portrait gallery...check

i've been wanting to update my web galleries for ages. actually, i've been wanting to update my website in general. i realized that taking on such a huge task like that is daunting--where do i start? with big projects like this, it is definitely best to break them up and work on them in sections, one at a time. i've already updated my wedding tips page (with more tips to come soon) and just barely finished editing and uploading my portrait gallery. go to my website here and click on the portrait image to see new work. it's been nearly a year since i've updated any gallery.

my next goals: wedding gallery (mucho work, since i shoot a LOT of weddings), event gallery, home page, overall look, and logo tweak. as i work on each project, i get all sorts of ideas and sometimes they become big and out of control. i write them down in a notebook/sketchbook and come back to them later. taking on too much too quickly is something i try not to do, even though it comes naturally. although it is a lot of work for one person, there is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in learning and discovering new things. at some point in the future, i would like to delegate certain responsibilities to others...but in the meantime, i am establishing a foundation for my business and i like to be on the "up-and-up" with everything.

p.s. in case anyone is curious, my website is created in dreamweaver and my web galleries are created for free in j album (i just upload them to the server and link everything up). it is definitely not fancy, but i love being able to maintain it myself.

miss abby

seniors are becoming one of my favorite subjects to photograph. this was a fun, relaxed shoot and i thoroughly enjoyed it. abby is a natural beauty with dark hair and light eyes--one of my favorite combinations. enjoy.

who: abby

what: senior portrait session

where: springs preserve, las vegas

mother earth

yesterday, my mom and i got together and planted a garden in my front yard. i have been wanting to do this for a while and she was sweet enough to lend her expertise. i already had inside plants in my house, but needed something outside too. plus, i wanted a place to compost.

we planted bottlebrush, snapdragons, begonias, sunflowers, chaparral sage, peanuts, basil, tomatoes, marigolds, and a nectarine tree.

happy earth day!

mr. happiness

meet mr. happiness

photo taken from my car window

wedding tips

i updated my wedding tips page on my website the other day. after a couple years, i figured it was about time. i also started another tips page (a more general one), but it is still a work in progress. i'll post it when it's complete.

photo of neal and lisa at the wynn

it gives me the chills

growing up, it was a tradition to pull out Christmas in America during the holidays. i loved looking through the photos even though i had seen them many times before. the idea behind the book was to have a ton of photojournalists cover every state (and even more cities) in the united states and document christmas during a 24 hour period. i loved, and still do love, the realness of the photos and how the photographers captured human nature, american traditions, and familiar scenes so effortlessly (or so it seems).

i stopped in a thrift store the other day and what was waiting for me? A Day in the Life of America. this book was compiled a couple years earlier in 1986, but is based on the same idea.

this is the intro--it gives me the chills:

The book you are holding in your hands is a visual time capsule, an impression of life in America taken on Friday, May 2, 1986, by 200 of the world's leading photographers. No picture here is more than twenty-four hours older or younger than any other, and no picture here has been shot for any purpose other than to document the harmonies and paradoxes of life in America as it was lived on this one ordinary day.

America is a complex country and a proud one. It is an idea, a beckoning, an opportunity. It has always been an improbable country, and to set out to capture it in a single day was an improbable, some would say, impossible, idea.

A Day in the Life of America does not claim to be the true record of even one day. A day cannot be collected as it passes by in a blaze of light between shadows. Yet on May 2nd America yielded some of its secrets to these world class photographers. There are several hundred photographs here, culled from more than 235,000. But even 235,000 images barely hint at the infinite moments that passed through the hills and homes and hearts of America on that day. On May 2nd America was frozen in time and, for decades to come, our children and our children's children will look at these pages with wonder at a day when 200 photographers made time stand still.

"extraordinary photographs of ordinary, everyday events." that's what i love about this book. i would adore being part of a similar project in the future.

time to eat!

ah, one of my favorite phrases.

my mom was organizing her cookbooks the other day (she has a lot) and gave me a few. the pressure is on (in a good way). i really like looking perusing cookbooks, marking the recipes that sound good, and then making the meal. when i have the time, it's very therapeutic and i thoroughly enjoy it. the second photo is my collection of cookbooks...i think i'm all set for the rest of my life.

the last photo is one of my favorite plants. it just hangs out on my kitchen counter and grows.

bride descending stairs

i love this photo from this wedding.

q&a

a few interesting tidbits from marilyn's book:

Dear Marilyn,

Why does almost every human being feel peaceful when walking through the woods or seeing a lovely landscape?

Valerie

Dear Valerie,

I'd say it's because our instincts have prepared us to feel comfortable with nature, our native environment. We can and do learn to live with things like stereos, subways, and skyscrapers, but they are no more natural to us than an aquarium is to a goldfish.

***

Dear Marilyn,

What do you see as the most important function of the elementary school?

Pat

Dear Pat,

One of the most useful would be to instill motivation.

***

Dear Marilyn,

Are people who hate being alone lacking in understanding?

Gary

Dear Gary,

I'd say instead that they're lacking in self-respect.

***

Dear Marilyn,

What is the biggest room in the world?

Adrienne

Dear Adrienne,

The room for improvement.

***

Dear Marilyn,

To acquire knowledge, one must study. How does one acquire wisdom?

Donald

Dear Donald,

To acquire knowledge, one must study; to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

***

Dear Marilyn,

If there were a Pandora's box in our time, what do you think it would be?

Dorothy

Dear Dorothy,

One good candidate would be television. However, instead of unleashing all the evils on the world, the way Pandora did in Greek mythology, it gathers them together and entertains us with them on the daily news, like a conga line in a floor show.

***

Dear Marilyn,

I can see why painting was so popular before the development of photography. But aren't the master painters now eclipsed by the master photographers?

Joseph

Dear Joseph,

I don't think so. For one thing, an artist can combine the essence of a hundred photographs into one painting. And for another thing, no photographer can capture a unicorn.

p.s. many of her answers are much longer and detailed; i just included a few short ones i found interesting.

ask marilyn

i'm really enjoying marilyn vos savant's book, ask marilyn. it is a compilation of her readers' various questions--they ask, she answers.

in case you didn't know, she is the woman with the highest IQ in the world. i figured i could learn a thing or two from her.

the family is one of nature's masterpieces

i photographed this fun family a year ago when the little guy was only a newborn. how quickly a year has flown by and how good it was to reconnect!

who: valdes family

what: family portrait session

where: mountain's edge park, las vegas, nv

title quote by george santayana