexed as to why on earth I would bring my camera to group meetings. But most people these days know that my camera is really just a part of me now.
Belmont-Ca-Photographer-410:15 am: Still in group meeting. We have three expecting moms in our group. I want to remember how important it is to appreciate the friendships that motherhood brings together.
South-San-Francisco-Photographer11:15 am: Shorter than usual day in the office. Headed to Target to purchase Thank you cards for each of the kids teachers.
1:15 pm: I want to remember sitting alone in my house, in my kitchen, tearfully trying to express my family’s gratitude for the teachers that have cared for my children for the last four years. Some teachers were better than others, but when I look at my kids smiling faces, I know that they were happy and I am thankful.
3:15 pm: The party has started. I want to remember that you chose the Venom superhero cookie that Daddy decorated for you and not any of the Captain Americas, the Hulk, or the Spidermans that I made. That is o.k. because you were thrilled and this party was for you and your friends. I still think my cookies rocked though!
4:15 pm: I want to always remember Teacher Barry. You were with him for 3 1/2 years. He loves you so much and you love him. I want to remember this goodbye.
5:15 pm: Home. Some quiet play time before dinner. I think both my kids were tired of my camera, but intrigued that I was photographing them from under the couch.
6:15 pm: Some after dinner quiet time on the Ipad. I am not sure if I am happy or mad at Nate for teaching her how to do her ABC’s on the Ipad. But I want to remember how grown up you looked sitting there learning the sound that each letter makes.

8:15 pm: Me time after a very emotional day.

That was our day. All of it, the laughter, the tears, the business of going to work, the quiet time. Thank you for taking the time to make it all the way through this post.
Don’t forget to follow the next photographer in our 10-on-10 circle, Laurie from A Favored Life.

Fifty-two on Fridays {Happiness}

This week our Project 52 blog circle has joined together to explore the theme {Happiness}.  There were so many wonderful ideas that came to mind with this theme.  I am a simple girl, and I aim for my photography to reflect genuine unguarded moments, including happiness.  For this week, I am posting a few images from a recent maternity session.  I was so honored to photograph Matt and Ashley as they happily anticipate the birth of their first child.  They love each other so much, and I know that God will bless their sweet family.  Now, I have loads of gorgeous photos from their session that I’ll be posting next week, this is just a little peek!

As always, don’t forget to check out all the yummy goodness from the other photographers in my blog circle by clicking the link at the bottom of my post.

{Happiness}

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Now head on over and check out the wonderful photography by Krista Keller | Danville CA Photographer

Fifty-two on Fridays {Headshots} | a little something special with film

It’s Friday, it’s Friday, it’s Friday!!! And that means that it is another Fifty-two on Friday post, or my Project 52.  I am joined by 14 wonderful photographers from across the United States, where we link our blogs, and explore/interpret a common theme.  At the end of my post follow the link to the next photographer for some serious eye candy and click all the way through circle until you find yourself back here!  Fun,  right?  I thought so.

This week our group theme is {Headshots}.  While I did go out this week and specifically shoot for this project, I also received a  little something special in the mail tonight just before I sat down to write my post.  On my doorstep was a package holding a disk of my film negative scans!  Yes you read it right, film.  I’ve started to explore film photography, and I’ll have to say that after getting my scans tonight I’m officially smitten!

This photograph was one of many scans that I instantly fell in love with.  For any of you interested in Film, I shot this with a Nikon N70 that was graciously given to me by a dear friend Jordan Watson.  He seriously mailed this camera and an awesome lens to me from ALASKA!  He is an amazing scientist with a travel photographers soul.  I shot this with Kodak TMAX 400, rated at ISO 200 in-camera.  I can’t really justify having my film developed by Richards Photo Lab yet, as I am still learning how to shoot film, but I did send this roll off to Photoworks in San Francisco. I think they did a wonderful job!  I can’t wait to shoot more film, such an exciting new journey in photography.

{Headshot} Straight Scan, no photoshop baby! Wearing daddy’s glasses.

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Now, please head on over and check out the wonderful work by Krista Keller | Danville CA Photographer. She’s been out the last couple of weeks and I have missed her awesome photography and her serious sense of humor!