{Vintage Carnival Photo Session} Having Fun

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”
~Mary Lou Cook
Go out and have some fun today.

{Santa Barbara Portrait Photographer} Don’t Blink

I have felt like I’ve been spinning in this little world of photography lately. Getting sucked in by the never-ending parade of social media, networking, taxes, pricing, being undercut by shoot and burner types. Bending over backwards to please clients, impress my peers, perfecting my Photoshop skills, pinning pinning pinning things I’m inspired by. But with all that I feel I’m sinking- deeper and deeper into a hole, and away from doing what I love.
I have had to take a large step back and really sit and think about why I even wanted a big fancy camera to begin with. Was it to make tons of money taking photos of other people’s children? win prestigious photography awards? attend fabulous workshops? get thousands of “likers” on Facebook? No. It was becasue my little Canon point and shoot didn’t click fast enough. My son was a toddler, and I was increasingly frustrated by only getting the back of his head as he ran away because my camera just couldn’t keep up. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. I remember those first few shots with my new D80, how in love I was with the clear photos, even in auto mode, with the bad pop up flash- how my baby’s eyes sparkled and how I could see every freckle and erupting tooth. Did I agonize over the white balance? or if I limb chopped, or a tilted horizon? not even a little bit. So why is it now, years later, even when uploading photos of my own family, I become so overwhelmed with those things, hundreds and hundreds of RAW files sit, untouched on my hard drive. Not only unedited but never printed. My skills as a photographer have improved tenfold since those first few months with my new SLR, yet those are the ones I printed and cherished.
What a sad sad state I have ended up in. Hours and hours I spend on client galleries, making sure their images become something they will love and appreciate forever, but the beautiful if not always technically perfect pictures of the reason I wanted the camera in the first place get buried.
As my son is in the midst of finishing up his year in Kindergarten I look at him with amazement of how far he has come, how much he seems to grow right in front of my eyes. No longer a baby but a boy. I am left feeling like I blinked and this all happened in the second my eyes were closed. Which means a few more blinks and he will be a teenager. A few more blinks after that and he will be a man with a family of his own. I don’t want to lose any more of him behind closed eyes, and dusty RAW files. A fresh start- for my life and my business, getting back to what I love, my muse, my own child. With his always-messy-hair, freckled nose, and soul beyond his years… Don’t blink.

{My Project 10} April

A day in my {Spring} life…

bright and early at the botanic gardens…

My favorite breakfast spot…

Some fun, sun, sprinklers, and snacks

Goodnight…

Next up, my fabulously talented and sweet friend Robyn Oakenfold Please go give her a visit!

{Valentine Photo Backdrop} Getting Creative

I am the first to admit that I get that jealous twinge when seeing all the fabulous home studios on Pinterest, or posted on Facebook by photographer friends. The pristine white walls, gorgeous wood floors, light that I could only dream of. Let’s face it, most of us don’t have those perfect spaces to shoot in (we personally live in a 900 sq. ft duplex, so the studio ain’t going to happen). This post today is about making do with what you have, being a little creative and ending up with a fun, homemade Valentine card for your little one to hand out in school…

A month or so ago I was inspired by this Valentine’s card on Pinterest, I thought it was too cute and would be perfect for Z’s first Valentine’s day as a big boy in Kindergarten :-) I just had to put my own creative touch on it.

First I bought glitter paper from Micheal’s (any craft store should have it), then commissioned my very patient husband to cut out dozens of hearts in various sizes. I used a great barn wood floor backdrop from the wonderful Lemondrop Stop that I already had, and adhered the hearts with non-permanent sticky dots (I did it to look like curtains)

this is how it looked when finished-

As you can see from this image- we don’t have a large living room, but I just hung the backdrop from my cheap backdrop stand, and positioned it in the tiny space by the dining table so my subject was facing the window (I’ll even admit I was lazy and didn’t use my reflector).

And voila! these are some of my final images for the card-

Then I added the script to the image for the front of the card, did a quick design with images on the back, and had them printed at Black River Imaging in a 5X7 press card (with pearl finish and rounded corners).
Here is the final Valentine’s Day card! *** mini rainbow lollipops from Amazon. Looks like a happy Kindergartner! ;-)

{My Project 10} January

I seriously can’t believe the holiday season has passed already and it’s time for my January edition of my project 10, where I join ten other photographers for a monthly peek into our everyday lives, with ten images from one day. This one was particularly fun, since it was the very last day of Winter break, before we all had to return to work and school (boo!). We really made the most of our day together, hitting up the Ellwood Butterfly Preserve , where the butterflies were out in full force as you can see. Then off to the bowling alley for some arcade fun, where Z was able to get himself his first lava lamp with his winnings. Top that off with some delicious frozen yogurt (that got quickly scarfed before I could get a pic of it), and a glorious sunset. We couldn’t have asked for a better last-day-of-vacation!

and since we are required to include a selfie, Z and I had some fun with the remote shutter.. Really trying to take a few shots of just me and my guy every month, so he doesn’t think I have that big metal thing attached to my face 24-7 (this totally counts as one photo) ;-)

Next up in our circle is the fabulous Robyn Oakenfold, please continue clicking through to see what everyone’s January is looking like, such talent in our group!

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