pascale wowak photoblog

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

First of all, thank you all so much for following this blog.  If you are a client of mine, thank you for the honor of choosing me to capture those hugely important moments and transitions in your family's life.  If you are a fan of my work, thank you for continuing to check in regularly to view my latest work. 

I am grateful to have so many people check in on a daily basis.  It makes me smile to think that others might even be remotely interested in my postings and rambling! 

2009 is shaping up to be a year full of hope and positive changes. 

In 2009,  I will strive to never lose sight of what is most important to me and to always keep my priorities straight.  I have made a few resolutions for 2009 even though I'm not usually one to make resolutions.  I tend to be the kind of person who, when she sees something that needs to be changed or fixed just immediately takes care of it.  I don't like to wait for a reason to implement new ways of doing things.  That said, I've been so incredibly busy with work this past year that I have not focused much on many things that I should have been making a priority.  Amongst my long list of changes/adjustments for 2009, creating a daily ritual of "me" time is being implemented pronto.  After being off work for 2 weeks and being able to attend to some much needed self care I realized just how much more balanced and centered I am when I:

a) get enough sleep (no more 3 am bedtimes)

b) work out/get fresh air every single day

c) engage in "downtime" activities a couple nights a week rather than staying up all night working on the computer.

d) spend QUALITY time fully engaged with my kids rather than just being physically present with them.

I have come to understand that just because I am a muti-tasker extraordinaire who can juggle a thousand balls all at once and wear many hats and function (sorta) on so little sleep and so on etc..., does not mean that I SHOULD.  

It finally occurred to me that I needed to be, well, not just higher up on the ladder in terms of priorities, but that I should at least HAVE a rung on the ladder.  Yeah, that's how much I mattered this last year...  Things they are a changin'.   I'm setting aside one weekend per month for family time since my husband and I are rarely off at the same time and with me shooting all weekend long every weekend, family time virtually disappeared last year.  I love my job very very much and I don't want to get burned out on it.  I want to stay fresh and inspired and creative.  That means less shoots and more time spent getting in touch with my artistic side and less time at the computer editing for hours on end.  It means spending time with my family as well as your family!

I'm also going to be more engaged with my kids because even though I am home with them during the day, I am usually in my home office coming out only to attend to their basic survival needs (ie: feed them, wipe butts, interfere when they are trying to kill each other...).   Being fully engaged with them the past 2 weeks has been beyond delightful and their behavior has reflected how appreciative they are to have that quality time with me.  Also, I will not be working on the business 7 days a week anymore.  I will set aside one day a week where I do no editing, no return of emails/phone calls, no client packages being assembled... etc... One day a week where I "forget" that I am a small business owner with many, many hats who takes care of all aspects of this business.  It's a lot of pressure sometimes and one day a week to escape from all those responsibilities (while still attending to the myriad of other responsibilities that come with being a mom!) will do me good.

Mostly, I intend to always find greatness in the small things, appreciate those fleeting moments more, maintain perspective during the challenging times, find joy in the nitty gritty of life, and always remembering that "today is a gift".  It is so easy to lose sight of the big picture and get wrapped up in the minutiae of the daily grind.  I want to step outside of that when I feel like I'm starting to get swallowed up by it and take stock in the life I have been blessed with.  I want to enrich the lives of others and in doing so have my own life enriched.  I plan on doing a lot more charity and volunteer work.  The past two weeks have been truly awesome and now it's time to start a new year fresh!

May you all have a joyful and prosperous 2009!  I can't wait to see many of you as the year unfolds.

Disregard unless you have a wacky sense of humor like me...

I apologize in advance if not everyone finds this as incredibly entertaining as I do but please understand this is all sarcastic tongue in cheek and I have a slightly bizarro sense of humor...  I just found out about this woman and her videos (which target our ridiculously stupid commercials) and spent the past hour of my "free time" watching them all instead of accomplishing a single solitary thing on my lengthy to do list.  That makes me a bit of a fool.  But a very happy fool with a big smile on her face.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Canon 5d Mark II

Mr. Claus got me a ridiculously amazing gift this year.  One I was not expecting at all as it is TOTALLY out of our budget and I'm seriously trying not to have heart palpitations thinking about how it is going to take us the better part of the year to pay it off...but OMG, I am the PROUD and DELIRIOUSLY EXCITED owner of the new Canon 5d Mark II.

Ok, the specs:

21 million pixels.  TWENTY ONE!!!! My old 5d was a whopping 12.1 mp and those were HUGE files.   These files are GINORMOUS.

ISO range up to 25,600.  That is not a typo.  My old 5d only went up to 1600 with an expanded range up 3200 but in reality anything above and beyond 800 ISO was, IMHO, crap and so I never went higher than that.  This camera goes UP to over 25K.  That is INSANE!!! 

And in terms of quality and noise... I could seriously do an entire shoot at 1600 ISO and have virtually NO noise.  I'm BLOWN away by the quality of this sensor.  It is, like the old 5d, a full frame sensor.  But the size and quality of the pixels is like nothing I have ever experienced before.

The new LCD screen is a nice 3 inches and so crisp and clear it is remarkable.  Plus it has an intelligent chip inside of it that makes it brighter or darker based on the outside lighting conditions you are in.  Can you even imagine?!

The internal exposure meter seems even more sensitive and accurate than the old 5d.  It responds so quickly and accurately.  

The colors are STUNNING.  The richness and depth....  I am just amazed.  Wow.  That's all I can say.  I love love love love love it.

The only thing that I am trying to get used to is the shutter sound which I find very loud and annoying.  I called Canon to make sure that it wasn't just my unit but apparently, the shutter on these is a bit rattly and loud.  Weird considering how people buying this camera are definitely going to be professional users and would ergo need a quiet and unobtrusive shutter sound.  I am hoping it does not interfere with my newborn shoots but I'm sure I'm just more tuned into it than anyone else would be.  

Above all, I'm crazy in love with this camera and totally don't feel like I even deserve it (it's such a high end camera) but man, oh, man, I am NOT complaining!

I took the kids down to the San Lorenzo River just down the street from our house to enjoy the sunshine after a week of being cooped up not only due to the constant rain but also because we were all so sick this past week.  The kids had a blast throwing rocks into the river and wading around in their rain-boots while I played around with the camera and the new settings/options/controls.

These are just on the fly shots with me getting used to the new camera but seeing as it is practically identical to the old 5D in terms of ease of use and menu settings etc... my transition should be a fast one.

Here are just a few sample shots.  Minimal photoshop on these.  

ellie showing off her "zebra" rock

Gavin must have sensed my excitement and let me take as many pictures of him as I wanted! Woohooo!!

I think I'm in love...(for clarification, I'm speaking about my son, although, I guess I could also be talking about my new camera...)

This little one has been a massive handful lately.  She is trying very hard to assert her rule over the Wowak kingdom.  Sadly for her, there can only be one ruler and that position has been filled.  By me.  Sorry kid.  Luckily she still has unbearably cute moments to counteract the "head spinning, split pea soup spewing" moments that have brought her  - thisclose - to being on time out for the rest of her life...

miss drama queen and all her many facial expressions

...and here she is showing off how SHE (oh talented one!) can wink with EITHER eye, unlike her mother (oh pathetic one!) who can only wink with her left eye and CANNOT for the life of her wink with her right eye.

Merry Christmas & Happy Hannukah

I had planned on posting a cute little video of the kids singing their versions of some classic kids' Holiday tunes but unfortunately we are all VERY sick and have not only lost all our voices but are also losing the war against snot so I'll save you all the gross-out factor that such a video would have resulted in!  

So, without the accompaniment of a cute little video, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah (Saturday).

May you find time to enjoy the quiet wonders this season brings and fill your hearts with peace, love and joy.

Photography Workshop

My next photography workshop is Saturday March 7th and the class is already half way filled.  If you'd like to find out more about this truly awesome class, please email me at: pascale.w@sbcglobal.net

Happy Holidays!

Letters to Santa

Gavin just listed all the lego sets he'd be more than happy to receive.  I love the spelling mistakes!

Ellie drew the dolls she wanted and then signed her name...  I love how Ellie draws everybody's arms coming out of their heads.  She is very consistent about that.

Chabot Space & Science Center in Berkeley

Yesterday I took the kids up to visit my mom in the East Bay.  She has a membership to the fairly new Chabot S&S center and took us there.  WOW.   We had an awesome time playing with all the hands on exhibits and watching two amazing shows.  The theaters are full circular nearly 360 degree views.  Astounding.  The Dinosaur show was FASCINATING and the kids were totally enthralled.  The Astronaut show was also very good although Ellie was a bit scared (I think from the sense of movement you have during the show, it is very 3-d in feel), but we still very much enjoyed it.  We missed the sea life show (supposed to be incredible) but hopefully we can go back and catch it another time.  There was also a place where you could go and jump in front of a photo backdrop that looks like the inside of a space shuttle.  The machine takes a picture and you can email the picture to yourself.  Pretty hilarious.  The kids loved watching me make a fool of myself and grandma had fun jumping with the kids.   A good deal of driving today but well worth it.  A super day and with the huge rain storm coming our way I cannot think of a better place to spend the day inside doing really fun stuff.  They are open every single day this week except Christmas.

Gavin made a solar powered lego car, way cool.

Johnson Farm

For the past 8 years we have gone up to Johnson Farm the first week in December.  It's definitely a tradition at this point, one the kids take very seriously and look forward to all year.  We usually try to go on the weekend so they can enjoy the activities (hay ride etc..) but this year, due to my work and my husband's work schedule we could only do it during the week.  It was nice though because we were the only ones there, it was right before sunset.  The light was gorgeous and the place was total zen.   I captured a few shots on my little 40d.

Inspecting potential trees...

you can see Gavin in the background

smelling the tree is apparently a very important step in the tree selection process...

Finally, a consensus is reached!

this is very serious business...

dad is way ahead, kids definitely taking their time to make this moment laaaaast.

visiting the adorable bunnies...

the requisite hot cocoa...

he's not sad, I assure you, just tired of my camera up in his mug saying :"gavin, you have the most gorgeous eyes!"  He's like, stop mom. Seriously, let me drink my cocoa in peace...

Lastly, my business now has a facebook page, wooohooo!, but it only has 1 fan... boohooo!...so if you are on facebook, can you sign up as a "fan" so I don't feel totally pathetic? Thanks!  It's listed under:

Pascale Wowak Photography.

Cookies and my failed attempt at teaching selflessness

Yeah, so I took two quick videos this week of the kids.  The first one is just our little December tradition where once a week I let the kids go crazy decorating cookies.  It's just a quick snippet.  Nothing fancy.  The most noteworthy thing is Gavin's "bedhead" hair sticking out and totally making me want to laugh when I see it.  I do hate my voice now that I've heard myself talking on video so much, but that's a different matter altogether.

The second video that follows right after is my not so sneaky attempts to teach Ellie about selflessness and having more GLOBAL thinking, you know, thinking outside herself and her needs, thinking of others.. stuff like that.  Well, I failed. Miserably. I even moved into it really slowly and gracefully starting out talking about her needs!  But the attempt is pretty funny nonetheless.  I'll just keep trying. Gavin, on the other hand, has always been uber compassionate and extremely thoughtful so I never even had to teach him this stuff but with Ellie it seems that every day I have to remind her that the world does not revolve around her... novel concept to be sure... one she blatantly disreputes... Enjoy.

Password is:  cookies

Untitled from pascale wowak on Vimeo.

Save the Handmade Toys/Clothes!!!

I've been meaning to post about this since I found out about it.  This is HUGE.

All those wonderful people out there who knit/sew/woodcarve clothes and toys from home to support their families and to create old fashioned wooden toys or recycled clothes out of gently used clothes and handknit items for children will be forced to shut down.

Please take a few minutes to write to your senator to get this amended so that it does not destroy the handmade toy/clothing industry in this country...

The issue: 
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick.  Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008.  Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.  

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.  

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
• And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe.  The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys.  Use our sample letter or write your own.  You can find your Congress Person here andSenator here.

BFF

Ellie and Riley are BFF.  Riley's mom Christy and I are BFF.  And, if that wasn't enough, our boys are BFF.  Life pretty much doesn't get better than that.   Ellie and Riley wore their matching dancing outfits (courtesy miss seamstress extraordinaire Courtney Chu).  I videotaped the last 5 minutes of class which is when they do their little "showtime" program.  The rest of the class is all about having fun and practicing technique and playing and dancing and hula hooping and everything else that little girl's dreams are made of.  Their teacher Annie rocks and this is their absolute favorite day of the ENTIRE week.

The first dance is the hula dance that they just learned and both love.  The second dance is the Christmas song which they are just starting to learn.  You can see the slight apprehension on Ellie's face and how Riley at one point gets totally distracted by trying to figure out which way she is going to show "two" fingers (there are just SO MANY combinations to choose from!) and the last dance is their standard goodbye song they do at the end of every class.  They were definitely being a little on the goofy side today and for some reason went in opposite directions and were so far apart from each other, which is weird because usually we have to remind them to give each other some "personal space"..  Still, you get an idea of the cuteness factor going through the roof and why Christy and I enjoy this class as much as they do just watching them together.  

The password is:  ellieriley  (all lower case and no spaces)

 

Finao Image Box

I just received my Finao Image Box today and wanted to share it with you all.  LOVE IT.

  The end.

UGH

I just learned that my husband is being sent away to specialized Hazardous Materials training for SIX (6) weeks in the beginning of 2009.  He will be gone (as in GONE) half of January, half of February and half of March...

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get my schedule to work in terms of finding evening childcare for the kids (he usually watches the kids while I'm away at my shoots) and how I am not going to go insane at the same time.... Sigh.  

I am going to have to dig deep(er) to accomplish my supermom juggling routine...

Wish me luck!!!

The K-L Family

This family is one of my very first "real" clients that I ever had shortly after launching my business, as in not falling under the "family and friends who are just indulging me while I practice on them" category.  Little Quinn was just a newborn at that first shoot.  And they were just the coolest people, we instantly clicked, and I remember going home that evening after the shoot on a total "photographer's high".   That refers to those shoots (which luckily for me are more often than not) when everything is just amazing, the clients are just wonderful, the kid(s) are having fun, the light is incredible and everything is just clicking.  Since then we've had many more shoots together, they've just had their THIRD baby, and despite the pandemonium of three kids under four, we had a blast.  It seems that all we do is laugh but remarkably I also happen to take pictures during our time together.  

We were feeling a bit ambitious and did a mini newborn shoot for Tyler before tackling the family shoot.  Tyler looks EXACTLY like Quinn at that age.  

Reilly and I have the total photographer/muse relationship.  I could photograph this girl ALL DAY LONG.

I tried to get some fun shots of them in this mirrored ball thingy but they were not nearly as interested in it as I was... But I did get a shot of me! :)

Dad was making popcorn for a little pick me up and apparently he was taking too long (see below) but for me = a golden opportunity for my favorite shot of the day.

His eyes are so incredible. Mesmerizing.

Availability

I sent a "early notification" newsletter out to my established clients a few days ago announcing my newly posted online calendar of availability for 2009.  In less than 72 hrs, I have nearly half of all those slots filled for the year.  Crazy.  In any case, I am now making the calendar available to the general public.  If you'd like to schedule a shoot with me for the 2009 calendar year, jump on over to my website and click under the AVAILABILITY tab.  All of my rates are under the heading "investment" and additional information about the shoot is under the heading "details."  Of course, if you have any specific questions, feel free to send me an e-mail and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

You must contact me by phone or email (email is best) to book a date.  The calendar is merely there as a visual aid to let you know what is left.  I remove dates as soon as they are booked in order to keep that calendar updated and accurate.

I had a really long waiting list this year that I was not able to get to and that makes me sad.  SO, if you want a shoot with me, book now before the slots are all gone!

THANK YOU!

WEBSITE LINK

Doghouse

I had to watch this twice simply because I missed so much the first time around due to the fact that I was laughing so hard....

ENJOY and then send it to all your girlfriends!!!

THE DOGHOUSE

You just never know...

...when you are going to get that perfect shot.  I grabbed this of Ellie this morning just as we were running out the door for school.  Caught it literally "on the fly" because she just looked so cute with her little hoodie on.  Something about her demeanor told me "grab a shot" and so I did.  I literally took ONE shot.  And it is quite possibly one of my all time favorite images of her.  I can't quite explain why it moves me so but it just does.  This is how I always want to remember her at this age, at this time in her life.

The K. Family

Deborah and I have been friends for 4 years now and I cannot believe how much has happened in those 4 yrs.  For starters, she's had THREE kids in that time frame! I adore this family and was so sad when they moved away from the area.  However, I have been lucky enough to photograph every new arrival (which has been fairly frequently!) as well as their annual Holiday Photos.  That said, as soon as things settle down a bit on both our ends we are determined to find a way to spend more time together.

I miss you guys.

Juliette is her oldest and she and my Ellie are just a couple weeks apart in age.   When miss Juliette and I get together, we create some serious magic!  Juliette has the most vibrant, charming and contagious smile around.

Do not be alarmed if you suddenly have the urge to gobble up this baby.  Do not adjust your screen.  It is simply the power of "Joshua".  

and little miss 'Anna just wanted to be chased, so we chased! 

she's so beautiful!

such a little flirt and that SMILE!

gobble, gobble, gobble....

well, hello hot stuff!   

life is good

My dear friend Aerin's husband put up an old fashioned plank+rope swing in their fabulous tree-ladden leaf-infused backyard and last week the kids had a BLAST taking turns on it.  Even Gavin who is generally very wary of anything that involves speed or heights!  I immediately thought of the next shoot I was going to do for my "personal" Ellie clothing designer Courtney Chu.  And so, today, I took Ellie to what we now refer to as "THE swing" (as though there could be no other swing after this swing, as this swing is the king  of all swings).  Ellie was decked out in Courtney's latest dress style and it was easy-peasy to get some genuine smiles out of her.  The only tricky part was getting images that were in perfect focus.  You can't tell from the photos but she is flying HIGH and FAST on that swing and due to the darker light under the trees I had to boost my ISO to 800.  I don't go higher than 800 because I get too much digital noise after that.  And with my ISO at 800 and my Aperture at f4 (my 24-70 is being serviced AGAIN so I used my 24-105 which has a minimum aperture of 4.0)  my shutter speed could only be as fast as 1/250 to get proper exposure.  If you've taken my class you know that 1/250 is not generally enough speed to track a kid on a fast moving swing.  Especially when you are also running around trying to get really close to the action without getting taken out by it! :)  So it was mostly luck (and a bit of persistence) that resulted in these really cool shots.  I am so crazy about them because Ellie was just having SO much fun and making me laugh so hard with her "wooooohooooo"-ing and goofing around.  Admittedly, I was trying not to imagine the fall that would result from her arms getting tired and letting go as she is flying 10 feet high off the ground, but I just committed to taking charge of my worry-wart personality and ignoring those anxious feelings in exchange for having fun with her.  Besides, my mind was wrapped up in managing the task of swinging/pushing her, getting the shot and getting out of the way!  So, without further ado, photographic proof of what Ellie called "MY BEST DAY THIS WEEK!!!"

This next shot is the only one I converted to B&W.  She had fallen into a pocket of light when I snapped it and the way the light was falling on her when I saw the image later on my computer it basically screamed out B&W to me.  

Ellie has started doing this thing I used to do as a kid which is chew on the inside of her cheek.  it's horrible (and can be quite painful with enough relentless chewing) but I remember that no one could get me to stop doing it, I just had to eventually stop on my own.  It took forever though and I hope she quits this habit long before I did... Anyone have any advice or experience with this quirk?  For right now I am merely gently reminding her when she is doing it.  I feel so bad, it's MY DNA that is causing this!  And below is the telltale sign of cheek chewing...twisted mouth!

here she is in full WOOOOOOHOOOOOO-ing!

And after we packed up in the car (she was sad to go, but we had to go pick up her brother from school!) she pipes up from the backseat: "mom... life is good!"

Gabby & Jillian

I squeezed in this super mini shoot (as in just 10 minutes!) for my friend Serina and her two beautiful girls Jillian and Gabby.  Gabby is in Gavin's kindergarten class (he's got a really great group of classmates this year) and both girls are just beyond adorable not to mention UBER cooperative.  Because of those two factors we were able to get an amazing amount of stellar shots in just a few short minutes.  It worked out perfectly.  The girls are only 15 months apart and you can just tell how bonded they are to each other, it's really very sweet.

Serina, I think you are going to be a very happy mommy! ENJOY! :)

the poor cat was basically chased and hunted down for this shot but hey, we got the shot! :)

The P. Family

This family is another one of my long-time families.  I've done a great deal of shoots with them, ever since little Luci was in utero.  They are always up for anything and we get to really "play."  They totally trust me and just go along with all my crazy ideas as well as suggest some great ones of their own.  It's a relationship that just flows smoothly and therefore results in the greatest of images.

Luci is one of my favorite little muses and her early and expansive vocabulary combined with utter precociousness totally remind me of my Ellie.  

Kathy, I know you think the photo gods were not smiling down on you for this shoot (due to a slight comedy of errors throughout the day leading up to the shoot!) but I think you will be pleased with the results and forget the earlier trauma of the day!

Love you guys! Enjoy!

oh, look at the sweet, demure little toddler walking so delicately, like a little flower...

and this is my favorite of the day....hello luci!

The E. Family

I think mom was a little bit anxious to see these images... Anytime you put together a toddler, a baby and a dog it's pretty much expected to be slightly chaotic so I was prepared!  Brady is a very high energy, full of spunk little guy.  And as is the norm with such 'on the go' personalities he had no interest in our little "agenda" for the day.  And poor little baby brother had ear infections and was feeling pretty miserable and did not want to be put down.  SO, it was perfectly understandable that mom be concerned about what we might have, or might not have, captured.

And yet, surprise-surprise, we actually got lots of smiles Becky!!!  We may not remember getting them but we got them :)

I hope you love these and the rest that are on the CD's.  It was a pleasure meeting you, your family and your parents.  ENJOY!

[for the technical background on these family shots, I had to use flash because we had run out of enough light for a group shot but I didn't want to blast head on flash towards them especially because of little Jakey.  What I did was have grandpa hold the reflector to my right and turn my mounted TTL flash unit head towards the reflector and bounced the light from my turned flash head, which was pointed away from them, onto the reflector which was diffused and then gently draped back onto them, giving me just enough boost of light to illuminate the shot without it being harsh or frightening for the little one and also eliminating any potential shadows behind them.  See below diagram.  Disclaimer: I can't draw to save my life]