pascale wowak photoblog

Lucy & Stella

These are long time clients of mine who are moving far away later this week so we got in one last shoot! Baby sister Stella just turned one so we focused more on her, which was fine by Lucy since she had no desire whatsoever in having her picture taken despite all attempts to convince her otherwise! :)

I am particularly fond of the side by side sisters in the tub series because of the story behind it.  First is the shot with Lucy hugging Stella while Stella stealthily glares with laser eyes on the lollipop in Lucy's hands and then the next shot is Lucy aware of her sister having discovered the lollipop and in full "MINE!" mode! So, Lucy is grabbing onto her lollipop for dear life and Stella is shooting her dad (the official supplier of lollipops) a look that just (silently) screams: "Hey! I'm the one who is cooperating and smiling and letting you plop me here and there and going along with the program, how come I don't have one of those!!!??? Oh, the injustice of it all!!!"  I had to just stop and laugh when I got to those two, totally cracked me up. 

I hope you guys love your new home and life down in gorgeous, warm Southern California!!!

The Image is Found Workshop

  For those of you who know me well, you know how much I have been wanting to go to this workshop, taught by my all time fave uber talented photogs Nate + Jaclyn Kaiser... so to say it was a treat is an understatement.  Despite some serious mommy guilt for leaving the kiddos behind and missing them as much as I did (the first day was the hardest, it got much easier after those first few hours of dwelling on their sad little faces as we said goodbye), it was a very rewarding experience.  I learned alot and will have to push beyond my comfort zone by trying out some new techniques, namely shooting with a wide angle lens alot more, a look that has not appealed to me in the past but after seeing how they made it TOTALLY work, I was sold on it.  So my delicious 35 mm f1.4 will be getting alot more use outside of me just playing around with it at home with my kids or using it professionally only on indoor newborn shoots.

I thought it was really cool how Nate + Jaclyn created this incredibly successful business by deciding to stop taking the photos they thought their clients wanted and instead took the brave step of taking only the kind of photos THEY loved taking.  And in turn, they attracted the kind of clients who were attracted to their very unique, fresh and fun style.  It goes to show that being true to yourself and your own creative and artistic vision is critical to not only being successful but HAPPY with what you are doing.  Critical elements to avoiding burn out and falling into a ho-hum rut which I've thankfully avoided thus far.  I think the mere fact that I deal almost exclusively with kids helps keep things fresh because no two shoots EVER go the same, the dynamic of each kid/family relationship is different and uniquely its own which keeps me on my toes and keeps things exciting and challenging for me.

What I really enjoyed seeing was that they are just as they appear to be on their blog.  No false pretenses.  What you see is what you get.  And despite being at the top of the industry, they are not remotely obnoxious about it.  Sadly, alot of great photographers are also incredibly arrogant, which is a major turn off for me.  I don't care how incredible a photographer, artist, musician etc you are, your gift does not make you an inherently good person.  If you are mean, then I'm not going to like you. Period.  As far as I'm concerned, the little lady down the street who volunteers every week is a bigger hero in my eyes than any of these "stars" out there in Hollywood!  I'm more interested in what kind of person someone is.  How genuine they are.  So, it was very refreshing to be around Nate + Jaclyn. I found them to be very confident about their skills but not the least bit pretentious about it.  That was very cool.

Much to my surprise, I only took FOUR pictures during the entire workshop.  I was far too busy just paying attention and taking it all in.  I have coveted this one particular workshop for a long time now and saved up for it and salivated over it and I am glad to report that it met all my expectations.  I even got to meet some really fun photographers in my group as well.  It's really nice being around other people who speak the same "photo" language and have your same passion.  It was just a delightful experience.  Here are my four measly shots.  Do you see how close Nate gets!?  I just can't imagine working THAT close with kids who don't know me yet!  I do it with my regulars but they are all really comfy with me so it works.  It's really intimidating to have a camera that close and part of Nate's magic is that he is just a really easy going, funny, approachable guy who makes people totally at ease in a relatively uncomfortable situation with a camera right up in their grill! :)

Oh and this is "far away" for him, at one point his camera was about 2 inches from their face.

Ok so my timing was off on that last one, I assure you that Angel's face would have been much nicer to capture than Nate's elbow.... work with me people....  Also, does that look like a spot you would typically walk by and go: Oh, why here is a perfect location for photos, why don't I squeeze you folks in there and give it a go?! And yet, they turned out to be really cool images...  I love that.

While I was there I stayed with my dear friend Sophie and her family.  The morning I left to go home I had exactly 90 seconds to grab a few shots of her boys before she headed out to drop off Colin at school.  My disclaimer is that in 90 seconds you will not create ART (said with a french accent for emphasis) you will however create a few really cute snapshots so that's what I got.  Regardless, we had plenty of fun with these!  First, I got a few of each boy individually and then together and then Sophie tried to get in for a shot or two and the boys kept pushing her out!  They did not want to share the spotlight with their mommy! Hilarious!  So here are a few shots from my mini speedy gonzalez shoot :)

I love you guys, thanks for letting me crash at your house! :)

Strength and Beauty

I recently learned that a friend/client of mine was battling breast cancer and enduring the challenges that accompany chemotherapy treatments.  And now she will (very soon) be getting a surgical procedure to remove the tumor along with a bilateral mastectomy.   I am so glad she trusted me with taking a series of pictures of her before this transition.  The majority of the images are too private in nature for posting and it goes without saying that I received her full permission to post these.   I Initially had not planned on posting anything at all regarding this shoot but after much consideration I thought that perhaps these small handful of images would serve a great dual purpose:

1) To showcase just how undeniably beautiful she is even after many rounds of near debilitating chemo treatments and to demonstrate the incredible aura of strength that so clearly exudes out of every pore of her being.  If these images help inspire someone else who is struggling with this disease then they have served an even greater purpose than what we had originally intended for them to serve.

2) Provide a healthy jolt of perspective to those of us (myself included) who lose sight of how vast the gap is between what we consider a "challenging" day and what my dear friend must endure on a daily basis during this battle.  I should mention that she is the mother of two young daughters (1 and 3) and that, as a mother, I can only imagine that her ability to dig so deep within herself and draw up so much tremendous strength and courage is due to the even deeper well of love that she has for her girls.

My friend, I thank you for trusting me with these images and allowing me to experiment with my own interpretation to showcase your strength, your beauty and your courage.  I add my love to that special red heart you carry with you.   You are truly an amazing woman and will come out of this an even more awe inspiring person than you ever imagined possible.

 

Avery

I walk in the door and am met by the most adorable little newborn AND a plate full of freshly home baked cookies!  Now, people, does it get any better than that?  I will proudly state that I resisted my impulses and did not dive headfirst into the cookies and instead focused on  what I came there to do!  Those of you who know me (and my sweet tooth) are surely quite impressed with my restraint!

I photographed this lovely couple when they were pregnant with Avery and got some super fun images of Kevin running "airplane" circles and jumping around Carly because he couldn't subdue his joy over his child's upcoming birth.  It was such a sweet, fun and tender moment and those photos are so full of life and evoke all those wonderful emotions. 

Avery was the sweetest little thing and, despite being super tired, was not remotely interested in going to sleep insomuch that she might miss something VERY IMPORTANT! :)  Finally, at the tail end, she fell into a nice deep sleep.  We got some truly amazing photos of this expressive little gal, such a kick!

Near the middle I have some images of Kevin holding Avery in his "daddy tree branch" pose.  Whenever Avery started fussing he would hold her like this and she would immediately settle down.  So cute!

And, in case you were wondering, I grabbed three cookies on the way out (naturally!) with the intention of indulging in one and bringing the other two to my kids to enjoy....All three were in my belly before I had even gotten back onto the freeway... Bad mommy! :)

Carly & Kevin, enjoy your photos and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Ava and coming soon: Bella!

When I posted pictures of Ava last year I titled it "Spunky Ava" and not much has changed except that she will be getting a baby sister soon!  Ava is full of spunk and "almost three year old-ness."  She is quite the character!  It was a super windy day but everyone handled it really well and Ava was so excited to be heading to the beach that she nearly DRAGGED us there.   I can't wait to see who little Bella takes after!  Tiffany, I wish you a smooth (as can be!) delivery and transition to your new family of four!  Enjoy your images. :)

On a side note, I want to take a quick moment to publicly thank all of you who sent me such incredibly supportive emails regarding my much needed rate increase.  The tremendous outpouring of encouragement and support (not to mention valuable financial guidance and insight) was really very sweet and I want you all to know how grateful I am to have such wonderful clients who truly value me and what I offer them.  I want you to know how much I value you too!!  THANK YOU!

Nina

I first met Nina when she was just a few months old.  Even back then she was a very quiet and pensive baby.  She always seemed to just be taking everything in.  Processing constantly.  Very alert and aware.  In fact the click of the shutter startled her every single time so I had to be extremely selective about when I clicked that shutter because it was so upsetting to her!  And now she is still just as alert and pensive as ever.  Fortunately she had no qualms with the shutter this time!  She was also far too busy engaging us in thoughtful conversation to be sucked into any of my silly little games.  I only managed to get a handful of smiles out of her because she was too busy taking in her environment.  She was barefoot nearly the entire time despite uncomfortable terrain.  I had to get a close up of her "grubby" little feet because it so represents childhood to me.  I'm so far removed from the days of running barefoot through a field that I won't even walk barefoot at home - I need slippers!  I miss those days of just not even being remotely bothered by the hot, dirty, dusty, prickly ground.  She ran her feet in the stream and checked out the leaves and balanced here and touched this and explored that.  We followed her lead and wandered around.  I decided to capitolize on her intensely pensive nature and placed her on a bench and just caught her "thinking man" pose which is just sooooo her.  I am particularly fond of those!  She is so very expressive.  The last few shots are Nina doing this little dance catwalk strut that had us totally laughing out loud and despite our obvious exuberance she was not swayed one bit and retained her serious "look" the entire time.  So funny!!!  

 

My Rates

Starting in April, my rates are going to increase a little bit.   I debated long and hard regarding this change.  Industry experts advised me to just announce that my rates were increasing and leave it at that but I don't feel comfortable doing things that way so I am going to provide an explanation as to why I am doing this and the reasoning that is behind it.

For the longest time I have been told over and over again just how low my rates are especially considering everything that is included in my session packages.  I have also been chastized at great length for providing my clients with all their high resolution digital files on a CD ROM and allowing them to have full access to their images. ie: "what do you mean you GIVE them their photos???!!!" Boy have I taken alot of flak for that one!  It's obvious that by letting my clients have full access to their images rather than charging $70 per 8X10 print I definitely lose a great deal of income and that my decision to do things the way I do them is perhaps a bit financially unsound.  I understand that my approach is most certainly unconventional.  So I've gone back and forth over the years questioning whether I should start charging for prints but, ultimately, I just couldn't bear the thought of my clients not having all the wonderful images I take for them.  To have them only be able to afford a handful of all their fabulous photographs was just heartbreaking to me.  I guess I'm an emotional artist and not much of a business person... 

I want my clients to not only ENJOY their images but SHARE them as well.  Make copies for all their relatives, especially those who live far away.  Enjoy scrapbooking activities with the photographs.  Do arts and crafts projects with the kids with them.  Make HUGE prints at a fraction of the cost it would normally be to buy it from the photographer.  Surround yourself in these wonderful memories.

So, bearing that in mind, I have spent alot of time doing research lately.  I learned that there are only a very small handful of on location photographers in the Greater Bay Area (and even less in SC county) who also offer, in addition to their standard session fee (which usually runs about $300) the OPTION of purchasing the CD ROM of the images from a photoshoot.  These photographers all sell prints as well (usually a la carte pricing or large packages starting at around $2000).  For those very FEW who offer the images on a CD ROM, not a single one offers the CD for less than $1,000.  Most sell it for much much more AND only after the client has paid both a session fee and minimum print order package.   I believe my images to be on par (if not superior) to the ones I was seeing on their sites.  And after going from one to another and seeing the consistent pricing accross the board I had to concede that I am really undervaluing my work and myself by charging so little for what I do. 

I decided to break it down and figure out exactly how much time I spend on each shoot and I discovered that when I add up the driving time, the actual shoot time, the many hours of post processing, the resizing and posting of the images on the blog, the creation of the custom CD package, the mailing of said package, and the time consuming record keeping involved with every single shoot it turned out that each shoot was the equivalent of about 10 hrs of work (sometimes more...).  It's when I faced that realization that I knew it was time to make some changes. 

I have always felt very very strongly that EVERYONE deserves to have fantastic images of their family, so my goal has always been to be as accessible as possible.  That said, I also believe that I deserve what I am worth as well.  It's a fine line and a delicate balance.  I want to be fair to everyone, including myself and my family.

In two weeks I will be attending two (back to back) very valuable photography workshops taught by highly sought after industry leaders and some of the brightest and most amazing photographers out there.  I know I will come back from these with even more experience, knowledge and skills.

As you can all see I have given this a great deal of thought and, to be honest, grappled with it quite a bit.  I ultimately decided that I really had to raise my prices but I didn't want it to be a huge jump either in order to be as fair as possible with regard to my long time clients.  I had to pick between no longer offering the images on a CD (and therefore charging for each indidvidual print), OR, raising my session rates.  I strongly believe that my clients would still much rather have total access to all of their images so I went with the latter option.  I feel I have found a reasonable balance with my new pricing structure. Bear in mind that all my packages still include BOTH color AND B&W images as well as other specialty toning that I include at no extra cost.  I also average about 80 images with my family shoots which is more than twice what every other photographer offers. I have restructured my pricing fees as follows:

Mini Session/Headshots: - one person only -  $250 

Basic/Pregnancy: - Up to 2 people only - $350

Newborn (w/ Parents): - $450

Family: - Up to 4 people - $500  [each additional person is $100]

Weddings: Starting at $2,000 for 4 hours of coverage

I know it's a bit unusual for a photographer to provide an explanation for a rate increase but I did it out of respect for my clients.  I wanted them to know the extensive thought process/reasoning as well as the significant amount of research that went into my final decision.

Thank you all for your support.

WOW!

As of today, with the exception of two little dates in July (the 22nd and 29th), I am COMPLETELY BOOKED for the remainder of 2008.  (I will try to squeeze in newborns though!).  I am utterly shocked because last year I wasn't booked up until mid August and the year before that I still had plenty of scattered openings here and there til the end of the year.  That was my first year in business.  And now, a mere three years later, what a difference!   I just want to extend a big huge thank you to my wonderful clients for coming back each year and telling their friends and coworkers about me and helping my business thrive!  I put my heart and soul into every shoot and I really hope that shines through.  I do what I love and love what I do.  Thank you for making that possible.   

Pascale

Three Beautiful Sisters!

I had the distinct pleasure of photographing this very beautiful family (even their two pugs were cute!!) a couple days ago.  We did the shoot at a couple different locations since dogs are not allowed on the first beach.  It all worked out perfectly though because we had come prepared with a fabulous game plan that included the two locations and a snazzy little wardrobe change in between.  I am so used to photographing little ones (babies/toddler through preschoolers) that I rarely get the opportunity to photograph the older set.  Wow.  What a difference!  These lovely young ladies were so uber cooperative I almost felt guilty because it was so easy to photograph them!    Beyond being absolutely gorgeous they were also very sweet, polite and full of spunk.  About as delightful as they come.   I know everyone tells me that it just gets easier (mine are only 3 and 5) and that the "golden years" of parenting are right ahead... I think I needed to see for myself just how good it can be!  I'm now trying not to wish I could fast forward time to a couple years from now, tee hee! (Can you tell that mine were particularly "challenging" today due to daylight savings - oy veh! VERY grumpy and tantrumy!)

Now, because there were three girls and two dogs and mom and dad etc... there are a TON of photos and I could barely narrow it down so this is the best I could do even though it's still yet another ridiculously long post.  I still have so many other favorites that I just didn't have room to post.  The girls said their preference was for color images so I posted mostly color but rest assured mamacita there are a TON of gorgeous B&W's of your girls and your family!

Thank you to the whole family for such a fun shoot!!!  ENJOY these images!!

This last picture was totally UNPROMPTED (in fact I had put my camera away) but I was lucky enough to have caught it on the fly.  It represents and completely captures (at least to me) the intense & tight bond between these three sisters and just the whole family in general.  Kind of like a "through thick and thin" approach to life that really shined through the entire shoot.  The girls were so supoprtive of each other making comments like: "you look great!" or "that's beautiful" for each other.  It warmed my heart to see how tender they were with each other.  It was an amazing bond to behold.  I know that when my son and daughter spontaneously kiss or hug each other or squeal with delight upon seeing each other, it literally makes my heart melt.  I think Mom and Dad will really like this one...

Mateo

This shoot was rescheduled TWICE due to rain!  But everything happens for a reason because the weather was perfect and the light was absolutely SPECTACULAR.  Now onto the people!  Mateo is the embodiment of LIFE and JOY!!!  His smile, besides being completely contagious, was absolutely captivating as well.  This was one happy, charming little dude.  And although he did not stop moving for one single solitary nanosecond during our nearly 2 hr photo shoot, he smiled almost the entire time!!!  In fact, the whole family from his parents to his auntie/godmother, were just the most joyful and delightful people to be around.  It is always so much fun when everyone shows up ready to PLAY and HAVE FUN!    I laughed so much during this shoot that my sides were actually aching later that night.   Mateo is about as cute as they come and it's a good thing I'm not raising him because I would be completely incapable of saying no to him.  It was like looking into Bambi's eyes!  I also think I missed a few great shots because I was too busy laughing but nevertheless I ended up with so many fabulous images that I could not narrow it down past this posted amount so this is gonna be a looooooooooong post.  I am positively IN LOVE with these images (plus many more on the CD!).  To Mateo's Loving Family: Thank you for such a great time, enjoy your images!!

now if I ever get a studio I am blowing this next one up to about a 30X40 canvas...

Introducing...

Hugsy the Zebra!!

So I've been working on this little guy as much as I could in between, oh, LIFE and WORK and you know how it goes... a few minutes here and a few minutes there, every Thursday night while I watch Survivor... bits and pieces slowly coming together over the past few months.  I realize that most experienecd knitters would have most likely whipped this little dude out in about 3 hrs or so but hey, I'm not very good at patterned knitting and I have very limited free time so it took me quite a bit longer.  Hugsy is actually quite the accomplishment for me as all I've ever really been able to knit in the past is a whole lot of scarves, hats, pillowcases and baby blankets... super easy stuff.  I made a sweater once for my litte boy and one sleeve was about 2 inches shorter than the other.  It was the big family joke because I still insisted on putting it on him (he was about 2 years old) despite the fact that it looked completely ridiculous... I can only blame that on post pregnancy hormones due to just having given birth to his sister.  I had spent so much time on that thing and darn-it he was going to wear it.  Everybody got a nice good laugh out of that... So I gave up on sweaters and all things remotely complicated and stuck to what I knew.  In fact, after the sweater incident I stopped knitting altogether because I launched my business and life with a new business and two kids was kinda kooky crazy.  I missed it though so I got back into it just this past Christmas break, knitting scarves for friends and other little things. My two little ones are just crazy about stuffed animals and I really wanted to make them each one, something new (and harder) made with loads of mama love.  So I bought a pattern book touting "easy" patterns for creating a variety of really really cute little animals and dolls etc...  Well, I guess the word "easy" is open to interpretation... I definitely struggled a bit with this zebra.  And yet, here he is!  I got through my first patterned stuffed animal! Woohoo!  The original colors were supposed to be light blue and navy blue but I let Ellie pick out her colors at the yarn store and, naturally, she chose pink and burgandy.  NO big surprise there!  I think he looks absolutely adorable despite his very apparent hip displacia, one arm being slightly higher that the other, horrendous seaming job and a floppy ear (hey it gives him CHARACTER!). 

What matters is not the fact that he has many visible imperfections but rather the fact that when my daughter saw him this morning she squealed loudly, grabbed him, pressed him tightly to her chest, squeezed him some more and pronounced: "He's sooooooooooooo huggable! I'm going to call him Hugsy!!!" and then refused to let go of him the rest of the morning.  I had to pry him away from her when I dropped her off at preschool with promises that I would not let him get lonely or lose him or drop him or let him get cold or hungry... you get the idea.  She was absolutely crazy about him, very grateful and very happy.  And I realized that THAT is the reason why, despite being miserably sick all week, I stayed up late every night working on him bit by bit until I finally finished the little dude. 

Now my son has asked me for the Rabbit pattern (which thankfully is considerably easier) and so after I get through this weekends two photo shoots and get all caught up with those I'll be getting to work on my "commissioned" request! :)

Without further ado....heeeeeere's Hugsy!!

   

Sophia & Sacha

Sophia and Sacha are 4 1/2 year old twins!  I  just love twins. :)   They came all the way down from Canada too.  Well, they didn't come down just for this little old shoot with me but the fact that they scheduled me into their vacation plans to get photographed by me was quite an honor and it was a pleasure to meet the entire family.  The weather took a turn for the worse shortly after we arrived and even though the light was FANTASTIC, it did get cold very quickly.   I love that Sophia perked right up as soon as she had that tutu on her, it was so cute to watch her spin and twirl and jump just like my daughter does when she is wearing it.  Poor little Sacha was feeling the effects of getting over a cold and not particularly enjoying the cold weather so I wasn't able to get quite as many shots of him.  The images I did get though really make me see their very unique and individual personalities which is exactly what I strive for.  Thanks for making me a part of your vacation and I hope you enjoy all your images!!