Oh my gosh, we had such a blast!  Sweetpea is one of the most adorable French Bulldogs one could ever meet.  She loves, I mean LOVES people and she really LOVES to dress up.  I have never seen a dog get so excited when you pull out one of her outfits.  Here are just a few from her Christmas 2011 Photo Session.

How can you not smile after seeing these!!!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Gromit and I worked really hard to get this image.  I spent 10 minutes with treats and patience and he spent 10 minutes with a confused look on his face, but we finally did it. 

Fun with Boxers...I just can't explain how much fun I have photographing Gromit.  He is so much fun to work with and even though he doesn't always look like he is having fun, he can't wait for me to say "OK" which in turn means he gets to move and get a treat, which happens a lot!  Another holiday portrait, I think so.  He has his little ruffled built in tuxedo shirt complete with optional red bow-tie.

Gromit's Formal Holiday Portrait...sorta...

I had been working with some lighting for an upcoming portrait and Gromit jumped into the chair and was waiting for me to take his picture.  What a good dog!

Sunrise at Natural Bridges

It was early.  Earlier than I am used to getting up on a Sunday morning, 4:30 am.  Yikes!  I had to be ready to leave the house not later than 5:30 am.  A friend met me at 5:15, we transferred equipment from one vehicle to another and off we went.  First stop, Natural Bridges State Park for sunrise.

The light was really flat and took a few minutes to clear the hills behind us, but once it did, it was the prettiest palette of pastels you ever saw.  This particular image is a 2 second exposure.  Not the longest of exposures for the morning, but I really like the color in the sky and the wave action against the rock.

Another Beautiful Coastal Sunset

Met up with a wonderful young lady this evening for a wonderful photo session.   Who could ask for anything better, the weather was fantastic, the tide was out, the sun was setting and the full moon was rising.  The colors were breath taking!!!

Studio Time!

Had some "Fun with Gromit" in the studio the other day.  He is such a character.  So good at sitting and wtaying and waiting, and tilting his head and not moving.  He is a very funny boy to watch.  Now, if I could just get a few others to behave like this....

November 3rd...Already

Today is Gromit's 3rd birthday.  Already!  It seems like just yesterday when we drove out to Sacramento to pick him up and bring him home.  He is still the same goofy puppy we was two years and ten months ago, just 65 lbs heavier.  Happy Birthday Grommie!

Summer in October!

The weather this past week has been incredible!  Highs in the 70's, sun shining, light breeze, just beautiful!  The other evening I grabbed the hubby and the dog and went to Miramar Beach.  It was a -1.5 tide which left us with acres of reflective beach before you got to the ocean!  So incredible!!!

 

Coffee....

So, about a year ago I was having these, oh, I don't know, heart palpitations...kinda' racing, really irritating.  My Dr. hooked my up to a heart monitor for over a month, from which I was highly allergic to the stick stuff on the nodes that have to be stuck to you in three different places...lovely!  OK, so, the next step was to out the caffeine completely.  Wasn't thinking today, had a large coffee at 10:00 this morning and am still paying for it.  Yup, coffee (caffeine) is my problem.  NO MORE CAFFEINATED COFFEE!!!

Self Portrait

Ok, so what better way to study and understand lighting than to work it on yourself right.  Right!!!  Although I can get a lot of what I am trying to accomplish working with Gromit the Boxer Dog, it is the shadows on the face, the skin tones and the over all look that just doesn't always work with the fur kid.  Gotta love him though.  He just laid down next to the tripod and signed when I told him to go...
Even then he got a treat!

Here I was working with a single light source about 45º to camera right and a white reflector on my phyiscal right...your left.  I had two strobes set up on the background, blocked both of those from reflecting back on myself.  Still need to perfect the all white background.

Lightning

I photographed this truck last week (we had been trying to get on the calendar for almost a year now - coastal weather and a black truck - ha).  The weather was perfect.  Tried a bunch of different locations here on the coast and finally ended at the harbor for sunset.  Here are two of my favorites.  The one with the lightning is a composite.

Hanging out with the Pumpkins

Took a few minutes today to hang out with Gromit over at Farmer John's Pumpkin Patch.

 

I just love the look on his face.

Fabulous Photo Shoot with a beautiful 69 Camero

Two lovely ladies!

These two women are incredible!  Funny, charming, witty, and fun to be around.  They are from Eco 6 Designs in Half Moon Bay.  A fabulous design studio specializing in eco friendly products.  I had such a great time photographing them.

A hot date

I had the opportunity to photography a beautiful red....

Beautiful location too!

Fun With Boxers or "Spaghetti Dinner"

Another "Fun With Boxers" or " Spaghetti Dinner"

I had been planning this in my head for a while now, and well, what a perfect afternoon to see if I could pull it off. So, off to the kitchen to whip up a batch of spaghetti just for Gromit. Lucky dog...but how do you teach a dog to eat spaghetti noodles. I spent at least a half hour with him just getting him to take a noodle out of my hand. He kept sniffing the noodle and licking the noodle, finally...and then the noodle was gone. He sucked it right up!

 

Fun with Boxers or "Heaven or Hell"

Fun with Gromit or Heaven or Hell?   

Working with Gromit is always a blast. I usually get the giggles because I think he takes himself way to seriously sometimes. Earlier he kept laying down on the job, so I figured I would mess with him just a bit and grabbed a huge hand full of his biscuits and pile them up on the floor in front of him. I had him sit an then I told him to "watch 'em". He does "watch 'em" really well and wouldn't take his eyes off of those biscuits.

 

Yummy Yogurt

Spent a little time photographing for Nano's Yogurt Shack this afternoon.  The special frozen yogurt today was Pomegranate.  Sooooo yummy!  A little tart, a little sweet a lot yummy!

Relay for Life

I just completed my online registration for Relay for Life.  I posted this on Facebook and I mentioned that I lost my mom 18 years ago to brain cancer and my dad 4 years ago to lung cancer.  A friend donated on behalf of her brother who died at the age of 48.  Another friend made a donation.  I had only updated my facebook page 40 minutes ago.   I sit here with tears welling up in my eyes trying to concentrate on what is going on in my head.  I miss both of my parents terrible, especially my mom.  She was 51 when she was taken by this dreadful disease.  I am very emotional right now, and I just need to focus on the outcome.  Help me help the American Cancer Society so that we can all celebrate more birthdays.

Fabulous session with a fabulous young lady!

 Just finished processing the images from a session Wednesday afternoon.  Such a beautiful young lady!

Happy 4th of July, better late than never...

I wanted to get this done earlier, just to darn busy!  Anyway, since I still had the 4th gear out, I figured better late than never....

4th of July 2011

The Ol' Town Parade in Half Moon Bay followed by BBQ and fireworks near Shoreline Amphitheater.   A really good time with some really good friends!

Even with Our Nation's infrastructure in the foreground and the moon slice in the background, pretty darn cool!

Reno Rodeo 2011

Tim, Grommie and I went up to Reno with some friends.  Saturday evening we went to the Reno Rodeo.  What a blast!!! I never realized how much I really missed my horses, rodeo, the dust, the smell, the leather...my heart aches just thinking about it.  We sat up in the grandstands, thank goodness we were in the shade, that sun was screamin' hot even at 7:00 pm.  What a great rodeo.  Here are some of my favorite shots.

A lot of the bucking horses are mares, and a lot of the have babies.  This mare just finished her run when they let her baby in.

These last three of of a bull chasing a moving sombrero.  Under the sombrero is a remote control truck.  This bull nailed the sombrero at least three times.