Today is Brittainie’s high school graduation (!!!!!). I know everyone says this, but yes, those four years come and go so quickly! These images were taken from a modeling job Brittainie did. She was in a fashion show at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos. After the show finished, we went outside for about 10 minutes to capture a few shots.

When she first walked onto the runway, I did not even recognize her! I was sitting there waiting and waiting to see her, and this redhead comes out and gets all the way to the end of the runway before I even REALIZE this is my daughter Brittainie! She just looked so different, can you believe I didn’t recognize her for a minute? She looks gorgeous,  very much like Christina Hendricks.

The Hiller Aviation Museum was a great place for a session, I wish we’d had more time there. Isn’t that color stunning on her?

Congratulations Brittainie, you are a college girl now! As they say, you’ve come a long way baby!

My beautiful baby girl is all grown up! We did her last high school portrait session a few weeks ago after she got ready for prom.

Taylor & Mimi of Thi Cosmetics created Brittainie’s prom look. They decided to create a look for her that was playful and youthful. Obviously, they did a fantastic job, thank you so much Taylor and Mimi, you did an amazing job!!!

Brittainie has been accepted to CSU Monterey Bay, we are so proud of her! She’ll be living in the dorms for the first year, and she is considering studying marine biology. She’ll be able to walk to the beach, and she is looking forward to lots of bonfires and maybe some surfing lessons.

Congratulations baby, we are so proud of you!

Brittainie turns 18 today. My girl is all grown up! Throughout the years, she has been my favorite subject to photograph. As you can see, she makes a great model! This session took place inside our studio, and the style is called high key (lots of bright white).

Green is one of Brittainie’s best colors.

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That’s Sophie, her favorite pup.

One of the things that is so much fun about photographing Brittainie is that she is very comfortabe in front of the camera and has very versatile expressions.

Soon she’ll be off to her senior prom, graduation, and then off to college. I’m so very very proud of her and all she has accomplished. It’s so wonderful to have images like this of her celebrating this important stage of her life. You can see in some images she still looks like a young girl, whereas in other images, that is gone, and instead you see a woman. The girl girl in her is literally slipping away, moment by moment. These images of her will be cherished always.

This is her with her cat Precious. It’s great to bring pets into the studio and make them part of the session. After all, they are part of your family!

Happy birthday Baby!

Way back during the holidays, (doesn’t it feel like eons ago!?!)  we got the White Family all in one location.  And I just so happened to have a camera on me!

Starting at the left, that’s Tara, the clothing designer (Toronto), Rebecca, a marketing soon to be genius for Loreal (Montreal), and Hailey, an animator (Sydney). Very artistic bunch…

And here’s Geoff with his sisters. He looks a little bit menacing, don’t you think,  but in a hot way, yes?

For the holidays, we always get together with Geoff’s family and mine. Some years here in California, other years in Canada, but we always keep the same traditions no matter where we are.  This year everyone came to California, his parents and one sister Hailey from Australia and two sisters, Tara and Becky came from Toronto. Becky AKA as Rebecca to the rest of the world, brought her boyfriend Bryan home to “meet the family.” What a sweetheart! We could not have picked out a better guy for her. These two were so sweet together, and on Bryan’s last day here, Geoff and I decided to do a mini photo session for the two of them.  We only had about 20 minutes, and usually that is how long it takes for people to get relaxed and warmed up in front of the camera. Becky & Bryan had such incredible chemistry, they needed no warm up!

I think this is my favorite image from the session.

I love the ruffle on Becky’s skirt!

These were taken out front of one of our favorite San Francisco restaurants, Ti Couz. This is the most divine place for crepes, hot cocoa, and a do-it-yourself lemonade. Yum!

We had a small crowd of hecklers during the session (Geoff’s other 2 sisters actually) so after we were done with Becky & Bryan, I took some shots of Geoff with his three sisters Tara, Hailey and Rebecca. Hope to get those posted soon. After the session, we went to Ti Couz for Bryan’s farewell dinner. Until next time…

Nick was my first guy’s senior session. Nick’s great in front of the camera, and I’m really happy with how his images turned out.

What a cutie!

And then here’s a few of Brittainie and Nick together.

I love this one!

Brittainie, her boyfriend Nick and I went out for a senior session last week. We had so much fun, and we didn’t get to do everything we wanted, so we’ll be going back out again soon. I must say, Brittainie is my favorite model. She’s so gorgeous, look at those eyes!!!

In person, I wasn’t enjoying this location at all, so I only took the one shot above before moving on. Hmm. Sometimes things look much better on camera than in person…

my favorite, a brick wall. I could work with a brick wall and a good subject for hours.

I got the street shot in the very last light of the day.

I love this one too. Beautiful.

I’m so excited, today’s the day that our landscaping project begins. I am bartering with a landscaping company for a series of family portraits, and in exchange we are getting some landscaping done in the front and back areas. This is badly needed, as the front area has become cluttered by overgrown trees and dead or dying shrubbery. Our backyard is very narrow, with a retaining wall set against a hillside that slopes up. That hillside is a hideous sight to behold! Geoff mentioned recently that the weeds that had sprung up recently looked “nice” and “much better than the barren dirt and rocks view” we enjoyed last summer. I’m VERY very excited to see how it all turns out. I’m a big fan of lavender, gardenias, lilacs and jasmine and would go wild with those plants everywhere, but Geoff but the kabosh on that ideas pretty early on, but I’m going to try to sneak a few lavender plants in the front area at least. It’s my absolute favorite fragrance. I love the idea of bartering, as we would not normally be splurging on landscaping otherwise. I love bartering! We’ve actually done a few barters in the past…a dentist got a fabulous album upgrade and Brittainie got braces. We also did a barter with a home theatre specialist for some equipment at wholesale costs. I’m actually hoping to find a few more opportunities for bartering this year…anything home improvement related such as drapery, stonework, windows, kitchen countertops, painting or even possibly the use of a vacation home. If you are interested in bartering for family portraits, or wedding photography (or product) let me know!

Sedona has always been on my “must see” list so I was thrilled when we had a photography conference to attend in Phoenix and a friend suggested we take a side trip to Sedona, only a few hours away. It was a gorgeous day, and the views were truly amazing. Geoff & I drove around just soaking in all the scenery, then we went to this little restaurant tucked away next to a little stream and after having a great lunch, we sat out by the stream reading & having tea. It was one of those “perfect” days you don’t get very often. As the sun began to set, we headed back out to enjoy it from a scenic vista. It was amazing. This was actually back in January, but it sometimes takes us a while to get to personal work. Enjoy!

As you know, I love reading and have recently joined a used book club that allows members to mail off books to other members when they are finished with them, and to create a list of requested books to be sent to you when available. It’s called www.paperbackswap.com and I highly recommend it for those of you who love to read and get tired of spending $100 or more every trip to Barnes & Noble to pick up a few potentially good paperbacks. I refuse to go to my local library as you have to pay to park, even just to return a book, as they keep the return locked during the day which is a great inconvenience to me. And they never ever have books I want, so I have to pay to request each book. I would love to use the local library, but it’s just too much of a hassle for me.

I’m still very much enjoying the historical fiction genre. Lately I have read & enjoyed “The Russian Concubine”, “The Constant Princess” “I Capture the Castle” and “The Birth of Venus.” All of these have female heroines. “The Constant Princess” by Phillipa Gregory was probably my favorite from the batch, about one of the wives of Henry VIII. “The Russian Concubine” was great too, about a young Russian girl living in China. I’ve just ordered another one by that author, Kate Furnivall called “The Red Scarf” and I’m considering another novel by Sarah Dunant, (author of The Birth of Venus) called “Mapping the Edge” so if you have read that one, please let me know if you recommend it! “I capture the Castle” is a sweet, light read about a young girl who lives with her poor family in a rundown old castle in 1940’s England.

I’m not big on non-fiction lately, but I did very much enjoy a couple of personal accounts recently. A friend had recommended ‘Kabul Beauty School” which is about an American woman who goes to Afghanistan and opens a beauty school to teach women a skill to support themselves and their families. She encounters a great deal of resistance along the way, and it is fascinating to hear her story and how she persevered. “Shattered Dreams” is the story of a woman from a fundamentalist Mormon family who feels compelled by her own beliefs to live her life as a polygamist. I’ve been personally curious about the history and dynamics of polygamy since I’ve gotten hooked on this HBO show called “Big Love” about a modern polygamist family. What was so interesting about the book is that the woman wasn’t “brainwashed” or forced into it, she was actually in love with a young man as a teenager, and her mother tried to talk her out of it, but she felt it was her religious calling to be a polygamist. It was an incredibly difficult life, due to the poverty that is practically unavoidable for polygamists who have multiples wives and children but only a single income, which is often meager. These people were dirt poor, and yet they just kept on adding babies and wives, and their lives became more and more unsustainable. The narrator was reduced to wearing clothing made from flour sacks and going hungry most days, or scrounging & begging for rotten fruit and vegetables. And then there were the constant jealousies between the various wives. It was really a heartbreaking story, but fascinating.

A couple of general women’s fiction novels I’ve read lately are “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and “The Pilot’s Wife” both light & enjoyable reads. I actually preferred “The Pilot’s Wife” and will be reading more by Anita Shreve soon. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” was also really good, but there were a few loose ends that I never felt were wrapped up. However, I am looking forward to the movie set to be released later this summer.

Now, for a few I didn’t really get through. “Lying on the Couch” a novel about a psychiatrist and his patients (I thought that would be interesting to hear what goes on in therapy sessions, but I just got bored with it). I also tried to read “Revolutionary Road” but couldn’t get past the 50’s style language. I haven’t seen the movie, but I’m sure I will enjoy that when it comes out on DVD soon.

Well, that’s it for now. We are still in St. Lucia for a few more days, so I’m going to squeeze in a few more books before we leave. Please send recommendations!!!