OK, so I debated about even posting this since the more I look at the outfit the more I see mistakes/problems/changes I'd like to make but I figure it's good to show the PROCESS, warts and all.
« May 2009 | Main | July 2009 »
OK, so I debated about even posting this since the more I look at the outfit the more I see mistakes/problems/changes I'd like to make but I figure it's good to show the PROCESS, warts and all.
Posted on June 30, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (13)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
This playdate was scheduled as a morning session which was quite a fortuitous thing since it was expected to hit 103 degrees that afternoon and even though we got started at 9 am it was already SWELTERING. Because of the heat, I decided against venturing around to different locations on the property and instead just stayed in one spot. There was very little shade and I was not about to put all of us out in the hot sun. The spot I picked was in shade facing a brightly lit parking lot area and provided beautiful light and the kids liked it so it worked out quite nicely.
Posted on June 29, 2009 in children | Permalink | Comments (9)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Well, since weeklong vacations in Hawaii are out of the question right now, I decided that we still needed to do something to celebrate the official arrival of summer vacation. The husband was once again gone all week at yet another training school so I took advantage of the fact that I had set aside my birthday week to do something fun together. Last month I had made reservations for a one night stay at a resort in Marina called The Sanctuary Beach Resort. The plan was to spend two days and one night down in the Monterey area hanging out and having a bit of an adventure with my kiddos. My photographic challenge to myself was to only bring two FIXED lenses, my "el cheapo" 50mm f1.8 and my new 135mm f2.0. I don't care what anyone says about that particular 50mm being a super cheap lens, I'm always shocked at how fast and sharp it is. For under $100 you just cannot beat that lens. In fact, I used that lens for nearly all of the following images.
I seriously cannot believe how tall that boy is sometimes. He towers over everyone his age.
Posted on June 27, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (10)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
This family was one of my very first "real" clients ever, as in not friends or family letting me experiment on them! It has been incredibly rewarding to be able to continue to chronicle their family throughout the years including the addition of two little girls to the mix. I'm so very fortunate to see them twice a year because I can really stay connected to them that way and watch the transformations (big and small) that the little ones go through such as going from crawling to walking or babbling to talking. It's a JOY to witness!
Posted on June 24, 2009 in families/children | Permalink | Comments (2)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Um. Yeah. So I'm officially in my LATE thirties as of today. darn. oh well, it is what it is!!! :)
FirstSoloBikeRide from pascale wowak on Vimeo.
Posted on June 23, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (13)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Thursday night I decided to set aside all the business related work and the house related work and all the everything else related work and plop myself down in front of Fox's "So you think you can dance" with my sewing machine and test out some of the lessons Julie taught me during her visit.
Posted on June 20, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (12)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Julie of ZozoBugBaby is having a big $10 skirt sale this Saturday morning. The shop opens at 8 am (Pacific Time) and last time everything was sold out within the first couple hours.
Posted on June 19, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (1)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Last weekend Ellie had her very first Dance Recital. She had one little routine with the other little girls in her weekly dance class, one of which is her very best friend Riley. They did a little Shirley Temple routine that was just sooooooooooo cute. I could tell that Ellie had a little bit of nerves going because she forgot a bunch of steps even though it's a routine she had perfectly memorized. The girls were bonking into each other onstage! It was held at the Mello Center in Watsonville which was a really large, packed, amphitheater and I certainly would have been nervous so I can't imagine how a 4 year old manages such things!
Her wonderful and amazing teacher Annie told me that they first words out of her mouth when coming off the stage were a VERY exuberant: "When can I go back out there and do that again!?" So, my question about whether or not she would like the limelight? Answered. Kinda not too surprised.
Posted on June 18, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (7)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
The fabulous & divine Julie M. of ZozoBugBaby Designs came down and spent a little under two days with my brood (how she survived is beyond me) and boy did we pack in a TON during her visit. I taught her all kinds of Photoshop magic and she taught me how to finally use that sewing machine that has been sitting there taunting me since its arrival on Mother's Day. I, with MUCH help, made Ellie a skirt and matching applique shirt!!! (Photos to follow one of these days) Can you say WOOOHOOOO?! Granted, not sure I can spend two hours in the future (that's how long it will most likely take me without Julie's help) for such endeavors but I am seriously motivated to create little skirts for Ellie from this point forward. Now, finding the time.... whole different story. Alas, I digress.
Posted on June 17, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (6)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
I am sending these out later this week. Cannot believe my boy will be 7 in less than three weeks. The card is a 5X7 postcard with a front and back design. The whole thing from beginning to end took me one hour from taking the pictures in my backyard (5 minutes), editing them (15 minutes) and designing the card in photoshop (40 minutes). It's a super simple, clean design. Nothing too fancy. But that's the way I like to create my card designs. Every year I look forward to creating the kids' birthday invitations. I always have fun with them. Ellie's bday card last year was totally cute so I've included here as well just to share. Gotta love PHOTOSHOP!!
Posted on June 16, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (5)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Ok, so I was totally tempted NOT to share this because I wanted to be the cool kid on the block with the new "toy" but then realized it's a whole lot more fun to share your toys with your friends than hog them all to yourself!
Posted on June 14, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (2)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Man, these are pretty chaotic! Being super high energy and adoring kids sure comes in handy in my line of work! Phew!
Posted on June 14, 2009 in children | Permalink | Comments (5)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
About a year ago I started training Gavin on proper weekend etiquette. It's based on the rules my sisters and I were obliged to follow growing up so I figured I'd continue the tradition. Our mom was a single working mom raising three kids entirely on her own with an ex-husband who fled the country to avoid making child support payments. My mom worked her little tush off to raise us in what was to her a foreign country and with absolutely no family nearby. At times she worked two jobs and subsisted on virtually no sleep in addition to driving us to and from San Francisco every day so we could attend the private French School she had miraculously won us scholarships so we could attend. So, it goes without saying that the weekends were SACRED to her recouping. If we wanted our mom to maintain whatever shred of sanity was left in her by Friday, we knew that Saturday and Sunday mornings were her time to recover. Besides, we were also up at the crack of dawn every morning during the week due to the 1.5 hr commute to school and back each way so we were all pretty fried come Saturday. My mom established clear cut rules for the weekend early on with us. We were, in no way, shape or form, to wake her up on the weekend. Unless the house was on fire, we were to leave.her.be. My sisters and I would generally sleep in until about 10 am and then fix our own breakfasts and watch cartoons until my mom surfaced around noon. She was making up for having gotten about 3-4 hrs sleep every single night during the week.
Weekend Rules from pascale wowak on Vimeo.
Oh, and I forgot to include another picture that Gavin had taken the other day so here it is:
Posted on June 13, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (12)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
I always get excited when Design Aglow announces the launching of their latest publication. The company itself has a TON of awesome resources for photographers, from templates to album designs and actions and cards etc.... Just really handy stuff. Plus they publish these great magazines that I really enjoy reading with all the latest and greatest info for photographers as well as amazing interviews with the *best* and *brightest* photographers around.
Posted on June 11, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (2)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
"...he might want to take a picture with it."
Posted on June 10, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (8)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
It's been a very emotional week for me. Before having kids I was relatively un-emotional. Part of that was the work that I did which required (for the sake of one's sanity) to compartmentalize what you saw in a day's work and shut off emotions and just "get it done"... and part of it was that I was just pretty well trained in not letting my emotions betray me. So, even if I felt them, I could keep them under wraps (unless I'm around my family but that's a whole different story!). I guess I would have been called stoic where it not for the fact that you spend much of your time on the force laughing...like, A LOT. And laughing at that slightly disturbing gallows humor that I believe I may have now lost my taste for but that I used to adore. What can I say, it was a huge part of my life back then. Regardless, all that changed the minute Gavin was born. The floodgates that had held back years of emotions and sadness over the things I had seen and experiences I had had (good and bad) and basically everything I'd ever felt in my life... BAM! Like a humongous tidal wave. I cried and cried and cried. Mostly tears of joy though at the beauty and perfection of this little being I now held in my arms. I could hardly believe it. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was so tense that first week. I truly expected someone to come in and announce some terrible news. Something this good could not happen to me without something equally bad coming along to ruin the party. I'm not what you would call the luckiest person on the planet. It's the main reason why I don't gamble or buy lotto tickets. And, yes, we had some medical issues with Gavin those first few months but nothing big enough to undo the magic that was this precious little guy being given to us.
Posted on June 09, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (8)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
That's my grandma and grandpa's nicknames. I don't think I even knew my grandma's REAL name until my late 20's. :)
Posted on June 07, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (9)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
Sharing a little announcement for all my clients and photog friends from Bay Photo Labs (one of my two favorite printing labs, the other is MPIX). They are having a special right now for all 4X6 prints for just 18 cents each! That's a really good deal for high quality printing.
Posted on June 06, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (0)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
I had a shoot last year with this little guy that was SO INCREDIBLY EASY it was pretty ridiculous. I kept pinching myself. He literally smiled the ENTIRE time. Happy as a clam. In fact, if you've been to my website you've probably seen my splash page with the little boy in the toy airplane...that's Declan!
Posted on June 05, 2009 in families/children | Permalink | Comments (4)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
So I took Ellie out the other day to model not one, not two but THREE different outfits. She rocked it but it also wore her out so next time I'll stick to no more than two any given session. I took Ellie to a new spot which kept her happy and excited. We went to visit the horses at the public stables behind Covered Bridge Park in Felton. I tend to avoid that area nowadays because there is such a strong homeless presence and I don't feel particularly keen having me and my kids and equipment hanging out there. We've had some scary incidents there over the past several years and I have found that I just rarely go there any more. Which is really a shame because it is such a gorgeous area. When Gavin was a baby we'd go visit the horses and hang out at that park several times a week.
Posted on June 02, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (3)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
I've been receiving so many emails about this. And it just breaks my heart. Besides the fact that I take pictures for my job at many of the various local State Parks several times a week, on a personal note, my family and I enjoy many of the local parks on a weekly basis as well. We get a State Park parking permit every year and have done so for the past 7 years. And we get A LOT of use out of it, I assure you! I wish I'd been able to post this sooner to let everyone know about the rally yesterday but I got really bogged down with work and couldn't get to it. I've signed the petition, joined the Facebook page, and forwarded the information to all my friends and family. This is just sooooooo important. Read the information below and do whatever you can to preserve funding (and access) to our beautiful State Parks! THANK YOU!!!
SAVE OUR STATE PARKS & BEACHES!!
If approved by the Legislature, Governor Schwarzenegger's budget plan will close 220 of
279 State Park and Beaches, including each and every Park and Beach in Santa Cruz
County!
Proposed Santa Cruz County State Park and Beach Closures: Big Basin Redwoods State
Park, Castle Rock State Park, Castro Adobe State Historic Park, Coast Dairies State Park,
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Lighthouse Field State Beach, Manresa State Beach,
Manresa Uplands State Park, Natural Bridges State Beach, New Brighton State Beach, Palm
State Beach, Rio Del Mar State Beach, Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, Seabright State
Beach, Seacliff State Beach, Sunset State Beach, The Forest of Nisene Marks, Twin Lakes
State Beach and Wilder Ranch State Park.
Beginning July 1st, the Governor will cut the parks core funding in half and then eliminate
all core funding in twelve months.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. COME TO THE RALLY‐ Monday, June 1, 5:30 PM, at Natural Bridges State Beach,
in the parking lot before the entrance station. Rally participants will be able to use a mobile
computing station, supported by a beach‐area Wi‐Fi hotspot, to send messages to Governor
Schwarzenegger and legislators. We hope for good media coverage, so please come and
bring your friends and family. Express your love for the Parks by bringing signs, wearing
your favorite park t‐shirt or docent‐wear.
2. SEND A MESSAGE TO THE GOVERNOR & LEGISLATURE ‐ Visit
www.ThatsMyPark.org, click on "Take Action" and follow the steps to automatically fax the
Governor and your Legislators.
3. COME WITH US TO SACRAMENTO ‐ Let your voice be heard at the ONLY PUBLIC
HEARING on this proposal before the Legislative Budget Conference Committee. Tuesday,
June 2, in the State Capitol. We have hired a bus, so please save your spot by calling 429‐
1840, ext 103, or Peg@ThatsMyPark.org, if you'd like to join us.
4. GET INVOLVED & INVITE YOUR FRIENDS ‐ Go to www.ThatsMyPark.org to stay
involved in the campaign, contribute and become a Fan of Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks
on Facebook. And please help get the word out to your own personal networks about this
campaign to Save Our State Parks & Beaches.
STATE PARK CLOSURE FACTS
For the financial well being of our state and future generations, we must oppose this
reckless plan.
Even if you are not planning to visit a park soon, the governor's shortsighted proposal will
impact you and every California resident. It is the very definition of "penny‐wise, pound
foolish". Consider the facts:
FACT: The Governor’s plan represents an “abandonment” of our State Parks and beaches,
a public trust resource that must be stewarded for future generations. It would lead to a
wholesale dismantling of an internationally recognized Park System that has taken 150
years to build.
FACT: The General Fund budget that State Parks receives accounts for less than 1/10 of
one percent of the entire state budget.
FACT: Last year alone, there were over 80 million visitors to State Parks – and all
indications are this year will be even higher. During these terrible economic times, more
and more residents are relying on the State Park System for low‐cost alternatives to
expensive vacations. Our parks provide affordable opportunities for recreation, relaxation
and learning with our friends and family.
FACT: Last year Santa Cruz County State Parks provided environmental and cultural
education programming to 611,174 school children, families and individuals.
FACT: For every dollar that funds the parks, $2.35 is returned to the state's General Fund
through purchases in the local communities surrounding the parks and in the parks
themselves. That means eliminating all funding for State Parks ($70 million this year)
could actually result in the state losing over $350 million dollars in revenue. Untold losses
would also be felt in local hotels, restaurants and shops.
FACT: Public investments in State Parks leverage volunteer hours and dollars. Statewide,
in 2008, docents and other park volunteers provided $21,329,811 worth of services to the
parks. Over the last 10 years, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, a non‐profit park
cooperating association, has provided nearly $9 million of support. All of these valuable
partnership contributions would be lost.
FACT: It isn’t logically possible to “close” a State beach or Park open space. But without
sufficient State Park staff to patrol, provide public safety and rescues, perform
maintenance, provide essential facilities such as restrooms, provide educational
programming and protect the plants, animals and cultural and historic resources, our parks
would deteriorate and become attractive nuisances for criminal activity. It would cost
more money in the long run to close our parks than would be saved!
FACT: This is the worst threat to Park System in its 150‐year history.
FACT: We need your help to defeat this draconian, shortsighted proposal!!
Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks
www.ThatsMyPark.org
Posted on June 02, 2009 in my family life and kids | Permalink | Comments (2)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |
I had the opportunity to do a mini shoot with Isaac to celebrate his first birthday. This little guy was ALL SMILES! So incredibly happy and cute. And those doe-eyes....swoon! I just love da babies. Because we got so many great shots in the same locations, I decided to do a few collages to showcase all his different, funny and adorable expressions. He is a very animated little guy. Mom had a strong preference for color images but I did throw in a few B&W's that I really loved!
Posted on June 01, 2009 in babies | Permalink | Comments (4)
| Digg This | Save to del.icio.us |



