Saturday, November 29, 2014

A Family Affair

Today I share a photo collection of my lovely friends N&J, who also happen to be my most loyal customers so far.  This is the fifth time I take their family portraits, and every session seems to include one more kid than the previous!  And let me tell you, getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time is the best kind of practice I need for my craft.  Luckily, they are all very photogenic and good looking, so the fun is always greater than the work.  Thanks, guys, for sharing your happiness with me, and letting me try and capture it!

P.S.  The next session will be exclusively for goofy faces and poses.  You rock at it!






 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Santa's Little Helpers

'Tis the season, my friends!

I started it off with an amazing photo session of these two beauties, and I can't be more happy with the results.  First of all, they are - evidently - gorgeous.  Secondly, they were in their element, which means in the process of driving their Mamma nuts trying to get them ready for the shoot.  And finally, the winter morning light was just perfect, bright yet filtered, giving these awesome contrasts to everything.  So my only job was to show up, point my camera at them, and click! Sure, I danced around them, laughed with them, and I used a few tricks to coerce them to pose, but all this was just part of the fun.

Enjoy and do let me know if you desire a Holiday-themed portraits of you and your loved ones!







Sunday, November 9, 2014

Under the Sea

This weekend we traveled to one of my most favorite places on Earth - the Monterey Bay, and we finally visited the Aquarium.  You might wonder why are there almost no images of my kids, husband, Mom or father-in-law, even though they all came in tow.   Well, it's quite simple really.  The baby stayed outside with my mom and John Sr. and they walked down on Cannery Row to the Fishermen's Wharf, and once inside, I practically lost sight of Johnny and John not 15 minutes in.  It was crowded, noisy, hot, and dark in the Aquarium, and if it wasn't for Johnny's flashing shoes, John would have lost track of him too...  Besides, there are way too many photo of my children in this blog already :)

At any rate, we had fun.  The turtles, sharks, octopus, and the rest of the sea-life were amazing!  I quite enjoyed the jellyfish and the schools of silver fish swimming in circles in the elaborate Aquarium tunnel tanks.  

Photography-wise, this was one of the most challenging environments to shoot in.  Not that I was really set up for achieving some sort of award-winning perfection, but I wanted to do justice to the lovely ocean occupants.  For the most part the exhibit rooms were too dim to focus properly, and the fish were moving too fast to use slower shooting speed.  Flash was not allowed - and was useless anyways because it would have thrown terrible reflections off the tank walls, but there was no room for a tripod either, as it was a tourist-packed Saturday morning.  And cranking the ISO helped some, at the cost of way too much noise... 

Considering that all of these are hand-held and that I used my kit lens, however, I should say I did pretty darn well.  Enjoy!

P.S.  You gotta love the new statue at the city wharf with Steinbeck perched on top!










Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Gang

I really ought to hire someone to take a proper family portrait of us, but until then these should do.