WW: Corked

Now where did I set that glass of wine...

Oh, well there's more where that came from...

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Redondo Beach Engagement Portrait Photographer | My First Time

No, not that.
A week from today I will shoot my first wedding. I wasn't looking to do wedding photography; but along this path, it found me. A friend of mine has followed my photography adventure and asked if I did weddings - or would do a wedding. Her wedding to be exact.

I've known Brittany for several years but I only had the privilege to finally meet  her fiance', Joel,  the day we met up to take some engagement photos - at the tail end of the engagement! He has just moved back from New York with only a month to spare and has been thrust into the whirlwind world of wedding detail finalizing. A task he has embraced with all the energy and zeal only a happy-in-love man will!

Brittany and Joel met in 2004 right before Joel left for New York to pursue his graduate degree and Brittany went back to school to pursue her graduate degree here on the West Coast. Thousands of phone calls, emails, video chats, text messages, late nights and frequent-flier miles later they are back in the same city on the same coast and ready to start their life together.

...And happy-in-love they are!

They both love Old Hollywood and classic movies so how perfect that Joel proposed to Brittany at the   the historic Culver Hotel in downtown Culver City on a warm September evening in 2009. It was a blast to go back to where it all happened for some engagement pictures and relive the moment in style - Old Hollywood Style.

 Brittany and Joel, thanks for a fun creative day of play! I can't wait until next Sunday! I know it will be an awesome day and I'm excited about being a part of it!

Or click here for a larger view.

Seeing the Light

Every other week or so Harrison announces that he misses or wants to move back to our old house.  I admit I miss it too - if not for the space,or the inspirational rooms - then for the light. And let me tell you, there was a lot of gorgeous light in that house.

Since moving, we have light in our new home; but not like before. We even have west facing windows ; but finding when that light gives the warm, creamy results that I love so much has been tricky. But on Saturday at 2:00 pm, after receiving a package in the mail, we pulled out the camera to (as always) document a moment.

Yup. That's the moment. 
 

Then Harrison wanted to take pictures and I had a thought; it's been a while since I took a self portrait [a REAL self portrait] and, HEY, this light is nice. Yes, after eight months, I finally found my "happy place" light in our new home!

Harrison took this picture. Not too bad!

Ironically, when I sat down at my computer yesterday I happened to catch an update from Me Ra Koh in my Facebook News Feed about an upcoming blog post covering how to take a good bio/head shot picture and I responded. I know, huh. - I rarely do that!

{really freaking} long story - short, Me Ra is spotlighting 10 different women on her blog tomorrow with their head shot/bio pic photo recipe and I'm one of them!

OH SNAP! 

I guess good light pays off!

Team Up Thursday | Lonely.

That is what my image is feeling this week. Somehow its partner just couldn't make it here via email. Joanne was NOT getting any email love yesterday, so you're just going to have to go over there to see what she did with our pictures!

I LOVE selective focus so I was on this week's theme like a rabid dog! Harrison and I made a rock garden on the deck last on Monday - complete with found shells. And I whipped out the camera in an effort to "practice every day"

[because 365 was flushed down the toilet MONTHS ago...sigh.]

I love the opposite effects that our two images create, cool colors of summer here and warm, cozy colors of winter in Australia. You'll just have to go give her some bloggy love! The contrast in color and subject just works well this week. Love it.
Go ahead, click on the link - you know you want to.

Exposure: f2.0 1/400 ISO200 50mm
On another note, is it just me, or has Blogger been really softening images when upload. This picture is a lot sharper before uploaded to the web.

Oh well.

Check out more Team-Up Thursday hosted by Mental Inventory and Hip Momma.

EDITED to add diptych.

Team Up Thursday | Old

Imagine how excited I was when I came home this evening to find Joanne's email in my in box and opened it to find an old truck! All those lines and curves, that patina, the textures - yeah, I got happy. I've expressed my passion for certain models/years of old cars in the past.

Not much has changed. So yes, I'm having old car photographing envy right now.
I just can't help it. 

And with all the "old" crap I have hanging around here, I opted for this funny sight across the street from my house. Someone had all these monitors (and one TV) lined up on the curb. Seriously, who would have that many monitors in their house? Never mind, I don't think I want know.

I'm not sure which was funnier to see, the computer monitors all lined up on the curb or me squatting in the middle of the street taking a picture of them. (I got some looks... and one asking me if this was a school project. I should be elated! Apparently I look like a student! NOT!)




And THAT is all I have to say about this week's Team-up Thursday.


See you next week!

Just Don't Call Me Late For Dinner... (or... how I haven't had time to blog but dream of blog posts and team-up anyway)

Call me missing in action; better yet reckless blog abandoner (if that's even a word). That's what you can call me. I have so many things happening and I just seemed to have lost all ability for multi-tasking (not that multi-tasking is even a trait worthy of having to begin with). Again, piles of Blog drafts that never get published. Ideas that get half-written and then something else pulls me away.

One of these days I'm going to bombard my blog with random posts that seem to come out of nowhere and you, my friends, will probably furrow your brow and twist your head sideways [like a small dog confused by a peculiar, new sound] and ...un-friend me on Facebook.

Then again, maybe not.
But be warned - randomness may just happen.

So this evening before I retire, I leave you with some diptych love. I have a great team-up partner who is so gracious with my crazy life as of late - each week she's halfway around the world getting ready to say goodbye to Thursday just as I get ready to say "hello". She hasn't fired me yet. Thank goodness. And once back from vacation with computer issues temporarily put to rest and deadlines held off for one more week, I wanted to post some backlogged images.

Because,even late,  I love diptychs.

Last week, August 19 was "BIG"  As Joanne's youngest child is heading to the University of Adelaide in Australia (on left) - it's big both physically and emotionally for both of them. The Sunday after returning from South Dakota, we had a family outing day that took us to a small local marine aquarium, tide pools and the Friendship Bell in San Pedro, CA (on right).

I was slow at getting the August 12 theme to Joanne and threw in the towel for that week. I had a work deadline that took priority over everything as soon as I returned to work the Monday after our vacation. But I love the theme, MORNING, I'm just NOT a morning-person. Hence the simplicity of my breakfast (bottom) as opposed to those yummy looking pancakes of Joanne's. (top) I want to go to her house for breakfast!
We obviously both think of food in the mornings.

The theme for August 5 was UP. I could do that! But I was [literally UP] in-air on Thursday and didn't get the images to Joanne until Saturday (during which time I was already starting the work catch up and didn't blog). I gave her the pick of Mt Rushmore (right - obviously) or an out the airplane window shot to choose from. How cool is the inside of Melbourne Central Shopping Center, Australia (left)! What a great shot. (it also sits well next to the Bell of Friendship, as I initially dyp'd the wrong two pictures together (not that "dyp'd" is a word either).

I was on it! I had the picture for the week of July 29's theme, DOORS, I tried emailing it to Joanne from South Dakota; but it didn't work. Bummer. Joanne is on the left and the view out of my Aunt's covered patio is on the right.

And just for the record, I sent my picture for this week's theme to Joanne on {oh yeah!} Saturday! (doing the white-man's overbite dance! Oh yeah.)

So I'll see you sometime tomorrow {or maybe Saturday} with this week's team-up Thursday theme!
I'll give you a hint...it's OLD.

Now go check our lovely host of Team-Up Thursday, Megan @ Mental Inventory.
Oh Yeah! [insert more bad dancing]...Oh Yeah! (and this, my friends, is why I haven't been blogging...)

Best Shot Monday | Silence

When I saw this cabin that we spent three of our days in, I went all Haley Mills giddy. Harrison was pretty  excited as well he immediately picked walked in, checked out the bunk beds and claimed a top bunk for himself.

This little campground took me as close to possible to what it was like at grandparents house deep in the Black Hills. It was a little piece of heaven in my hectic life and I'm so thankful for the days and nights Harrison and I got to spend out there this summer. How lovely to look up after dark and see a swell of stars peppering jet black sky, high above the tips of pines stretching up from the earth. How lovely - the only bit of light is a bright, full moon illuminating the rocky walls and trees of our little valley; casting long, dancing shadows across the silent meadow. How lovely to wake in the morning hours before the sun rises and listen to the sound of the creek babbling beyond the darkness. How lovely to smell the fresh, clean air flavored with pines, wild flowers, and dew.

Living in the city, we just don't get this experience. We don't get to hear the many other sounds that flooded our senses while away from the city...

...the non-ceasing chirping of grasshoppers

Gurgling of the ice-cold water as it cascaded over creek rocks.

The whisper of the warm breeze pushing through pine and aspen trees. 

a constant songs of birds as they go about their work

Then...when the sun goes down, the crunch of grass under the deer hooves,
the call of owls through the dark and crickets taking over where their cousin-grasshopper left off

And silence.

It's truly amazing how loud the void of noise can be.
It pierces and echos in your soul before you realize that you hear NOTHING at all.

We experienced it deep in an underground cavern and again deep in the Black Hills.
Each time I soaked it in as much as possible, wishing I could bottle it. 

I absorbed the sounds and felt a peaceful calm during my stay in the "woods". Harrison spent most of his days "tubing" in the icy water of the stream - not unlike his mom at that age. 

Even he noticed the sweet {very real} sound of silence and was awed by it. 

If only we could click our ruby-red slippers and return for just a little bit longer...