Portraits

Jessica in Old Sacramento

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Jessica is one of my favorite people.

She's obviously stunningly beautiful. And she is kind and funny and she inspires me. We share a deep love for furry animals and beautiful clothes. And travel. Out of the six years we have known one another, two of those years we have lived in separate countries. I don't think any amount of time or distance apart will hurt our friendship, and that makes me feel pretty lucky. 

After the shoot we got root beer floats at a decade-old drive-inn and met this little guy. The next morning we bought donuts from Doughbots and mochi from Osaka Ya, and spent the afternoon window shopping. For dinner we went out for Mexican food, drank cadillac margaritas, and had flan for dessert. Indulgences galore. It fed my soul. 

I've been busy. I have three family sessions, a birthday party, and an engagement session to share, and two family sessions and a birthday to shoot in the next four days. And I'm back to playing soccer three days a week. It feels good. I decided I am going to continue offering free sessions through the end of October (while spots last!) and then I am going to raise my rates. 

Red Dress // Sunset in the City

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Miss Molly can make me laugh like few can. We met while both working at Crossroads and something stuck. I always knew I needed more of her in my life. And she competes in Olympic weightlifting so she's a total badass, with a hot body to boot. She texted me the other day and told me that she had just bought the sexiest dress of all time. So we got her all dolled up and waited for the light to be right.

Probably the most fun I've ever had on a shoot. It is so exhilarating collaborating with another person to create something beautiful. And San Francisco did us right. The colors and the sky and the reflections were incredible. We are already dreaming up our next shoot: think vintage lace and flower crowns in an edible garden at sunset. 

My Father, the Musician

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My father is a musician, and has a deep appreciation for music. When we were kids, he would blast the Beatles from homemade speakers to get us out of bed in the morning.

When I was old enough to pick out his presents, I chose "best of" CDs of bands he loved. Later I learned that he prefers actual albums over hits, because of how they are constructed. He enjoys an album as a piece of art.

My dad is a jammer, and a damn good one. When we first started dating, Jeffery played guitar and was in a band. He brought his guitars over one time and he and my dad tried to jam. It was like worlds colliding. Old school psychedelic rock meets hard core punk. But over the years Jeffery's taste in music has drifted closer to my father's, and when Jeff lived with my parents in Hawaii for a couple months before coming to live with me in England, my dad gave him pretty much all of his music.

Some of my earliest memories of music involve me and my dad sitting at his keyboard, singing along to kid's songs. Upon my request he would play the same songs over and over again.  

Although the list of instruments he plays has grown past repeating, he just started taking piano lessons, and I admire his desire to improve as a musician.

Happy Father's Day, dad. And thank you for the music. 

My Mother the Gardener

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mariah smiling
mariah playing with snapdragon
mariah concentrating black and white
mariah smelling snapdragon
admiring snapdragons
smelling the snapdragon
bowl of snapdragons
picking snapdragons
smiling black and white
trimming
hair flip black and white
pulling weeds black and white
smiling in the garden black and white

I captured some images of my lovely mother in her garden one evening while we were harvesting veggies for a salad. Beach hair and all. I think I've really onto something here: photograph someone while they are concentrating on one of their passions. Next up: my father the musician.

Photography Final Project | My Grandmother the Painter

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grandmother painting
selecting paints
old woman paint brushes
silhouette woman painting
wrinkled arm painting
masterpiece woman painter
pause painting with cat
work in progress
inspecting subject
wrinkled arm
shallow depth of field
close up

For my photography class final project I shot a series of portraits of Marina painting. I am very pleased with the final product. I had them printed as full frame 5x7s with white boarders and matted them on 11x15 black mat board. We had a potluck lunch on the final day to present our work, and I invited Marina to come. She baked a pear frangipane tart, and was a big hit, as always. I am so lucky she's mine.