pascale wowak photoblog

Courtney Chu - Part Eight

My Chicago designer extraordinaire Courtney Chu is at it again with long sleeves for the season!

This past week has been crazy hectic but I managed to get this in for my gal Courtney.  I only have time to post a few images as I have a ton of stuff left on my to do list before hitting the sack tonight.  

I will be gone on a mini hiatus/assignment/vacation this coming week and immediately upon my return it is my daughter's birthday + party and the day after that is a big wedding I'm shooting so kinda super crazy.  I don't anticipate much in terms of posts this next week... Hopefully this will tide you all over til the rush of posts I will have following my return.

Courtney, girl, I'll have you know that Ellie's suitcase pretty much only has your clothes in it.  Why bother with anything else? :)

Love ya lots. Enjoy!

Emma & Abby

These two beauties are like twins born two years apart!  Just stunning and those eyes!  I assure you I did absolutely nothing to enhance their eyes, they are just naturally that amazing.  Also, I got my 24-70mm f2.8 lens back from Canon the day before (I had sent it in for calibration because it was acting 'soft') and it was amazing how sharp my images were.  I did absolutely NO sharpening on the images.  I don't think that lens was that sharp when I first got it three years ago.  

Their mom is a friend of mine and Emma goes to ballet class with my daughter Ellie and her best friend Riley.  If you need a recommendation for a great ballet teacher and class, send me an email!

We had a fun time with the girls.  Emma is a total smarty pants who cracks me up and Abby is such a coy little flirt.  Delightful :)

Katie & Ben, Enjoy!!!

there's just something about this next picture that makes me melt.

flirting...

pooping...

pulling up pants that are falling down!

do you ever get the feeling you are being glared at?

hugging or choking? you decide....

that's right Abby, you're ONE!

isn't there a law that says you can't scowl when you have a lollipop in your mouth?

Estelle

Such a cute little peanut!  Little Miss Estelle is a very expressive little girl who will be one this month.  Cute as a button, I might add.  She also lives in a rockin' house full of fabulous color schemes (which I was naturally very drawn to) and, if you can believe it, part of the house was designed out of a converted silo!  Simply amazing.  Plus  a view that went on for miles.  So, when you add one uber adorable little girl, great wall colors to play around with, accommodating parents who let me go all over their property...that equals fantastic photos!

Nancy, I hope you love these :)

Estelle just needed a couple minutes to warm up to me and my big ole camera but then she was all over the place!

i went completely gaga over this dress...

Quotation

I just finished reading a book by Photographer Joe McNally, who is one of the greatest (and funniest) photographers of our time.  His intro for the book said this:

"About being a photographer.  It's about the sheer joy of clicking the shutter...repeatedly!  The sweet sound of the shutter and the explosion that occurs in your head and your heart when you make the shot.  The deal is the shot, you know.  You make the picture and you know something just froze solid in a shifting world.  Something stabilized, for all time. You just hung your hate on a moment that otherwise would be gone forever, and now you can go back and take a look at that moment, be it amazing or ordinary, any time you want.  

It's about your eye in the camera as the light hits just right.  It's about the slight turn of your subject's face that speaks the truth.  It's about holding your breath as you shoot.  It's about the nerves, the joy, and the terror of wondering if you got it.  And then dancing about, punching holes in the air when you know you did.  It's about the moment it clicks."

Yes, that pretty much perfectly states everything that happens inside of me when I am doing what I love to do.

pumpkin song

Ellie learned a new song at school today.  She was trying to remember it all day and practicing it nonstop...that is, in between her many, many tantrums....  This has been a really rough two weeks with this kid.  I love her to death but man, she has been uber challenging lately.  Overly emotional, incredibly dramatic, hyper defiant and just a little stinker throughout the day (and middle of the night).  I've gotten very little sleep thanks to her middle of the night outbursts and have been pushed to the brink all day long with her testing all the boundaries/limits I've established and pushing all my buttons.  I'm TRYING MY BEST to remain calm and remind myself that this is just a stage.  This too shall pass. This too shall pass.  This too shall pass....

Tonight, while she was having a nice long (20 mn) stretch of genuinely pleasant mood, so I videotaped her singing her new song.  She is so darn cute in this video you'd never know she had been a complete butt all day long! :)

She's lucky I love her so much and that I am so committed to not letting her get away with bad behavior because it would be so much easier to end just the tantrum by giving in.... However, my job as the mom is to be the mom and if that means being a "mean mommy" and sticking to my "no means no" then that is what I will be.  One day she'll thank me for not letting her turn into a Fidel Castro tyrant wannabe.

In the meantime, I will watch this video every time I'm tempted to sell her to the lowest bidder....

Password is: pumpkin

pumpkin song from pascale wowak on Vimeo.

Riley & Kyra

I've had the pleasure of photographing these two girls for a couple years now and they are just adorable.  When they interact with each other the cute factor goes through the roof.  They are totally best friends and so sweet around each other.  Mom assures me that they have their arguments but the genuine love-fest I always witness between the two of them makes me question that!  Total sweethearts.

They also happened to be in fantastic moods and I was able to get total cooperation.  Even though 2 to 3 yrs old can be a challenging age range to work with, I was graced with nothing but smiles and fabulous poses.

Riley looks so grown up with her missing front teeth (an accident), it belies her mere three years of age...she's *almost* four though.  And Kyra was a total flirt and little camera ham, just following her big sister's lead in everything.  

Randy, it's always fun to watch your girls interact and they were little rockstars, I hope you love the results!

Gabrielle and Lucy

Gabrielle was such a kick, that girl ROCKED the camera.  I have so much fun with this age, and especially little girls who love the camera.  Ava (from last week) was just like this too.  Plus mama left me to my own devices with Gabrielle and as always that worked out just beautifully.  Kids are so different when mom is not around. I get TOTAL cooperation. 

Plus, mom had Gabrielle in the most perfect outfit.  The colors were awesome and the dots looked GREAT in B&W.  SO fabulous!   Gabrielle has a new little sister Lucy who is just so cute.  I could gobble up little ones this age.  They are cooing and smiling at this point and it just totally makes my heart melt!

I had WAY too many fantastic shots from this shoot so I was not able to narrow it down at all.  I finally just had to randomly pick some to post because I was spending way too much time going back and forth about which ones to choose...  So here goes a small sampling of the magical results :)

Kerry, it was a pleasure meeting you and your family!  ENJOY!

color, or,

bw?  I like them both!

still hot after 11 yrs of marriage, very cool.

I love how you can see Gabrielle checking out what we are doing through the screen door!

So Cute

Check out the Halloween card Courtney designed from the photos I took for her!

Albums

I've been loving the albums by this company called Finao for a long time now.  They are more of the old fashioned print kind of albums (instead of the digital ones I do now with Asuka books).  I love my Asuka books and use them every year for grandparent gifts and they are so great because of the digital templates I have that really enhance the layouts and make them look really polished.  But I've also wanted to look into the classic print style albums.  By that, I mean the albums where there is no collage or text or anything, each page is just one single print that takes up the entire page.  The prints are ACTUAL prints that are mounted onto the album by the photographer.  These are stunning and powerful books.  The kind you leave out on the dining room table for everyone to oooh and aaah over.  The reason I've strayed away from incorporating these types of albums in my repertoire is two fold.  1) Because I allow access to the digital files of the photos I take, I figured my clients  wouldn't want/need to get albums from me as they'd do it themselves.  2) The cost is a bit prohibitive, especially with the state of our economy right now.  I know first hand how tight everyone's budget currently is.

But every few weeks I'd go back to the site and just marvel at the quality of these albums.  SO, I'm considering getting a couple sample albums made to show my clients and offering them as an extra feature.  I've just been accepted by the Finao company as a professional member and I'm going to work on ordering my sample albums in the next couple months.  The option choices have been a bit overwhelming...

I am asking for some guidance and help in choosing which albums to get for my samples.  I can only get two right now.  Can you all trot over to www.finaoonline.com and take a look? (once there go to PRODUCTS on the upper bar)

What I would love to know from my clients is this:

1) Out of all the available options, which albums stand out most to you and draw your attention the most?  Which would you see yourself considering purchasing?

2) There are two different "groups" within the company.  The Seldex albums are more expensive but offer a huge variety of choices and very hip album covers.  The kind of unique and stunning stuff you just can't find anywhere else.  What are your feelings on these albums and out of the entire Seldex "line" which is your favorite?  

4)  Within the Seldex option is the image preview box.  I am crazy about these and wondering if it's something that would be really awesome for you guys?  A lot of my clients print out all the images from our shoot but don't really have a nice place for them.  What are your thoughts on these?  They would run about $100 for the slim ones and $150 for the deep ones....

3) The Finao Elements and Finao One lines are more reasonable in price and still extremely high quality.  Between the Elements, Upper Elements and Elements ONE options, which is your favorite?

4) What sizes do you see yourself most likely to purchase?  I am personally drawn to the 10X10 square format and size but what do you like best?

Ok, I know I never get any responses when I put questions out there but I had to at least try!   

Apple Chip Cake

This past year has been so crazy busy that I have really slacked in the cooking department.  I used to cook these amazing dinners for my family and then even bake home made desserts a few nights a week.  Ah, the good ole days.  Now that I work full time (even if it is mostly from home, it still consumes much of my day and night) I have resorted to cooking the same easy, quick meals over and over again.  Sure they are generally pretty balanced and still incorporate healthy foods like couscous and veggies and brown rice and so on but the kids are fed up by now with the lack of variety.  On really crazy nights I will even reduce myself to putting some cereal in a bowl and throwing some wheat germ in it to assuage my guilt and call it a "breakfast for dinner!" night.... Sigh.  So, yeah, I've been pretty pathetic lately.  I also haven't done much baking, which is something I truly enjoy.  Perhaps because I have a massive sweet tooth but also because I love the smell of my house after I bake some goodies.  mmmmmmmmmm.  

When my friend Vicki (the genius behind three wheels design stationary) posted an apple chip cake recipe on her blog I felt inspired again.  I NEEDED to make it.  And I did.  And it felt great to be baking again.  I may not have as much time for it as before but I will try to make it a priority when I can.

Vicki told me I could post the recipe here so voila. ENJOY!

Apple Chip Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups oil

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups peeled, chopped apples

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine the oil, sugar, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Sift together the salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and flour and beat into the wet ingredients to form a stiff batter. Add the vanilla and chopped apples and stir to blend. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan and bake 1 hour.

And, because I was raised by a french hippie mom who couldn't follow a recipe to save her life.  I made a few adjustments myself.  I replaced a small part of the flour with ground almond meal.  You could also do half white flour and half wheat flour. Added a few tablespoons of ground flaxseed and bran flakes as well as a sprinkle of wheat germ.  I used a bit less sugar and instead added a cup of chopped fresh peaches which work really well with apples.

AND IT WAS SOOOO YUMMY!  My house smelled delicious for several hours and I pigged out on two servings and felt like a glutton all night.  But I was a happy glutton. :)

Ava & Isabel

I've been photographing this family for a while now and big sister Ava and I have quite the little bond.  She likes my camera and my camera likes her!

Little sister Isabel was having a rough day and only wanted to held by mom.  Every time we'd so much as try to set her down she'd start wailing a plaintive little wail and I told Tiffany I thought the poor little peanut must be getting sick.  The only way I managed to get any shots of her at all was to send mom and Ava downstairs (out of sight , out of mind) and get some quality bonding time with little Isabel.  I got a handful of giggles during those few minutes of her tolerating her mother's absence but she clearly was not feeling like herself.  Turns out she was in fact getting her first cold ever and was up all night. Poor thing!

Still, Ava and I had a delightful time playing together while mom tended to Isabel and with free reign to chalk up their staircase and play barefoot in the driveway, we got some great images!  It's so nice when a mom just lets me do my thing and leaves me with their little ones.  I get to really bond with the child and let my imagination run wild and "play."  And it's during that fun play time that I get the best shots.  There are quite a few in this batch that I am head over heels in love with. :)

Tiffany, enjoy your images.  Next time we'll actually get the girls together!  Thanks for everything.

*** edited to add: Mom just read this, laughed, and reminded me about the fiasco over the dead bird and the major face plant with skinned knee and the Isabel meltdowns and snot everywhere... OH YEAH!  How did I forget all that!?  Tee hee! :)

the look on ava's face in this next one is classic!  It's basically a "do I really have to sit here with my sister and share the spotlight? Can't we just go back to taking pictures of me?"  SO funny!

i love the way her feet are turned in on this one

Garrett

Garrett was just TWO days old!  My youngest yet.  :)

He had literally just gotten home from the hospital when I arrived to photograph him.  Mom had called me from the hospital a few hours after giving birth and the only day I could squeeze them in was the day they got home so we went for it.  And I'm so glad we did!

The light was playing with us (in and out) and little Garrett was having some massive growth spurt requiring him to nurse pretty much nonstop but in between we snagged several great shots.  We tried the sibling shots but those were not quite as successful... Adrian loved having me take pictures of him alone, but not so much with his brother and Garrett wasn't wanting much of it either! tee hee :)

Adrian did do the absolute cutest thing ever.  At one point, while mom was nursing, Adrian goes up to his new little brother, caresses him gently on the head and says (with total sincerity and heartfelt affection): "I love him so much!" ... (pause) ..."What's his name again?"

I nearly fell over laughing.  Hilarious!

At one point we managed to get Garrett asleep and curled up into what appears to be the most uncomfortable position ever and yet that was the longest stretch he slept, go figure!  It resulted in my favorite image of the day.

To the F. family, it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope you enjoy your images!

Adrian has the most charming smile!

love this shot!

HONK!

I took the kids to see the community theater showing of HONK at Bethany University in SV this past weekend.  It was long (3 hrs from start to finish, including intermission and getting seated and waiting for it to start and filtering out slowly at the end) but amazingly they were absolutely enthralled.  It is the story of the Ugly Duckling and just really well done and very funny.   It was my first time taking them to a live theater performance and I was definitely worried about how they would hold up.  I was delighted that they just loved it.  Click this link to buy tickets and support our local community theater!  The actors did a really great job and it was something I would recommend for the whole family.  My youngest will be 4 at the end of the month and I would not recommend it for the under 4 yrs old crowd but anyone else is sure to love it!