Sea World @ Night

(written by Judy)
Jaelin with her cousin, Ashlyn. They are three weeks apart, with Jaelin being the older of the two. They are a joy to watch together. Although they do not see each other as often as we'd like, they pick up from where they left of like two old friends. They simply adore one another.

Yates Family BBQ

This weekend we had some family fly in from Norway, so we threw them a good ol' American BBQ. The Rodstal family (first picture below) are long lost relatives of my paternal grandmother's orphaned mother. My grandmother found them after years of genealogy research, which culminated in a visit to Norway in 2004 when she met her family for the first time.

My brother-in-law, Jeff, and my niece, Kiersten.



My mom and dad.








Chase and Jaelin with their cousin, Ashlyn.










Uncle Dennis and Aunt Sue, Grandmother Kay, dad & mom.









Chase and my dad.

PictoBrowser

I'm trying out a new slide show applet that ties into flickr. Pretty cool...

Luke & Lynn

Here are a few shots of Luke and Lynn.

Yay! New Larger Picture Format for the Blog!

Rustin Cerveny was kind enough to show me how to get larger photos on my blog last night. Woo hoo! Now we're off and running.

I'm fascinated with some of the effects I've seen with a tilt-shift lens. For those non photogs - one of its effects is bending the light in such a way that it can make full sized things appear miniature. I doubt one is going to be in my purchasing future ANY time soon, but I saw some Photoshop tutorials that get a similar effect. I grabbed an image from my library to try it on.

I guess I'll call this one TOY CAR...because as much as I'd like to argue that the M3 is a safe, practical and reliable family car (it even has two car seats in the back...), it does drive like a bat out of hell. I hope to still have this when my son is a teenager...but he will NEVER drive it.

Zach, the Rock Star

Last night I had the pleasure of photographing Zach for his senior portraits. He and his family (from Colorado) were visiting Los Angeles over the weekend and hired me to squeeze in a few senior portraits that night while they were here. As soon as the family arrived, the sun dove behind a cloud and was never seen again.

This was a test in lighting improvisation.

We grabbed a couple flashes and went to town. We had to act quickly as the lighting was changing by the minute. I think I used every piece of equipment I had in my bag. I even used the snoot I made for one of the flashes out of a mini cereal box and black tape (thanks to Strobist for the idea!). The whole family helped assist. Ken (uncle) held a reflector, while Lynn (cousin) and Luke each held the flashes. We had a great time experimenting with different lighting ideas and looks.

In the end, I think we were able to create some really cool images, and Zach ended up looking like a rock star. And chicks dig that :)

Weekend Photo Shoot

A Few of My Babies

After an afternoon at the pool

Chase attacked by his sister's intense love

Jaelin watching "Ni Hao Kai Lan"

50mm 1.4

My first shot out of the box with my 50mm 1.4. I have a feeling this lens and I are going to be good friends. I turned to the nearest victim as soon as it was on my camera. Thanks to Judd Simantov for his role as guinea pig. More to come...

Naughty Dog Bowling Night

Our studio recently rented a bowling alley
to celebrate the completion of one of our big deadlines.



I think this ball took three minutes to hit the pins.

Judy and Chase

Jaelin throwing the bowling ball with all her might.

Benson striking a box pose.

Chase, aka the Ladies' Man, getting passed around, but mostly monopolized by Anna Simantov.

Look at that form!

Mike and Matthew showing their impersonation of a coat rack.

Jaelin giving me some TLC (aka bossing me around).

Sea World

Catching up on some old posts...
We took our daughter to Sea World for the first time.
It was a magical experience for her. Shamu is her new hero.

Feeding the dolphins.
Is it me or don't dolphins look like the happiest creatures on earth?
This one looks like it just winked at me. Maybe he was just using me for my sardines.

I know we've all seen this guy perform these flips. But DUDE! It's a WHALE doing a freaking flip! Who was the guy who first thought, "Hey, I think I can train whales to do tricks for food."

The excited choke-hold.