“laugh often, long and loud. laugh until you gasp for breath.  and if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots of time with them.”

-unknown

“the world is grand, awfully big and astonishingly beautiful, frequently thrilling.”

-dorothy kilgallen

so often you hear photographers say “having an expensive camera doesn’t make you a professional photographer.” true. though you would be irresponsible to call yourself a professional if you’re shooting with your iphone camera… the art of modern digital photography begins when you close your eyes and envision how you’d like a shoot to go, and ends when you hold in your hands a photographic print. so i don’t really consider this a true “before and after”. before would be when i pictured this moment in my imagination. and after will be when i hand her mother some gorgeous prints. but here’s an example of what my fancy camera gave me (after a few years of learning how to properly use it), paired with an example of what my fancy photo editing software gave me (after several years of learning how to properly use it).

enjoy.

technical info
Camera: Nikon D700
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400

SOOC (straight out of camera):

finished product:

“joy seems to me a step beyond happiness. 
happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you’re lucky.  
joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.”
-adela rogers st. johns

this arrived on my doorstep this morning.  who knew decorating my walls could feel so good.

this week we’re on vacation!  we spent two days at the beach, and 3 days at disneyland.

we are all sooooo tired, needless to say, but we had SO. MUCH. FUN.

here are some beach photos for now.. i’ll blog disneyland after i catch up on a little sleep!  :)

sisters are blossoms in the garden of life. - author unknown

finding moments in life worth capturing.

loving and embracing those moments just as the subjects do.

caring for and respecting those moments like they are your own, because just for a split second, they are.

having the knowledge and practice to know where to move, how to adjust your camera, consider the lighting, the subject, the emotion…

and snap the shutter at the exact. right. second.

thanking your subject for allowing you to catch a glimpse into their life, their soul, their love.

selecting the perfect images to proof.  the ones that most perfectly portray the expirience.

proofing in a way that reflects the subject, the day… proofing in a way that you’re sure to not only make the viewer feel deep in their heart what it was like to be there,

but also in a way that makes the subject remember, deep in their soul what it was like to be.

looking back on images once taken and recognizing how you’ve grown, knowing that as an artist, though you may reach your “happy place”,

you will never truly finish growing.

remembering that the steps you take in your career are not steps of mistakes and imperfection, but rather building blocks that fit perfectly together

to create a windy stairwell of experience, emotion and love.

knowing that the first thousand steps are just as important as the very last.

being a photographer is really important.

trust me.

these were just too cute not to make it to the blog.

(they all are, really)

today i had the pleasure of photographing isla’s entrance into this big world.  isla’s mama had a 100% natural home birth.  she was so strong and brave, and simply beautiful.   isla’s dad should basically teach a class to men on “how to be awesome when your wife is giving birth”.

they were such a great team, and i feel so blessed to have been able to share this very important day with them.

“the family is one of nature’s masterpieces.  -george santayana”

home with a sick baby today… so just one for now while she’s busy putting stickers on the wall and hiding the remote control.