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This is a super short hello! post. I’m working on editing images from the wedding on Saturday and just returned home awhile ago from Sacramento Kings Media Day (which was a blast!). I’ll be sharing images from both shortly but thought I’d post one of my beautiful bride. Hope everyone had a great start to the week!
I’ve been busting a gut to share this but trying to be a prudent business woman was making myself be mums the word until everything was finalized and signed, sealed, etc., etc. Just for the record though, I don’t like being mums the word. It’s hard.
I can officially say it now though so here it goes - I HAVE A STUDIO SPACE! This has been, for me, a work in progress. I opened my mind to the possibility last year and have been researching locations since. I’m excited to say I think I found the place that not only gives me the space to work (1500 sq ft of it!) but has a really wonderful owner and great local community.
I have SO many ideas I’ve been gearing to set loose with a space and all of that will be coming soon but here’s one very cool piece - studio session fees will be a lot less than on-location. For example, a 1 hour studio session fee for up to 4 people will be $75 with no minimum order (versus on-location which starts at $125 with a $300 minimum order). (Of course, I love location and will continue to offer it!)
This will not be a traditional studio! My goal is to make it a fresh, fun environment with all kinds of organic backdrops using the actual space. One thing I’ve always loved about location is working with the naturally composed elements and that is something I’m going to work hard to bring into the studio. I hope to create a variety of styles such as contemporary and vintage sets using the studio walls as little “vignettes” to shoot against. I have been so ready for this I literally have it mapped out, materials and props purchased, and help secured! I’m ready! :)
I know I have a lot more I want to say about this but I have to get ready to pick up my good friend Cindy who is flying in from Georgia to shoot a wedding in Napa with me on Saturday and get my gear organized for Sacramento Kings Media Day on Monday! Speaking of, here’s a picture of my little man taken in the car - notice the headband. 
Side note before I forget! October is booking up FAST! Make sure to book your holiday session asap! I am booking studio sessions beginning the second week of October and have a ton of fun ideas for Christmas images! Plus, our Halloween Open House is coming up and will be at the studio - a chance to have your little people photographed in their costumes simply for bringing 5 canned food items to be donated to Loaves and Fishes in Sacramento. But more on that later! Just keep it on the calendar!
Cindy and I have a full day of shooting planned tomorrow so this will be my last post this week. With that said, hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!
Last weekend I was in LA with my mom, aunt and cousin. It was my aunt’s birthday and we’d planned a fun photo shoot to accompany the weekend since we have no recent images of us all together (sound familiar? I hear this all the time!). So, there is a photog there whose work I love and whose personality I absolutely adore - I had the chance to meet her briefly at a seminar in SF some time ago and had decided when I meandered my way south again, she was the girl I’d be calling for photos. Unfortunately, she’s swamped with her wedding season and was unable to take on any portrait assignments. Bu-mmer. She sent me a list of recommended photogs but when it came down to it, she was part of the experience we were looking for and so even though the other photogs did nice work, we wanted her or no one.
So, we ended up self-timer and tripoding it. My aunt found this cool old depot for us to use as a backdrop. I have to say, I wasn’t stoked about the idea of doing it this way but it ended up being a lot of fun and absolutely hysterical. Aside from the fact that I had to play ‘set-the-camera-and-dash-in-front-of-it-before-the-timer-expires-girl’, it was a lot of fun, tons of great memories and even a few good images.
This is my favorite image because of my cousin - she’s so work’n it in this!! Love the attitude!!
ugh, the posing! forget it! trying to do it with no one behind the camera to coax it and work it all out…not happin!
work it, work it! my mama working the sultry look with definite fierceness!
as you can see, I’m in desperate need of a new headshot for my blog and site because I don’t even look like that anymore! but my good friend Cindy flies out on Thursday (we are shooting a wedding together in Napa on Saturday!) and I’m counting on her for that! Can’t wait!!!
and a few last ones…my aunt had planned a spa day for us - it was BLISS.
and Sunday morning after getting a little exercise we stopped by Starbucks on the way home and did this with my handy powershot
This session was extra-special for several reasons: 1. this is my friend who literally jump-started my business and gave me the confidence to kick my life into a whole new gear and 2. this is my selfless friend Kristina who gives and gives and gives to everyone before she has a thought for herself which is probably why it took…oh, 3 years? to finally schedule this session with her family (and even after we did she drove to me because she didn’t want it to be any trouble) and 3. this is my good friend Kristina who I think the world of - who’s savvy as a business woman is my inspiration, who’s limitless love and selfless giving are a constant reminder to look outside my sometimes tunnel-visioned world and remember what’s really important. I should say that when I speak of Kristina, I envelope her family in this amazing love and gratitude. It just so happens that selflessness carries over to the man at her side who has devoted hours upon hours the last few weeks to helping me negotiate my way through a world so foreign to me it was like trying to see the sunshine from the bottom of a muddy, murky river. Make that lake. With standstill water.
So, again I say - this was an extra-special session that also happened to be a blast - I love her kids and I love that they had no inhibition whatsoever in showing me the full impact of their colorful personalities. Love. It. Thank you, thank you, thank you for finally letting me capture you guys!!!
Her beautiful daughter Sadie and some fun mellow yellow haze…
just call him yo dude!
pssst - behind the scenes…i love these shots - love seeing them in other people’s work and love seeing people completely unsuspecting
So, here’s my peace - I’ve never done a 100% purely photojournalistic project. Trailing the Monarchs for a day was new territory to some degree. In many ways, it wasn’t different than wedding photography or any event photography, but in many ways it was because I had never walked the day before. In any case, I discovered, with vivid clarity, that I could never be a true, paid, in the trenches photojournalist and this is why: during the game one of the players, Rebekkah Brunson, took what looked like a really hard hit to the head. She slid into the bottom of the basketball net at full force and for a moment just laid on the ground. I watched as team members DeMya and others rushed over to check on her and I knew I should be photographing it. Even though this all happened quickly I remember this like a movie moment where everything freezes and time hangs suspended - I raised my camera and paused - I couldn’t take the picture. I lowered my camera. I raised it again. I think I did this maybe four times. And didn’t take one image. I just couldn’t do it. I’m not a hundred percent sure why I couldn’t just take the picture but, in that moment, with the very real possibility that she was badly hurt, it felt almost disrespectful and a bit tabloid.
I thought about this a lot after - I wondered how photojournalists, especially those working in war zones or covering tragic events - how they are able to do it. I don’t think I could differentiate myself enough from the people involved to watch tragedy unfold and stand back. My heart would be too involved - in the humanity factor, whether I knew the people involved or not, for whatever reason, cause or effect. And yet, photojournalists who do this provide rich history words can not and emotional impact that no adjective could ever attempt to inspire (in my opinion anyway). Campaigns can be waged, minds can be changed, history can be altered by one powerful image that provokes people to action, to change. What an amazing talent and powerful gift to give the world.
So, I guess this is what I’m trying to say: I had never really thought about all of that before. And even though one little basketball court in one little town in one little sunny state far from the trenches that splash across our newspapers hardly qualifies as a comparision - it did make me, in some small way, grasp what a true photojournalist must grapple with. And it’s nice to know that I’m where I belong, doing what I should be doing.
Okay, enough of that! On to fun stuff…some favs from the rest of the day (after practice) - if you’re completely lost, see previous post!
arriving for the game…
warm up
pre-game coaching
pre-game huddle
chillin like a villian after the game…
the day isn’t over…off to sign autographs
