studio portraits

tonight, we had a BLAST in the studio. taylor and her roommate from college, brooke, came home for the weekend and they were gracious enough to volunteer their time while i tried out some new lighting set ups. sooo much fun and there were WAY too many good images! i seriously could post 50+. on the first pass, the images SCREAMED for black and white (i'll post some color images over the next few days as well). these girls are just so darn beautiful, not to mention sweet and funny. and they tolerated (and maybe even enjoyed) the 80's music i played!

photographs from the san francisco zoo

today, kim convinced me to skip out on 'work' and meet her over at the san francisco zoo. thanks, kim for calling this morning! so i loaded the girls up and headed to the zoo. i almost didn't bring my camera, thinking kim would probably have hers. but i'm so glad i did. i didn't take a ton of pictures, but i did get a few of my favorite animals... giraffes, zebras, and lions. so enjoy something a little different!

Beach session

yesterday morning was an amazing day down in pacifica. I met up with 3 beautiful girls and their mom early in the morning to take pictures, watch the surfers, and then warm up with pancakes and hot chocolate. the girls were game for just about anything and i felt like i was a good 20 years younger. there are way too many great images, so here are tons and tons. thanks girls for a great time!

I'm an awarding winning children's photographer...heheh!

That's right! I'm super excited to report that last night at the PPGBA print competition, my image of Natalee and Evee titled, Sisters, was awarded a gold ribbon. I really love this image because I think it's such a true representation of 'sisterhood'. So here they are... enjoy!



Yay! Thanks, girls, for being most willing subjects and to Kim for forcing me to enter! I was also very happy to see my little Eiley's face in the competition. Kim's image of her also received a gold ribbon.. of course I may be a little biased, but I think Kim and Eiley should have won the whole thing : )

newborn portrait session in los gatos

today i had the pleasure of photographing one of the most amazing things in the world. a newborn. all of 5 weeks old, little miss britt was the most patient and cooperative subject ever! much easier than my girls (note previous post were i have to bribe them with mass quantities of sugar and even that doesn't work for the baby)! it was a super rainy and dark morning, but it gave me an excuse to try the elusive off camera flash set up. that's one of the things i *heart* about nikon. they really do have the most amazing remote flash set up ever.. no pocket wizard required and you can control everything in camera (if you have a d70 or better, that is). so i set up the sb600 on my tri-pod with a gary wong diffuser and bounced it off the walls and ceiling for fill. that combines with window light did wonders for indoor shots on a dark and rainy day.

so on to the good stuff. the story with britt is that i've known her mom for about 8 or 9 years now. seriously, jonna... did i do the math right???? have we really known each other since '00/01????????? almost 7 years ago, way back in the day when i shot 35mm with my nikon n65, i took jonna, and her husband vic's, engagement portraits. and a few months ago, i had a portrait session with jonna's oldest daughter, sahara, which was one of my favorites to date. so i was super excited to photograph their latest edition!

here are just a few images from the session (and in b&w since i know jonna *hearts* her some b&w!!!).. but i'm saving the best for the birth announcements!






and for fun... one of jonna and vic's old 35mm engagement images... yeah, this is the real thing. it looks like 35mm because it is... no photoshop going on here!

children's portraits... with brownies!

one of the reasons i love photographing children is the opportunity to capture pure moments. to create images that really demonstrate the complete uninhibited mind frame of a child. malin made brownies tonight and i couldn't resist pulling out my camera as she 'went after' the batter in the bowl. I LOVE this series of pictures and plan to work on a book or collage of these images just for fun.

model call!!!!

Oaks & Acorns is currently conducting a model call! Specifically, we're in search of boys or girls between the ages of 6 and 12 to serve as models while we try out new equipment, locations, and techniques. Sessions are free of charge and will last approximately 1 hour at a location of our choosing (this may either be on location or in studio). As a thank you, you'll receive 15% off any images you order from the session. Please contact me asap as we'll only be booking models in this age group for the next 4 weeks.

Thanks!