(This post contains photos of a skinned elk and may not be enjoyable for everyone.)

Life is entirely too short…

Death means life…

Life means death…

Because others die, we get to live.

When we are young we can’t wait to be old…

When we are old we wish we were young…

Rarely are we content in the moment.

Every moment is part of the story…

Relationships are the most important part of the story.

If we make time for the relationships we love… in the end we will have a better story.

Saturday was Margot’s first trick-or-treating Halloween, and her mother Nici, who I fell in love with in the dorms during my freshman year of college, thinks it is the last one that Margot will allow her mother to choose her costume.

I just loved spending the whole day following around this little creature, who came from two incredible people who I love dearly, and watching a new American learn the strange traditions for our wonderfully bizarre holiday.

The strange new behaviors Margot had to learn include… dressing in a costume that she was not allowed to pull off or touch, learning how to hold a bag and say, “trick-or-treat,” when she wanted something instead of “please,” and taking candy from strangers who were often wearing strange masks or hats.

Margot was not so sure about the taking candy from strangers part, and since she can’t really eat the candy either, I am not sure she got as much from the experience as we did. But we had lots of fun, and visiting five houses was just enough for us to get the candy we wanted.

And the day was complete with a bath for Margot and candy and wine for us.

Veronica and Mike’s wedding was nothing short of incredible. Veronica wanted to have a memorable party and I believe she got it, but not without a lot of work and a lot of luck.

Work because the wedding was held on top of a hill in a cow pasture, accessible only by four-wheel drive vehicles, in order to have a 360º view without any buildings. So everything had to be brought up to the top of the hill and created in the cow pasture, including… electricity, tent, floor, stage, tables, chairs, kitchen, food, bar, alcohol, photo booth. And Molli Milner and Denise Rocco-Zilber, from Green Girl Events, deserve a standing ovation because they made it all happen so smoothly, as if that hill is always so magical.

Luck because the wedding was held in October, just three days after the biggest rain storm we have had in over six months. On the Wednesday before the wedding, as the rain was still coming down, I was a little doubtful that the event was going to happen at all.

But sure enough, the sun came out on Friday and dried the muddy roads and fields so the show could still go on. And by Saturday, everything was perfect. The fog did make an appearance, as is expected when you are on a hill overlooking Tomales Bay, and it rolled in with a strong windy force, but that just pushed the festivities inside the cozy tent, with see-through walls, which made it better for the string quartet and the opera that preceded the ceremony.

Veronica and Mike love the opera, so they asked some students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, one of the most acclaimed schools of opera in the nation, who they saw perform at The Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station, to perform a few of their favorite songs.

They also asked David Lomeli, who is an Adler Fellow and who has received a first prize of Placido Domingo’s Operalia award, to sing as well. They were absolutely thrilled and shocked when he happily agreed. 

I haven’t been to an opera in over 10 years, so I am not an expert on the topic, but they were amazing.

Everything was amazing.

It was a small and beautifully intimate black tie affair. Black tie was required, because Veronica liked the idea of black ties and cow patties. And I like the idea too.

So loved ones, let this be a warning… if Arann and I do get married again, like we hope to do, because getting married is so much fun and we think couples should do it again every year… you too may be asked to wear black tie in a cow pasture on top of a hill… ’cause it sure makes for a pretty wedding and pretty photos to go with it.

One last very important detail about this love story… Veronica and Mike met on match.com. They are two more reasons why I am a believer in Online dating. Veronica and Mike’s fairy tale is definitely a fairy tale that tops anything Cinderella or Snow White can bring home from the bar.

So congratulations to Veronica and Mike. Keep dreaming big… what you create from your dreams is worth all the hard work, and luck is on your side.

Melissa and Kevin got married at Windrush Farm, a place very close to my heart.

It is the farm where… I fell in love with my husband, where I lived for a year and a half in a barn and learned how to milk a cow, collect eggs, and help sheep have their lambs, and where I photographed my very first wedding five years ago.

So it was really fun to photograph another wedding there, and to think about all that I have done and learned in the last five years. But one reason why I like photographing at Windrush Farm so much is because the light is amazing… both inside the house and outside of the house. And the secret to getting good wedding photographs is choosing a place with good light.

It helped that Melissa and Kevin had their ceremony at sunset. They made that decision to honor their Jewish traditions, but I like to think they made the decision to help out their photographer. Regardless of the reason, it was so much fun to photograph because the light was beautiful every direction I turned.

It also helped that the ceremony was in the middle of a pasture and that it was timed perfectly with the rising of a full moon. So the light, the moon, the people, the red tail hawk crying over our heads… they all were incredible…. and unfortunately so was the wind.

The wind was very, very cold. But everyone huddled together as best as they could, and afterward we all had a greater appreciation for the big ball of fire in the sky and for the tall silver poles of fire that were on the patio and in the tent during the reception.

Congratulations, Melissa and Kevin. Good job picking such a great place and time of day to get married, and thanks for letting me document your beautiful big step forward.

A year ago, I photographed Sadie while she was in her mom’s belly, and I posted the photos here America’s Next Top Pregnant Model and here America’s Next Top Pregnant Model (Part 2: film.)

This weekend, I went back to Santa Cruz and photographed Sadie, outside of her mom’s belly, in the same house where we photographed last year. It is also the same house where she was born, the same house where she is learning to take her first steps, and the same house that she will be moving from next week… so it was a very significant and timely photo shoot.

Here is little Sadie, right before life really gets moving.

It has been a fun summer because I have been super busy doing lots of different kinds of photography jobs. While I am very grateful to have been so busy, as a result of my crazy schedule, I haven’t had time to post all the amazing weddings that I have photographed… which now totals 10… which is a new record for me.

And I feel like if I post one wedding then I have to post all the weddings, because all of the weddings were so wonderfully different, and all of the couples are so wonderfully fun that they all deserve their own wonderfully different and fun blog posts. But I can’t post all of the weddings at once, so I am going to start right smack in the middle with Emily and Sam… and Mia, their ring bearer dog.

My friend Michelle recommended me to them, and we arranged to meet so that I could get to know them a little before their wedding. I knew it would be a wedding that I wanted to photograph, as we sat in a dog park in SF and Emily told me all the food for their wedding was coming from farmers who she met at the farmers’ market, like Jesse from Marin Roots Farm, and that their dog was going to be their ring bearer. Fresh, healthy, local food and dogs = the perfect wedding to me.

They got married in the cypress grove at Chrissy Field in the Presidio, one of my favorite places to go when I lived in the city with my dog. And although they were hoping for sun, I wasn’t disappointed when the fog rolled in just as the ceremony was about to start. That big beautiful soft box from the Pacific Ocean made the already photogenic event even more so by softening the light just enough and giving everything a magical glow… oh it was lots of fun. I love the fog.

And I love homemade weddings. Almost every detail of their wedding was made by someone they know and love… including Emily’s incredible dress and her veil, that I was obsessed with photographing, and including the most amazing flour-less chocolate cake. A cake that could be reason enough for me to get married again… to Arann of course.

So congratulations Emily, Sam and Mia… and stay tuned for more amazing weddings to come.

The Genius…Tyler Young… is at it again.

This time, Tyler’s Petaluma community project focuses on the Farmers and Artists of Petaluma, because as he says…

Pitchforks, tractors and hay bales.
Paintbrushes, video cam’s and laptops.
From dirt to digital art, Petaluma lies
precisely at the intersection of
agriculture and creativity.
ProjectHERE wishes to celebrate Petaluma’s Artists & Farmers
recognizing them as cornerstones to what it means to live HERE….

To make his vision a reality, we are photographing every artist and farmer we know, and especially those we don’t know.

We will be celebrating the farmer, the artist, and the gifts they create, on Saturday, October 10th, 2009, from 11:00a to 4:00p in the backyard of Central Market at 42 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, CA 94952.

So if you like food, art and farmers, or if you are one of the above, then please come and bring as many art and farmer friendly friends as possible.

Also, we are just getting started on our Farmer & Artist documentary journey, so if you know of either a Petaluman artist or farmer, who you think would be good to document, then please let us know. We are accepting recommendations now.

We are now accepting applications for our very first Fall Camp Sessions at Windrush Farm.

If you would like your child to spend their fall break learning how to herd sheep, milk goats, catch frogs, harvest tomatoes in the garden, and felt wool then please contact our camp director, Arann Harris. His phone number is 707-364-9929 and his email is harrisarann@yahoo.com.

You can download a brochure here… camp-brochure-fall09.

You can download applications here…  Harvest Camp. Please fill them out and send them to 1423 Western Ave, Petaluma, CA 94952.

Thanks for visiting and we hope to see you very soon!

It has been over 15 years since my last solo trip to visit my grandparents… and that is 15 years too long.

I am very lucky. I get to see my grandparents, who live 2,173 miles away from me, at least twice a year. But those visits usually include at least 12 other relatives as well, making one-on-one time highly unlikely.

So when I knew I was going to Missouri for the fiber arts book I am working on, I decided to make a special trip to see my grandparents, who live in the next state over. And it was wonderful.

As I drove our usual route to their house, the endless fields of corn and soybeans were the first difference that I noticed. Because in December, when we usually go to their house, the endless fields of corn and soybeans just look like endless fields of flat brown-ness. They laughed when I told them about my astute observation.

So the next day, my grandparents took me on a drive to see more of their farm and wine country.

The first stop on our adventure was an old apple orchard where we got to watch the machinery sort and bag the apples. Watching the machine put the twist-ties on the bags was the most surprising part. I never thought about how the twist-ties got on to bags of apples before.

We met the patriarch of a 4th generation apple farm. He told us their farm started with 42 acres, but now it has grown to over 2,000 acres, and a lot of their apples go to Wal-Mart. He doesn’t think his grandchildren have any interest in taking over the farm.

I had my very first apple dumpling. Although, I couldn’t tell much difference between it and apple pie. It tasted the same, but just a little more gooey. Next time I think I will stick with the pie, like my Grandma.

After filling up on pie and dumplings, we drove through a small town that is home of the Root Beer Saloon. Honestly, I was so full from sweet stuff already, I couldn’t imagine having a root beer… but how could I not?

I told them we had to go in, because Arann would have wanted us too, and I was glad we did.

Not only is it a Root Beer Saloon, but the husband/owner also makes custom guitars and is a taxidermist. So the place was covered head to toe with amazing dead things to look at. Sadly, I was told no photographs, but I managed to get this one in, before I was politely asked to refrain.

To make me feel better, the wife/owner offered to take our picture. At the time, I reluctantly agreed to, in a humoring sort of way. But now I am so glad I did. It was such a special occasion and I am grateful to have a photo remind me of our adventure together… just the three of us.

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It is MALT time again for me, which means I get to go explore amazing ranches in West Marin and document what goes on, for MALT’s (Marin Agricultural Land Trust) annual report.

This time I went to Barinaga Ranch. The owners, Marcia Barinaga and her husband Corey Goodman, wanted to buy a farm and retire in West Marin. But they quickly decided that they didn’t want to retire in the usual way, instead they decided to keep the land in agriculture by raising sheep for cheese. Neither having grown up on a ranch, they had a lot to learn.

But they have been learning quickly, and only a few years after they purchased the land, they now have their very first cheese available on the market this fall. Some of the places you can find their cheese are: Oliver’s in Santa Rosa, Cowgirl Creamery and Osterina Stellina, in Point Reyes Station.