Let's Play the 'What If..." Game

Okay, you know you love this game - who doesn't? It's the 'What-if-I-were-a-millionaire' game where you think of all the things you'd do if you had the money. I love this game because I think it's so interesting to hear what people come up with. For example, get this - my spouse would like clean sheets everyday. Say what? Yup. Clean sheets. And a made bed (I may - may - be guilty of not always doing this task which is ironic because I'm a neat/clean freak but making the bed has always seemed like this totally pointless task to me considering not more than 14 hours later or something it's destroyed again... and more than likely, no one is going to see it from the time it's destroyed to the time it's destroyed...so essentially, who cares?! That's my reasoning anyway. Or - maybe it's just that sitting quietly with a cup of coffee before my kids gets up seems like a much better use of my time than making the bed - and much better for my sanity :)).
Anyway! Okay, so mine would be fresh flowers every week. A huge, big bouquet of beautiful, vibrant colored flowers. There is just something about it that makes my house feel extra special, extra beautiful, extra homey. And it just makes me smile.
Alright, and if I am actually a millionaire I could probably afford a few more things so while I'm at it, I'd like a chef. Mostly just to keep me out of the kitchen. Or the pantry. Where the chocolate is.
In any case, these flowers (below) are from a recent bouquet - which, with my great gardening skills (haha..haha..haha...haha) I should know the name of but of course I don't. They are my absolute favorite though so I thought I'd capture a few pics before they go to wilting.
Happy Monday everyone!

Rambling Thoughts for a Friday Afternoon

Okay, I realize when starting a garden a smart thing to do would be to read a gardening book, which I did buy, by the way. It's true I have a book addiction - I love book anything (it's one of my secret dreams to have a library room in my house someday...you know, one of those fancy pants rooms you see in like Pottery Barn where there are book shelves floor-to-ceiling with a ladder that rolls from one side of the room to the other and big, plush leather chairs scattered around with huge french doors to one side where bright sunlight streams in and the smell of coffee lingers in the air...I know, I know, I'm a dork but I really do dream of this room with shelf after shelf of all my favorite books and a million others I've bought and haven't yet read...) Anyway! So, of course, I bought the book - the all inclusive self-help for (dense) first gardners book...which is sitting prettily on my nightstand right under about five photography books, a romance novel (or two - yup, guilty vice), a notepad with scribbled, non-legible notes and five post-it notes stuck haphazardly on top of that and right next to a bottle of water and chapstick (two things I cannot possibly live without in life). Yes, I love my books and note pads and post-it notes and chapstick...
Where was I?...okay! - so, got the book but failed to read it - yet. In the meantime, the season doesn't stop so I went ahead and planted my garden, following the directions on the seed packs. And lookie, lookie what we have! We have actual produce! Woho! Now, I have no idea how to actually harvest, pick, whatever or when I'm supposed to harvest, pick, whatever but you have to agree, it sure looks pretty, eh? I think I'm good on the tomatoes - pick when red. The corn, pick when you see corn. The carrots - not sure on that and the spinach...totally clueless (I know it seems self-explanatory - when it looks like ripe spinach, pick it, but so far it doesn't look like any kind of spinach I'm familiar with so....?). So obviously I have a LOT to learn about gardening...which I will...right after I hit those five photo books, edit my last session, finish my first newsletter, yadda yadda yadda....
And here's the rambling part (again) - you know what I often wish in cases like this - when there are so many things you want to accomplish and not enough time...remember the movie Short Circuit when the robot could flip through a book and assimilate the entire contents within a matter of seconds?....that! THAT'S what I want! If I'm ever granted special powers - you know, like as in Heros - (and note to God, just in case you're reading and granting special powers today :)) that's what I want to be able to do. :)

Dhon's Elevator Art

Back when we did the Media Day shoot for the Sacramento Monarchs, I was asked to take a particular picture for a concept Dhon Santos had come up with for the elevators at Arco Arena. When I heard the concept, I thought it was way cool (I don't know how these guys come up with such creative ideas) but it's even better than I imagined! Today, I dropped in at Arco Arena to say hi to Dhon and Casey - two uber talented artistic peeps that I've mentioned before - and took a snapshot of what I'm calling "Dhon's Elevator Art" - because seriously, how creative is this idea?

Storyboard Sign-In

It's password protected but if you're here, you're so in. :) Check out all the storyboard options I mentioned by going to the Main website and Slideshows, password: 2008clients.
Tomorrow I'll have a fun thing to share - can't say what it is, but it's cool! Hopefully, I'll have a chance to log in and post after my early evening session.
I'm off to veg! Good night everyone!

Storyboards & Wall Art

I am often asked what a storyboard is so I thought I'd provide a little explanation here. I will also be releasing a gallery soon that has tons of storyboard examples that I've done for clients in the past (as well as a gallery for clothing and location ideas) but for now...

Storyboards are 10x20 mounted (on artboard) prints with 3-5 images; either 3 horizontal or 2-5 vertical. Personally, I think 4 vertical images looks the best but ultimately, it's up to you. There are a lot of fun extras you can add onto storyboards - wording, the date or even a background image which is one of my favorite things to do (as shown above). Depending on the size of your wall, and you don't need a lot of wall space, storyboards make awesome wall collages when combined with a few other framed prints - maybe a 16x20 and a few 8x10s or, for small walls, an 8x10 and some 5x7s...the combinations are endless. I think sometimes we get stuck in traditonal ways of thinking - that you need one huge print or tons of wall space but you don't. Today, just about anything goes - chunky, mismatched frames, small and big pieces, etc. The fun part is creating a wall art display that will have you smiling every day you walk by it.

*Image shown above is displayed on a Gallery Mount (not to be confused with images mounted on artbord). Gallery mounts are finished pieces - meaning, you receive them ready-to-hang. They are gorgeous - my favorite product this year. I'll be releasing photos of those soon as well. Wow, I just realized how much is on my To-Do list! I better get crackin'!. :)

Coffee Table Art Books

Speaking of Isaiah and Hannah..

I've been meaning to share this for awhile - I finally got around to making my twins baby albums and here is Isaiah's. I LOVE these books! They are truly a family heirloom - I can't wait until the day I am able to pass this along to him and hopefully, his own little family. This picture doesn't do it justice, but they come in these beautiful black preservation boxes. The books themselves have jacket covers and are truly stunning.

Newborn Sneak Peek

Just wanted to share a quick sneak peek - we photographed this beautiful little man at his home with mom. Look at these gorgeous bamboo floors! I knew the minute I walked in that I was definitely using them as a backdrop. It was a warm day so we opened the side doors and snuggled him down deep in a pile of blankets (using mom's favorite blue blanket as our main prop) and my favorite wood bowl...he was pretty content as you can see although getting the good ol' passy away was a bit tricky...but we persevered. :) To see a few more from this session, check out the Main homepage...

Happy Birthday Hannah and Isaiah!

When it comes to my personal life, I always wonder how much to share on my blog. Do you keep it all professional, light and happy or do you share the real happenings of you life, including the ups and downs....this is what I ponder. I'm still not sure where that line is but as this last week has been overwhelmingly about my personal life, and I've been so silent here, I'm going to share a little.
Last weekend we had to take my son Isaiah to the ER. It's been a rough winter for us sickness-wise. We seem to have caught just about every bug that flies through but this last month has been especially rough. Last week he caught yet another strain of the flu that has been meandering it's way through. Kids are amazing when they're sick - they can have a fever and still be bouncing off the walls. They can be sick and still want to be outside, running and playing like the day will never end. So, I knew he was really sick when all he did was lay on me. Literally. All day. And cry miserably. Just this sad, pitiful little cry.
He was continually sick and unable to hold anything down...as the day progressed we began to worry about dehydration and eventually, by 11pm that night, after speaking to an on-call doctor, we decided to take him to the ER.
He is better...still sick but seemingly on the upside of it. Hannah, his twin has unfortunately, but inevitably, caught what he had and is now in the throws of it, feeling miserably sick like he was last weekend.
My 3 year old is home sick as well with a cold and just about ready to scale the walls.
This has been our week, a really hard one to say the very least. I've been nurse, pillow, laundry maid, butler and housecleaner during the day and wife and photographer at night...editing and placing orders late into the evening hours. Wednesday I was supposed to leave for Alabama to meet up with a group of photog friends to attend a workshop together but obviously, there was no way I could leave my babies when they are so sick and so sad...
So, today is Hannah and Isaiah's 2nd Birthday. We will more than likely spend the day camping out around the house - again - but I am - even exhaustingly so - glad to be here with my babies. This might not be the perfect birthday and they might not understand the significance of today, but I do. And someday we will even laugh over this birthday, over how we made pillow piles in the family room and pretended we were scaling "green rocks" as my 3 year old says, or how we watched Cars for the 100th time (literally) and caught up on every pre-recorded episode of The Wiggles for the past 7 months, or how we pretended Pedialyte Popsicles were "treats" and how mom had to, every so often, hide in the pantry for a time-out (sanity break).

In any case, here are a few recent pictures of my birthday bebies-

Happy Birthday I & H!!!

Three Boys; A Morning with the Browns

A few weeks ago, I had to reschedule an appointment with this family due to an especially rough spell of sickness at our house. Mom had originally wanted to do some outdoors and to be honest, I had advised that we stick to the studio because working with babies outside can be rough; but, due to my own little kiddos being sick, we decided to meet up at the park so as not to subject her kids to the sickness running through my house.
And what a surprise.
It wasn't rough at all! Infact, it was wonderful - her kids were a dream, the weather was gorgeous, the park was our own perfect little studio - in a nutshell, it was perfect! Check out the homepage to see more of these three hotties.
And a special thanks to mom Bev for being so accomodating! :)

Sneak Peek J

This is a bit late as they are coming to see their photos tomorrow, but here's a quick sneak peek of this beautiful senior! I had the pleasure of photographing her a few weeks ago. We had an awesome session, half of which took place in downtown Lincoln and half in one of my fav places - the field. Jessica was so cool about everything - even about making the field 'hike' in her flipflops - major cool factor kuddos for that one! :)
Check out the main homepage for a few more from this session. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, does this girl have THE most gorgeous eyes or what?! Her eyes are this insanely beautiful mixture of blue and green and orange. So amazing! I'll be adding more in the next few days so stay tuned!

Cute Kid Alert!

This is another special family session I had during that weekend a few weeks ago when we almost got rained out. Grandma was visiting from Florida so of course we prayed for some sunshine and although we may not have received actual sunny rays, we definitely had plenty of sunshine! Just check out these little personalities! For more of this cute family and these cute kids, check out the homepage. :)

Make a Date!

We are officially booked for June but still have a few openings in July. Call soon to secure your session!

Get Your Game On

So, yesterday I met up with Casey C. at Arco Arena to shoot a couple of the players who missed Media Day a few weeks ago. And while I was there, he mentioned the Gametime Program featuring one of the pictures we'd done on Media Day. Below is the creative work of Dhon S. who I've also mentioned before (and who will be my next picture target at our next job :)) as one of the very talented members of the Kings/Monarchs team. He put this together for game night and I have to tell you - I think it's SO cool!!