• children & families,  occassions & parties

    the d’amb communion

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    This is my very good friend G, and her husband and son. G and I used to work together at the shoe company another lifetime ago. I was so happy when she asked me to take S’s pictures on his communion day. But there were lots of warnings for me on how S didn’t like pictures and wouldn’t smile for me at all. Well, it was only partially true.

    I got to the church early and caught him on line waiting to go into the mass. Smiles.

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    There were no pictures allowed in the church, so fast forward to outside shots immediately following the mass and some shots with extended family. Smiles.

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    Then onto a pretty park nearby for the family shots and portraits. No smiles. No eyecontact. Only pouting despite my best efforts and offers of gum and a million dollars. Which lasted only for a little while and then some shy, begrudging smiles.

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    I mean seriously, climbing a cool tree in your communion suit and playing around with your mom and dad in a park that was empty– how could you not smile?

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    Showing me his moves.

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    Mom & Dad are pretty hot themselves.

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    So really, despite a little speed bump, it was mostly all smiles afterall. Hope you like the pictures G & A– I had so much fun taking them.  To see all of the images from this shoot, please click HERE.

  • 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!

  • children & families,  occassions & parties

    the clea communion

    After yesterday’s break in communions, I am back with another special girl on her special day (girls are outnumbering boy shoots this year which is always a nice change of pace for me!)

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    I was so thrilled to get to know Miss H so much better during the course of our time together. Her parents are our friends and her older brother is my big boys’ friend, but I don’t see H very often. What a total sweetheart!!! Really, I had such a nice time with her– she’s so nice and polite and just a good girl. Not to mention beautiful!

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    Caught a few at the church. I knew it was going to be a good shoot when this is the first picture I took.

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    This is H’s cousin who’s pictures I will be taking in a few weeks.

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    Some shots with proud and happy parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts.

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    We tried to get all the family shots out of the way first thing as her little brother really wanted to get out of his dress up clothes and just PLAY. He hung in there so great for me and gave me some great, real happy smiles. The whole family is just so nice and so good looking. How did I get so lucky with my friends/clients??

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    I think these are probably my favorites of the day. Pretty pretty princess.

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    To view all of the images from this session, please click HERE.

  • children & families

    the mahe family

    Skipping around a little bit here. I know I still have a lot of clients waiting for their pictures, but I had to fast forward to this shoot for today. You see, the family pictured are the children/grandchildren of a special mom/grandma who is celebrating her 60th birthday this weekend. And the children/grandchildren put together this shoot as a special gift for her.  So, needed to get the pictures up in enough time for them to get the gift together for her.

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    Another connection here that I didn’t even know about. Not only does one of the ladies in the photos own EAT Oceanside (and by the way, yum! If you haven’t eaten there, you so should) with her husband, that husband is friends with John from highschool.  C, I hope that after seeing the photos, you won’t still think that the park was an odd idea!

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    As soon as they got out of the car and I saw the colors they were wearing, I was sorta in love.

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    Anyway, fantastic kids who were so helpful and great listeners and I think they had a really fun time on top of that. And do I even have to mention how gorgeous they all are? Ya, didn’t think so…

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    Hope your mom/grandma LOVES the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. You were all so fun and sweet.

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    To see all of the images from this session, please click HERE.

  • children & families,  occassions & parties

    the bart communion

    Lots of pictures in this post, so make sure you are comfy in your seat before starting.

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    These are our good friends and their oldest daughter is John’s goddaughter. This day I got to share in Miss K’s first communion and she was a total doll as always. This plus the fact that she really LIKES it when Aunt Beth takes her picture (this is opposed to her older sister-the middle one, and her dad who really dislike my camera with me behind it!) just made my day.

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    Seriously, gorgeous. All of ’em.

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    A little family & friends love (or actually a lot).

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    And a little froggy love. Froggy has never been far away from Miss K since she was born. So glad he made an appearance at the party.

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    If you’d like to see all of the images from this session, please click HERE.