Octopus Ink

Sewing Makes Me Happy

2012-02-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

I've been spending my non-baby hours sewing as of late (instead of blogging, yes). This tri-fabric dress is a first birthday present for a little friend of ours, who is of partial French heritage. I'd bought the lilac print fabric some time ago, planning to use a small square or two in a quilt. Thus, the piece was too small to do all 3 panels (left, right and back) of the kimono dress. Fortunately in my fabric collection, this random pin dot gray fabric complemented the others nicely. I started the dress in December, with plenty of time for a late Jan birthday. I did not factor in the month it would take to finish it and the additional 2 weeks to ship it to Hong Kong, AND how much that baby would grow in 6 weeks! I hope it fits.

A few people enthused: You should SELL those! And a part of me chorused Yes Yes! But voice reminded me of how craft fairs turned jewelry making into a stressful chore a few years ago. For now, I am happy to sew for my baby, and for friends. It's my one true hobby at the moment.

Sunshine Smile

2012-01-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

She has this wonderfully contagious, sunshiny smile! The delight of being a little kid, summarized right here. Most of the time, I photograph babies and toddlers, but those toddlers are growing up. It's wonderful to see them blossom into little people.

Hello Little One!

2012-01-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

It's a delight when a newbie decides to open his eyes for the photo shoot. Often they look right into the camera; the large opaque black object with a shiny dark eye must be a perplexing thing! Or maybe a reflection in the lens captures piques their interest. I always wonder what newborns make of their vast new world. As always, I love B&W for newbie pics - there is no color distraction, and gives a timeless, simple elegance.

Cute Baby Kimono Dress

2012-01-11T23:16:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, last last year I silently celebrated the news that I was gestating a baby girl as I could thus make cute little dresses for her! While yes, little boys wear clothes, it's not the same, making a cute pair of pants or shirt. Partly because the fabric selection is better for girls, though sewing moms of boys rejoice as designers are starting to come out with fabric patterns for boys that aren't all about Cars and Trucks and Space in Prime Colors.

I made a pattern for this kimono dress (to be worn with jeggins, perhaps) in 2 sizes. This dress was made for another baby, and I realize she will swiftly outgrow it. That's the thing... from the time I decide to make a dress, to getting fabric and making the dress and delivering it, the baby will have grown considerably. The sash and inner panel held by a tie allow some adjustment in size. It'll be wearable for a month.

Three times Three

2012-01-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

A family of THREE boys... is it even within the realm of possibility to get a family photo with all looking at the camera, all looking (mostly) happy? You may think - Impossible. But actually, Why Yes, Possible! Not one, not two but Three times!

I'm spending my days catching up with edit overload from last season. Once I'm caught up, I have plans to revamp everything - freshen my website with new pics and get rid of ones from years ago, design a new set of postcards and biz card and look for new targeted advertising ops. I've already started printing CD labels instead of writing directly on CD with Sharpie. It's a small thing but looks so much more polished and professional (though, I do think I have rather neat handwriting).

Stylin' at the De Young

2012-01-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012 everyone! I know it's been a while - after a hectic, no-breathing-room pre-holiday season, I gave myself a(n almost computer free) week long break, and now I'm back. To ring in the new year, a set of twins pics! In fabulous cardigans, fresh London fashion, I'm told. The interesting thin about twin shoots is to capture both the similarities and their individual personalities.

Extra Special

2011-12-07T21:35:00.001-08:00

Most of my photo shoots are for families with babies. And so this December, I keep thinking - there are so many people I know for whom this is an extra special holiday season, with a new baby in their lives!

Butterfly Princess

2011-11-22T22:31:00.001-08:00

An absolute delight of a photoshoot. I remember my own princess stage (it was 80s tinged and manifested in drawings of pink-dress clad, tiara topped dog characters) and how fun it was to re-experience it vicariously.

New Baby in the Garden

2011-11-18T21:57:00.001-08:00

Newborn shoots often happen in-home, for the comfort of baby and mom. But should everyone feel up for an excursion, a newborn shoot in the outdoors offers new artistic possibilities. The Botanical Gardens provided the perfect peaceful backdrop, a compliment to these expressions of joy and love that can only be found in new parents. I usually don't say cheesy things in my blog, but gosh, I love being a Mom and I hope that comes through in my baby photography!

'Tis the Season for Chunky Sweaters (and Family Photos!)

2011-11-09T19:05:00.001-08:00

Hard to believe that holiday season is upon us Already! October and November are my busiest months, with weekends full of shoots until Thanksgivings. So important is the holiday family photo for some, that parents are willing to take time off work and their kids out of school on a weekday so as to be photographed by me... I feel honored.

I'm very fond of this set of family photos - warm smiles, Autumn inspired clothes and a touch of color in the leaves - leaves me with a toasty feeling, ready for the holidays!

Map Quilt

2011-10-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

Quilting time again, this one for my second nephew, arriving shortly :) His room theme is "maps". What came to mind first was a literal translation, looking for a fabric printed with e.g. a World Map. In my fabric hunt I found this lovely Tracks, Roads and Rivers print - and thought, how much more fun is this? When he's older, he can trace the paths with a little train, car or boat, to visit various animal friends and parkland.

Divvying up the green fabric would take all the fun out of the print, so I left a large piece as a center panel and framed it with squares of destinations. How I love quilting! If only I had more time.

One Year Celebration

2011-10-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

I am always excited to photograph babies in traditional Korean dress for their First Birthday. The combination of cuteness and vibrant colors makes for an extra fun shoot. The babies at first seem distracted by the long hems and sleeves, the stiff fabric and hat, but then enjoy the attention and novelty and can't help but have a good time in their outfits.

Little Panda Girl

2011-09-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sweet smiles and grass lolling.

Kids and Animals

2011-09-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Doesn't get much more fun than this! Kids and animals. I don't remember seeing any scared kids. Little girls and boys were either all captivated and/or really really happy. Many grown ups too, indulged the kid within. Here are a bunch of fresh off the camera (wide angle f/4, 17-40mm w/ flash & diffuser) pictures from yesterday. Above: the Giant Thorny Phasmid, below: big python, hedgehog, hmm I don't know my lizards... a bunch of giant millipedes, little python, tortoise, hissing cockroach, eastern lubber grasshopper, chicken, some other snake (sigh, and I took herpetology too), and possum. The possum is way cuter than I'd have expected for a possum. Up til now, I've only seen possums hissing at me, or playing dead. AnimalPalooza was a huge success - let's hope for AnimalPalooza II next year! Thanks to SaveNature.org for putting it all together.

AnimalPalooza - Bringing Nature To You!

2011-09-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

Are you the Bug Lady? Small children would ask as I crossed the playground, lugging two large duffel bags. Ripples of excitement punctuated with delighted shrieks spread from hopscotchers to kick ballers. The Bug Lady Is Here! I felt like a minor celebrity, and perhaps Pied Piper as children ran alongside, trying to peek into my bags.

Children love bugs. In my pre-Momma life I taught for SaveNature.org using live insects for Insect Discovery Lab. Preschoolers and kindergardeners had no misconceptions, no prejudices. They loved to watch, to touch, to hold, the Giant Millipede. The Hissing Cockroach. The Australian Walking Stick. First and Second graders bubbled with uncontainable excitement, hands shot into the air and curiosity tumbled forth, even before meeting the insects. Where do they live? What do they eat? How long do they live? My bugs inspired Pure Wonder - the kind that only kids experience - that’s what I loved about my job. One particular second grader enthused to Norm Gershenz, the director of SaveNature.org: This is the best day of my life.

This is why I think all San Francisco parents of wee ones need to know about:
AnimalPalooza. This Saturday September 24, 11am to 5pm at Fort Mason.
http://animalpalooza.eventbrite.com/
“Get closer to nature than ever before with hands-on encounters with wild animals.”
Much more than bugs. It’s not every day that you meet a Lemur. Hedgehog. Skink. Ocelot. Fennec Fox. Brought to you by SaveNature.org and featuring your favorite Bay Area non-profit conservation groups and education organizations.

Love and Respect for Nature. It was at the top of a mental list of Values I Want To Impart Upon My Daughter that I made while gazing down at my burgeoning belly, right after Fondness for Ultimate Frisbee. Hikes at Mount Tam. Turning over rocks near Stowe Lake. Swinging by the Cal Academy. David Attenborough documentaries. And every so often, an event like AnimalPalooza for an up close and personal encounter with animals we don’t see everyday. That ought to do it.

These Boots Were Made for Toddlin'

2011-09-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Sitting Still is the opposite of Toddlerhood, and thus the best toddler photos are candids. For me, a toddler shoot is opportunistic documentation of her explorations and conquering of this Big Fun World, finally accessible by her newfound ability to Run. It's a delight to watch a child discover a gazillion new things, one after another! I don't expect her to look at the camera - there are so many more interesting things to look at. It's up to me to try to predict where she is headed; otherwise I'd wind up with a lot of photos of her rear view. My main advice for toddler shoots - let tots be tots! Trying to convince them to sit and smile is just going to frustrate everyone. If she wants to drag an unphotogenic doll around with her throughout, run around in circles or stick her tongue out, so be it - that's who she is at 2 years old. A photo shoot with a toddler is an hour of playtime.

I am very fond of this set of photos. Yes, it was a typical gray San Francisco day, but such conditions didn't interfere with this tot's curiosity and energy. Excellent postpartum workouts, these toddler shoots!

Pizzazzy

2011-09-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Iphone photo editing is addictive; I do it while baby/dog walking, while computer photoshoping with my other hand, and while breast-feeding (TMI? Well, if you're a baby mom right now, you will understand how BFing is a great - and sometimes the only - time to catch up on all things digital.)

I have a new favorite photo app: Magic Hour. I did pay for it, but what's a few $ for the capability to make brilliant photo art on the go? This app has presets like all the other apps, but what is awesome is that it has manual controls for brightness/ saturation/ contrast, curves (if you dare mess with those), frames, vignettes, tilt-shift (selective focus), and textures. Any of these features can be adjusted on the existing presets, and can be saved as new presets. Which can then be shared with the entire Magic Hour community, for free! Also fantastic - it outputs relatively hi-res pics. All this in a few user-friendly minutes. Bam! Photos go from I Obviously Took This With A Camera Phone to Pizzazzy.

The Dahlia Garden outside the Conservatory of Flowers is at peak bloom right now. Gorgeously hued, impossibly large (as big as my baby's head!) and richly varied from bush to bush. Perfect subject for camera phone photography. And of course, nothing is as frequently photographed as our own babies (and pets). I couldn't help but include just one pic of my own Little One, snoozing away.

Autumn Around The Corner

2011-08-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Running out of steam or having a melt down doesn't mean that a toddler shoot is over. In fact, it may result in a rare opportunity for tot cuddle time photos.

My favorite season, Fall is almost here! For one thing, we'll actually see the bridge in photos such as that above, and I can plan shoots around daylight hours instead of fog light hours (in the latter case, the worry is not getting enough natural light at either end of the day). All "Summer", I've had to gloomily report to hopeful families that Baker Beach was too dismal for a sunset shoot. My poor shivering clients that come in from Marin, East Bay or the Peninsula arrive in shorts and sun dresses, not quite believing when I warn them it's Winter around here.

Fall also brings events that I love to photograph pro-bono. The Randall Museum has its Halloween Fest, followed closely by the Holiday fest. Kids doing crafts? In Costume? There is no funner subject! (except perhaps kids With Pets doing crafts in costumes...) Also upcoming is Animalpalooza on Sept 24th at Fort Mason. Hosted by SaveNature.org a local environmental non-profit, it's a rare chance for kids to meet and touch live animals. Why yes I used to be a teacher for them. Which is why I'll dedicate a full post to the event in September.

Then there are pumpkin patches. In past years, I've done shoots at the Clancy Patch at 7th and Lawton. But this year, with my Own Baby to prop up against a pumpkin in a cute costume, I will venture for the first time to a Half Moon Bay pumpkin patch. Looks like Farmer John's pumpkin patch fits the bill of down-homey and mellow, not all decked out with over the top haunted houses etc. I am extremely excited about this. Doing a baby pumpkin patch shoot was one of my main incentives for having a baby. Even planned to have her sitting up by herself in time for pumpkin season.

Right Here Right Now

2011-08-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Suddenly they're everywhere: Groupon, Living Social, Yelp Deals; and the family and mom specific Doodle Deals and Juice In The City. Maybe it wasn't sudden, but having recently emerged from Newborn Fog, it seems that these offers are spilling off of website ad bars left and right. Until now, due to aforementioned Newborn Fog, I didn't took advantage of any deals, figuring my brain wasn't capable of thorough deal scrutinization. Just recently I impulsively jumped on a month's supply of Fresh Baby Bites delivery for 50% off, and now I'm playing much more attention.

Occasionally I spot other photographer's deals on such sites, and I feel internal pangs - Argh! I want to expand my client base too! And even greater Argh, some of these photographers' pics are SO mediocre! Why are people signing up for this!? I feel a deep need, as if it is my earthbound duty, to rescue SF families from overpriced and/or blah quality photos. Alas, I put this need aside for the time being.

At four months, she's learning to peekaboo, she's laughing, she's poking herself in the eye with a drool dripping rubber spoon, she's drawing coos out of all the grandmas within smile shot on the Muni. I know all working moms must have to face the balance or choice of baby, work and sanity. I am very lucky to be self-employed, so for now: I choose to be a full time mom during the week, and to work part-time on weekends and evenings when she can have her Daddy-Time. Being an ambition driven person, it is tough to reign in my business. I remind myself: There will always be more babies to photograph in the future - but my baby is here and now and won't be a baby for much longer.

(Thank you for taking this photo Camille, SO nice to be In a photo with my daughter for once!)

San Francisco Maternity

2011-07-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

There are many cold, grey days in San Francisco, especially in the Summer when the rest of the northern hemisphere is enjoying popsicles and sprinkler jumping. I do my best to embrace the wintry weather in my work. It is entirely possible have a great shoot on an overcast day - as long as my subjects are in good spirits; they will radiate their own warmth. Meanwhile, cloudy skies provide a flattering diffuse light, and also lends an introspective mood to photos.

It wasn't so long ago that I was pregnant. Maternity shoots remind me of those days of anticipation, a little nervousness, and a lot of excitement. It's nice to now be able to understand how moms-to-be now feel in my maternity shoots. The shared experience I believe, makes me a more compassionate photographer, and I strive for deeper feeling in my portraits than before, when my focus more heavily weighted on aesthetics.

Welcome to the World

2011-07-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

While I was pregnant, some client moms casually mentioned to me: Oh, you'll be able to bring your baby to work. She can nap while you do your shoots. I was hopeful at first, but when my baby arrived, it was immediately apparent that photo shoots and baby care could only be accomplished if I had maybe, 4 arms and 2 heads. I didn't attempt this juggle until recently, when the opportunity arose to photograph for a friend. If my baby did not nap, or was disagreeable, I wouldn't need to worry about lacking professionalism to tend to her. In the end, I didn't just tend to her - I carried her around with my left arm and held the camera steady with my right hand, as she drooled and banged on my shoulder with her little fist. Couldn't do this if I were using my big 24-70mm 2.8L lens... or if I had to chase a tot - but with the compact 50mm 1.4 and a newborn, this worked out just fine!

Quilting Time Again

2011-07-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Not sure where I found the time to make this. So the edges are a little wobbly, but I sewed this up with a hair grabbing baby on my lap.

Blue Steel

2011-07-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

My first postpartum baby shoot post! I present to you a whole series of photos, a big dose of Smiley Cute to make up for my absence. I am happy that I am still able to shoot despite being sleep deprived; I can somehow turn ON for an hour, and then return to my drowsy state. Can't guarantee my clients scintillating conversation during the shoot, but I can take good pics. It feels good to be able to chase tots again, and to lie in the grass for better angles - no more lumbering around or squatting awkwardly with a pregnant belly.

A Blur

2011-06-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ten Weeks (!) have passed in a blur, and I am mentally gearing up to recommence photo shoots this weekend.

This means I will need to lug the stroller out of my car trunk and replace it with my lights, stands, and such. Memory cards shall be emptied and the accumulation of (my own) baby pictures backed up on external hard drives. Camera batteries located and charged. Lenses and their front and back caps found - it is amazing how items become scattered, often haphazardly set down in unusual places when I dash off to tend to our crying baby. I once again am tuned into weather forecasts and study doppler radar maps, only to be reminded that the presence of sunshine in SF is Completely Unpredictable!

Of Being A Mom and Photographer

2011-06-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

This cute hat was created by Rachel of Bebebeecouture, who can be found on Etsy.

Two months and we're finally smooth sailing. Well, relatively speaking - life is far more predictable and under control than even 2 weeks ago. Now when I go off to photograph newborns, I have the parental empathy and understanding that one can only give having experienced it firsthand. From the superficial things like sheepish requests to photoshop out dark eye bags, or showing up at a shoot, lint-covered and with hair obviously unbrushed for... days - to the helpless looks and frantic trouble shooting when a newborn breaks into ear splitting screams. The absolute joy and relief of managing to coax out a fleeting smile. The appreciation of a patient photographer :) And I also understand when some mothers seem simply so happy to have another adult to talk to.

I'm going to start easing back into some weekend shoots. I wouldn't call it "going back to work" since 2 shoots a week is hardly anything compared to 10 shoots a week during my full time high season. I do miss photography and I want to sprinkle in snippets of my pre-baby life to keep my mind fresh. Meanwhile my baby can have some Daddy time. As the year progresses, I'm going to have to think more about baby care options, and balancing work and home life. The same thing so many moms have to think about.

During my pregnancy, so many clients mused: You are so lucky, you can photograph your own baby! And I didn't think much of it. But now I am very glad that I have the great equipment and several hundred hours worth of baby shooting experience. Because I've also learned - They Really Do Grow Up Fast.

To friends who are regular readers of this blog: I've now got another personal blog dedicated entirely to our baby (with photos of course, but with talk of baby developments and parenthood). Let me know if you want the link.

Not Just Snapshots

2011-05-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

I am learning how to multitask with a baby and to be a more opportunistic napper, so hopefully posts will start to become more frequent again. Thanks to those of you who keep checking in despite my far and few between posts!

I've been taking many iphone photos. It does a fine job of documenting snippets of baby life, when I don't have two hands free to hold the DSLR, it's too much trouble to get up and get the DSLR, if the lighting is less than ideal, or if my subject is so close my DSLR won't focus. The resolution is not great of course, but they conveniently capture the moment, and can even be artsy. In fact, I've enjoyed iphone and the free iphone app Instagram as an artistic outlet while rocking or breastfeeding my baby. There are few variables I can work with - composition, and a handful of Instagram filters - and the challenge is to make a compelling picture with low quality digital film nevertheless. The downside is not being able to print any of these as large photos.

Good portrait photography concepts still apply. I use diffuse natural lighting as often as I can, and orient my subject so that she is well lit. The pics are so lo-res to begin with, I crop closely to bring as much facial detail to the photo as possible, and to exclude irrelevant background. I vary my angles and composition.

The Reason

2011-05-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here's the reason why I've been away from my blog. It's amazing, the ability of newborns to warp time; three weeks have sped by, except for the period between 1am and 5am when time slugs by and I wonder when she'll ever fall asleep again after feeding.

I've learned why families including babies are almost always late to photoshoots. It's miraculous that any make it on time at all. Babies this young function on their own schedule. You think you're ready to go, but then they poop and scream, they get cleaned and re-dressed and they poop and scream again and suddenly 20 mins have disappeared and maybe she's ready for her photo to be taken but I'm a disheveled mess. Or for the last four days she's fallen asleep reliably after her dawn feeding but today (inevitably, for my clients on photoshoot day) she decides to be wide awake, thus making her extra sleepy and cranky later.

Well, I must abruptly end this post, as I have baby things to attend to.

Maternity Leave

2011-04-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

As you may have guessed from my unusually long absence, as of Sunday April 10, I became a mom :)
Hard to say when I'll be back to photo blogging as I now have lots of other things to do. But I will be back! Thanks for checking in.

Bunny Time

2011-04-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring! Finally some stretches of sunshine in SF. I am still in the habit of checking doppler weather radar maps even though weather is of no consequence now that I'm on maternity leave. One of my last shoots included this Japanese Tea Garden variety of bunny. Her mom brought along some massive balloons as props, and they work nicely to lighten up what would otherwise be a dark background.

It's bunny time, in more ways than one. My own rabbitling should be arriving any time now, and I wait with impatience. I would have loved to use this time to do crafty things, such as to design mobiles/ garlands/ hangings (young babies are on their backs so often, I thought it would be nice to provide ceiling entertainment), little outfits, and one can never have enough quilts. Painfully swollen hands have put those fabric dreams to rest unfortunately, as well as any hopes of leisurely reading books, or baking, or even blogging very much (I take a typing break after each sentence). With either my wrist braces on, or my home-fashioned ice-pack mitt, I can at the very least, do some online shopping. On the bright side, given that my hands are bad at holding things and I spend a lot of time sitting, I am pleased to find that my iphone in its silicone sleeve, rests flat and securely atop my baby bump. I need only look down and with a few pokes, can check weather maps and email.

Of Contractions, Angler Fish and Quilting

2011-04-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

I'm having a fake contraction right now. Fake in that it's not a real labor contraction, but my uterus is doing perhaps the equivalent of a slow motion bicep curl, in preparation for the real thing. I'd never heard of these practice contractions (fancy name: Braxton Hicks) before pregnancy. They started in late 2nd trimester - I thought it was the fetus curling into a tense ball. Now that the baby is, apparently, as long as a stalk of Celery - oh my bad, we're on Leek week now - it is as if Medusa glanced over and hardened my abdomen into a watermelon sized rock. The uterus is like a wide rubber band around the fetus, my OB says. So during these contractions, my abdomen distorts from a relatively symmetrical spherical mound into a landscape of two hillocks (which I've decided are the right shoulder and butt) with a steep side (the back) and a gentle slope leading to a valley of arms and knees, fetal position of course. The feet stick out of my right side, like the tail of a male deep sea angler fish after it has fused itself to its mate (if you don't know about angler fish mating habits, look it up, it's fascinating.)

All that aside, I've finished my windowpane quilt! I did not document in progress - with the end in sight, it was hard to pause during the throes of sewing to take pictures. Plus, I'm under a deadline here, and wanted to get on with things. In brief:
- I pieced together the front, and then the back (see below). I'd decided to add a quilted stripe made of some excess fabric. The green dot fabric is flannel.
- Sandwiched a sheet of batting (insulating material, like thick felt) between front and back
- Sewed through a 3 layers to hold everyone in place (about 5 parallel vertical rows of stitching between the squares and 6 rows horizontal)
- Trimmed all over so all 3 pieces were same size
- Made fabric tape (that blue edging, no it's not sticky like tape tape) with my tape maker
- Wrapped tape around all edges, pinned down and sewed on

It's not totally straight, but I am fine with that. I'd say this was my most challenging quilt thus far. Of course I'm keeping it, it's for my kid. A shame about my swollen hands - they complained bitterly throughout these final stages, especially when forced to use the seam ripper, or to tie knots in thread. If I didn't have hand issues perhaps I could whip out a few more quilts and such - especially now that My Edits are Done!!

Keeping It Simple: Newborn Portraits

2011-03-29T01:53:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased with this set of mostly black and white Newborn Pics, especially the above Dangle Baby. When I first started doing newborn shoots, I would worry about the variety of photos I could take given neck and body floppiness. I've since learned: there are loads of newborn position and angle possibilities. Artistic, memorable photos can be taken with no or minimal props, and I enjoy the challenge of achieving elegant, zen-infused simplicity in my newbie portraits.

Count Down Is On

2011-03-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

Isn't this cute? They look so cross!

I've finally gotten around to packing my hospital sleep over bag. For when my baby decides to make her grand entrance (exit?), of course. One of the decisions I've been procrastinating on is What Camera(s) to Bring? The little Canon Powershot point n shoot was an easy enough decision, but I had to hunt it down, plus the charger and battery, and then delete pics and videos taken in 2008 that were left on the memory card. Hunting Things Down is much more laborious than it sounds, which is why I procrastinated. I am as maneuverable (and cheerful) as a beached beluga, and pawing through my boxes of camera stuff stored on various shelves requires limberness and dexterity than I've not had in weeks. Fortunately, found the Powershot in the third box.

Next, I decided on my Canon 5D II with 50mm f/1.4 lens only. My other lenses are massive in size and weight, and it seems ridiculous to haul that to the hospital, since I'm the one who knows how to operate them and I'm the one who has to endure labor. This set up will be good for low light pics, and has hi-res video - uh, NOT for labor, but possible for recovery room hanging out. It just doesn't feel right to go into this without my favorite camera, as silly as it seems to bring the DSLR.

I still have two-ish weeks to go, but I've had quite enough of these massively pregnant symptoms already. Just when I feel like I've accumulated enough discomforts, I detect a new one, such as my left wrist clicking in and out of position, or feeling like I landed - hard - on a bike cross bar. And I still have edits to do. As my hands become cabbage-patch-kid-ier by the day, it just gets harder and harder.

Brief Foray Into My Print Collection

2011-03-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have a fledgeling print collection. Not photo prints, but art prints, and by art prints I mean prints printed by hand, not by computerized printer. I particularly like Letter Press Prints (such as Beaver above and the 2 prints at the bottom) for their texture, followed closely by Screen Prints (the Fat Birdie to the right, by Tiny Sparks Design in San Francisco CA) for color saturation and velvety surface. I've never done letterpress printing myself, but essentially imagine metal (or other material) blocks with a raised flat surface featuring the design, onto which ink is rolled and paper is pressed. Screen printing features paper on a flat surface, onto which a fabric screen stencil (stretched across a frame) is placed over and ink squeegee-ed through the screen. Both can only do one color at a time, so these multi-color prints require multiple passes.

One of my favorite prints is the Banjo Beaver by YeeHaw in Knoxville TN, perhaps because my husband bears some resemblance to him. He (my husband) claims that banjo players have a limited posture/stance due to the shape of the instrument, and that is why he looks like the Banjo Beaver. I don't know. I think all he is missing is the tail and hat. The photo is a screen shot from a video - more on the video of Fog City Banjo's premiere gig in a later post.

Another local print company, Dutch Door Press design some lovely Letterpress work. Below is a limited edition - only 100 print printed (note the 74/100 at the bottom left), of Year of the Rabbit, and California of their 50 State Birds and Flowers series. Prints like these aren't cheap - much work-person-ship goes into each one. So I'm quite selective, and will frame them for home decor. It's more refreshing that putting up my own art, and far more unique than buying mass made prints or posters like those one can purchase at art museum gift stores. I do also like supporting local artists and use of traditional media. All these artists are on Etsy.com.

Union Jack Swaddle

2011-03-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

He's a half English baby of course! Some babies love to look right into the camera, which is fantastic or me. A big black lens in stark contrast with surroundings is intriguing perhaps. The eyes make all the difference in a baby portrait. Especially with the window reflection catch lights, soft cloudy day lighting and really really cute baby, I couldn't be more pleased with this set of close ups.

When it comes to babies with floppy necks, often the easiest photo position is to lay them on their back. I realize I like to distract the viewer from the fact that the baby is just lying there, and I do this by draping fabric around them. This also reduces the big distracting shadow that would otherwise be created by their head on the background surface.

Today, I received a request to photograph a kid's birthday party in 2 weeks. My brain said Haha!! - hauling my now full term body + two more weeks of weight gain + camera equipment around a kid's party would be physically entirely impossible, or I may even have a baby by then. I have put a notice on my website that I am on maternity leave, but perhaps I should say so in my voice mail as well. This is where a separate business email account would also be useful, for insta-reply maternity leave notification. As for return from mat leave, I'm guessing mid-July-ish, on a limited basis. However, I've no idea of what life will be like, so plans may change. Having said that, I do already have a list of fifteen-ish families who are in line for a summer shoot, as soon as I am ready. And Fall is Insane Photo Season. I'm going to put off thinking about that for now. BTW - notice how Fall 2010 Insane Photo Season overlapped with second trimester? Yes, it was all a part of the grand plan! Devious Laughter!

I didn't plan on continuing to work (be it editing at home or shooting) this far into pregnancy. What I didn't factor into my plans was the huge reduction in efficiency that I would experience in third trimester as a result of being large and slow and achy and prone to napping. Dog walks take twice as long, putting on socks takes ten times as long (it doesn't help that I prefer knee socks), and many many minutes of my day are spent getting up to waddle to the bathroom and back - every 45 mins. So while I did decrease number of shoots in the last 2 months, my functional hours per day have also drastically diminished - resulting in Time Passing Fast as I remain busy!

I Miss Mobility

2011-03-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

These were taken way back in November, back when I was... sigh... mobile. I do miss being mobile. Botanical gardens make for wonderful photo shoot locales! Not only because of the variety of flora, but also there is flora of varying heights, filling in the background at all levels. This evens out the lighting - camera does not get confused by bright back lit spots. However, all the shade means hunting around for the ideally lit spots, and placing my subjects to be optimally lit. Recognizing optimal lighting for any given weather/ location is one of the hardest things to learn.

I did my last pre-baby shoot on Thursday - I had a weak moment and made an exception to that one last - for reals this time - request as she was a repeat client with a 3-week old. It's become really difficult, well, painful to hold a camera, even with a small sized lens - how sad is that?! Due to weak wrists and swollen cabbage patch kid hands and sausage fingers. I drop stuff frequently and then have to deal with how to retrieve the object from the floor. Often it's not worth the effort of trying to bend or squat, and thus the area around my desk is littered with pens, receipts, note paper. I'm told the swelling-related pregnancy symptoms relieve themselves very soon after birth, so I am looking forward to that. Currently I feel like Michelin Woman waddling down the street, or maybe a large gourd.

There are few fun aspects to late third trimester, but one perk is that I am a product tester for new maternity products at Ingrid & Isabel, a SF based maternity wear company (they make the Bella Band, for those of you who have contended with pregnant bellies before). Today I am going in to be a "fit model" - I guess that means they'll measure me and have me try on stuff to see how a future line will work on a very short, very pregnant woman with fat hands.
Oh dear, my hands do not seem to be fitting through the sleeves.

Quilt Update, A Brief History of (My) Sewing and Revisiting the Giant Tree Hopper

2011-03-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here's how my quilt is coming along. I believe I last left you with a whole bunch of cut out squares. I additionally cut out measured rectangles of elephant fabric, and then sewed columns of fabric together to form 9 long strips (5 of which were long gray only rectangles, and the other 4 comprised of diff fabrics). I pinned strips together before sewing to make sure rectangles were parallel - I've just pinned on a gray strip above, and will sew along my fabric pencil line leaving about 1cm of seam.

The underside. In those strips comprised of different fabrics, note that I iron-opened the seams flat before sewing strips together. This prevents having to sew over more layers of fabric than necessary (2 layers thick at most, instead of 3), reducing lumpiness and sewing machine unhappiness. I am trying to be very neat in this project, as opposed to the Laissez-Faire attitude I usually have towards sewing.

I credit 2 sources for my sewing know-how. First my Mom (thanks Mom!) who has sewn stuff up for me from Japanese stuffed animal kits to a high school formal forest-green velvet dress. She had me machine sewing easy stuff from a wee age - following old school tissue paper patterns as well as improvising our own; and blind-stitch hand-hemming - which is incredibly useful for a short person like myself. Second, in Home Economics class, (British, Hong Kong) middle school - boys and girls learned to machine sew and dye stuff.

Since then, I've partaken in a plethora of sewing experiments of my own, such as clothes (I quickly learned that it is much easier and funner to shop for clothes), animal-themed costumes for museums/Halloween, and art projects such as the Tree Hopper (circa 2004) below, which you may have seen before.

Tree Hopper is approx 4' x 4' x 8', sewn on an ancient Singer with 2 stitches - straight and zigzag, and made of hand-dyed and airbrushed cotton canvas, industrial yellow vinyl, cotton cord for wing veins and internal plastic tubing for structure. Can I say, it was a pain in the butt to stuff this thing under the sewing machine arm. It only worked out because I had the distraction of Harry Potter Audio Books to keep me going - that plus Michigan snow kept me indoors. Anyways, minus all the stuffing, which I donated to the UMichigan Art Dept for re-use, Tree Hopper now fits nicely in a large box in our pantry. It was way too much work to just toss, but what does one do with a deflated giant Tree Hopper carcass?

Baby Tigers, Baby Rabbits

2011-03-13T00:23:00.000-08:00

They are observing their father, who is free style beat boxing behind me -in one of the most energetic and creative efforts to entertain babies at a photo shoot that I have ever aurally experienced. This was a great shoot to finish up my shoot season - incredibly cute twins at my favorite photo shoot age (between 6 and 9 months; sitting up, push ups, giggly, full on baby pudge - and no escape crawling!); ideal window lighting and large plain bed surface and wall to work with; fun but not overwhelming props; enthused parents; a resulting great batch of photos.

Wait Wait Wait, Back Up, Finish Up Shoot Season? What is this all about? you ask. Well, I'm headed on maternity leave. I didn't mention it? Yeah, I did hold off on that, had I not - I'd be tempted to blog, All The Time, about how tough it is to do photo shoots while lugging 10, 15, 20, 25, now almost 30 Extra Pounds around. Figured it wouldn't be that interesting to read about my grumbles. Waiting until now, I can apply hindsight, and write more thoughtfully about the experience. Mobility/ Physical Challenges are the obvious issues, which I'll talk (A Lot) about later. There are much more positive things that have come out of this.

What was most enjoyable about being a pregnant photographer is the immediate camaraderie that I formed with my mom clients - that's basically, 99% of my clients. As so many of my subjects are babies, many moms were recently pregnant, and offer much empathy and advice. In several cases, repeat clients are pregnant with their second baby, and the news of more babies to come are a delight to both of us. It is fascinating how just the shared experience of pregnancy has made my already fun job as a baby photographer even more satisfying - before, I was an observer and documenter of the mom world, but now I am also a participant, and contributing community member.

I am on partial maternity leave, which means I am done with shoots - much to my back's relief. I still have piles (as always!) of edits to work on, which will keep me busy, and my blog filled, for the next few weeks. I should be on full Mat Leave by April, and then will be photo free - haha, except for pics of my OWN baby - until July or later. There might be some other baby photos sprinkled in there. 'Tis the season for baby births it seems, and I suspect I will not be able to resist taking some pics of other Baby Rabbits for good friends. Unless I am That sleep deprived. I'm planning to keep Octopus Ink blogging with curated The Best Of photos and tidbits of photo-taking wisdom; I will display less stringently curated, gushy Look At My Baby on ABC day doing XYZ type pics elsewhere.
So stick around.

Keep on Runnin'

2011-03-09T23:19:00.000-08:00

I tend to go for the facial closeups, but I've been trying in include more Kid in Environment type photos in my shoots, for more style variety. With complicated backgrounds, it works best when the kid is far in front - at least 10 yards - of the nearest background elements (the row of trees in this case), so that I can bokeh-out (unfocus) the background using low f/number, like 2.8. He really pops out of the foreground and the branchy branches are not distracting. Lovely sunset light doesn't hurt either.

Happy Winter Day

2011-03-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

An uncharacteristically warm winter day, made for good candid photography times!

Time for a Dose of Super Cuteness

2011-03-05T22:01:00.000-08:00

To make up for my 4 day blog absence, I present: Super Cute Baby munching on crab bath toy!

Everyone Can Tie Dye, You Can Too

2011-03-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

Spend some time deeply contemplating your tie dye design. Take pre-washed, damp 100% cotton fabric. Try twisting, scrunching or accordioning the fabric, or go for the classic bulls eye pattern. Fasten tight with rubber bands.

Some tighter, some looser - this will vary the dye seepage. Very tight ties of course, will prevent dye access entirely, leaving undyed white areas. Put all tied fabric items into warm soda ash water solution (as provided by the handy Jaquard Tie Dye Kit, purchasable on Amazon) to soak for 20 mins.

Glove up! Or you will have dyed hands. If you can't get gloves on by yourself, don't be shy: ask for help. Wear stainable clothes. Fish out soaked fabric items, squeeze out excess liquid, and put everything on a plastic-covered work surface.

The Jaquard dyes come in convenient squeezy bottles. Apply dyes to fabric, like you would generously apply ketchup to a hotdog. Place in ziplock bags for dye to bond over 12-24 hours. Remove from bags, rinse in warm water, snip rubber bands, wash with soap, and dry. And voila! I have some 30 tie dyed cotton flannel squares, ripe for quilting.

Little Lady Bug Lady

2011-02-28T23:32:00.000-08:00

Three year old birthday party with Face Painting! There's no way to refuse. I was so there.
Needed a muted pop of flash for these back lit outdoor pics - the faces were in strong shadow.

I have to admit. Little girl Party Outfits are more fun to photograph than Little Boy Party Outfits. I suppose it's like grown up outfits - there seem to be an endless choice of women's dresses for special events, and relatively little choice for men's outfits. Girl's dresses come in a rainbow of colors - not just pink - I've certainly seen fabulous girl dresses in all shades of gray, navy, brown and green as well as the usual "girl" colors. But boys outfits seem rather limited to the lego/ ikea/ play doh palette, ie, primary and secondary colors. And light blue. Not really fair, is it?

Window Pane Quilt In Progress Part 1

2011-02-25T15:24:00.000-08:00

I want to work on disciplined quilting. My recent quilts, the ones with curvy design were practice in non-straight edges, but does allow for a bit of sloppiness in terms of fitting pieces together. The Window Pane quilt, not an original design of my own at all, is a traditional pattern, very geometrical. It will be very easy to see if the pieces were not measured/ cut/ sewn accurately.

The original point of quilting (I assume) was to use up little scraps of fabric to form a big blankety item, when large fabric pieces were scarce. So there was no luxury of large, curving pieces - instead, one could gather lots of little squares, rectangles and triangles. While I do have large bolts of fabric, this is a nod to the days of fabric scraps. BTW, this is a continuing story; if I wait until the quilt is done, I will have forgotten the details of How To and Progress.

1. Drafting Design. I'd seen the window pane quilt around before, but didn't have a pattern, so I drew one out, and applied dimensions to the squares etc so that it would wind up to be baby blanket size. Note that this design is NOT simply a bunch of squares sewn on to one large piece of gray elephant fabric - that would be Applique, not Quilting. The elephant fabric will be cut into little rectangles that will fit between all the colored squares. It'll look way better this way, though it's much more work. There will be 5 loooong rectangles to fit between the 4 columns of squares and 24 mini rectangles to fill in the rest of the spaces.

2. Fabric Decisions. The background fabric is the least distracting, so the colored squares stand out. I toyed with some other fabrics before deciding on these three. Others were rejected on the basis of being too dark or light, or for having too large a print. These three have a saturated medium tone color, having similarly stylized blocky prints with white worked into the design.

3. Cutting. My first use of the fabric cutting wheel. Like a pizza cutter. Much easier on carpel tunnel hands than scissors, and way faster. I also used a fabric pencil (draws easily and washes out on fabric), and measured out squares while incorporating space for seams. My squares are 4'x4', thus I cut out 5'x5' squares, assuming a consistent seam of 1/2'. Use large cutting board and long ruler.

4. This awesome tool: the Bias Tape Maker! I've not used it yet, but I'm really excited about it. Bias (fabric) Tape is not sticky like tape, but is a long strip of folded fabric to sew along fabric edges to prevent fraying. Like on blanket edges. This tool folds fabric strips, and you iron the folds down as the fabric emerges from the end. If you've ever tried to make bias tape by hand, you'll appreciate this little gadget! Oh, why "bias"? Supposedly you use fabric cut on the bias (ie, diagonal to grain) - better integrity or something. At this stage, I'm happy to use unbiased fabric strips to make tape. I am looking forward to putting such tape along the edge of my blanket, but that will be the last step.

Top of the Day to You!

2011-02-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

Knit hats on babies! You already know how fond I am of the combination. And wrapped (vignetted!) in a textured blanket... yes, all the signature details...

I read an article on the NYTimes today, called The Digital Lives of Babies, by Lee Siegel.
"A recent study published by AVG, an Internet security company, found that 92 percent of American children have an online presence by the time they are 2. One third of mothers in the United States said that they had posted pictures of their newborns online, and 34 percent of American mothers had posted sonograms of their babies in the womb. According to the AVG study, American mothers are more likely to post pictures of their children online than mothers in any other country."

The article is of course interesting to me, as I would guess that a high percentage of baby photos I take for clients are posted on personal online albums. I'm basing my guess on the mass majority portion of parents who are fine with my using their pics on my website or blog; the few who prefer that I not, I assume, do not post pics of their babies/ kids online in general. Oh, an observation - within that small group, parents of girls are more likely to prefer that I not, than parents of boys. Hmm.

Well, how does all this relate to me? Obviously, the babies are an integral part of their parents' identities. Thus, of course babies are featured prominently on parents' Facebook profiles and such. The expectation of (and ease for) friends and family to see online baby photos may be an indirect reason as to why parents want (to show off) better than average baby pics and therefore hire pro photographers and/or invest in DSLRs. Wasn't there a period, say in the 1990s to early 2000s, when we were all happy with point and shoots? I may have Facebook to thank for providing an accessible medium for people to demand and share life documenting photos. What Facebook member with a baby has never received a wall post from a friend saying something along the lines of We want more baby pics!?

The other, more philosophical aspect of the article that I will leave you with:
"The AVG study refers to the first appearance of children on the Internet as their “digital birth.” That seems apt. From that point on, these children will have two lives: one presumably lived consciously and deliberately; and the other, digitized life, subject to countless unknown pairs of eyes, as well as to countless unknown uses and purposes. And this raises the question of free choice. Unlike adults who post pictures of themselves on social networking sites, these babies and children have their images broadcast around the world not against their will, per se, but before they have any will to speak of at all."

To DSLR or Not? Consider these things.

2011-02-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

I taught my third DSLR workshop over the weekend. I've come to a point where I can teach pretty much without my notes - the slides: all pictures, are enough of a reminder of what I want to say. I used to wonder how university professors taught without notes, when I needed so many note cards and practice runs to do a presentation. Well, being extremely familiar with a topic and having taught it enough times to figure out how to organize and explain the info - I understand!

Anyways, I've recently encountered more than a few friends who are having the agonizing internal debate: Should I buy a DSLR camera? Even the intro level DSLRs are quite an investment, causing much hemming and hawing. I thought I'd put together a list of things to consider to help with the decision process.

1. Seeing meh quality point and shoot camera pictures makes you kind of gag a little. (Or conversely, seeing nice pics taken by dslrs makes you think: oooh!) This means that you have some discerning taste concerning photo aesthetics. Some people aren't picky, and are happy with mediocre pics. A DSLR produces much better quality pics, provided you know how to use it. Ok, even on auto mode you'll get better quality pics than most point and shoots.

2. The techie/ geek in you is not intimidated, but rather intrigued, by this bit of machinery with lots of buttons and numbers. If you feel empowered by understanding and mastering digital equipment and like to tinker around with electronic stuff - a DSLR will bring much more satisfaction than a point and shoot. However, if having a big camera will make you take pics less often because all those buttons and numbers are scary - maybe DSLR is not for you. Having a DSLR should encourage More photo-taking.

3. Fancy having artistic control? Maybe there's a bit of artist in you looking for an outlet. Photography is a relatively easy medium to allow tappage into that artistic well. The options on a DSLR (lenses, settings, etc) allows for far deeper tapping than a point and shoot.

4. DSLR ENVY: Inexplicable strong desire for DSLR camera kicks in when you see someone else wit a DSLR camera. There's no rational reason, you just want to have one, and obsessively picture yourself with such weighty equipment hanging from your neck. Nothing else can fill that void in your life. This is rarely the sole reason, but counts as a reason.

All these things apply to me, which is why I thought of them. I do still use a point in shoot for the following instances: (1) traveling in poor neighborhood where it is tacky to pull out a $$ DSLR, (2) spontaneous candid pics where quality doesn't matter so much as atmosphere, e.g. documenting dog making faces due to biscuit stuck in cheek flap.

There are some cameras that are some place between point and shoot and dslr, but I don't know anything about them. There might be a happy medium.

Keep It Simple

2011-02-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some very simple baby pics. Window light, plain wall, reflector to the left for fill light. Simplifying background/ surroundings has got to be the easiest way to vastly improve an indoor photo without knowing anything about your camera or light. It just takes a moment to move the kleenex box, or change angle slightly to crop out the wall socket. Let there be no distractions from baby cuteness!

I'm not sure how five days passed without a post. Well actually I do. I'm experiencing a bit of carpel tunnel, so I'm trying to keep computer stuff to a minimum. I am finding that doing smaller doses of edits, spread over days, helps.

Wood Animals All In A Row

2011-02-07T23:55:00.000-08:00

Last week I was reviewing my teaching notes for my Intro to using your DSLR to photographing baby and kids class. And it occurred to me, I really should incorporate some of this composition and creativity advice into my photography. I think I had somewhat lapsed into getting the shots with compositions that I know clients expect, and stayed within a certain safe "range". And here I am with students, encouraging different angles, experimenting with lighting, creating interesting compositions. So this weekend I set out with a refreshed brain and scrubbed eyeballs, ready to seek out such artistic opportunities.

Better than Summer

2011-02-06T22:02:00.000-08:00

If the sun angle is low enough, I like to take a few flare photos for experimentation. The sun hitting the lens directly can cause all sorts of artsy effects, most notably the little colored circles, or in this case - some fun haloing and color aberation.

It was 75F and sunny in San Francisco today, a perfect day to have 2 photo shoots. Plus dog walking twice... I spent most of my daylight hours outside, and I was perfectly delighted. Why be inside watching Super Bowl when there's warm sunshiney weather in February? Summer in SF isn't this nice.

Branchy

2011-02-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

I was driving down Embarcadero in Palo Alto, and saw this sculpture on the side of the road. I recalled seeing it on the local news. It's a Patrick Dougherty "Site Specific Installation", made entirely out of willow sapplings and creosote, the latter of which I assume was used to stick it all together. There are a number of doorways and windows; one can duck in and out of the creation. Fantastic place for a game of tag. The twigs have a very organic movement; flowing like long dog fur.

Warning: You May Experience Fabric Envy

2011-02-04T17:33:00.000-08:00

It's true. I have a cute fabric addiction. I think some of you will understand. A part of the problem is that many cotton prints are limited editions, and so when I see something I like, I just Have To get it or I may never see it again. I don't go crazy though. At most I'll buy a yard. The biggest thing I'll make is a baby quilt, and the great thing about quilts is that one can use even very small pieces. I might make simple bags or cushion covers. I'm not about to make any clothing for myself - way too much of a pain- much easier to go clothes shopping.

My favorite SF fabric store is called Peapod Fabrics in Inner Sunset: http://www.peapodfabrics.com/
I also shop from a few online places:
Fabric Worm (Paso Robles) : http://www.fabricworm.com/
Hart's Fabric (Santa Cruz): http://www.hartsfabric.com/
And occasionally gems may be found at Fabric.com, intermixed with a lot of tacky stuff (their clientele includes the Pre-DIY/Craft-As-Empowerment Generation, if you know what I mean): http://www.fabric.com/

If you are not a Fabric Person (Don't know if you are? Answer this: Do you swoon when overhearing anything about Japanese Import Fabric? If so, you are a Fabric Person), you may be interested to know that sets of fabric designs are designed by fabric designers, like a line of clothing. Sure there are generics, like Jo-Ann Fabric fabrics, but the really cool stuff comes from specific brand names/ designers such as Alexander Henry who came up with the "June Bug" bird line which includes the "June Song" fabric in "Tea" near the top left. Of course the hope is that you'll snap up yards of the whole "June Bug" line, which will be similar in theme/ style and will color coordinate, perfect for your quilting needs.

Neutral Palette

2011-02-01T23:59:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying a neutral photo palette recently. I notice that my recommendations regarding What To Wear changes seasonally. Right now I like pale neutrals, with maybe a pop of spring color. Last summer, I was recommending jewel and garden tones. Fall - browns, creams, denim. Winter - festive red and classic colors like navy and white. Overall, it is fun to photograph saturated colors, but I think that subtle colors are best for showing off baby cuteness.

FYI, background is a bed with white linens. I photoshopped out the pillow creases/ edges in the background. Window light from the immediate right, umbrella electric continuous fill light from the left.

Conjuring Light (sometimes, Reality Bites)

2011-01-31T23:39:00.000-08:00

So this is a bit ironic. After teaching a class on how to find great light, I find myself having to shoot in non-ideal light conditions - near sunset and in long strips of shade cast by buildings, fog creeping in and severely diluting warm late afternoon light. A flash would've helped, but I didn't want to use flash on a 7 week baby close-up, even if his eyes were closed. I could've tried some white balance tricks, but it was getting cold, and he'd finally stopped fussing and gone to sleep ... didn't want us all to have to stand around more than necessary. Blue shade plus blue blanket resulted in a very blue picture - so I put my faith in photoshop rescue skills. You can see my embarrassingly blue picture at the bottom left.
Please don't dwell on it for long.

I tweaked the colors using curves in Lab Color Mode, which I've mentioned in a prior post. Warmed up the entire pic, lightened the face, to further separate from the blue blanket, and added a wash of pale pink over the face. It is still a cool picture, but way better than the original. I just wanted to let you in on a bit of my reality. The ideal natural light doesn't always exist within the hour that I spend with a family, and sometimes I have to conjure it up.

Sharing the Art of Baby Photography

2011-01-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

I am very fond of this set of newbie photos. A combination of great natural light from San Francisco style bay windows and a very cooperative, beautiful baby boy. I added some supplemental light using a reflector - I have a fancy reflector, but you can easily use a sheet of white card or foam board, card board covered in foil - placed to the side of the baby (right, left left respectively) so that the window light reflected back and filled in some of the shadow. I don't like to use flash on the very little ones, so given enough window light, this method works well in the place of flash. These pics also show the use of parent hands in newbie pics, the lovely backgrounds that textured white blankets make, and the vignetting potential of blankets.

If you happen to be looking for Japanese Birth or Wedding Announcements, check out my client's fledgling card design business:

http://www.momijicards.com/

I taught my first Natural Light Photography of Babies and Kids with your DSLR workshop this morning, with 3 students (moms). I'd spent the past week putting it together - first a detailed draft of what I wanted to cover, then compiled photos to illustrate my points, next made a streamlined, condensed set of teaching notes to correlate with slides, and finally a student hand out with the most important points. It reminded me very much of putting together a grad school presentation, and I was glad to have that experience (though at the time of MFA, I grumbled and stressed out about having to do so many). And it was nice to have such an attentive, interested and sanitary audience, unlike the jaded, slack-jawed art undergrads or roly poly, leaky-nosed 5 year olds - from my live bug teaching days.

The class is pretty specific. "Natural Light" does not include artificial/studio light, in which I dabble but do not consider myself an expert. "Babies and Kids" are different subjects from adults, and completely different from sport, wildlife, landscape, architectural, product, food and fashion etc photography, in none of which I have expertise either. It's not an unusual assumption by random people (like my clinic's phlebotomist) that I should (a) take interest in and (b) know how to do all those other types of photography.

Anyways, I realized, in the area of Natural Light Baby /Kid Photography I know quite a lot! And felt very comfortable in sharing my experience and accumulated information. There is some demand for a web version, as I have many friends with babies and DSLRs Not In San Francisco. We'll see about that.

Time to Teach

2011-01-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

I saw a post; a mother searching for an Intro to How to Photograph Babies and Kids with a DSLR class. Oh, I can do that, I thought, and without thinking, posted back: If there's enough interest, I can put one together. Next thing I know, 10 moms are interested and here I am lesson planning. The first thing that comes to mind is that I've never taken any photography classes, and everything I know about taking pictures is self taught. I need to distill, select and organize what is most useful and easy for a hobby photographer to put into practice to improve his/her photos. Much of what I will say I probably have blabbed on about in my blog.

I'll start with the obvious basics, which are: What do all the little buttons and knobs on the camera do, and what do all the little numbers on the body and lens mean? The technical aspect.

Next, a discussion on light - as this is all natural light photography, I'll share how I find the best light in a given environment. Composition and creativity might be the hardest to teach, if one doesn't already have a critical eye. Presumably, people who have purchased a DSLR have done so because they see the qualitative difference between a point and shoot pic and a DSLR pic, and thus must be conscious of what makes one picture better than another. Then, somehow pull all info together to apply specifically to portraits of newborns, babies and little kids. Now... going through my archives for photos to illustrate points - such as what makes a good B&W photo?

Quilt Making is to Beer Brewing

2011-01-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

Another baby quilt; same pattern as the previous but with minor aesthetic tweaks. And this one has batting - that is, the stuff sandwiched between the front and back of the quilt for additional insulation. The previous quilt had a Minky Dimple back, which I though provided enough weight. This one; cotton front and flannel back, needed an extra something to increase the cozy-factor.

When I inquire about my husband's creative endeavors, he like to compare them to my own, in simile. "Music Equipment is like Camera Equipment" for example. More recently, "Beer Brewing," he declared, "Is like Quilt Making." Oh really.
Choosing brew flavors and researching ingredients = Designing overall quilt and selecting fabrics that will go together
Calculating ingredient volumes, temperatures = Making a pattern
Actual brewing process = Sewing the thing together

So, I commented, after his fermenting 5 gallon glass jug erupted a ceiling smacking, geyser of beer guts all over the pantry, What is the Quilt Making Equivalent Here?
There was no satisfactory answer to that.

I documented some of the damage, exactly like in those investigators on CSI TV shows. Unfortunately, while I did witness the geyser - Dionysus's lesser known cousin, the Beer God of Fury, Reincarnate - it did not last long enough for me to grab a camera.

Huge Bath Tub

2011-01-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

Coming across another San Francisco scenic spot is always a delight - just when I thought I knew all the photogenic viewpoints in the city. Not so! I have much exploring to do, apparently. At the NW corner of the city is Sutro Baths, now a part of Golden Gate Rec Area. Way back in the late 1800s, a rich SF guy named Adolph Sutro made a huge public bath/pool, that was conveniently rinsed out by high tide. You had seven pools to choose from, dressing rooms, and the baths were even covered by a glass structure. It was apparently quite glamorous in the day, complete with movie theater and an ice skating rink at some point, and its own rail way stop. The structure was destroyed by fire in 1966, and all that is left is the concrete/ rock base that the modern visitor can clamber over at their own risk of falling in. It is quite popular with ducks and photographers.

Sewing Machine Love

2011-01-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

I'd been waiting to post this, as I want the recipient to see the baby quilt for reals, and not spot it first on my blog. According to USPS tracking, it is "Out for Delivery", which seems close enough.

It was time to graduate from squares to other shapes, so I went with arcs - but kept things simple. Pre-shank the fabrics. I cut a pattern out of a large rectangular sheet of foam wrap that in a previous life padded Ikea chipboard items, kept track of the pieces by labeling 1 through 15 and assigned fabrics. Tried to balance colors. Traced pattern pieces onto the backsides of fabric, added 1/2 inch boarders. Measured out the white fuzzy fabric (also known as Minky Dimple) to cover the back of the quilt plus wrap around to the front edges. Used my Sparkly New Brother CS 6000i to sew the parts together.

I must stop to gush: it is an absolute JOY to sew with a great sewing machine. My old machine, which I am embarrassed to own, was purchased on a quick trip to Target during my art school days, without prior research. Much like my intro DSLR, I did get a lot of mileage out of it - but recently I started longing for a machine that didn't regurgitate the bobbin every other use, shake my entire work station, erupt in sudden caffeinated bursts of uncontrollably fast stitches, or make such a machine gun din that my dog retreated to the furthest corner of the apt.

CS 6000i is a COMPUTERIZED sewing machine, as opposed to purely mechanical. It means more precision. Pleasant, agreeable, perhaps even Eager to Please temperament, such smooth, even stitches, quiet purr, a bobbin that sits contentedly in its bobbin nest - Plus all these specialty feet (a walking quilting foot!) and programmed stitches... I could sew for days on end.

This is baby quilt #3. The corners don't quite meet; where the arcs cross one another, but whatever. I'm pleased with the result. Next time I will keep an eye on the fabric pattern direction though. The abstract birds and the swirly swirl fabric doesn't matter so much, but I am a bit bothered by the deep pink, which runs in different directions.

Bindi Baby

2011-01-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

Under 4 months, it's generally rare to receive a baby smile. But in the fleeting moments that you do - what a gem! (Even if it is an accidental smile)

A Brief Foray into Home Decor

2011-01-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Not my succulent, but one of many organically sculptural/architectural elements of my clients' new home. I was there to photograph the family of course, but I couldn't help but capture some of these interior design details. Below, an eclectic selection of vintage-y frames, unified by being painted painted an east-coast-beach-house-shutter-matte-white. Makes me want to dig around garage sales for frames and paint them all the same color.

Another wall piece; a large surface, say the size of 3 doors, pinned with cutouts of chrysanthemum prints. I'd seem something in the same vein at an Anthropologie store - an entire wall covered with pinned on paper cutouts of flying bird silhouettes. Aim some studio lights at this wall and get some amazing shadows. I think felt cutouts would work great, as well as (cardboard/paper-backed) print or textured fabric, pinned onto a painted cork board. I might not be able to resist giving this a try...

Exact Change Only!

2011-01-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

You may note the hint of rainbow decor in the backgrounds of the above photos. We are of course, in the heart of the Castro. Pretty much anything goes here. And so it was probably not a surprise for the tram operators (the grown up ones, that is) to receive a request to permit a pair of transportation-enthused tots the free exploration of the resting tram's interiors.

Yea for Chubby Cheeks!

2011-01-07T23:56:00.000-08:00

Six months old is very photogenic baby age. Filled out with baby chub, smiley and giggly, does not yet have the hints of toddlerhood, such as longer limbs, as babes head towards one-ish. And here is his big brother.

About Eyes.

2011-01-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

If you live in San Francisco, you will recognize the familiar diagonally striped glass that comprises a MUNI bus/tram shelter. As it turns out, they create great diffuse light for photos. Isn't that sweater and bear head gear texture just the best? And if the little boy looks familiar, it's because his baby pic was featured on my blog a bit over a year ago, and gosh he must've been one of The Most Amazingly Cute Babies I'd ever photographed.

A quick note on close up photos of little ones. Or anyone, really. If you scroll through my baby/tot close ups posts, they all have one thing in common - Catch Lights in the Eyes. So important to bring life to the picture. Even in shade, there will be some light reflection in the iris at some angle. A small thing that makes a huge difference, especially in dark colored eyes - without it, eyes lose depth, and the picture doesn't have the same magnetism. Having said that, please make sure the eyes are in clear focus, unless there's some intentional focusing-on-something-else going on. None of this focusing-in-the-general-direction-of-the-face. Clear eyes will make close up portraits that much awesomer.

This might mean turning off the auto-face-finder-focus function on your camera (you know, when the little rectangles appear over faces as viewed through the lens finder). Instead, tell the camera (usually a few button presses) to use the one center-most focus rectangle only; aim that rectangle over your subject's eyeball(s) and press shutter to Autofocus.

Chances Are

2011-01-04T00:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes dogs are easier to photograph than kids and babies. Some dogs, I swear, are posing.

I have some stats for you, having recently compiled my 2010 business info. I could create a series of pie charts... but just telling you will be faster (I know I will spend too much time pondering pie wedge colors).

Category: Subject Matter
60% Babies
(not able to run)
29% Toddlers
(learning to run)
15% Kids
(easily run away from me)
And all this adds up to more than 100% because a shoot may consist of more than one subject, and it's just too complicated to sort it out.

Category: Gender
44% of babies are Girls
56% of babies are Boys
No big diff between numbers of Girls vs Boys Tots and Kids

Category: Location
65% San Francisco
35% Everywhere else (from Santa Cruz to Tahoe)

Chances are, I'm photographing a Baby Boy in San Francisco.

Twins to Welcome You to 2011

2011-01-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

Hello Twins! A mere 16 days old, these two help demonstrate the difference between a white reflective and black absorptive surface. In general, I prefer to photograph babies (especially ones that have floppy necks and need to remain lying down) against light surfaces. When lying on a flat surface, it is hard to get light all around the head. It's an aesthetic preference, but I like minimizing shadows on baby faces, to enhance the freshness element of the picture. A white blanket helps a lot, as it subtley reflects light onto the sides/ back of babies heads. Some shadow remains to give form.

Black backgrounds absorb light, so while the foreground of the baby pops in contrast to the black, the edges of the baby's shape are not as defined as against a white background. More artificial light is needed to prevent babies against black from being overwhelmed by their background. The two pics definitely feel different; natural vs studio-esque.

If you thought photographing one newborn was a challenge, try photographing two at once! In newbie sessions, there are a lot of feeding and crying breaks. With two newbies, we have to hope that the moments of contentment and sleep overlap at some point.

Stylin' Hair

2010-12-29T23:42:00.000-08:00

And this is what happens when someone sticks a leaf in your lens.

Crafty Kids

2010-12-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

The bulk of shoots may be over, but the momentum continues as I shall be editing intensive for the next few weeks. Perhaps I can get through some audio books at the same time. Anyways, here we are, a one month flash back to the Randall Museum Holiday Craft Day, a day of non-denominational crafts such as candy/graham cracker house design, wax candle rolling, candle holder making, soap making and Monarch Butterfly ceramics painting. I noticed a lot of Dads with their children, sans Mom. I suspect many of the crafts made were holiday gifts for Mom. Maybe not the candy houses; many of the decorating elements sooner made it into happy mouths than out the museum door.

Snuggly

2010-12-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

Holiday Time

2010-12-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

We are careening towards Christmas. I thought I should post some holiday themed photos. Xmas trees make for great backgrounds, with a 50mm f/1.8 lens; the little lights blur out into sparkly circles and the otherwise distracting pine needles and ornaments pleasantly mush together.

This cutie is laughing delightedly at a giant Elmo exchanging kisses with a elephant finger puppet. All this drama is taking place on the stage that is my head.

Fondness for Chunky Knits

2010-12-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

I like to contrast the smooth softness of baby skin with textured fabrics, especially chunky knits. When ever a mom takes out chunky knit items as options for shoot accessories/outfits, I immediately gravitate towards these blankies, sweaters and hats. You'll note that there are 3 different chunky knits in this set of photos.

Limited distractions. Indoor shoots does not mean studio-style photos; as long as there isn't a lot of (especially dark colored) clutter in the background, the natural home environment is a fine place for photos. Light color furniture and walls works better than dark, so that light reflects off the surfaces and reduces the need for additional artificial lights. It would be a whole different story if we were working on a dark brown velveteen couch with dark walls and curtains, for example.

Breathing Room

2010-12-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

I am somewhat caught up with my editing now, and without a deluge of weekend shoots (thank you rain!) I can lend some time to thinking about holidays. With only a handful of photo shoots scattered over the next 2 weeks, it is nice to have some breathing room! What will I do... bake? read? It would have been nice to get some holiday crafting done for gifts, but it seems too late for that already. I marvel at how anyone gets stuff done in time for Xmas, and understand why moms whose families I photograph are so pleased to get their personalized photo holiday cards done before December!

Fig 1. Bar Chart of Voltage Remaining in Batteries After Being Rejected as Useless for External Camera Flash Use (n=168)

2010-12-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

Graph labeling is deeply ingrained, a habit formed in high school days where points were docked for lack of X and Y axis label with units, and a graph title. When I see graphs in popular magazines lacking these 5 elements, I become irate - what kind of useless graph is this! and ignore any conclusions drawn from the graph. I should point out my sample size is about 168, and so I think that should I apply stats, we could get some significant results from the data here.

I go through a LOT of batteries with my camera flash (Canon 430 EX). All is fine when the batteries are spanking new. With tot and baby pics, it's all about timing and being opportunistic, so if the flash doesn't go off exactly when I need it (which maybe once a second) - I change out the batteries. Sure the flash also needs to time to cycle up for the next pop of light, but pooped out batteries are slower at providing energy needed. Rechargeable batteries unfortunately are too slow/ un-powerful my flash purposes; won't go into boring theories of Why.

I do know that the batteries have juice left, so for the last over 2 years I've been accumulating post-flash batteries in the Batteries For Wii Remote drawer. My husband, on a sudden inspiration of geekiness, decided to use his voltage meter to see what voltage remained on all of the batteries. A full battery is 1.6 volts; a useless battery (the Wii remote complains at) 0.8 to 1.0 volts. He asked me to hypothesize the median voltage (that's the highest bar chart bar, for you non stat peeps) and I guessed a Normal Distribution (ie bell curve), making 1.3 the median, and Voila, the distribution is a slightly skewed Normal curve. (Please note; the batteries are double stacked; two layers).

From this I can see that batteries are pretty useless for Flash under 1.4 volts, and that I can probably squeeze some more flash pops out of the 1.5 to 1.6 batches. 1.3 to 1.4 batteries can be used to keep Wii remotes happy; 1.1 to 1.2 might be good for clocks, and 1.0 and under can be (properly) disposed.

Thus my conclusion and scientific recommendation is that We Need to Play More Wii.

Hope you have accomplished more holiday shopping than I have

2010-12-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

Lapsing in blog posts! It's been a most arduous season, and quite frankly, many non-work things take priority over blog posting, such as dog belly rubs and rounding up knick knacks for tree decorating.

It's been a very satisfying season despite the lack of breathing space; I think I've taken many photos that families will cherish for decades - how many jobs out there can personally impact people like that? And a good number of those photos are great portfolio enhancing candidates. I won't let myself survey my 2010 work yet though; besides waxing philosophical, I have fun plans to do fun comparisons of: number of boy babies vs girl babies photographed, most popular baby names of the last year, and such, after this season is done.

Beautiful Baby Boy

2010-12-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

There Goes My (Right) Boot

2010-12-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

'Tis The Season to Attempt Wreath Making

2010-12-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

It's been a long rainy day of indoor shoots, I don't feel like editing and my dog has wrapped her long body around my feet and desk chair, so I might as well get going with this lengthy wreath making discussion. Keep in mind there are probably an endless number of ways to make a wreath, but this is just a way I figured out, in an aesthetic I like.

Before we begin, as much as I'd like to say something idealistic like *Everyone Can Make a Wreath!*, that would be lying. I only recommend this activity if you have experience in crafting - ie, you are confident with making things with hands and have the patience to work with little bits of things.

Raw Materials
One could buy plastic fake plant parts that reek of emporium craft store Cinnamon (does Michaels funnel Holiday Spice Scent through the vents?) or one could do the far more satisfying deed of foraging for real plant material (clandestinely) at the local park. So this might not work in San Diego. But in places where it gets cold, you'll find a selection of conifers that will do nicely. Here is what I look for in green stuff:

(A type) Tight Covering of Surface Area - this Fir (I think) has lots of branchings, which provides a good base cover.
(B type) Smaller Surface Covering for Tight Spaces - Juniper (I think) bends nicely to fit the inner edge of the wreath
(C type) Volume - this Mystery Shrubbery gives volume and width to the outer edge.
(D type) Decorative - Rosemary with flower buds adds color, scent and texture.
(E type) Spot Covering -Mossy moss will cover up gaps, as well as add visual interest and texture. If you don't have all types, no big deal. Work with what you've got.
(Other type) Berries, Flowers - If you have the time, dry flowers. Berries on my first wreath went dry and moldy, so use at your own risk.

When taking snippets off plants, I look for the youngest parts of the tree/ bush, as these will not yet be lignified (woody). They'll be nice and flexy to curve around your wreath base. I also select trees away from road/path ways; they'll be less dirty, and you can skip the extra step of rinsing them. Look out for slugs/caterpillars sitting on branches at the point you might snip. Moss I find under pine trees; it falls off in clumps after storms, or if you're lucky enough, a crow sitting in a pine tree might try to drop moss-covered twigs on your head as you circle the tree base like an indecisive dog.

Not Raw Materials - Shears for branch cutting, green foam wreath ($4.49 at Michael's for a little one), florists' wire, wire cutters, decorative ribbon. Yeah it would be nice to have a wreath base of bundled twigs. Oh well.

Instructions
(1) Make Hanging Loop - it's tempting to jump right into attaching plant material, but save yourself trouble later and make a wreath hanging loop now. And, might as well snip a huge pile (like, 50) of 1 to 1.5 inch wire bits.

(2) Place your main Surface Covering A-type plant over the wreath base, to get an idea of placement and balance. Overlap ends. I like for all my bits to go clockwise.

(3) Secure plant to base - make tight little U or hair pin shaped wire bits and "staple" the stems to the base. The wire should feel satisfyingly snug when pressed into the foam. I use maybe 2-3 per Fir piece. When Stapling, pin down only the stem and not the leaves, so the leaves can stay fluffy.

(4) Tuck the butt (cut) end of the stem under. It's fine to leave the head (uncut) end of the branch hanging off a bit.

(5) Secure all fir pieces, curving them. Stand back, and get a sense of what areas need more or less foliage to even the wreath out.

(6) Grab B-type plants and fit them into the inner edge of the wreath. I put bushier pieces where the wreath seems sparse, Secure with wire. Pin strategically, where the wire is hidden.

(7) Fill in entire inner edge so that foam base cannot be seen.

(8) Take C-type and fill in the outer edge. Generously overlap C-types, and allow branches to poke through A-types. Add more As and Bs as you see fit. Use small pieces to fine tune your coverage.

(9) D-type decorations - I add these over the A-type foliage, and intersperse with E-type Mossy Moss. The key is Balance, without looking planned or geometric. Cover any remaining visible foam base.

(10) Like when you get a haircut, the stylist will step back at the end and snip of missed strands. Same thing. Prune off anything that sticks out awkwardly.

(11) The wreath feels ungrounded. Needs a visually anchoring centerpiece, like a ribbon. I went with a modest red plaid ribbon, and it took some five or more tries to get the bow just right. Have you ever tried to tie a bow on the back of someone's wedding dress? Well it's just like that. Don't want the bow to stick out weirdly, or be too droopy, or for the ends or loops to be too long, or for the loops to be twisted, or for the whole thing to look too tight, or like you tried real hard to get it right. Yeah, good luck.

Voila. Maybe it was bought it at Trader Joes. This is my third wreath; my first (featured previously) I now think is rather a mess, especially with the rotten berries. My second is OK. This one I knew what I was doing. Hopefully it will dry nicely. Already wreath 2, made less than a week ago has lost green vibrancy, and looks skinnier. So enjoy it while it's young!

Pirate Attack!

2010-12-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

Armed with a sword and our wits, we deftly avoided capture by Captain Hook and his pirate posse, who were rapidly descending upon us. The best option was to hide amongst the boulders, which would be certain to provide camouflage and protection. And to further disguise ourselves, we best wear a conspicuous furry winter hat.

It was the only way to get him to be still for more than a second. And the only reasoning that convinced him to wear the hat. In an 100% candid photo session during which I accrued more foot mileage than any other, it was all about getting in on the pirate story. Although I do think his stick wielding skills would make him an excellent wizard-in-training also. Confundus, you foe! Expelliarmus!

It's cold out, for California. I always hope that this doesn't deter parents from doing an outdoor shoot (unless we're talking little babies, in which case they'd just disappear into their bundled layers). I like photographing the textures of winter wear. I personally think that living in San Francisco, we should embrace the wet coldness, instead of avoid it, less we cloister ourselves indoors for most of the year. A good pair of rubber boots, that's all I've got to say.

Classic.

2010-11-30T18:01:00.000-08:00

While I enjoy outdoor candids, indoor shoots, given good window light, can make for classic, elegantly simple photos. The ubiquitous San Francisco house sliding doors made for a great plain background, and we used basically no props aside from hands and blanket for the newborn portraits.

Wreath Time

2010-11-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

I made a wreath. I got so carried away, I forgot to take in-progress photos to demonstrate the Making Of A Wreath. I'll try to remember to do so next time. Anyways, the base is a foam ring, and the folliage bits are secured by staple/ bobbypin shaped wire bits, pressed into the foam. All the greenery/ flowers' lives were flourishing a mere 2 days ago before I casually (why yes, I do carry gardening shears around with me on all dog walks) pruned them of their mother plant. I found all these bits along my usual dog walk route, alongside the Presidio and through a local park.

I really hadn't paid much attention to plant and tree life before, but now I scan the pathside flora for wreath potential. I looks for leaves that seem stiff without relying on turgidity from water. This of course includes evergreen trees - of which there are many around here, including Juniper (I learned this only upon googling "San Francisco Local Trees", but could not identify any other trees). There are red berry shrubs fruiting, which contribute greatly to the festive holiday look. Home front yard gardens are also full of tempting plant bits, and as I walk by I briefly fantasize about absconding with a snippet, but in real life I will resist.

Quite pleased with the results of my first wreath, I've bought a few more foam frames at Michael's craft store. I was sorely tempted to also buy a package of dried moss - lush green matted stuff, overpriced for something that falls off trees. Sure enough I found a moss-shrouded pine branch on my dog walk today.Now if only I didn't have so many edits to work on. More details on wreath foliage assemblage in a later post....

Winter Beach

2010-11-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

Landscape Maternity at Ocean Beach, the best place for beach sunset photography in SF. Partly because the beach is so wide and gently sloping; the waves take a long time to come in and recede, leaving a decent window of time where the sand is wet and magically reflective. The light is like this for less than ten minutes. Oftentimes the people I take out here to photograph, will leisurely take their time and enjoy the scenery. Not allowed! I urgently herd them into photogenic compositions. And yes it was freezing cold, but how can one show off a maternity belly with a winter coat on? The sacrifices we make for good photos.

Retiring to my car post-shoot, I turned on my camera to check on the photos. The camera wouldn't turn on. Back home, new battery etc, tried everything - would not power on! Ack! I called Canon customer service, and fortunately my 5D, being 1.5 months old, is still under warranty, so I will send it to Irvine to get fixed. I will miss it very much... and must use my 40D in the meantime.

Now for the final stretch of another busy 2 weeks before things slow down for the holidays. I somehow made it through November, so 2 weeks should be easier!

Yea Stick!

2010-11-26T23:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgivings Weekend To All

2010-11-24T19:29:00.000-08:00

I just think this is such a cute picture.

In the throes of holiday season photo non-stop madness. At first I tried to take the next four days off, then decided to give up Sunday for shoots, then I leaked a shoot onto Saturday... edits are piling up so maybe I will squeeze in some editing Friday and Saturday - but definitely, Not Working Tomorrow! You'd better not work tomorrow either.

Happy Eating!

Post Storm Sunset

2010-11-21T18:40:00.000-08:00

If more people took photos while driving, driving and photo taking - like cell phone talking and texting - would likely also be illegal. However it's not, when I'm on the road and there's an irresistible sunset, I point my camera in the general direction of sunset amazingness and hope for the best. Here I am cruising along the Bay Bridge, marveling at the total lack of inbound SF traffic, and the cityscape looms up, silhouetted against 4:45pm ish sky. There's the triangle building and radio tower and everything.

Fuzzy Family Members

2010-11-18T20:06:00.000-08:00

Four out of my last ten shoots included the family dog. None of them pint sized dogs that are easily picked up and oriented to face the camera. All 50 lb+, and apt to face their human (ie, back to the camera) when told to Sit. This means that the human needs to stand with their back to me, tell the dog to sit, then hold the dog in place while pivoting 180 to crouch next to the dog. Then rest of the family gathers around the dog, as it's easier for humans to position themselves than it is to try to encourage a dog butt to sit on a specific spot.

Good Things That Come From Melt Downs

2010-11-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

Wow. Beautiful autumn sunsets. In the recent weeks, I've been marveling at the bay area sunsets. Oftentimes, I'm on the highway, driving back from my afternoon shoot, and debating whether or not to pull off at the next exit. Then I remember my dog is waiting at home for her walk, and that I'm hungry, so I don't. But this time, thanks to a toddler melt down leading to an abbreviated shoot, I had time and stopped when I saw this ridiculous light coming through the trees at Baker Beach at around 5pm. Less than 10 minutes from home! San Francisco is great like that.

Friday Flashback

2010-11-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

One and a quarter years later - he's far more mobile, but he's got the same mischievous glint and expression that says Whooooeeeeee! Life is Fun!

Like I said before. I've never photographed so many toddlers. Toddlers are by far the most challenging age group to photograph, mostly because of stubborn determination combined with new found running skills and well developed lungs. Fortunately they have not developed sneakiness yet, and so they are quite predictable. I can tell where they want to run and I am still faster than them so I can get ahead of the path and photograph them plunging their way towards say, a Bus, or Dog, or Some One Else's Trike.

Holiday Season Snuck Up Upon Me

2010-11-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Holiday photos! For my annual clients, it's the one time of year I'll see them, and marvel at how much their kids have grown. It's fun to see the festive outfits that the moms put together. I listen to holiday music (of the big band jazz sort) while I edit. Two weeks until Thanksgivings, sunsets at 5pm - wasn't it summer not that long ago?

Involved and Enthused Is The Best.

2010-11-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

Cute Baby! As I've stressed before, the success of a photo shoot depends a lot on parental participation. Parents know how to get their baby to smile way better than I. When both parents, like this couple, are totally immersed and having fun at the shoot, it makes a huge difference. Way more baby smiles.
Oh! Is that that a Justin Bieber baby below?

I think participation is more often difficult for some fathers; men are less likely to feel at ease in front of a camera than women. Except - interestingly, men of Asian heritage - they all seem relatively comfortable with having their pic taken. Is it because people of Asian ethnicity are more likely to have had a lot of cameras around while growing up? Is it because I'm Asian American? What are my population sample sizes and how do I quantify discomfort? I don't know. This is just an observation.

Anyways, sometimes during the shoot, some fathers decide it's time to check their blackberry/iphone/mobile device. For extended periods. I'm not sure what they're doing - most likely this is a distraction behavior to make them forget that they are uncomfortable. Other common dad distraction behaviors: watching TV (at home shoots), complaining that the light is too bright, the spot they're sitting on is uncomfortable, the grass is damp; volunteering to watch the kid and following the kid 400 yards away from shoot site before making (weak) attempts to herd the kid back to home base; constantly asking their wife "How should we pose? What should we do next?" instead of asking me directly, or speaking as if I'm not actually there: "What does she want us to do?" Gosh, I'm just a human being - it's weird to feel that wielding a big camera makes me a scary person.

I do what I can to make people feel comfortable. Camera shy is one thing - I can encourage activities: put kid on shoulders! toss kid in air! chase kid around tree! and get good candid photos. Lack of enthusiasm - there's not much I can do. For some fathers, no matter what, it seems that a family photoshoot is like enduring the opera (speaking stereotypically of course). I'd say about 10% of fathers are like this, which is a minority (whew).
Well, all this makes me really appreciate those couples were both parents are involved and enthused.

Autumn Update

2010-11-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

How did Halloween pass me by without any cute kid in costume post?! Here you go, so as not to deprive you of your annual dose.

Fall is rapidly whizzing by. I have a record 38 shoots in November, far more than the 25 that I'd aimed for. Pretty much means working every day (including shoots every day except for 2 days) without breaks until Thanksgivings, but I knew going into November that I'd have to just take a deep breath, take the plunge, and Just Keep Swimming. I do thrive on the productivity.

21 of the 38 are repeat clients, which makes life easier: everyone knows what to expect - less explaining on my part, no awkwardness in getting to know each other, no need to develop trust bonds. The thing with repeat clients though, is that last year their kids were 1 yr olds. Now, the kids are all around 2 yrs old and extremely mobile, which means much more chasing on my part.

Must stay organized! Emailing reminders for sessions and Day Light Savings ending; planning Plan Bs in case of rain (and keeping a constant eye on weather reports); fitting in errands and dog walking between photoshoots; contacting venues for permission to do a shoot for those clients who want to do a session in fancy hotels or private gardens; keeping batteries charged, memory cards empty, all photos backed up on computer and two external hard drives; stocking the fridge with good food so that I don't resort to ramen and canned food. That on top of shoots and editing.

A Small Chunk of Portugal

2010-11-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Historically, Salvador ("Savior" in Portuguese) was the first capital of Brazil, back in the colonial days; 1500s to 1800s. As lots of places chose to name themselves Salvador, this Salvador distinguished itself with the name Salvador of Bahia, Bahia being the Brazilian State along the mid-east coast of the country. One can see why the Portuguese decided to stick around here. The coast line consists of 30+ miles of beach intermingled with rocky shore, astounding views of the Atlantic all around. This historic center, Pelourinho, is a recently renovated World Heritage Site. With balconied windows, cobblestone streets, facades and lamp posts, it's like a little chunk of Europe was deposited on this hilltop.

It felt a bit Disneylandish; the opposite of old European cities that feel truly lived in, with local bakeries and grocers and residents - and a sense of pride for dwelling in beautiful historic houses. Perhaps it's because Salvador's population now consists mostly of those of Afro-Brazilian heritage; ie, those whose ancestors were brought along via the Portuguese slave trade. Maybe they have a different attitude towards remnants of Portuguese colonialism, than say if those with European ancestry still lived in this city? Just guessing here.

Pelourinho felt completely set up for tourists - the ground floor of all buildings were shops or cafes geared towards tourists - so in an odd way, it lacked character. I like to visit places and see people getting on with their own lives, instead of catering everything to my wallet. However, I'd been hankering to see some colonial architecture, so I was happy to finally have some buildings to photograph.

There are historic colonial towns all over the coast of Brazil, and perhaps others are less commercialized. Pelourinho overlooks the modern city that has grown up around it at the foot of the hills. It's not pretty. I commented that in many other cities in the world, such scenic coastline would be lined by nice looking buildings, hotels and expensive homes etc. It was pointed out to me that Brazil has endless scenic coastline, and thus it wasn't a big deal to be near a white sand, azure watered beach.

Home Base Sao Paulo

2010-11-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

Outside of Korea, the most Korean food I'd ever eaten was in Sao Paulo. Surprised? Well, there are some 50,000 Koreans or should I say, Korean Brazilians in Brazil, most of whom live in Sao Paulo. Much of the immigration happened in the 1950s, when Koreans wanted to escape the instability of their own country. Brazil at the time, was apparently encouraging foreigners to come on over, perhaps to stimulate population and economy. Can you imagine just picking up your family of 7 kids who'd never been out of Korea in their lives - in the 1950s PRE-internet when one couldn't google Sao Paulo and get a sense of what one was in for - and plopping everyone down in Sao Paulo? That's exactly what my husband's grandparents did.

Those Koreans that great up in SP say they feel much more Brazilian than Korean, and I could empathize, feeling much more American than Chinese. They speak Portuguese and Korean. Many of them work in the cloth/ clothing industry - design, manufacture, wholesale. The streets in the garment district are lined by fashion shop windows, all creatively decorated with lanky mannequins draped over ladders, lavish chandeliers, pink vintage wall papers, showers of origami cranes, bright splashes of fluorescent stripes. Style-wise, Think: hundreds of mini Forever-21s (that ubiquitous teenybopper mall shop which I admittedly frequent, well, frequently). Sao Paulo lacks tourists, and so I felt self conscious about taking of the camera around here, which would be the equivalent of a giant jewel-encrusted sandwich board sign announcing TOURIST!! Thus, no storefront photos.

Mixed in the maze of shops are Korean restaurants - lots of them. If all you've heard of is Korean BBQ, learn now that there is much more to Korean food. There are lots of soupy and rich dishes that come in oven-sizzling bowls. Above, a delicious mandu (ie wonton) soup. The gazillion little side dishes (kimchi, seasoned dried mini-fish, fried egg, gelatinous chunks of ?) help you to season your dish to your liking, or for you to snack on between bites of main course. But all is not business; within the family there are also connections to a Korean ceramics studio - in which we found a moment of tranquility in an otherwise gigantic buzzing city, plagued with endless traffic and confusing streets.

Cruising along on a multi-lane Sao Paulo freeway, we came to a Y-shaped division of lanes, with the right arm leading off onto a different freeway. We took the right arm instead of the left. About 30 yards into the wrong arm, the driver stopped - full on STOPPED in the fast lane (no blinkers or anything), and other cars casually drove around us. Then he BACKED UP - in the fast lane on the freeway - until we sat in the island between the two arms. Finding a space in the left arm traffic, we rejoined the rush. No-one honked, the whole time. In fact, considering the crazy driving, disregard for lanes, cutting off, red light running - there was not much honking at all. It is as if there is a mutual agreement that driving is a challenge of obstacles and everyone just gets through it without complaint; none of this high-maintenance smooth driving American expectation.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this special announcement

2010-10-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Toucan Time

2010-10-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

Aren't toucans wonderful? We met lots of them at the Bird Park in Iguacu, not far from the Falls. Free to interact with humans in aviaries, most toucans weren't scared and were quite alright with having their close up taken, and accepted gentle pets. A useful trivia tidbit: the toucan is Brazil's National Bird. The most commonly known toucan is the Toco Toucan, in all but the third pic. Not sure who the third toucan is, but you can see that his/her beak and body are smaller, and colorings are different. There are actually about 40 toucan species, including toucanettes, which are like mini-toucans.

What's with the huge beak? Toucans mostly eat fruit, and apparently the massive beak lets them sit in one place while chowing down on all fruit within beak radius - apparently beak mass outweighs the energy expenditure of having to move the body around. Of course it may have to do with intimidating other birds, or mating behavior.

In the afternoon sun, some toucans took on this posture of turning their head and resting the beak against whatever they were standing on. This is nap time posture - guess the beak is too heavy to hold up, and too large to tuck under a wing.

PVPC

2010-10-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

In this case, I was glad to be toting my least expensive DSLR. A promenade along the boardwalk to the viewpoint along one tier of the fall resulted in a complete drenching. Fortunately it was a warm day and I quite enjoyed the shower, but my lens was water covered and resulted in many smeary photos such as that to the left.

The viewpoint boasts a 270 degree surround of waterfall, partially captured by the panoramic below (consisting of 3 photos stitched together). One wonders how they managed to build this boardwalk, and to securely anchor it, considering the massive volume and speed of water constantly hurtling by. I suppose they waited for dry season to do this. How non-permanent, compared to the eon enduringness of the waterfall; this little human construction is much a speck in the lifetime of Iguacu Falls.

Of course, I have whole bunches of Falls photos, but I've selected only a few from different angles that I think are useful for illustrating the experience. The task of Post-Vacation-Photo-Curating (PVPC) is one that many of us face. It is an important task - I want to share my pics and presumably y'all out there are interested in seeing them, but if I posted 50 Iguacu Falls photos, how bored would you be? We've all visited a friend's album with 10 shots of the same view (maybe with slight angle change or zoom/unzoom). Sure it was fun to take those photos but in my opinionated opinion, we gallery viewers don't need to see all attempts. Curating is as much a part of the photo album process as taking the photo (and editing, if you are an editing person). Yes it is time consuming, and perhaps the advantage of prompt posting is more important to some. I say it's worth the extra time; each chosen photo will be better appreciated.

Am I in this picture? Maybe.

Go Here. Just Do It.

2010-10-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

How does one even begin to try and photograph the Grand Canyon of Waterfalls? There's no photo that can do it justice. Iguacu (or Iguassu) Falls way in the south of Brazil in Parana state, on the border of Argentina and Paraguay, is probably the Widest falls on earth, consisting of 275 falls (how they count them? Hmmm). The valley is a huge, long, tongue-shaped and tiered, the end of which is sort of pictured here. The Falls extend much further to the right of the photo. For sense of scale, see the little boardwalk/ viewing platform to the bottom right, with the tiny tiny people. We went down there too - photos from that viewpoint later.

The tiers were formed by huge lava floes that rolled along way back when, and then cooled and solidified to form massive steps. The Iguacu river flows over these steps (the Amazon is not the only mighty river in these parts!). All this is part of a Brazilian National Park, which I must say, was impressively designed and organized - or rather it reminded me of American NPs that have shuttles to reduce human impact, well defined trails and excellently placed viewpoints, recycling and composting options for your trash, good maps - user friendly over all. Also similar: ridiculously priced food, and small local animals watching longingly while you eat - except here they are coatis instead of squirrels.

One can also experience Iguacu from the Argentina side. We looked into this option, as the extensive boardwalks looked fun from the Brazil side - but it turned out to be more complicated than just hopping over the border. Customs, bus changes, more fees. Paraguay is situated at the top of the falls, before the river becomes a waterfall. They must feel gypped out of getting a chunk of major tourist attraction. Brazil and Argentina otherwise claim one half or the other, the river defining the country borders.

This photo is comprised of 2 photos. Here especially, I was fervently wishing I had my wide angle lens with me. Can I just say, this photo perhaps conveys a smidgen of the falls experience. Best thing to do is to go there yourself, should you ever find yourself in South America. Far more breathtaking than most anything I've ever seen in my life. Niagara is puny in comparison. Poor Niagara - once you experience Iguacu, no other falls will do.

Far More Tanned Than You

2010-10-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Rio de Janeiro, perhaps the most iconic city in South America. It has two geological landmarks, Corcovado - a granite peak upon which a giant statue (38 meters!) of Jesus overlooks the city, and Sugarloaf Mountain (another vertical granite peak?) that sits out in the water. One can ascend both, the former by tram/escalators/shuttle bus and the latter by cable car.

It rained on one of our 2.5 days in Rio. What is there to do on a rainy Rio Monday? Well, not visit museums, apparently. Globally, museums are closed on Monday. Supermarkets seemed also to be closed, and we never did figure out why. The next day however, the clouds parted as we arrived via cable car at the first peak of Sugarloaf, and the sunset sun beamed down on Corcovado, creating an unbelievably glorious scene. The second photo features the Bay and Beach of Bogafoto. The famous beach of Cococabana (same name as in that Barry Manilow song, which was actually about a night club) was sadly not lit. Guidebooks insist that you check out the view from both Corcovado and Sugarloaf, but to be honest, I much preferred Sugarloaf, perhaps because it sits in the water, has cable car access only and has a cute name - and Corcovado is so high up that the details of the city become too small to appreciate.

Rio has a convenient subway system, and lots of buses. It was decently easy to get around, and felt relatively safe, assuming you're a city person. Cococabana beach, incidentally, was not covered in Victoria-Secret-esque bodies. The people there had body shapes of every shape and size and age, none too bashful to wear lycra. But that's the other thing - the beach was incredibly crowded. If you've always pictured an empty long stretch of sand with an umbrella here and there, well add a couple thousand people far more tanned than you, and a hundred soccer balls. Lots of beach soccer.

Unlike Sao Paulo, Rio almost completely lacked people of Asian ethnic background, except a handful staffing roadside eateries. I fully expected a bus load of Asian tourists at least, but no. Sao Paulo has a huge Korean and Japanese immigrant population, but more on that later.

I just returned today, and am still digesting the experience. I do have many photos to share... stay tuned! Oh yes, these were taken with the Canon 400D (rebel) and a Tamron f/2.8 28-75 (or something) - it did an OK job. Photos needed much enhancing in saturation, crispness, contrast. I was missing my other camera bodies and lenses dearly, but I prefer not to flash my pricey equipment around in unfamiliar places.

Out of Office

2010-10-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

I shall be traveling for 2 weeks. Choosing a camera body and lens was a dufficult decision that I left for the hour before departure from home. I settled on my Canon Rebel, a tiny little body with a Tamron lens. It's light and inconspicuous (and worth a lot less than my pro gear) and you shall see the results in late October! Until then.

Lolling

2010-10-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

It's been 6 days. I'm sorry. I think that may be one of the longest lapses in blog posts in a while. What can I say, life has been very busy! I'm getting ready for some travel, so I've packed a lot into the week beforehand, not to mention guests in town and all sorts.

These are photos from my first session with the 5DMII in late September. I've since done an additional 13 shoots, and I'm afraid the 40D has been sitting around gathering dust. At first I brought it along because I felt sorry for it. I finally accepted that it was just extra weight. Anyways, this little guy was really quick, even for the 5D. There was a lot of ground lolling, and the full frame of the 5D (ie wider angle) made it easy for (short) me to stand over him and fit more than his face in the frame. I was still getting acquainted to the 5D capabilities, so you can see that the focus points (ie eyes/ lashes) are not as crisp as I'd like. Now I know better.

Chubby Baby Feet and then some

2010-10-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of this picture is the chubby baby foot that appears out of nowhere. Actually, the chubby baby feet might be my favorite part of all pictures containing baby feet. Although the bemused smile is quite irresistible as well.

When I arrive at a client's home, I am always very happy to see neutral color painted walls. They are insta-backdrops. Good natural lighting may be found in unexpected placed - this pic to the left for example, was taken in the stairwell, which had a sky light.

These were taken on the 40D. I feel like I need to point camera body out for all my photos now, as though I only use the 5D for shoots, I am still editing photos taken pre-5D. I admittedly use my 50mm f/1.4 prime lens much less now, as the combination of 5D and 24-70mm f/2.8 L is very powerful - 5D gives that lens low-light power that it didn't have previously, and the zoom makes framing much easier.

Happy high photo season! Weekends booked through mid-November. I suppose this isn't obvious to, well, anyone besides family photographers and those who have hired us in the past. I receive emails asking for a session "this weekend", or even "next weekend" and I have to nicely say there are no openings until late November. When I do email a list of available dates, I add: Let me know ASAP as openings are booked up on a daily basis. I'm not sure that it is believable, or maybe it sounds like an advertising ploy because I am often not always responded to ASAP, and sure enough, often that opening is gone when I do hear back. Earlier in the season, I emailed some repeat clients to warn them of my swiftly filling schedule. It's a fine balance between being a helpful photographer or an annoying photographer, when it comes to such customer alerts.

It would be So Useful to have a digital Client Manager - where I can plug in info: names, ages of babies/kids (which would automatically update as the children get older), due dates for maternity clients, contact info, dates / locations of previous shoots, address (and automatic calculation of travel fee), thumbnail pic of whole family so I can be quickly reminded of who they are, notes on preferences (all candid, kid likes X song, have dog etc), referred by whom, permission to use pics in portfolio, and get automatic reminders to send my clients reminders, and then have my driving route mapped out on my iphone on the day of shoot. There's so much info to keep organized, most of which I store in my Very Precious Notebook (as in, pen and paper notebook) and I also refer back to emails. If you know of a useful (and affordable) Client Managing program, do let me know.

Four Variations

2010-09-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

The day following possibly the hottest day in San Francisco so far, we headed out to Ocean Beach for a sunset maternity shoot. What a fantastic maternity outfit! The skirt reflection elongates her figure, or she appears to be on a pedestal; a rather Goddess-like quality. I've actually been day dreaming of a sunset maternity beach shoot - the lighting is perfect for showing off silhouettes, the background faded by haze, foreground subject richly lit. In the above pic, I tried to bring out the blues, purples, warm red tones - very obviously sunset. But if you prefer subtlety, the below photo has a dreamy, morning-ish feel. Glowy yellow light, melting the colder blues away.

Perhaps your tastes are more cinematic. A dramatic black and white, sky pushed to white, shadow pushed to black, features sharpened and contrast increased. What does the yellowy background of the last photo do? I think it sets the scene in another era, an ancient time, I wonder if there is a story behind the image.

On Recognition

2010-09-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is from the 40D camera, and gosh, it does a good job. The nice thing about 5D is that it does much better with white balance. This picture turned out pretty blue (taken in the shade) and I had to de-blue it.

And now for something unrelated to this baby or camera bodies. I recently photographed some baby 1st birthday parties. Lots of area Moms come to these parties, and it's not unusual to see one or two families that I've photographed in the past. Sometimes this is great, to see a familiar face who will say something nice like: We loved your pics!

But then, there are the ones that Don't remember me. One such Mom spotted me as the Party Photographer and asked: So, do you do private in-home baby sessions?
I went along with things and said: Why Yes, I do.
She said: We did that once when our baby was three months old, and then we tried a few other sessions since then and they went badly.
Awkward.
If I hadn't previously been her photographer, I'd have asked what she'd liked improved upon, and made sure that she got my contact info. Instead, I was digging through my brain files: Did I do her 3 month photos??? And I pretended to see something I needed to photograph and ran away. I have since checked my photo archive, and indeed I did do her 3 month photos (it's the other sessions that went badly, right?)

Well, my husband says, it's not quite the same thing, but I wouldn't recognize say, our plumber if I saw him on the street. True true. I recognize my clients, because I focus on them for an hour, and then further burn their faces into my retinas with several hours of photo editing. Meanwhile, while people may be looking at me during photos, the camera blocks most of my face. They probably make eye contact for 5 minutes during that whole hour. I should be impressed that any clients recognize me at all.