• children & families,  occassions & parties,  personal

    5 for friday + rachel’s confirmation

    1. I haven’t been to bed before 2:30am this whole week so far. That is not expected to change anytime soon. I’m not complaining…I’m just sayin.

    2. It seems as if I’m getting at least one referral (on average) per shoot that I do. Which is so awesomely cool. My little “I-didn’t-mean-to-start-a-business-and-still-have-no-business-plan” venture is really taking off, even when I thought it peaked last year! Apparently not.  See #1 above.

    3. Timmy finished up school yesterday and the big boys have 2 more weeks to go. Since Timmy’s done there will be no more editing during the day. See #1 above again, and add on at least an hour. I do have pictures of the boys spring concert and of Timmy’s last day. Don’t think I’m getting to those til next Friday though.

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    4. I am so far behind in editing it’s crazy. That leads to being behind in blog posting too. I know I have several clients anxiously awaiting their pictures.  I’m hurrying as much as I can (see #1 above). Really, I am. Maybe I just won’t sleep at all. Ever.

    5. Looking really forward to going out with the playgroup girls for dinner tonight! Should be so fun. And filled with mongolian beef….mmmmmmmm. One night off the diet.

    And finally, Rachel’s confirmation pictures. Heidi, you can stop textingemailingfacebooking me about them now! 🙂

    My ‘first son’ Adam. He is now taller than me. How did that happen? Plus the fact that he is now an Ocean Life Guard- where did the time go??

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    Erica is a real pip (always was). And this is the reaction I got when I asked the boys to stand next to her and put their arms around her for the picture. Their first picture with another baby was with Erica when the boys were about 1 month old and Erica was 2 months old. I guess that’s probably the last one where they will not make these faces.

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    All the kids got along and played so nicely. Their backyard is fantastic and gorgeous, with beautiful light streaming in and sun reflecting back off the windows of the house. Niiiice! And a little hammock action is always good for some laughs.

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    Glad to see that Joe and Heidi annoy all of ‘their kids’ equally. This is “Rachel’s brother from another mother”. Poor kid. But I don’t have too much sympathy since Heidi chases down my boys every time she sees them (especially coming out of religion) to give them lots of kisses. Patrick resigned himself to “take it like a man” at the party since he knew there was no escape.

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    The confirmation girl herself. With her friends. They are soooooo 13. And when she wouldn’t listen to me I threatened her with getting JohnnyB to come out and sing to her in front of all her friends and party guests. She listened from then on.

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    You can see the rest of the pictures from the party HERE.

  • personal

    5 for friday

    Trying to make this a regular event here on the blog. Are you liking the 5 for friday posts or would you rather I just stick with posting client images? Feedback appreciated…

    1. I hate bad drivers. You know, the ones who drive about 5 miles an hour and then don’t even stop at the stop sign. Drives me f***** nuts.

    2. I am really officially in editing hell. With the 12 (yes, 12) shoots from last week, I’m not sure when/if I’ll catch up. I love the finished product but sometimes I’d like to leave out the middle part. Just the shooting and the posting of pretty pictures would be fine with me.

    3. LOVING my two new lenses so very much. There really is something to be said for that L glass. Yummy.

    4. Jack & Patrick have officially begun the orthodontic crusade this week. I say crusade because we have YEARS of this ahead of us. Besides the initial drama of worrying about it before it happens (gee, I can’t even imagine where they get THAT from…), the whole thing has been pretty great so far. They have both gotten seperators, multiple sets of impressions, and Patrick got his first set of back bands cemented to his upper molars today. We go back in a few weeks for the next bunch of work (Patrick will be getting a cemented retainer and Jack will be getting a cemented palate expander and partial top braces). Pictures to come when there’s really something to shoot. So far, can’t really see anything. They really are being troopers though.

    5. Shooting a wedding tommorrow (can you hear me squeaking with anxiety?) with Beth W. and a communion Sunday afternoon. So even though there are significantly less shoots this weekend, the wedding stress is ON. I’ll be fine once I’m there and shooting, until then…not so much.

    And because a post is boooorrrinnnngg without pictures, here are a few of the boys I took recently.

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  • personal,  personal & corporate branding {headshots}

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    Did some headshots recently for a project John and his partners are working on. They needed some updated pictures of them for some material a client will be handing out. Took Timmy along and went to their office with the camera and the kid (figured Timmy might be able to make them smile a little- he did, but not for the pictures).

    John:

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    Kevin:

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    Brian:

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    The three of them:

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    Ok, so the question is, which version of John do you want representing you in court? The serious one above, or the angry or crazy versions below?: (by the way, the one on the right is the face he most often has on)

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    And this is probably why he has that face:

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    And apparently, he cleaned his desk before I came over. What you can’t see are the piles of papers on the floor and on the 4 chairs where I was standing to take the pictures. But then….everything was good.

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    Hope everyone has a productive day so your desk dosen’t look like this too.

  • personal

    5 (+3) for Friday

    1. This, I believe, might be a record week with 11 (yes, 11) shoots! Can you say swamped?? I haven’t been to bed before 2:30am all week. I’m so tired that I totally slept thru the alarm clock today. Thankfully, John was working from home today and took the boys to school for me. Timmy kept sleeping too, until about 9:20am, so he was a little late to preschool. I guess we all needed the extra rest.

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    2. The big boys are getting so….well, so big. There are conversations started with “Well, frankly….” and “To tell you the truth…”. They started wearing deoderant this week, and let me tell you they really NEEDED it. They’ve recently moved from that “wet dog/boy” smell, to that taco chip smell to full on B.O. Ugh. They asked John if he thought a lot of kids in 4th grade wore deoderant. John’s reply was something to the effect of “not as many as your teachers would probably like”. But we are all much happier now that they have started doing a swipe each night before bed.

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    3. John’s leaving with the big boys, Uncle That Guy and two of his boys today for a trip up to Boston to see the Red Sox play tonight. Just one overnight, but it should be fun for them. Timmy will help me hold down the fort here and have “playdates” (read: babysitting) with Andi and Grandma/Hakka while I work tonight and tommorrow. And an actual playdate with Jack (his BFF) this morning. I thought he had school today. Apparently not.

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    4. Shooting the band tonight at Parkside Lounge in NYC. Here’s a few shots from a fundraiser in Oceanside last weekend that they played at. And my friend Ivy working the fundraiser. Can’t wait til her wedding next month!!! Being a guest and photographer- so excited!!web613

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    5. I’ve been walking every day to try to lose some weight and get in some kind of shape. Not enjoying it, but doing it. Have to look good for my big 40th birthday bash in September! The ipod (that I stole from John a loooong time ago) is helping. Sitting is much better still.

    6. My new 50mm 1.2L lens came late yesterday. I had a shoot last night at a wedding rehearsal dinner so only got to use it for a few shots, but it will get a big workout this weekend with the 9 remaining shoots for the week. So far, LOVE it. It’s delish.

    7. Some shots from Visitors Day last week. John was able to make it last minute (the boys were very happy about that) and Grandma & Hakka came along too which the boys were also thrilled about! We even all went out to lunch together.  The theme this year was Science and the 4th graders all did a “How To” project. Jack’s was an astronomy project on how to find constellations in the winter sky. Patrick’s was how to take a digital picture. And there were songs with sign language with the 1st graders (so cute).  All the 4th graders also worked on electrically wired houses that they decorated and wired themselves. The room lights really worked! Some of the other kids projects pictured below too…

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    8. My most favorite pasta restaurant in Long Beach (Steven’s Pasta) burned to the ground this week. I’m devastated. I’ve been going there since the late 80’s for dinner, and then it turned into John & my date night place. And now of course I’m craving it like crazy. No word that I’ve heard yet on rebuilding or relocating or anything. So sad.

    Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. Client posts to resume on Monday (that’s the plan anyway). See you then!

  • personal,  travel,  weddings

    parlez vous jamaica, mon?!!

     

    I was asked to shoot my very first destination wedding next May in Jamaica. Not Jamaica Queens, but the real Jamaica the Island!!!!

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    The couple getting married are the fabulous Caren and Tim who’s engagement shoot I recently posted on the blog. I couldn’t have been happier and more honored that they asked me, and I’m so glad we worked the whole thing out. I’ll be shooting their wedding at Beaches Negril on Friday, May 7th 2010 along with all the other weekend festivities (a sunset cruise, the wedding day prep, the whole wedding ceremony and reception, and a trash the dress session). And I can’t wait!!

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    I will be bringing the whole family along for the trip. And it looks like Timmy’s BFF Jack and his family will be joining us as well. It’s gonna be awesome!!!

     

    10 bonus points to anyone who leaves a comment on this post, guessing where the title comes from. Hint: it’s from a movie and it’s really “parlez vous _______ (insert event here)”.