Oh, Baby.

While I am still to explore the maternity photographic genre, I took a great pleasure in taking pregnant self-portraits throughout the past 8 months.  You see only five because I kind of skipped most of the first trimester, and I believe I also skipped month 7, during which I took many Instagrams of my belly instead.

Here's the result.  You might notice the utter technical unpretentiousness, and the similarities in the setting.  What I did was I simply climbed on my bed, turned to expose my left profile, pointed the camera towards the mirror across the bed, and shot a few times till I got the right focusing.  Not very elaborate, uh?  It was loads of fun, though, and did the job for posterity well enough!

Today.

Don't be fooled; I actually spent the entire day indoors.  I snapped these while I "walked" my cat on the patio. 

But all things considered, it was a good day.

At Angeli Caffe

I don't particularly like Los Angeles, so every time I find myself there I try to make my experience as positive as possible, and we all know that instant gratification of the senses is most easily achieved through food.  

During our trip down South last September, my sister, my husband, and I found ourselves at Angeli Caffe - an unpretentious gourmet Italian place where we had a spectacular artichoke pizza, apple and cheese salad, and seafood pasta.  The light was just right in the late afternoon and the olive oil bottles on each table made a great prop for these shots.  Also, Angeli had the most delicious fresh baked bread I've had since my childhood in Bulgaria.

A Natural Progression

Meet my friend Anne, her husband JP, and their adorable son Kieran (who grew from a baby bump to a BIG baby bump to a real baby in front of my very eyes).  He will be celebrating his first St. Partick's Day this weekend, so stay tuned for more images of this  handsome Irish lad.

 

Saturday Morning Habits

These, I believe, are the kind of flowers I bought for my sister when I went to see her at the hospital after the birth of my niece.  That was almost 10 years ago!  The funny part is that I used to have a very short hair then, and it was in exactly the same color as the flowers.

Below is another photo session with a fresh Farmers' Marker bouquet in the surroundings of my home.  Taken with my 50mm, f1.8, and with the help of Shelby.

Hocus Pocus Ranuculus

These magic flowers look slightly provincial at first, but they can be quite sophisticated if photographed from the right angle.  I just need some context - the cat sniffing/nibbling on them, or some LED lights as a backdrop to create even a better bokeh.  I used my two 50mm lenses, the classic fixed f1.8, and the Sigma Macro for the close ups.  

Two most definitely awesome Instagrams of the same bunch on my personal blog.