pascale wowak photoblog

Marci & Nathan

This shoot was SO very, very special to me.  Marci used to be my kids' preschool teacher.  Let that sink in for a moment.  My kids who are now 8 and 10 years old.   After her stint as their preschool teacher was over, she become their occasional sitter and continued being a presence in our/their lives over the years.  She is still a teacher and a marvelous one at that.   Marci is just about the sweetest, kindest, nicest, warmest, most genuine person you will ever meet.  I could rave about her for hours on end.  She's just that degree of amazing.   When she asked me a while back to photograph her wedding, I was honored and thrilled.  I actually refer out most weddings but hers was one I was delighted to accept.  I am giddy with excitement over it.   And I was exceptionally happy to finally meet Nathan.  Why finally?  Because they've been together for NINE years.  I know, practically a lifetime considering how young they both are.  I had high expectations for this guy, my motherly protective instinct wanting to make sure he was worthy of such an incredible woman.  He most certainly did not disappoint.  From the second we met, his warm smile, authentic manner and inability to keep his quite obvious affection and unabiding love for Marci under wraps completely won me over.  These two have something rare, magical and special.  They have the ease, trust and comfort that a couple gains from spending nearly a decade together along with the passion, fire and adoration that you usually only witness in the early stages of relationships (or those rare couples who can maintain that over the years).  It's an intoxicating combo and was so utterly fantastic to watch as they so effortlessly communicated (verbally and nonverbally) and showed me without a shadow of a doubt how perfectly well matched they are.   So, besides their amazing connection and chemistry, there was also the small detail that they are both ridiculously good looking.... I mean, he has dimples and she has freckles and they both look like models.  REALLY.  That is just too much for my camera.  It was letting out small puffs of smoke throughout the shoot.  Hot stuff-overload-syndrome.  Poor camera. :)

All this to say that I couldn't be happier for them, couldn't possibly love them more and simply cannot wait for their big day in August.  It's going to be as spectacular and magical as their love for each other.  I am honored to be able to capture the emotions of the day for them.  Much love to you both, Marci & Nathan.  Thanks for a super duper awesome shoot!  :)

Rama

When I was contacted by Marci to photograph her, her husband and her 6 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, I could not possibly have been more excited.  I may have squealed.  Internally, of course.  So as to not scare her.  That being said, it's a well known fact, as a fellow owner of a Rhodesian Ridgeback, that I am quite fanatical about them.  In a bad, bad way.   Those dogs just have a way of bonding with their owners in a sort of magical way.  My boyfriend likes to tease me that there must be some kind of super secret Rhodesian Ridgeback Owner Cult of some sort because anytime I am out and about with my Kooper and run into any other current or former owner of a ridgeback, it is sort of like we do actually belong to a super secret group.  There's an unspoken language of "Oh My God, Aren't They The Best Dogs On The Planet?!?!?!"    So, needless to say, I couldn't have been more excited for this shoot.  Marci and Jeff's Ridgeback, Rama, reminded me so much of my Koop.  Very playful, sweet disposition, loverboy, friendly and eager to please.  A wonderful RR boy with a fantastic personality.  Oh yeah, Marci & Jeff were quite delightful too! LOL! :)

We enjoyed a wonderful beach romp and finished it off with one of the prettiest sunsets I have seen in a while.  Just absolutely gorgeous weather, light and subjects.  I was in Photographer Hog Heaven.   A fabulous and very enjoyeable shoot.  I'm really looking forward to getting Rama and Koop together for a doggie playdate! 

Marci & Jeff, thank you for a fun evening!  Rama is a really awesome pup!  ENJOY YOUR SNEAK PEEK!  

Heather & Peter

Oh how I loved this shoot!  Heather was Gavin's (beloved) 2nd grade teacher last year.  To say we adore her is an understatement.  In fact, between me and Gavin, I'm not really sure which one of us loves her more.  I think it's probably a tie.  And you should hear Ellie talk, ever so excitedly, about how she "hopes hopes hopes" to get Miss W. next year too!  Of course, by next year she will no longer be Miss W. and will instead be Mrs. Burke....  :)

It was both a pleasure and an honor to be able to do this engagement session for Heather and Peter.  They are truly as adorable, sweet, kind and totally head over heels in love as they appear to be in these images. You just can't take a bad shot of these two lovebirds!

It was an uncharacteristically CRAZY hot January day in Santa Cruz and we had planned to do the session at The Boardwalk.  When we got there, we discovered:

1) It was as packed as a Sunday in June and

2) but with only six measly rides open!? 

 Ummmmm, ok.   So, we found a few hidden spots tucked away from the crowds to grab some (awesome) shots and then headed off to Natural Bridges.  You'd never know from these images but NB was jam packed too!  Overflowing with loads of little bikini bodies and landscape photographers everywhere!  Somehow we managed to make it look like Heather and Peter were the only two people on the planet that day.  :)

The spectacular weather, gorgeous lighting, stunning backdrops and ADORABLE couple that is Heather and Peter resulted in these delightful images.   I think it really reflects their playful, loving and tender relationship.  The volleyball at the end is an ode to how they met.  Loved it!

Heather and Peter, I hope you enjoy your slideshow.  I wish you both the very best in life and a long and happy marriage.  And lots of little beautiful Burke babies for me to photograph....  Oh wait, did I say that out loud?   My bad.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SLIDESHOW!!!

Made by Lex

I met Alexis a while back when she attended one of my Photography Workshops.  She came in wearing the SNAZZIEST cape/jacket/hoody I had ever laid eyes on and the only thing that distracted me from her high fashion couture was her stunning good looks.  I had emailed back and forth a bit with Alexis before the class and learned that she was a clothing designer and after visiting her blog and ETSY site, I completely fell in love with her creations.  TOTALLY my style.  Not that I could ever pull it off like she does but I can certainly admire it.  I eventually became the proud owner my own custom-made original Made By Lex cape/jacket/hoody creation which I just love so much!  

Alexis and I have stayed in frequent contact and I've proudly watched as she continues to grow as a designer and spread her wings.  Her line is now carried at Stripe in downtown Santa Cruz (one of my FAVORITE new shops downtown) and she was recently contacted by the show "Project Runway" and asked to submit an application to be on the show.  The best part of that last little tidbit is that when we first met and I saw her work my EXACT words to her were: "girl, you are going to end up on Project Runway, mark my words."  So I take no small delight in the fact that my prediction may very well come true.  Alexis will deserve every last bit of recognition that comes her way because she is JUST THAT GOOD.  This gal was put on this earth to design women's clothing.  Period.  

So, when Alexis invited me to her Trunk Show at Stripe last week I was so excited to come by and show my support.  I brought my camera (but didn't have any of my usual arsenal of equipment, and I really regretted not having my trusty reflector with me to be honest) and was able to steal her away for under ten minutes.  I wanted to grab some headshots for her to use on her Etsy site/blog and/or any other kind of marketing/promotional material she would need as she begins her successful journey into the fashion world.  We went in the alleyway right next to Stripe and then in the actual doorway of the store.  We were never more than just a few yards away from the show and worked FAST.  Like I said, the entire shoot took less than ten minutes, and that includes moving furniture around! HA!  

As you will clearly see from the images, Lexi is about as stunningly beautiful as they come.  She is also incredibly comfortable and a real natural in front of the camera.  She understands her body and with very little direction from me was able to channel her inner Heidi Klum!   I gave her some basic pointers on how to position herself and made adjustments here and there but the rest was ALL Alexis.  She is amazing.  Oh, and did I fail to mention that she is a mother of three young girls?????  Yeah.  Impressive.  

Alexis, congratulations on all your well deserved success thus far and I hope you realize it is just the beginning of a long, happy journey for your and your creations! I am SO proud of you!!  Go Lexi! :)

She was, of course, wearing a custom designed Made By Lex dress.  Gorgeous.  The girl AND the dress.

   

Esther & Ben

I've known Esther a few years.  She was my sparring partner in Tae Kwon Do.  Which basically meant we kicked and punched the you know what out of each other.  In the most respectful way of course.  But neither of us is the girlie type so we definitely had some pretty good "battles". :)

Then she up and got preggo on me.  Whatever.  Pffft.  (Just kidding!!!)

My friends joke about how the only way to spend any amount of quality time with me is to hire me for a shoot.  Ouch.  Yes, I'm pretty hard to get together with due to my working weeknights and weekends schedule.  Add to that my friend's own busy schedules and you get the idea.  So, I was pretty much tickled pink when Esther hired me to photograph her expanding family (and waistline! Ha!).  She didn't want the focus of the shoot to be on the pregnancy itself but how could I NOT photograph this glowing, beautiful mama to be!? 

Her two boys were quite the handful.  They are rough and tumble boys through and through.  Moshe is 12 yrs old and, as is the case with that age, was less than thrilled to be a part of this event.  Daniel was kinda just hoping to come out of the whole afternoon in one piece I think.  Our attempts to get pictures of the two boys together were fairly comedic until we saw blood.  Ok, I'm exaggerating.  Sorta.  :)

Esther & Ben, thank you for all the laughter and chaos.  I felt right at home.  Cannot wait to meet this little girl.  If she's anything like her mommy, not only will she be able to keep those boys in line, she'll be ruling the roost in no time! :)

Here is Daniel.

  

 

Moshe.  Yeah, not too thrilled to be here....

 

But I can crack even the toughest shell...  :)

 

This was the extent of our sibling shots....

 

 

 

 

Esther, you are sooooo glowing!

 

 

 

Esther and Ben.

 

 

This next one is my favorite shot of the day. :)

 

  

 

 

 

I told Esther that Moshe has this James Dean look going for him. :0

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

So, I'm particularly happy with these next two although you may not be able to tell why in this small format.  I did not want FULLY dark silhouettes because without the impact of a sunset behind them I thought it would be too "blah".  So I had them stand right at the exact spot between the light and the shadows so that when I metered for them I calculated the exposure I needed to have them partially silhouetted but have the expressions on their faces perfectly exposed.  You can see it much better in a larger format but their faces are perfectly lit and the way they are looking and smiling at each other is pure magic as far as I'm concerned.  LOVE. IT.

 

 

So, at this point either I worked my way into the boys' hearts or they were just so tired of fighting the process they finally acquiesced.  Either way, I got a nice relaxed family shot.  (and I win!)
 

  

Victoria and Scott

Back in the day (how can you not feel 100 yrs old when you say that?), Scott and I worked together.  When his fiancee contacted me for an engagement shoot I was delighted on two fronts, (1) that Scott was getting married and (2) that I was going to meet the lucky gal and take pictures for them.    After meeting Victoria I came to the conclusion that Scott is a very lucky man as well.  

Victoria is perfect in every way and mostly, she is perfect for Scott.  They really compliment each other and have a natural ease/comfort around each other.  Plus, they like to laugh.  I like to laugh.  So...we laughed alot. :)

It was really cold and SUPER windy and, of course, Victoria has this very long, gorgeous set of locks... but we managed to work with the weather and get some really great images!

just love this next one

she's gorgeous...

the bling!

so sweet

I usually avoid working in the direct light because my clients end up squinting and looking/feeling miserable but Vicki and Scott were superheroes out there, didn't bother them one bit and they looked GREAT!

did I mention it was super windy!?

love this!

Give Me Moore!

My second flight was delayed and I didn't get into San Jose airport until about 10 pm last  night.  My kids were there, in their jammies, to pick me up.  I was so excited to see them I was able to get past the fact that it was a school night and WAY past their bedtimes!  My husband actually did a remarkable job holding down the fort in my absence and even sent me iphone pictures of dinnertime with the kids to prove he was serving them vegetables!  Hilarious!  It's good to be home but geesh, I've got so much to do now!

I've already blogged at length about how incredible my "Give Me Moore" photography workshop experience with Kelly was so there's nothing more to say anything more than just: WOW.  I have so much admiration for her mad skills!

Our models, Eric and Blythe, were absolutely PERFECT in every possible way.  Kelly and her stylist/assistant extraordinaire Brandi visualized this uber cool vintage "anthropologie" style shoot that just rocked my world.  Anyone who knows me, knows just how crazy I am about that style.  We lucked out on the weather too as a huge storm came in the night of the shoot right after we wrapped it up.  PHEW!

I have spent all day today, in between unpacking, dealing with the kids and attending to urgent business stuff, editing my heart out!  I won't be able to edit the entire session (over 200 images) until much later as I have client sessions I need to get to, but I pulled out my favorite 30 images and did those.  Here they are. 

THANK YOU Kelly, Brandi, Eric and Blythe for such a magical day.

It's unreal how gorgeous this girl is.  Can you believe this was her first time modeling ever?!

Eric was so debonair and SUCH a gentleman... Easy on the eyes too....

These next two were taken with kelly's 45mm tilt shift lens... I'd never used a tilt shift lens before, which is all manual focus!  I LOVED it.  Finding that sweet spot is not easy but when you do, holy moly...wow.

My excitement to play around with OCF (off camera flash) was probably palpable at that point and then when I saw these images on the LCD I was DELIRIOUS. I do believe I squealed like a little girl, jumped up and down and said a few unrepeatable words.

Could she be more stunning?!

Ishtar: Boudoir

This was such a fun session!  Lots of giggling...  Lots of champagne, of which I could not partake in, but it certainly helped everyone else! :)

Ishtar is a mommy and a wife and doesn't feel those two should be mutually exclusive when it comes to her being sexy for her man.  SO, as a gift to him, she set up this boudoir session with me.  The lighting conditions were tricky but we rocked it out.  The indoor shots were all done at ISO 1600 using TWO reflectors and an open door.  Every single shot taken was done with natural light and carefully positioned reflectors.  

It goes without saying  that Ishtar can work the camera and is positively stunning. This girl is NOT camera shy...  We got an unbelievable amount of stellar images!   I created a selection of a few favorites of the more "tame" ones we did. I should mention that it was per Ishtar's request to have these on the blog as she has no qualms whatsoever with having these images posted.  As an additional safety measure though, I wanted to make sure no one could right click and download the images so I put them in a slideshow which will prevent them showing up anywhere on the web without her knowledge.  I also didn't post any of the more risqué ones either.

If you have any objections to partial nudity, please don't go viewing this slideshow.  Also, don't watch this at work and get yourself in trouble!  Aside from that, if you want to see a gorgeous woman in some sexy poses for her man, then go take a look-see :)

Ishtar, YOU ROCK.

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW

Dave & Kristy

I need to preface this post with the fact that Dave is a really good friend of mine, we go way back!  Dave, my hubby and I all attended a fire academy together about 8 years ago (OMG, EIGHT yrs... has it been that long?!) I don't remember anything really important about those few months other than being in the best shape of my life and laughing so hard my sides would ache every night.  That could also have something to do with the 100 lbs of hose I was lugging up staircases over and over again but I think it mostly had to do with the fact that Dave and my future husband had me in stitches most of the day.

Dave and his wonderful future bride Kristy came down for an engagement shoot this weekend.  I will have the honor and pleasure of shooting their wedding later this year.  I may be biased but they are the cutest couple ever - well, Kristy is the cutest thing ever, Dave is just cute by osmosis when he's next to her. 

I have to admit that I tried my very best to mess with Dave throughout the shoot suggesting (with a straight face mind you) all kinds of kooky things and darn it, the dude is so impossibly in love that he did not once look at me askew and ask WTF?!  Now THAT, that people, is true love because I know Dave and he did everything I told him to and I must say, I took great pleasure in bossing him around.  Not that I'm controlling or anything... :)

Basically, we had a total blast.  We even included their fabulous bulldog Bullet in some shots even though it meant waiting 20 mn for him to ever so slowly make his way from the car to the shooting spot!  Bullet has the most hilarious expressions, I was laughing so hard!

Kristy is perfect for Dave in every way and he one lucky dude to have her in his life.

Dave and Kristy, I love you two to pieces and cannot wait for the big day.  If you all think Kristy looks unbelievable now just wait til we get to see her in her wedding dress.  I, for one, cannot wait!

Much love.  Enjoy your photos!

and this next one was the very last shot I took and remains my favorite of the entire session.

Val & Patrick

I have not seen my friend Val in ages and it was absolutely delightful to not only meet her wonderful fiance Patrick but also hang out, laugh our heads off and take some great pictures.  Val and I go way back, like Kindergarten age, and I have memories of us jumping up and down on her bed, in our undies, singing with a hairbrush to madonna...hey, it was the 80's! Such a funny vision, I'm chuckling just writing this!  The greatest part of yesterday (besides her, thankfully, not thinking my children were complete wild lunatic animals despite them running circles around her screaming at the top of their lungs over the excitement of a houseguest..yeah, we don't entertain very often!) was witnessing the fantastic love between her and Patrick.  I'm so excited about their upcoming wedding!  Cheers to you both, Love ya, Pascale.

Isn't she gonna be a beautiful bride!? See ya in October!!!