Inspiration through beauty, through joy and through grief

Since April 20, 2012, I have been in a bit of a grimm mood. I learned that my Granny was about to leave us and it was time for all of the family to say their final good byes. I left my parents house with a heavy heart, thinking about how to process the idea of losing a loved one.

The next day, I woke up with thoughts of my mom and how she always told us that life goes on. And my thoughts turned to Granny knowing what she would say, "Don't mind me, go 'bout your business"

With a heavy heart, I did go about my business. I went on to photograph a charity fashion show hosted by the Blue Roses group. This is truly a fascinating group of girls who have special needs who are taught how to be independent and confident in our everyday world. Along side them are girls who are of the same age that have no needs that help and encourage the girls. It is truly an experience to watch these girls and how they interact with each other!

This fashion show was truly unique for both my husband and I. We have had the privilege to photograph fashion shows with a few local designers here in San Diego. We have worked with many models with great beauty. But the young girls for the charity event showed us true beauty and confidence that we have never seen before!

These girls made themselves shine brightly and they had so much fun! They broke through a lot of their comfort zones and with that made them so much more confident in themselves!

I left this event feeling inspired by their beauty and confidence. It reminded how I need to be for myself.

After this event, I was in a bit of a rush to get to my brother's wedding. He is the youngest and the last sibling to marry. I have to admit it was a lot of mixed emotions! Realizing my brother was a grown man and grew with great wisdom. Good heavens where has the time gone!!!!

Time is never our friend. The world rotates, time flies through and all the while we experience so much. This was my constant thought. Looking around at my family, my children, and in wonderment of the celebration of a beautiful union of my brother and his wife.

When all was calm, Granny passed away. I spent one day with my grief going through my memories of her and what she is to our family. In a moment of clarity, I remembered that I have photos of her from random family gatherings. Then I remembered a special photo I took of her while she was gardening in my parents backyard. She loves her vegetables and was saddened yet amused by the sad small stubby carrots she pulled out of the earth!

There are so many beautiful memories of her. But out of all of her knowledge there are 2 things most important to mention! 1) Family, not matter how big, all is loved equally! (our family is HUGE!)
2) Blackberry cobbler. Thanks Granny for all your cobblers!!! You are loved and will be greatly missed.

And when we think we can take a breath, my other brother and his wife welcomed the arrival of their first son! Elijah Adam! What a beautiful perfect baby he is! I have never seen such a smitten family! It was a beautiul sight to see the love they have for their son. It was the beautiful joy that calmed the storm.

So much has happened, and some of those moments I captured on camera. And in it all, I found inspiration in what I want to be, how I want my art to evolve, and expressing the emotions through it all.

Blue Roses Girls
Photos from Charity Event
In Granny's Hands

Why Wedding Photographers Prices are “Wack”

My husband sent me this, and I am in awe of this photographer!!!! Well said! This is being posted just as an insight, not as a rant. Many say that I am too expensive, and not think about all that is involved with our pricing.
Why Wedding Photographers Prices are “Wack”

Going...

So, last night I was showing my daughter, who came home to live for a little while, my photo video montages that I created of my work. It was actually really neat for me to rewatch the videos. My goodness, my work has evolved so much since I started. This I find to be a VERY good thing! It means that I have been working on how to perfect my art. I look at the photos and I think "you know what I could have done?"

So, for the next few days, I am going to share my videos of old work, and then I will make a new video, of NEW work. I would love to hear what people think and the differences of my changes!

Tipping Your Photographer

Since I have been a professional photographer and before the Groupon happened, I have gotten one tip. I was surprised and happy! But it made me think if it was proper to tip a photographer.

I have worked at places that gives services such as delivering, serving, or making, all which in my opinion you should tip for. You give good service, and people tip you. However it is not an obligation by any means!

As far as photography goes, I think it is appropriate to tip for a service well done. Being a photographer, it is a physically demanding job, not to mention mentally taxing! We stand, sit , kneel and bend in weird positions to get the right angle of our subjects. We have to think how to be creative and original with our compositions of our subject. That in itself is very challenging!

For me personally, I am constantly thinking how to change up my style to make my clients feel unique in my art. Not an easy task I might add! But I do it for the sake of my own satisfaction of knowing I gave it my all.

So, if you ever wonder if you should tip your photographer, I say YES, if they did a job well done!

2012 and Reflections

Here we are at 2012. I am still not where I want to be, but for some reason, my instincts tell me to not give up. To keep moving forward and not lose heart for the art that I love creating! I created a photo montage of my husband and I's career. When I watch this video, it brings me to tears and appreciate my career choice. More than that, I think about all the people I have met, and knowing that they would be disappointed in me to walk away! Including my husband! I hope you enjoy the video!

The Start of Groupon

In all the years of being a photographer, I have never been brought to tears. Today we started a groupon deal with a salon. To our great surprise, a GREAT SUCCESS! But one of the buyers was in a time bind. She called and asked if she could schedule an appointment today. She told me about how she was in going in tomorrow to have her left breast removed and this was the last chance she had to be brave and have boudoir photos done. I was put in a bit of a bind knowing how Groupon worked and it was not guaranteed that the deal would go on. On top of which, I was not entirely sure if I was being told the truth and she understood that. So I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

When I arrived to the salon to fix up my mini studio, the girls were talking about their concern if this woman could be scamming us. I told them either way, I am not worried.

The woman arrived in her hat, and I immediately knew she was telling me the truth. She was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and after a year of chemo therapy, more lumps grew. Everything  happened so fast for her, and she finally decide to be brave on the last minute and have her photos taken to remember how she looked with her breast.

During the session, she showed me her scars. All the while telling about all the things she went through. I came to conclusion that she is a brave woman with positive attitude.

At the end of our session, she asked to do one last photo. She wanted one with a pink feather boa wrapped underneath her breast. I took 2 shots, but the last one I knew IMMEDIATELY it was the one. The photo was the epitome of my company's name. Her photo was truly worth a thousand words. And with that thought, I had to step out. It brought me to tears. I will never forget her!

February 22, 2011 Update:
The brave woman has consented for me to use the very image that brough me to tears.

 

 

 

February 6, 2014

 

RIP Theresa! Thank you for letting me share this with the world. You reminded me of why I wanted to be a photographer. Whenever I want to give up, I think of this moment!

Never To Be Taken For Granted

Transformer Barricade

The link I have posted is from my DeviantArt account. As promised, I am retelling old stories from my previous blog.

This photo was taken a lil' over 2  years ago. It was a calendar project to raise money for the "Make A Wish Foundation". Needless to say it fell through, but the experience and lessons were greatly earned!

This project was a two day photo shoot with Mustangs and models. I had to learn real quick about shadows and reflections! Posing a model with cars is not as easy as it seems.

Day one: COMPLETE FRUSTRATION! I was given some experienced  models and models who knew nothing about being a model! I was also given wannabe models. Oy, what headache! I am sure if you have experience with models, you would know that if you have to pound out photos and the model is not listening to your directions, you are not going to use her very often! This poor model looked like I was going to kill her with my camera!

Day Two: This day truly tried my patience. I set a time and it is not a time of day I care for, but I am where I was suppose to be at 5am! 2 hours later, the models and everyone else shows up! I am a bit disgruntled at this point!

At 8am we leave finally to our location of photo shoot. This part was actually fun for me. Most models that day knew what to do and how to do it. HOWEVER, I did get a wanna be model! I did my best to make her look good, but to be honest, she is past her prime and she refuses to admit to it! I know that may seem harsh, but I am being honest and realistic. I am shooting a hot all girl calendar with sexy cars, not cougars with sexy cars!

At the end of the day, I was dead beat tired. Unfortunately, I had to get cracking on the photos. Editing photos can be a lil' gruesome. After quite a few hours, I was done.

I had delivered the images, only to be told that they decided to not go forward with the calendar. Not only that, but they demanded me to hand over my images so that they can do as they please with them. First of all, that WAS NEVER in our agreement. I made it PERFECTLY clear about rights to my images. They claimed they understood and was ok with it!

In the end they claimed they contacted a lawyer, and when I hear those claims, I actually do talk with a lawyer. I was assured they had no case. I did what I was suppose to do to protect my images. Oh what a sigh of relief!

I think what upset me the most is that for 1) I gave a big discount rate since it was for charity. 2) Their claim for business ethics, and how they have been taken for granted. 3)All who were involved got SCREWED!

I learned a great deal from this, but the best lesson I took more then anything is never be taken for granted!