Life. Now Photography | San Francisco Bay Area Maternity, Newborn, Baby, Child and Family Custom Photography » your life. right now.

Hello, internet, it’s me, Wendy.  I know it’s  been a while since I’ve been ’round these here parts.  And honestly, I don’t really have an excuse.  Well, I do, but not a GOOD one.  Things got a bit hectic early in December, after my last post.  And then it was Christmas.  And I felt pressure to write something super thoughtful and deep on my blog.  Something about how grateful I was for this past year and how thankful I was for all the support from my family/friends/loved ones in getting LNP off the ground.  And since I couldn’t come up with anything awesome I just didn’t post.  And then it was the New Year, and again with the pressure!  To write something about how THIS year is gonna be so incredible and amazing, etc.  And again, I couldn’t come up with anything “good enough”, so I didn’t post.  And then it was the second week of January.  And now it’s the beginning of the third.  You know how you let something go for so long, and then you’re embarrassed at how long it’s been so you avoid it?  Yeah, that’s what happened.

But today it ends!  (that sounds so dramatic.)  I had my first session of the year yesterday and it definitely helped me refocus.  And it reminded me of why I chose to do this in the first place.  So I’m back, yeah!

The beginning of the year can be a marvelously slow time of year for photographers (I mean that in a good way).  With the mad rush of the holidays over, it’s a great time to work on personal projects.  I decided to do a 365 project this year.  Basically, it entails taking at least one picture every day for a year.  It doesn’t have to start on January 1, but I think most people go about it that way.  I didn’t really “commit” to the project until last night.  And by commit I mean say it out loud.  I’ve been taking pictures every day since January 1, but haven’t called it a 365 even though it’s been on my mind the whole time.  I figured if I didn’t tell anyone and missed a day then it was because I wasn’t REALLY doing the project.  I’m one of those people that has a hard time with discipline, so putting things out there and having people help me be accountable really…helps.  I have to say, I’ve really loved it so far.  It’s just everyday shots of my family and my life.  Boring for most, but wonderful for me.  Here’s the image from Day 5:

Mmmm…cupcakes.

I wouldn’t necessarily say my 365 project is a New Year’s Resolution, but it’s definitely something I’d like to achieve this year.

How about you?  Any goals for this year?  Tell me about ‘em in the comments below.  Especially if you’re the type that needs help in the accountability department.

Last week, my oldest turned 5.  I don’t really know how it happened.  I just know it crept up on me and the next thing I knew he wasn’t 4 anymore.  I know 5 may not seem old.  And it’s not double-digits or anything.  But it seems big to me.  He’s FIVE.  We’ve managed to keep him alive for half a decade.  He’s gone from having one liquid in his diet to having tons of solid foods in his diet (although not as many as I’d like).  He’s gone from wearing a diaper 24 hours a day to not wearing one at all (even at night).  He says stuff like “you’re not my boss” (to his brother) and he gives the absolute best hugs and kisses.

I couldn’t help but sneak into his room the night before his birthday and take some shots of his last night as a 4-year-old.  Of course he had his blanket off and he was bent in half.  His head was where his feet should’ve been and Big Bird, his long-time companion, was within reach.

I love everything about this kid.  Happy birthday, O.

P.S. He gets his eyelashes from his daddy.

Wow.  The last 10 days have been insane.  I think I’m still a little in disbelief that I am alone right now.  There aren’t any sick kids home with me (although that may change later today, ugh).  I can actually open my own eyes without experiencing blinding pain in my head and I can move without having my body ache everywhere.  Between traveling to San Diego for a photography workshop last weekend, coming home to sick kids, going to the pediatrician twice, a school holiday thrown in there for fun, my own flu and two photo sessions in the last two days, I’m beat!  I guess that’s just life, huh?

I’ll be posting some sneak peaks in the next day or so, but wanted to show you this:

Those are the knees of my pants (I wore the same jeans to both of my sessions this weekend).  As soon as I got home after the last session I took them off and sprayed the knees with Spray N Wash.  Here’s to hoping the ground in dirt and the grass stains come out.  Because I’d really like to wear those jeans again.

I spend a lot of time on the computer.  A. LOT.  Some people might even say too much.  All my time on the computer, in particular the internet, really pays off, though.  I find great tutorials on everything related to photography and the digital darkroom (aka Photoshop and Lightroom), as well as inspirational blogs that make me realize how wonderful and important photography really is.

One of the sites I love to visit is Mom*tog.  She posts so many tips on how to take pictures of your own kids.  Photographing your kids can be very different than photographing someone else’s kids.  You wouldn’t think so, but it is.  I’ve learned a lot about trying to get good shots of my two crazy munchkins from this site.  She posts her camera settings, gives great advice on equipment and explains things (like white balance, how to buy a camera, etc.) in a way that everyone can understand.

So head on over there!  And then bust out your camera and capture some of your own everyday memories.  I’d love to see some, so leave a link to your photos in the comments!

It’s raining.  Hard.  What a great day to stay inside, all snuggled up and warm.  After I took my 2 kiddos to school thats exactly what I did.  For about 30 minutes.  Then I had to get up because I had so many things swirling around in my head.  First, I was bummed that I didn’t get to go see my friend, Michelle, today.  She lives in Santa Cruz and I haven’t seen her since our photography workshop last year.  It was going to be so good to see her!  But there was no way I was driving over HWY 17 with this weather.  So we will reschedule.  I went to hear The Becker give a talk last night as part of the SMUG photographer meet-ups.  It was great.  That guy is passionate about photography!  So I had a lot of the things he said floating around my head.  And I wanted to get out there and shoot!  But the weather disagreed.  Still, I managed to go outside, with my umbrella, and take some rain shots.  This was my favorite one:

Hope you are all staying dry today.  Or wet, if you feel like going out there and stomping around in some puddles.

I’m thiiiiiiiis close!  To opening up shop, that is.  My price list is finalized and I’m just waiting on a few samples of product that I’ve ordered.  Once I get those and take some shots of them, I will post.

I’m so torn.  There are times when I want to go full steam ahead.  I want to do mini-sessions for the holidays, start taking maternity and newborn clients, schedule some of the boudoir shoots that people have asked for, etc.  Just do it all NOW!  But then I remind myself that I just left my job 3 months ago.  That I’m still doing some work on myself and for my family.  So I need to take it sloooooow.  I need to do things in a non-stressful manner.  I can’t let myself get to the place I was at before I stopped working. Because that was NOT a good place!  Ask my husband, he’ll tell you…

And I really want to start off with all my ducks in a row.  With my logo done, my stationary ordered, my packaging figured out.  I want people to get the whole LNP experience from the get-go.  Because you only have one chance to make a first impression.

So I wait…

And wait…

Not-so-patiently…

Until I just can’t take it anymore and I have to take matters into my own hands...

Do you see the tongue??

So hopefully, the next post you read from me will be it.  The big announcement.  With all the details.  Because I just don’t know how much longer I can take!!!

P.S. That’s Mulligan in those photos.  He is such a good dog.  If that were me, I would’ve knocked Owen over trying to get to that dessert…but his humans have trained him very well.

I can’t believe summer is almost over.  Although you’d never know it from the weather we’ve been having over the last few days!  No one in the Bay Area has A/C.  We just don’t need it.  But the last couple days have been scorchers!  Makes me wish I did have A/C!

One of the things I love about summer is my dahlias are in full bloom:

So even though I’m lookig forward to cooler weather, Im not looking forward to the end of summer.  Maybe I love summer because it’s the season I was born in.  Well, at least I can look back on this picture once the weather gets super cold and be reminded of summer.  Now if only looking at it could make my feet warm up, too.  Because I HATE having cold feet.

I will miss you, summer…

Wendy

I’ve loved photography for as long as I can remember.  When I was a little girl, I wanted one of those Kodak 110 cameras that were long and skinny, remember those?

So old school...

I took a Black & White Photography class my senior year in college.  I remember having to borrow a friend’s SLR camera since I didn’t have one.  I was living in Los Angeles at the time and attending UC Santa Barbara (that’s a different post), and I would drive up the 101 every Tuesday for my photography lecture and then drive back up again on Thursday to use the dark room to develop my stuff.  The days in the lab flew by.  I would walk in there when they opened at 10:00 a.m. and the next thing I knew they were kicking me out because it was closing time!

After college, life got hectic and photography took a back seat.  It wasn’t until I had my second son in 2007 that I got my first DSLR.  I’d had a digital point-and-shoot for many years but was finding that I wasn’t able to get the type of images I wanted with it.  I was starting to feel very limited by its…limitations.  So I upgraded to a DSLR.  A few months after that I bought these two DVD’s.  Then I signed up for an amazing workshop in 2008 and another one earlier this year, and I haven’t really looked back.

I recently read a post on a message board that talked about the road to becoming a photographer.  Here is part of it:

“Do NOT compare your work or where you are in your photography journey to someone else and where they are. Instead, compare yourself to where you were just a few weeks/months/years ago. That’s the true test of if you’re a good photographer. You should always see an improvement in your work.  When I quit focusing on where I wasn’t and focused instead on how far I’d come since I started, I realized I wasn’t doing as bad as I thought I was.”

See, the thing with photographers is that we always have doubts.  About whether we are good enough and whether people will like our work.  After all, photography is very subjective.  Some people still like the old-school studio look with the grey marbleized  backdrop.  And even if you didn’t ever really like it, that was your only choice (Exhibit A would be my high school senior pictures, and I’m NOT going to show you those!).  I have doubts about whether or not I’m “good enough” almost every day.  After reading the post above, I decided to take a look back through my pictures over the last year.  And all I can say is wow.  I have tons of pictures from last year where I have no idea what I was thinking with regards to my settings.  I would be shooting outside, in bright light and have my ISO set to 800!  Or I’d be inside my poorly lit house trying to take pictures of my fast-moving kids and my shutter speed was at 1/80, my aperture was at f8.0, my ISO was at 100 and I couldn’t figure out why they were all blurry and dark!  Then I went through a phase where I shot wide-open all the time.  Even when I had multiple subjects and they were on a swing.  My rational?  I wanted that blurred background.  What I got instead was blurred everything!  And while my images now are not always perfect, they are better.  I know to set my shutter speed first if I have a fast moving subject that I want to freeze in motion followed by my aperture so I can get a correct exposure. And I know that I need to bump my ISO, or switch to a faster lens if I’m inside my (poorly lit) house and want to get images of my kids.

So I’m improving.  Every time I push that shutter release button I learn something.  Every time I mess up a shot I learn from it.  So hopefully the next time I’m having doubts about whether or not I should do this (a.k.a. at some point tomorrow), I can think back to the me of last year and know that by this time next year, I will have learned at least 5,000 things.

I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 10 years now.  And while the original plan when I first moved up here was to stay for just a couple of years, things changed.  For starters, my husband had a great job.  His company was full of young, vibrant people that we enjoyed socializing with.  We started building a community here, and I got to the point where I just couldn’t imagine living somewhere else.  So here I am…

My husband is still at the same company and decided that he wanted some “art” for his office walls.  Enter photographer wife (that’s me)!  I talked to him about what he envisioned and decided to spend a day in San Francisco snapping away.  Now, even though I live in the Bay Area, I’ve never lived in San Francisco proper.  And even though I’m from Los Angeles, driving in SF downright scares me.  SF drivers are crazy!  So my knowledge of the city is somewhat limited.  I mean, after living here for 10 years, I’d never been to China Town!  That’s just not ok. So I parked my car in a lot and starting walking around.  His office is by the water, and it was a beautiful day, so I ended up on the Embarcadero.

Since it was a Saturday morning, the Farmer’s Market was all set up.  I love this next shot.  I call it “The Exchange”

I figured I couldn’t walk the whole city, and I knew I wasn’t getting back in my car and DRIVING!  So i decided to catch a cab.  There was a whole line of them just waiting for me outside of one of the hotels.

I decided to go to China Town, since I’d never been there.  It’s a.ma.zing!

I got some shots that I really loved of the various modes of transportation.  Because really.  Public transportation is part of what makes SF, well, SF.

Ok, so maybe that scooter isn’t exactly public transportation.  But I had to include it!

So even though I’ve never lived in the city, I think I kinda love it.  Even with all its crazy drivers!  I look forward to getting back up there and taking some more shots of this great city…