Boys Will Be Boys

Johnny, John and Julian in the good light during the golden hour.

Oh, and Julian finally got his first tooth!!!

Enjoy and happy weekend, peeps :)

Happy New Year!

In the last day of 2014 I rented an 85mm Nikkor, f/1.4 lens and went down to Mountain View to test it.  Shooting candid street photography and taking portraits of strangers is one of my favorite pastimes, but between hanging out with my kids and doing family sessions I haven't had the time to indulge in proper improvised photo walks....

As you can see, the lighting conditions were not perfect; at high noon the sun beats very harsh even in the Winter.  The lens is a bit narrow for my taste, through its sharpness and speed makes up for it at least partially.  Next I really want to try one of the ultra-wide lenses, 24mm or so (or even a fisheye), again with such a large aperture.  Stay tuned!

P.S. My favorite image must be the jumping shot - thanks Jeff and friend (sorry, I'm terrible with names...)!

Fun With Grandma

We drove up to Coyote Point Marina yesterday, took a nice hike in the sun, and had an improvised photo session with Grandma and the kids.  The morning winter light is amazing; the portraits I took with my DSLR, and the landscapes are from my iPhone.

Christmas Bokeh Galore

Eucalyptus Street in San Carlos is a magical place this time of year.  There are inflatable Santas ten feet tall, there are Nativity scenes, there are reindeer pulling sleighs, huge blown glass ornaments, snowflakes, Grinches, glowing gift boxes, bows and angels and elves and glitter, and there are hundreds upon thousands string lights adorning every house and tree and car.  It's a very good photo opportunity for one's Holiday family portraits...if, of course, your kids are willing to stand still for even a second instead of running amok, trying to destroy the place.

We left the baby at home so that Johnny could enjoy some Christmas spirit, but I only managed to take one proper photo of him.  I compensated with capturing the amazing bokeh!  Merry Christmas, peeps!

At Santa's House

I love Christmas but when it comes to decoration, I keep it simple.  A stocking or two under the mantelpiece, a small living tree, a dozen ornaments in classic red and gold...and that's pretty much it.  But life is interesting because people are different, and there's a family in our neighborhood who's literally obsessed with holiday lights.  We went to their house last year to take the photos for our Christmas cards and we returned again yesterday for more bokeh and glitter and toddler fun.  Most of the portraits here are fuzzy on the focus - I was tired and the light was fading fast, and I was not able to keep up with the speed Johnny was running around.  Still, seeing the way his face lit up when we got there made up for all my technical failings.

P.S.  This is Johnny's NO face.  I get that face every time I try to photograph him...

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!

 

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!

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!

The Gang

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