Naval Homecoming = Visual feast

Okee so! Yesterday I photographed a US Navy homecoming and let me tell ya what... It was a visual stimuli that will keep my brain smiling for months. Cute sailors dipping their vintage themed pinuppy gals in every direction! Cute babies in sailor hats! Oy vey! I almost went into shock from it all. Here are a few of my favorite shots. Enjoy!

Becky & Rob's Wedding

Here are a few shots from my dear friend Becky's wedding. Enjoy :)

Grampy's Garden.

Hey people! I just got back from a lovely trip to Seattle for a friend's wedding! It was great fun & a delightful change of atmosphere. My friend Becky chose me to be her camera clicker, which was totally exciting. I'll post a few pictures from that shin-dig once I've finished editing. The rest of the time in Sea-town was spent at coffee shops with friends (cliche right?) and in the North end at my hubby's grandpa's house. Grandpa Ben has the greatest house full of treasures from decades passed & the type of garden only a man with a 92 year old green thumb could create. I was of course snappity snappin away when I wasn't looking through old photo albums, or listening to stories. Here are a few of the good ones:

SoCal Inspiration!

Living in Southern California is bringing on a whole new steaming vat of inspiration. I am absolutely dying to do a vintage/surfer themed session full of VW vans, Keds, Heart shaped sun glasses and beach cruisers. Here's my little inspiration board:

(Click to enlarge)

Sources: intentionallyuntitled.wordpress.com, http://weheartit.com/entry/3273360,http://www.girlyengeeky.nl/english/, http://www.nollie.tv/2010/03/joni-sternbachs-vintage-surfer-portrait-photographs-in-unique-tintype.html, http://shoerepertoire.com/store/2010/05/, http://ursulamayes.com/2011/01/sneak-peak-nirve-bike-shoot/, http://artessencestudio.com/blog/?p=1068, http://shestandsout.wordpress.com/

DIY Prop!

Props are MUY importante. Of utmost importance to those of you who don't habla español.
I am a big time crafter, so when the perfect prop does not materialize its self, I make it materialize. Even if it means I have to kick it old school and break out the paper mache-- which is what I did in this case. I was inspired by my kick ass collection of 75c vintage books I found at a local thrift store. I have an obsession with typography and have been DYING to incorporate that into a photoshoot along with my beautiful, drool inducing old books.

I decided to go with an ampersand (which is the fancy technical name for the "and symbol") because, how cute!?
I started off with sketching one on some cardboard and cutting it out like so:

THEN I covered it with torn up pages from an 80's romance novel about a midwife with amnesia and painted it with yellow and orange paint:

I decided to NOT apply a second coat, because I though the text showing through looked pretty cool.
Here are a few of the cute pictures I took using this uh-dorable prop:

I'm so proud! *Sniff sniff! I will definitely be using more paper mache props in the future.

-Mandy

New addition to my camera family!

For my birthday my AWESOME husband surprised me with a new baby for Mama Nikon! Her name is AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED! Cute right? I spent all day frantically clicking my little heart out. Yesterday I got to try it out on my niece and I was not disappointed. This lens rocked it. Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship :)

Check it!

How CUTE are these padded camera totes by Jo Totes? I would totally rock this yellow one to match the color of my pants when I wet them in excitement. LOVE. (I'm gross and weird I know.) And the insides are houndstooth? Whaaa?! I need one in my life.

SWOON! Stumbled upon these at tatertots & jello. Who is doing a giveaway of these! Hells yes!