Engagement Session with a Twist

Two weeks ago we drove to Concord and met up with Wendy, our niece, and she introduced us to Rob, her Fiance. We had a little photo session which proved to be a bit unusual. You can see for yourself:

First of all Wendy helped Rob get ready:
Then they did the poses...you know, the usual bride-t0-be/fiance poses..lovingly looking at eachother, showing their excitement:


We did a few shots of Rob, just to get to know him better:

(i think the wedding shots in June will be a bit of a challenge, if you get my drift).

He likes to call himself "Dr. Rob", so we humored him. He seemed jolly enough.

All in all, Wendy seems happy to be with him, so that counts for something. But, dear Wendy,
all I can say is, "I hope he is very rich".

These Guys are Good!!!

Once again, the competitors from Elite Instinct traveled to Santa Cruz for the US Open XV Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament, October 15-17, 2010. Eleven members of the team competed and brought back SEVEN medals!! Can you imagine? Ultra heavy weight white belts Jordan Taghavi, John Thurston, and Matt Zonfrello dominated their division, and took home 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. And Laura Bradford also got the gold in her division.
This is an amazing team that works hard, practices almost every day of the week, and is intent on perfecting the intricate skills and moves of BJJ. They have had a great trainer, Brazilian black belt, Mauro Ayres. Owner and trainer, Michael Quigley, a blue belt, is coaching now.
They are right back at work, preparing for the next tournament. Congratulations to all of you!

Annalisa Returns (or, My Garden Elf)

"Blow me a kiss, Annalisa!"


I had so much fun photographing Annalisa. You might recall my "Annalisa Ballerina" blog last spring. Annalisa is a year old now and she still has the most amazing repertoire of expressions! She is a photographer's delight! Luckily, she lives way up north, so I can't pester her too much. (but i really wish she lived across the street).

Here are some of the many faces of Annalisa:




"What to do with all these weeds!"

The Twins

As you can see, I haven't blogged for quite a long time! Happy New Year to all!
But I couldn't pass this up...we just got back from photographing and frolicking with two of the cutest little one year olds! I'm so glad we got to meet them and their mommy and daddy today.
We headed out to the arboretum, despite the cold, overcast day, and we found plenty of leaves and trees and benches to use as props. And...we found the ducks! Both kids had fun herding the ducks. The ducks were not afraid of two little toddlers and let them get very close to them.

Name That Bird

This will be a really different journey for you all. I am going to go
backwards on my reports. So this is the day before Costa Rica. Hope
you can follow me! This is the bird that followed our boat. We were
out to sea all day, no land in sight. The sea was pretty calm, but
still hot and humid. We managed to stay busy all day, mostly eating,
going from the buffet to the aqua deck, then to the restaurant. Todd
spent half the day photographing the bird. So we have quite a few nice
pictures of the bird. The exciting part of the day was being invited as
special guests of the Captain to come up and visit the bridge. No
cameras were allowed because of security. So Todd had withdrawl
symptoms, walking up there without his camera! It was very interesting,
but the thing that kept me entertained, was watching the beautiful birds
drafting off the bridge, just floating along, catching the drafts. They
would glide right next to the windows, so we got very "up close and
personal" with the birds! Also, I was amazed by the steering wheel of
the ship...it is no larger than a dinner plate! No wonder they don't let
many people up there to see! We still don't know why we got special
invitations... no one else in our group of 7 got invited!! There were
about 20 in the tour, so we felt pretty special!
I hope someone out there can name this bird! Even the first Mate didn't
know.

Costa Rica...heading home

We are now in the Pacific,and we stopped for the day in Costa Rica.
Since we have had zero internet access,
I haven't been able to blog. I'll do the rest when we get home, I guess.
Here is where we went swimming today . The last time we came south on a cruise, I had the time of my life swimming with dolphins. But this time we got the Bargain Excursion to
the nearest beach. There was one problem...well, FIVE big problems!
This is not the best way to lose all that weight we have been packing on
in the dining room this past week.
As you can see, we made it back to post this blog.

The Three Barbaras

Barbara Louise, Barbara Jean and Barbara Elizabeth (my beautiful niece)


Today my Aunt Barbara passed away suddenly. I will really miss her. I didn't see her very often because she lived in Southern California, but it was always comforting just knowing she was there. I loved calling her and saying, "Hi, Barbara, this is Barbara!". Then she'd laugh and say, "I know that is you". Just a little family tradition we had. The last time I talked with her, a few weeks ago, she was happy and healthy, walking daily and playing Bingo at her retirement home.
She will be in Heaven and meeting up with Al, her husband whom she missed so much after he passed away. I'm glad she believed in God. She was my mom's younger sister and our last close blood relative of that generation. We still have our Aunt Ruth, tho', who was married to my mom's "big brother". I'll be sure to keep in contact with her.

The Races

Linda, my godsister, treated me to a weekend at the Breeders' Cup races at Santa Anita.
We had a teriffic time! We got to see history made as Zanyatta, a 5 year old filly, beat a field of very famous colts in the Classic. She will retire now, I think, having won 14 out of 14 races!
Very exciting. She was so beautiful and had such personality. She is really a big girl, in fact, bigger than all the boys in the race. She is 17.25 hands tall. She does a little "dance" before her race, which makes people wonder if something is wrong with her. Then she is the last one out of the gate and most of the time runs dead last before she makes her move. I guess that tactic has worked, as she has never lost a race. Her jockey is Mike Smith.

Three of my favorites at the Breeders' Cup.

You can view some other pictures of a couple of the races on my Flickr site.

An Adorable Ballerina

Here is Kiera. She is a little doll. She is one year old and is as smart as can be. We are almost related to her because we photographed both her parents as Seniors in High School, and then photographed their wedding, so that makes us "almost" family! She was so much fun to chase around the studio. She makes the cutest little squeak when she is excited about something. Bethany and Jason are amazing parents. They are definitely bringing her up the right way.
I think she is going to be an athlete because she is so coordinated already. But right now, she is a perfect little model. It is going to be so much fun to watch her grow.

The Cutest Little Doctor

This is Hunter's second Halloween...well, it is actually his third! He was a tiny baby for Halloween #1. Then last year he was Superman. So, as you can see, there is a new Doogie Howzer in town!
Just look at him in his little scrubs. He is so adorable. He had a wonderful time celebrating by hosting the UCD golf team for a spaghetti dinner on Halloween night.




Kelly sure makes good spaghetti. No one needed medical treatment, so Hunter tossed his stethoscope away.

Danny and Vibeka

We visited Danny and Vibeka last week. We took them their Graphi wedding book. I think it really looked beautiful. We had good subjects! We wanted to deliver it to them because I wanted to meet their new puppy, Harley. She is about 6 months old and is a Bull Mastiff. She is a doll... a very BIG doll! Here are some shots Todd took.

The many faces of Harley.

The beautiful Cali

The whole family.

You can see what Harley thinks about family portrait time!

Caitlin and Dan

What a surprise when we received a call from Caitlin a few months ago. We hadn't seen her since she looked like this:


Here she is now, all grown up and about to get married!


Here is the "family shot" of Caitlin and Dan and the pups.

Here is Dan's favorite picture. Talk about a couple-in-love!!

We can't wait to photograph their wedding. They will be so much fun! And they are such a great looking couple! Now if we can just keep them from choking each other before the big day!

The Santoni Family

Here are some samples from yesterday.
Brooke, Charley, Kayla and Gianna are a very adorable family, as you can see. We met them at Brooke's parents' beautiful country home in Dixon for the photoshoot. It was a wild and windy evening, with a few rain drops thrown in, but everyone was up for braving the weather to get this family portrait session done! Baby Gianna just had her first birthday, and boy, was she a little doll! and Kayla, who is six, was a perfect little model. It was just so fun being with them all- we felt honored to be their "family photographers".











Baby Gianna gets acquainted with the resident scarecrow.

Gennie and Eric get Married

Todd and I had a unique way of celebrating our wedding anniversary this year. We got to photograph Gennie and Eric's wedding. So we spent the day in an atmosphere of love and celebration that kept us so aware of our own love for eachother. Gennie and Eric were a beautiful couple and their wedding was a perfect reflection of their love. They were made for eachother. And their friends were amazing and so fun to be around! The reception was really great and the fun thing was, there were 3 of our brides and a future bride present at the same time! That was fun. Maryann and Giovanni have been married 21 years!!! And they are still in love. I can't believe we have been photographing weddings that long!

Here is a collage of the day-you can click on it to view in a larger size:


Here's a link to a little slideshow!

Baby Rhyan

Now here is a cute baby girl! Her name is Rhyan and we just adored her! She was so amazing, she seemed to love the camera! She just smiled and laughed through all her wardrobe changes and placements on various surfaces. Justine and Adam are great parents and really have fun with her.
I loved the sparkle in her eyes. What a doll! It will be fun to watch her grow!

Gennie and Eric

I can't wait for Saturday! It is not only Todd's and my anniversary, but it is Gennie and Eric's wedding day! Here are some engagement photos we took a few weeks ago out at Gennie's parents' ranch. We had a lot of fun getting to know them - and Gennie's dad, Henry, who had already picked out some spots for the shoot before we arrived. He has quite a beautiful garden around the house and some prize-winning flowers that he took to the Woodland Fair. Gennie grew up out here on the ranch, so it was nice getting some pictures around her home.



They are a gorgeous couple!

Debbie and Rick

Last weekend we had the pleasure of photographing Debbie and Rick's wedding in Brentwood..that is, the northern California Brentwood. What a happy event that was!

There is a Look of Love!

The wedding took place at the beautiful home of their good friends, Ken and Linda. There were over 100 very special friends and family members present. I've never seen a group that was so supportive of a couple getting married. Debbie and Rick have 4 grown children between them and they now make a beautiful, complete family. You could just see the love and acceptance between the kids and their parents. It was a "beautiful thing to behold".



The wedding cake was made by 2 cousins and the top was a bride, a groom and...a motorcycle!





In fact, an exact replica of Rick's Harley! And I must say, the cake was delicious! I'm all for chocolate wedding cakes! Hmm...maybe Todd can make me a chocolate cake like that for our anniversary...with a chocolate ganache frosting and then chocolate ganache mixed with whipped cream for the filling...oh whoops..I digress...I'm supposed to be writing about the wedding!


Here is a collage of the wedding.