handmade jewelry

my sister-in-law is one of those people that looks at something, makes it, and it's good.  really good. i look at something and think, why buy that, i could make it, and then i stick it in a file.  i have lots and lots of things filed...  

for christmas, she made me a necklace, and a few for herself.  i had her send them to me to photograph. the last one is mine, and both ronin & i love it.  (he's facinated with necklaces) 

i don't typically do product photography, but i wanted to challenge myself.  i was running out of ideas when i decided to thread them through these metal balls i have over ronin's crib.  i held my camera in the crib facing up as to not get the actual crib in the image, and just shot and previewed until i got what i wanted.  a little tricky, but i like how they turned out. 

willie + liza ( + 2 mini baby boys)

I hadn't seen Liza since high school (let's not count those years) and she contacted me about taking photos of her because she's expecting twins.  Twins!  (I know, she's so tiny you can't even tell) Cute, chubby cheeked, round faced, little eyed asian babies are the cutest, and yes, I am slightly biased, especially after having a blond haired blue eyed 1/4 korean baby. 

It was so much fun shooting you guys, epecially laughing at all of Willie's expressions and while we laughed, he laughed and there were more!  Jan had a great time too.  I said, of course, you just talked to Liza's dad while Ro played w/her mom.  Jan said, "Dave, his name is Dave, and we had to talk about important things over passionfruit juice."  Yes, my assistant is so helpful.  :)  

Can't wait to meet those little boys!

kimi + baby j : sausalito, ca

we went home last weekend to spend time with family & my camera.  friday we hung out w/baby j & kimi who showed up armed with homemade cookies and all sorts of prop options.  we've teamed up for projects since college, and i always look forward to photographing anything that involves her and her adorable baby boy.  jan came along as my assistant, to hold ro and help with props/lighting, as well as to help us eat ice cream at one of my favorite sausalito hot spots - lapperts.  try their banana-chocolate-chip-carmel something or other.  it's off the hook.  plus if you end a shoot with ice cream we all end up forgetting that we came to get something done and just end up with ice cream all over our faces (some more than others). 

easter in mammoth

we spent easter weekend with my brother & sister-in-law in mammoth.  my brother's company owns the mountain & inn, so we had a great hook up for a place to stay.  i love that in california you can go from 70 deg weather to 15 deg's in 6 hours.  j had the opportunity to ski for free, so i stayed in the warm lodge with r.  it was beautiful up there, and our first time checking out the area.  the last night we got over 2 feet of snow.  it's amazing how 95% of the drive, the roads are clear and it's just the last part that has crazy amounts of snow - it was up to the roofs out our window.  i've been to tahoe & lived in utah, and this is more snow than either of us had ever seen at one time. 

this was not a typical easter.  ro was too little to participate in the egg hunts (although they were out on the snow - how fun!) and everytime i took him outside he made a face like, are you kidding me mom?  the wind was up to 65 mph 2 of the evenings. it was crazy. 

 

j got to join my little brother's ski team by default.  j isn't super good, mind you.  he first learned in indiana (no mountains) and then my brother initiated him into the family by taking him straight to black diamonds in utah.  he was pretty excited to join the team - they even had their own coach.  they lost, but they looked good, which is really the only part that matters.

i love ro's toes in the photo w/j below. 

this image below is on the drive out.  you'll see it goes from lots of snow in the mountains, to none on the ground at all within an hour or so. 

these last 3 photos were taken by j while i fed ro in the car.  the drive is really beautiful - it has a lot more of utah's landscape than i knew california had.  (hint: if you haven't been on this drive, add this to your list)