Too many cooks, not enough eggs….

My friend Kelly saw that I needed an idea for Jude and Paige’s Adventures in Stock project, so she called me up with her vision: bathtub, full of eggs, with her, cowboy boots and a bird’s nest in her hair. I said, “Perfect! I’ll get the tub and eggs.”

I have been wanting a tub in a field shot for a long time….but the eggs part was all Kelly. So I spent the day running around, gathering and hard boiling. I quickly realized that the 3 cartons of 5 dozen eggs (180 eggs), although it sounds like a lot, is not much when you want to fill a bathtub. So I put in the call for Kelly to buy more eggs.

So she bought 3 more cartons of 5 dozen eggs, which we didn’t have time to hard boil, but even filling the tub with blankets and covers, 360 eggs were still not enough.

Another problem was that we had two very different and competing visions… one wanted wild and mysteriously arty, and the other wanted tame stock…. so 360 eggs later, I am disappointed to say that I don’t think either of the visions felt very satisfied with the results.

But as always, we learned lots of lessons: more eggs, one vision, less cooks and try and mark the hard boiled ones because trying to find out which ones are raw, by spinning and shaking, is very time consuming…. and can lead to broken eggs in your ear if you shake too hard.

Photo lessons

I have a fabulous young photography student, who I have been working with for probably a year if you add it all up. And today our task was to photograph one object in as many different ways as we could. So we played with one of her dolls, who was most agreeable, even when she was dropped on her head.

This cute doll, called “Girl in a Bear Suit” was made by a talented artist, Heidi Iverson, who sells her felted artwork at Knitterly in Petaluma. She was so cute that I couldn’t resist taking my own. It was a great lesson in product photography and finding good light.

Just a typical Thursday with good friends…

Meet Rebecca and Kevin. They are my friends, in fact, they were the first two friends I made when I moved to California in 2001. One reason I like them is because when I say, “Let’s do a photo shoot,” they say, “OK, we’ll wear these hats.” And then we went to the thrift store….

and I bought this hat for $13. That was a good Thursday.

Back to Bed

First I have to say, I am so excited because last week I received two emails from mothers who saw my work on the internet and wanted to hire me to take photos of their families. Yay for the internet, and yay for internet savy mothers.

Now back to this week, these photos are from the photo shoot I did this morning, for one of those mothers. Growing up as the baby of her family, she wanted to be sure her own baby had the same amount of photos as his big sister. So we decided the earlier in the day the shoot was, the better, because having two young nappers, it is hard to coordinate happy moods later in the day. Since my favorite time of day, the late afternoon, was out of the question, I was worried, because to get good sunlight in the morning, you have to start really early, and there was no way any of us wanted to think about photos before 7 am, so we decided on 7:30…. which for those of you who know me, that’s still very early.

But I managed to get there, with even enough time to look around for a good outdoor spot… which happened to be the dirt bike course near their house. So we played in the shade there for awhile, and then we came home and played downstairs for a bit…. and right before I left I decided, just one more… just one more spot…. and so we all went back to bed.

And as a kid, there is nothing better than cuddling with your parents in their big comfy bed… so it is not surprising that these are a few of my favorite photos of the day…. although it was really hard to choose.

Turning Two in Style

Pony rides, a petting zoo, a cotton candy machine, Ben and Jerry’s professional scoopers, a paint station, a knock the fish through the wall station, and 32 of his closest toddler friends all came to Sonoma to be a part of Matias’s 2nd Birthday Party. His mother wanted to give him the party she never got to have, and lucky for me, I got to document it all….

…right up until nap time.

Besides seeing how much sugar could be consumed in one day, the most amazing aspect for me was being surrounded by toddlers who spoke two or more languages. It was incredible to see how their little brains switched back and forth so easily. While I, and my linguistically handicapped tongue, couldn’t even remember the basic Spanish I once knew. And the few times I attempted to speak, I ended up tripping over my words so miserably that I gave up and assumed my role as the silent observer. Needless to say, I was in awe and inspired to get back into my Spanish classes.

Worth the Wait….

Just wanted to add the Rollei photos from my baby shoot last week…. film is expensive, the camera is slow, the negatives have to be processed, scanned, de-dusted…. meaning the whole process is much more expensive and labor intensive…. but I love it!

Oak Hill Portraits

These portraits are for Jonah Raskin’s book about his experiences on Sonoma County farms over the past year. He spent most of his time at Oak Hill Farm and wanted some portraits of the people behind the fresh organic food that he fell in love with.

I arrived at the farm at 7 am with the intentions to beat the sun and to capture the best light… but even at 7 am I was too late. But besides the bright sun overhead and my sensitivity towards their eagerness to be done with photos and back to work, I think it was a good start.

Although, not everything came out as well as I expected….

Cabaret in Color… good idea for parties

…

I loved my Cabaret on the Bay Portrait Station and it has me thinking about offering Portrait Stations as part of my photo business. It would be so great to have this at weddings and other events, so the guests who want photos of themselves at the event will be sure to have them, instead of me running around and guessing who to photograph… well running around will still be a part of my event coverage, of course, but this would be a fun addition.

Two Brains are Better than One

This is another ‘Paige and Jude Adventure in Stock Photography‘ photo shoot. Although once again, I have to give her credit for everything, the bed in a field idea, all the logistics, the models, and the props… well all the props except for the monkey mask and flower. Those were my genius ideas and they are sure to be a favorite for all the banks and insurance companies that are looking for generic photographs for their brochures.

The next photo shoot is on me, so I have to start brainstorming. Any suggestions?

Cabaret on The Bay 2008 – sneak peek in black and white

When I moved to California in 2001, I learned about the concept of ‘community’ with these people.

That concept has shaped my life ever since, so it is only fitting that I now apply my theme of documenting communities to my own community.

So, welcome to my community. My community of characters, who I met one-way-or-another through Walker Creek Ranch, Marin County’s Outdoor Education School, celebrated life together last week with a Cabaret on the Bay Party.

I celebrated our celebration by taking portraits. A lot of portraits, and because my scanner is not the best, my color scans need a lot of work just so they look normal. But the glorious black and white, of which I may have fallen in love with all over again, is close to perfect, no tweaking necessary.

Enjoy.