3.31.2010

Grunting Pregnant Lady Say What?!

Oh.my.god. I grunt. A lot. And not just when I roll out of bed to go to the bathroom for the 50th time in a night, but when I bend over to pet my dog, take a load of laundry out of the wash or bend over to paint my toes...heck even just to look at my toes. Okay its not that bad...YET. But I do grunt and I just can't help it. It's such a MANLY thing...and the uncontrollable burping is grossing me out! Oh, and let's not even talk about the whole getting ready for church thing...I lose all my spirituality every Sunday before church. The grunting just emphasizes everything my insides are going through. It's such fun. :)

But I figured that before I get too much bigger I should probably get some current photos of me before my face gets rounder or something scary. I'm going to be re-doing my site soon and wanted new photos. Something a little more modern and updated--with the cool headband I made. My first creation. I must say I love. *sidenote--I currently love these headbands so much that I've started collecting scraps of material, lace and headbands. I have a new obsession and this is one of the main reasons I want a girl* Stefanie gets this fabulously beautiful light in her room and has this great fuchsia wall, so I convinced her to step.away.from.her.homework (I envy her mad study skills)for a little while. This is some of what we got. Fun, eh?



Happy Wednesday!

3.29.2010

Spring Mini Sessions

If you're linked to my fan page on Facebook then you've seen this all over.

Spring Mini Sessions are a fabulous time to update your family photos, photos of yourself and just your kiddos. The location will be in Morgan Hill, although specifically where has yet to be determined. I will be shooting from 3-6, so space is limited unless I get more inquiries than this.


Contact me with any questions or to book.

Regular blogging to finally resume this week.

Happy Monday!

3.16.2010

QnA::How to Get Where You Are

I love Tuesdays for many reasons: it's not Monday, I change a pregnancy week every Tuesday and it's half-price pizza at Straw Hat. Pizza and I are great friends on Tuesdays and my little ball of cells totally digs pizza!

The other day I got this question and decided to answer it a little more publicly than just responding to Amber alone. Amber, thanks for the question and I’m not an expert or anything but if my answer helps at least a little I’ll be satisfied. I hope my answer helps you some.

Hi,
I discovered your page on facebook, and I really like your style and all your photographs. I am really into photography myself; I am looking into it for a career. I was wondering how you got to be where you are in the photography business today? Any advice on how to get myself where you are?
Thanks
Amber


When I read her question my first reaction was that I’m STILL trying to get to where I want to be and haven’t quite gotten there yet. My following thoughts were about all the good advice I had missed when I first started. When I first started I had started because I knew I had a talent and wanted to somehow make it profitable--that's being completely honest. Did I love doing photography? Absolutely. I still do and still feel so privileged to be able to do photography and build my little business. But when I began my business I started scoping friends to take their photos so that I could practice--which would have been all good and well but I approached it totally wrong. I told them I would take their photos and they could buy the prints and then proceeded to charge them the full price for their prints. This was a crucial mistake and not how I should have started. I think I came off a little arrogant and rather than have been grateful for the practice saw it as a bit of my right to make the money. Wrong, wrong, wrong. When you're starting off, DON'T start as a career right away. Practice, be grateful for the practice and once you've built up a client following, you have people seeking you out and you're ready to deal with the taxes, the sales tax, the business licenses, doing your books and all the things that go with a business, then looking seriously at doing photography as a career is a great option.

I had to do some backtracking once I realized what I had done. I changed my approach and began to give of my time, my talents and not be stingy about it. Give as much as you can in whatever ways you can. Be willing to be honest and transparent about your mistakes. Share what you learn and never stop learning. Read books that will help you when you do begin your business. Amber~I'm totally excited for you, and anyone else wanting to do what they love.

Speaking of being excited, I was editing a recent maternity session, and came across this photo. I love it. The expression, the lighting and the love.



Happy Tuesday--go get some pizza!

3.11.2010

Emily::Gilroy Senior Photographer

She plays piano, sings, happily blows on her harmonica and plans on studying music in college. To top all that--she's beautiful. Inside and out. I had such a wonderful time doing Emily's senior photos. I had met her family once before when I did Hannah's senior photos and got such a great impression. Well, yesterday my impression was sealed--Emily and her whole family are as nice as they seem.

Emily's family owns a ranch that has been in their family for generations and it's AWESOME. As in can-I-go-back-tomorrow-and-the-day-after-and-the-day-after-please awesome. The ranch is complete with an orchard, barn, vintage cars, tractors and random ovens and sinks to boot. Loved it and probably could have shot all day. As it is I have tons of photos to go through from this session so it's probably a good thing we finished when we did.

Emily~it was fabulous to meet you! Best wishes in your future studies and congratulations on senior year! Hugs!























Happy Thursday!

3.09.2010

Pregnancy Brain and Jack

It comes and goes. My mind that is. I can't seem to keep my mind on any one thing. A couple weeks ago Mat and I announced that we're pregnant. I am currently 15 weeks and my mind has absolutely left me. As in I have conversations with Mat and can no longer connect my points, or I sit down to write a blog post and can't remember what I was going to write about. I still haven't gotten...I don't know what I haven't gotten...I totally forgot what I was going to say. No lie.

So needless to say the first trimester was no fun and finding the motivation to do anything was super hard and quite a mental fight. Hence the lack of blogging; but, now that second trimester is here the sun shines, birds sings and my hormones are happy...relatively speaking. Mat has been wonderful throughout this whole thing and he's pretty stoked about being a daddy.

Yesterday we took Pouf and the newest canine in our family, Jack, to the dog park. Jack belongs to my sister Denice and her hubby Phil. He's a high energy animal AND a boy--that's Jack not Phil. As such he does everything fast: walks fast, whines fast, pees fast, plays fast. Yesterday was National Pee Day for Jack. He's such a boy. I have at least 4 pictures (and those are only the ones I got) of him in this position. You can read the whole story of their day at the park with pictures here. It's quite funny if I say so myself. I wrote it in one of my mind's more lucid moments.



Happy Wednesday!