Chocolate and Fuscia

Thanks to my friend, Ginger, I have the privilege of taking her family photos. They have a great backyard which provided the perfect lighting for this shoot. Ginger also coordinated her girls' outfits perfectly with their surroundings. This was my first official shoot with my new Canon 40D (thanks honey!). This camera has the ability to take rapid shots, which, I believe, aided in helping to capture these perfect moments.

Family Ties

My sister, Nicole, and her family came to visit us in Santa Cruz a couple weeks ago. They are originally from Santa Cruz, but have lived in the outskirts of Sacramento for over five years when a year and a half ago, they moved to NC. They are now moving back to El Dorado Hills. Anyway, I don't have my family here anymore. And I've never been able to do a photo shoot for family. So it was very exciting to try it out while Nicole was here. We went down to Captiola early, like 8am, and the tide was way out. We were covered in fog, but it was high, so we could see all the way out to Moss Landing. It was just a great morning to shoot, nice light, no shadows, calmness. Here are my favorites...

Growing Up

I have some great Salinas friends that continue to call me for pictures. I really enjoy these photo shoots because I get to catch up with old friends and then I get to see their cute kids grow up.
We went to Monterey, near the Dennis the Menace park. There are a lot of really beautiful things (aka... backdrops) at that park as well as a lot of distractions (cars, telephone polls, etc). So it was a bit challenging. Because I like the close-up look, I was able to eliminate some of that distraction. There were only a few pictures I had to crop out the tree going into one of their heads. So, I think it was a successful shoot.
I have also had an opportunity to play with an online scrapbook page/video called smilebox. If most of you who read this are on my email list, I'm sure you've gotten one by now. Anyway, I tried it for the first time with this photo shoot, and I think I'm going to add it to my fee of a photo shoot. More or less a "whet your appetite" until I get all the pictures to my client. Check it out.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Father's Day

I never know what to get my husband for Father's Day. He says he likes my photography. So I went with that angle. I took my boys and my really good friend's kids to the Fire Station and took some photos with their Dad's helmet and jacket. I love these, and will probably frame them.
From left to right: Jordan, Nathan, Devan, Ella and Zane. The only challenge for this project was to do it fast! The helmets are very heavy and their little heads/necks could barely support it. And because they are small, not to mention that it was a very hot day, they were wiggling all over. I have to say though, these turned out better than I expected. Thanks kids, you made my day great, and I know you made your Dads very happy!

Mrs. Swanson's Secret

Jordan's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Swanson is working on a project for - I think - the parents of her classroom kids. She won't give me any hints, BUT, she did ask if I would take a picture of each student with herself and her aide, Mrs. Lewis. Here are my two favorite pictures of the day. I can hardly wait to see what she'll be doing with them.

Iris

My father-in-law has been waiting for this moment for two years. The iris that has been growing in his front yard for the last two years, finally bloomed. He called me to take "a" picture of it. 20 pictures later and a few chuckles from him, I think I captured the beauty of this flower.

Hemet

We visited two very special people for spring break in a town called Hemet. It's in the hills of San Bernadino (close to Palm Springs). They have a lovely home nestled in some orange orchards. While there, the only green I saw was from the orange trees, everything else was dry dirt. However, our friends have a deep appreication for flowers, animals and the like. She has created a sort of oasis in the middle of the rolling brown hills.

On one morning, I took my camera out to see if I could capture some of her wildflowers growing on their property. The first time I tried, those sweet flowers were just too cold to cooperate, thanks to the cool air and fog that followed us from Santa Cruz. On my second attempt, I found some beautiful sunbathers and some bashful flowers. However, all were willing to let me photograph them.

Then there's the orange. Oh delicious orange. One of the wonderful benefits of visiting our friends was their orange trees. First, just the smell of the orange blossoms will send you on sensory overload - in a good way. It is sweet, warm and delicious. We went on walks almost everday and filled our pockets, shirts and hands with as many as we could hold, after eating one hand picked off the tree. We'd take them back to the house and juice them. There is nothing like fresh squeezed orange juice.