A Visit to the Firehouse, Take Two (Success!)

This morning we finally succeed in meeting our local firefighters at Belmont's Fire Station 14.  It was such a lovely experience for Johnny, who is particularly obsessed with fire engines, and for me as it reminded me a bit of my work for the Police Force back in Bulgaria.  

There's something about firemen, isn't there?  They are cute and fit and heroic and always smiling kindly, as if they know some secret about life that the rest of us don't.  I wish I had asked them to pose for me more formally - next time I will!

These images have very little artistic value as I just wanted to report the visit without turning it into a photoshoot; I was too afraid I will somehow offend the honor of the profession if didn't act respectfully.  I didn't take exceptional photos today but Johnny's face says it all nevertheless.

Thank you, Station 14 officers, for your hospitality and for your service in the name of our safety!

Beautique

I shot the interior of Beautique Beauty Bar this morning for an update of their Yelp page.  I have professed my love for the place many times, and I don't mind doing it again because they are pretty much the best salon I've been to.  My habit of coloring my own hair at home notwithstanding, I have gotten the greatest haircuts in my life there, and that's a big deal.  Usually I go to a salon, pay insane amounts of money, and tell them what I want only to have my hair chopped off the way they want, or can.  Which says a lot, considering that my hairstyle is really quite unsophisticated.  But no, really - all advertising aside - how bad you must be in what you do to screw up a simple short bob on a straight hair?!  

So believe me when I say that you will get exactly what you need after a visit at Beautique, thanks to Giana and Shanelle's skill and talent.  Not to mention that they sell mineral based makeup and next generation hair products.

Some technical notes: 

Shooting commercial or personal spaces is a favorite type of work, not just because it's easier than shooting people, but also because I have the opportunity to explore my own sense of place, and to experiment with perspective.  It seems quite straightforward but photos of cosmetic products can get boring pretty fast, so I did my best to make things look beautiful and fun.  Capturing the character of a place is the biggest challenge in those kind of gigs.

Here I have added some images I won't be giving to the client, mainly the selfies (go ahead, judge me - I'm just a pregnant woman trying to have fun at work!), and have left out most of the formal photos.  

My personal favorite? Giana's headshot at the end.  She's a real modern-day Mona Lisa, don't you think!

Enjoy!

Hip Hip Halloween

Working as a software engineer at a San Francisco/Silicon Valley tech company today, in my mind's eye, is the equivalent of being a rock star, or at least of being a professional lounge chair tester (only with a bit more cerebral activity involved).  It is absolutely amazing what's going on in the technology world right now, and those who are a part of this community are lucky because they have the chance to practice their mad skills, to make a good deal of money, and to participate in the process of making people's lives better and easier.   

Sure enough, the inventors of, say, apps such as Candy Crush Saga (or even Instagram for that matter) would most probably not go down in history as great contributors to the progress of Civilization and the wellbeing of mankind, but there's no denying that in our increasingly digitized society, in almost every sphere in life there's a technological product of utmost importance that has been first envisioned, developed, and launched by some guy or gal who speaks programming code.

We are way beyond the terms "geek" or "nerd culture", and we have entered the Information Age where technology is not just something out of a sci-fi movie or only accessible to governments or corporations. Technology is everywhere, for everyone, and the future is now.  Good times.

Celebrating Halloween with this particular crowd is a thing to behold.  I finally managed to go up to the city and visit John's office.  John works with the HipChat team, as part of Atlassian, and aside of being very good at what it does, the company has a great taste in designing work spaces.  I had such fun last night, and I took some photos to share with you.

The highlights of the evening:

* The steaming Midori punch which I decided to call the "Hello I am Drunk" cocktail.

* Getting lost on my way to the restroom after a couple of the aforementioned cocktails.

* Meeting hobbits, Pokemons, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, Bruce Lee, Tony Stark, The Phantom of the Opera, Superman, Prince William, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, giant pandas, nuns, various Star Wars characters, sexy witches, regular witches, and other monsters.

* Meeting half a dozen puppies, also in costumes.

* Eating apple-peanut butter-marshmallow treats shaped like toothed mouths.

* Taking photos of hyperactive kids who were high on sugar.

* Upon being asked who I was with at the party, I took tremendous pleasure in observing the look on people's faces when I answered: "Oh, I just randomly wandered in here."

* Taking equal pleasure in answering that I was John Pfeiffer's wife.

* Realizing that I am doing the right thing by choosing not to live in the city.

* Having my Mom with us.

So Happy Halloween, my friends, and thanks for visiting. Enjoy!

P.S. If any of you recognize yourselves in the photos, shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you the original images for keepsakes :)

Silicon Valley Code Camp 2013

If you are a humanities major, like I am, or if you can't do math to save your life, like I hate to admit I do, the one event you might want to avoid is the Silicon Valley Code Camp.  Some would argue that one feels smarter just by being in close proximity of science, but that's a fat lie.  I won't become a great writer by simply surrounding myself with the prose classics, and their genius won't rub off of me by occasionally flipping through the books.  So you could probably understand that visiting the annual SVCC this weekend made me feel really dumb.  In a very funny and benign way, of course, but still.  While I am comfortable with my intelligence and confident enough that I am good at many things, in the world of technology I will always remain a friendly stranger.  I like to think of myself as of a smart user.  I have no idea how something works, and not much interest to learn either, as long as it does the job.

Along with TED, SXSW, and Techcrunch Disrupt to name but a few, SVCC is a must if you are a part of the Second Bubble (a term coined by my husband John, who is responsible for my being there in the first place).  It is educational, good for networking, and it provides the wonderful sight of two thousand people queuing in line for free pizza.  So I brought my camera along today, and I hung around while John attended few of the classes.  I didn't learn much - striking conversations with the guys working at the tech booths proved to be proverbially awkward, and even though I eavesdropped on a few lectures I could have as well listened to someone speak in Sanskrit - but hey, look, I took pictures! Plus, if not else, I looked smarter than most people.  I might not be able to write code (apart of a few lines of basic html, that is, thanks to Flickr), but I do know how to dress.  In short, it was a regular episode of Freaks and Geeks.

Foothill is quite a fancy place for a community college.  They have ponds, artworks, solar-panel roofed parking lots, a library, and an observatory.  All in all, it was a morning well spent.  

Taken with my 17-105 lens and my iPhone 5s.

Notting Hill Carnival 2008

The Notting Hill Carnival was one of the raunchiest, drunken, colorful, and loud street parade I've ever attended.  There was a lot of Caribbean food, African dances, and scores of regular Londoners watching the show, hanging out, and enjoying themselves.  Also, there was a lot of humping.  Let's leave it at that, and allow the images to speak for themselves.  I took these with my digital point&shoot Kodak.