Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Portrait of a Toddler: Round Valley Regional Preserve

Last Friday our office closed early in advance of the President's Day Holiday and that allowed me just enough time to get home, grab my little family, and make it out to Round Valley Regional Preserve in Brentwood in time for the "golden hour" of light.

I didn't know about this place until a local photographer, Alicia Holder Photography, took some portraits there for us last year.  It was loads of fun and a great place for photographs.

She took a photo of our boy on a large boulder when he was 1, and I thought it would be fun to try and go back there again this year and take a photo on the same boulder.  I'm going to try and do it each year for as long as he'll let me.  Maybe someday we'll take his Senior Pictures there... whoa, gotta reel myself in!

At any rate, we made it to Round Valley and we had a great time looking at the cows and he ran, and ran, and ran some more.  Let me tell you, that boy is FAST!
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It was all I could do to get him to sit still for a half a second on the boulder for the shot we came for:

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We had another "boy meets" moment that day. I like to call this one "Boy Meets Horse...Manure!"

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Thankfully, Daddy was there to lend me a hand.  I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself!

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Thanks for sharing these moments with us.  I'm so glad we went that day, even if it seemed rushed  trying to get there before sundown.

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-Samantha

Friday, February 15, 2013

Pre-Dawn in Reno

I don't really have a lot to say about this photo.  It was early. Really early.  My darling boy was awake, so I decided to try and squeeze in a photo before we started our day.

It took about a half dozen shots to get this one, and I'm glad I captured it before the last star of the night faded into daytime. We were on the 24th floor of Harrah's in downtown Reno, NV and I seized the opportunity.


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Nothing major, just a nice, peaceful image before the streets began to bustle with us city slickers looking for our coffee fix...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Stork is Coming!

No, he will not be stopping at my house anytime soon, but he will be stopping off at the Mendoza residence in April to drop Titus off in his beautiful nursery.

I was privileged to be the photographer for a high school friend, Amber, and her wonderful group of friends and family at the baby shower prior to the stork's arrival.

Normally, I get kind of clammy and uptight when I'm going someplace by myself and even more so when I think I won't know anyone at the event.  This time, though, I didn't feel that way one bit.

I felt welcome and comfortable, included and grateful, appreciative and peaceful.  The host, the guest of honor, and the entire group in attendance made for a lovely atmosphere full of excitement, motherly advice, and love.

Hopefully I get to spend some more time with the folks I met at the shower for Titus.  I really did enjoy the ride that was my first baby shower as the photographer.  This is what it looked like:









Thursday, February 7, 2013

You Get What You Give

Not too long ago, I was asked to be a co-organizer of the MeetUp Group I belong to.  Needless to say, I was more than flattered, given my minimal experience with photography, lighting and the like.  I decided this would be a great opportunity to help out with what my skills allow me to and get my hands dirty, so to speak.

On Tuesday night, I taught a class on exposure basics and it was a highly rewarding experience.  So rewarding, in fact, that I've scheduled another class for March 12th to discuss proper composition.

If you've never taught anything before, try it.  You'll be amazed by how much you learn in the process.

Sorry there aren't any photos from this session since I was teaching.  I'll double up on the next post, I promise!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

LadyD Photography Gets a Logo

I've been fiddling with the idea of a logo for some time now, but I couldn't figure out how to create one that didn't look like a sticker or a bad cut/paste job with a cool design and a big. ugly. white. background.

Enter: iPad and the Brushes app.  I drew something up that I liked and then emailed it to myself in a .png file.  Then, I opened up that file on my computer in Publisher to add some text and voila! A logo is born!  I'm excited to have a new logo that will double as a watermark for my images.

Its a lot less boring and generic because, well, I drew it.  There is no magical LadyD font.  If there was, I suppose it would be called "Samantha Hand".

Without further adieu, I present my new logo!