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.

Tadpole Hunting

My two sons found a "crik" with hundreds of polywogs in it. We returned the very next day with a pail and plastic cups to catch some. One of my girlfriends picked us up a frog farm from Toys R Us, so we were ready to raise some frogs.

I brought my camera to document a new afternoon activity, but I knew I wasn't going to get any great award winning shots, mostly because of the angles and background activity going on that I couldn't crop out while shooting. So, I set my camera up the way I always do, except I turned off my flash.

This picture is one of a few that I find "scrap worthy", not necessiarly award winning. I like the focus that Nathan (my youngest) is exercising. Still, quiet, no one around. Focus. That to me is what this picture is about.


What you don't see is the 10 other children all behind me, dunking their cups into the water, stepping into the muddy shore and their mom's not thrilled about it. But Nathan, he's focused.

Corn Rows

I discovered this picture the other day. It was the day we took the boys to the pumpkin patch. It was the patch on the coast near Davenport. It was the first time for all of us at a "real" patch.

We arrived first thing in the morning, after we treated ourselves to breakfast at a restaurant! No one was there except us. The nice lady at the stand asked if we wanted to attempt the corn maze they had on site. She explained some rules and hints and gave us an estimated escape time of 45 minutes. We weren't going to do it, mostly because of the time, but the boys really wanted to and, heck, we were having family day so why not?

After approximately 10 minutes in, we (Richard and I) got the fever. The lady said this sometimes happens. The closterphobic feeling that starts to resemble, "The Blair Witch Project", but during daylight hours. It didn't help that the path was VERY bumpy, full of broken and rotting corn stalks making it difficult to walk, and painful on the ankles.

...back to the picture. While Richard was going down a dead end path, I stopped and looked up. It was then that I realized what a pretty view it was from inside the maze... with the ocean in the distance. To me, it semed odd that there were corn stalks that close to the ocean. This, I thought, doesn't look anything like Iowa's corn. I know, I've been there.

Anyway, I didn't think much of this picture until I stumble upon it the other day. I like it now. Seperate from the rest of that day. Alone. Although the horizon is a bit slanted, and considering it's from my point-and-shoot, not bad, I still like it.

Anna and the Beach Boys

During our annual Christmas card photo shoot, which by the way my friend Anna is the photographer, we had to let the boys run around to "get their sillys out".

These happend towards the end of our photo shoot. The boys were being very sweet together, and I was able to capture just a couple of them giving each other smooches. Anna had let me borrow her camera for a moment, and it proved to be a good moment.

I do have to say, Anna is a great photographer herself and she always gets more than one good shot when she photographs us, which delights me.

I often get the comment, "You must have great shots of your sons". Well, no... not really. They see me with the camera so often that when I want them in the picture they scurry off to their favorite hiding spots. I do enjoy when they are in a great "frame" of mind and I have my camera ready.

Like these...

Newborn Excitement

My most recent photo shoot was out in Salinas about 2 weeks ago. It was to highlight the new addition to this family. I was really excited to photograph a baby as this was my first time with a true "newborn".

I was, however, a bit nervous due to the fact that I had to get it right. Why? Because after today, that little boy would never be that little again. So I had to capture him then, the first time.

I was very pleased when I arrived to find excellent ambient light in their westernly exposed kitchen dining room. I had "perfect" lighting, but I still bumped up my ISO for some of the low light spots I found in my view finder. Unfortunately, I bumped it up a bit too much and didn't realize it until I got home and found all the noise in post process.

However, the more I look at those noisy pictures, I do like them. Not all of them are that bad to not use, but the self-critic in me justs wants to re-take them all over again. After some gentle editing, I found a few that I really love.

Here are my favorites.

A new way to communicate

I have recently noticed that after each photo shoot, I have at least one or two photos I want to share with everyone on my website. I want to express how and why and the feeling and the silly story that went with the photos. But it is hard to dictate that on every picture on my website. Nor is it really a good idea to, seeing as my website is more of a portfolio, than a story.

So, here I am. Joining the hundreds of thousands out there... blogging!

I'm new to it, but I'm sure I'll settle right into it in no time. Please enjoy my stories, as some of them will most likely be about you and your photo shoot.

I will more than likely share about my family as well.

Happy reading!

Melody