Scooting into 2008!

Today I was testing out a new P&S camera that we just got and the fun video feature it has while the kids played with their Christmas scooters. We had lovely sunny weather today and it was a very nice change. Tomorrow I begin my 365 photo-a-day postings challenge. It will be fun to see what I can capture each day. Happy New Year 2008!

Simplicity

This morning while procrastinating my organization work (photography and school- making ready for 2008) I was surfing through some of my favorite photog sites and came across one who had this music video. It's a song I had heard awhile back and forgotten. The video is pretty cute and simple so it grabbed my attention and in listening to it I remembered the song. You know, it's pretty cute, clean and simple. Simplicity - my focus of the day. Ok...so can you tell I am totally wanting to put off cleaning up this computer? Yup. I am. Enjoy this flick of a love song, in all its sweet simplicity.

Matt White - Love

Have a sweet and simply glorious day!

Rainy Days

It's been raining for months and well we are flat tired of seeing the gray cloud cover. Today there were a few glimpses of blue sky peeking out among the thick clouds and the ground had time to actually dry out so we jumped at the opportunity to go outside. I was also inpsired to take pictures because we received a lovely package from our friends in Germany today! This striped hoodie and the fleece of hearts. Very fun! I love stripes! They are so nautical. :)

We went to a fun location, a river front park. There is an old house on the premise and it had some fun window panes. This shot makes me think of Maine. I love these two guys!

It is hard to believe sometimes that our little guy is 3 1/2 and already wearing size 5. You can see his new favorite shoes, they have firetrucks on them that light up!

Here are the munchkins with their gifts from our Germany friends. Thank you guys!

A Merry Christmas Day

Christmas morning at our place. The kids woke up at a respectable hour, 6:30am. Our little guy went out to see the tree and said, "Oh, come look! Santa has been here. Look at all the presents!" And then our daughter went out and was excited to open things up. I stopped them in their tracks and said, "wait, let me get one picture!" And the sighs of "aw, mom!" filled the air. Well, lucky me...they were beaming with smiles because they new what was to follow - gift opening. :)


It is our family tradition to head for the mountains and take in the snow on Christmas day - if it is to be had. And today did not disappoint. There was plenty of snow on the pass today and we even had snowfall at our place too. None to play in but it was fun to see it fall here. Up at the pass it was 29 degrees and very nice. The kids sledded til their hearts were content. Here is a snap I got of Maiya begging her to stand still. She gave me this look. Aw, it's painful getting your picture taken isn't it.

So, the boys had to try a run together. Daddy is a little too big for this sled but he braved a run on the kiddie slope with our son. Here they are all smiles before they zipped down the hillside.

And last, here's a shot of the kids zipping down the hillside together. You can see all the snow!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

2007 Photographic Journey

I recently put gathered together 12 photos, one from each month, over the course of this year to look back at my photographic journey and growth. It was fun to see all the work that I have done this year and just how many photos I have taken. No, I don't have a running count but I know it's well into the thousands. My favorite lens this year was the 70-200 mm! I can tell I reached for it most of the time. I had several favorites from each month and so it was hard to pick just one. For technical reasons or to show gear or certain shooting conditions these photos were selected.

Thanks for stopping by! It's been a busy first year and I am so looking forward to my progress and growth in 2008. :)

101 in 1001

On January 1st I begin my venture of tackling 101 to do's in 1001 days! I was invited to participate in this challenge by my dear photog friend Maria. I just want to say thank you Maria! I look forward to sharing this challenge with you over the next couple of years.

Visit my list here: http://angela-101.blogspot.com/

Winter Break

Announcing.... My winter break.

This winter I will be working hard at expanding my photography services from offering natural-light outdoor sessions exclusively to offering indoor sessions and outdoor sessions with artifical lights. Yay!

Meanwhile, I will not be scheduling any shoots from December 10th through March 1st. Please continue to follow my blog for my latest works and updates.



Thanks for stopping by!

In the Light

Finding the sweet light in the low light locations. Just have to look for it and in this case, look up! The kids and I walked a no-traffic trail footbridge and admired a little stream that ran underneath. The forest opened up here letting in some sweet light and if you looked for it at just the right place you found it. I told the kids I was on a mission to find light today. They had fun helping me find it. Here my daughter calls to me, "Mom, take my picture here." She finds some good light. And ya know, she did really good! Low and behold, she found some. To get the light into her face I had her look up at me as I shot down from above. This helped brighten her face and smooth out her skin. Shot wide-open (settings: f/2, 1/125, ISO 200 on a 50mm L).

Brother and Sister

(settings: f/1.2, 1/100ss, ISO100 on 50mm)

Happy Holidays!

A Merry Tri-fold 5x5 Greeting

Yesterday I created a trifold greeting card using some paper from some templates that I had purchased. I love the paper! Anyway, here is my first trifold creation using photos from a recent family shoot.

Happy Holidays!

(click on the card for a larger view)



Thanks for stopping by!

Why I am Thankful

Why I am Thankful.
by "M." (6 yrs

I thankful for what I am.

and what I do for my Dad and Mom to
and the food to.

so the End.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

From THE SCHWARTZ FAMILY

Pirate Grunge

Ok, so this morning I worked on more grunge technique. I just had to play with the photo that I took of Mr. C yesterday. I decided to make this a pirate + matrix + ice grunge style /theme. I had a ton of fun making this one! I love the colors that I had to work with here. There are countless layers to this image now and I can't even recall the many steps though I have the file saved in steps. I will be printing this off in 5x7 to see how these look in print. I'm excited about being able to offer this type of artistic print. Oh, and Mr. C, that is your birthday in code on the image. FYI.

Dreamy Eyes

Meet my cutie pie nephew, Mr. C! He's got the most beautiful puppy dog brown eyes! Today I had fun playing around with my prime lens and shooting wide open. Here he sits mezmerized by a movie on TV as I sat a few feet away from him. I love the sharpness and sparkle of his eyes. Brown eyes can be tough and become black holes but this shot captured the detail of his eye. Thanks Mr. C! I'll show color later and perhaps a fun ice grunge too....

Ice Baby

More plays for the ice grunge look... This is a sweet photo "outtake" (didn't make the proofing gallery for my client) but later I found it a fun photograph to use for plays. What a sweet baby little "B" is! Here I used multiple layers and added a lot of texture. I have two photos presented here, one without bubbles and one I inserted bubbles. I'm still deciding if I like it with them or not. Anyway, it is fun to play around and experiment.

It's Thanksgiving soon! A time for sharing and caring and reaching out to one another. Giving back and giving thanks...... I want to say a special THANK YOU you to those of you who have posed and purchased prints from me this year. It has been a big year for growth for me and the start of a joyful new business.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ice Grunge

This morning during my 3am-6am stretch I learned a new pp technique - Ice Grunge. Oh, the possibilities! This is my daughter when she was playing cowboys with her brother and she was wearing this goofy cowboy hat. I was following them around and taking pictures during their game of shoot-em-up. I wasn't able to get a good closeup of her so I finally asked her to stand still and look at the camera for a portrait. She gave me goofy faces and finally gave me "big eyes" after my final attempt/request. This is what she gave me... It's one of my favorite pictures now of her. It really shows her strong will and shape of her face. Most of all, it shows off her big brown eyes that can be a challenge to capture.

"K" Family Shoot

Introducing the "K" family of five. This family resides in Oregon but were up for a visit with relatives. Seattle dazzled them with the fall weather of clouds, rain and sunbreaks now and again. With an exciting and promising break in the clouds and rain I hurried over to their location and took their family pictures. Here are some of my faves. What a fun family to work with. I love the energy and connection they have with one another. Very sweet. Thank you for all of those beautiful smiles and willingness to pose. You're proofs are available on my website now!

Thanks for stopping by! =)

We've Moved!

Sorry, no new photos to post from the week as we've been very busy moving, again! Yup, our 4th move in 1 year! That's alot of lifting and shifting and re-adjusting. Wow, just writing about it makes me tired. Anyway, we are settling into our cozy new location and we'll be here for the next 6-months. We'll be riding out the winter and early spring here in WA with plans to relocate back to Maine (where our hearts reside) in late May/June '08. Did I just say moving again? Ugh, sigh. Yup, welcome to my world. With each move we try to downsize even more. I didn't think it was possible but each time we move our stuff we ask ourselves why we have it? Why we keep it? So, this time we are doing a deep cleaning of our storage stuff. Thank you www.craigslist.com for being there. We love that site and have sold alot on there already. If you haven't been there yet, go check it out. It's so easy to use and so much easier than ebay.

Some more changes. I will begin homeschooling our first-grader full-time again starting this coming Monday! So I have been planning our study time together in the wee-hours of the morning. I am happy to be able to give her the challenges and subjects of interest custom to her and move at her own pace. She is excited to be back in "Mum-mum's School" (as our son calls it) and looks forward to spending quality time with us. The next few weeks will be an adjusting time for me to determine our schedules.

As the unboxing continues into today, I have yet to get my business computer system setup and operational. I hope to accomplish that today! For those of you waiting to view my Holiday Cards, check back early next week for samples on my website. We have just recently had internet access installed yesterday at our new location and so have been M.I.A. most of the week. I feel so lost without my computer and internet access! Do I really depend on those items so much? Uh, YES! So, anyway, I have them again, wahoo, and will be getting that up and running over the weekend.

Among all of this... dun, dun, dun, dun..... my birthday! At mid-night tonight I will be another year young at 32. Wow, that passed by quickly! Thirty-one has been an amazing experience. A creative age of clairty and perspective and the birth of "Angela Schwartz Photography"! I had expected my 30's to be just that - creative and full of direction - accept I also hadn't expected all this moving along the way.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's a Merry Greeting!

Introducing "Playful", a new greeting card that I just finished. I am offering Playful to clients now as a postcard size custom greeting card. The back of the card will have your return address and optional additional text (no charge) if you should desire. Visit my website to view some of my custom cards as well as some shabby and classy designs that I have purchased from a gifted designer and will be offering to clients later this week. So, check back!

Contact me today to schedule your next family photo session!

A Mother's Love

Last night I was proofing some more pictures from Florida when I came across this shot. A split- second-moment shared between a mother and child and I hoped with all of my heart that I got it and sure enough I did! An image that speaks to me of a mother's love for her children. A moment exchanged between souls that are forever bonded. From the depths of her heart she looks lovingly at her daughter, who she holds so closely, and shares a quiet smile of love and joy.

I chose to process this photo in a bronze finish for the quiet, the classic and the timeless feel it renders. I added some additional processing to give this image a softness that makes if feel more like a painting to me, my other passion that today is in a bin in the garage.

Happy Halloween!

... from "Laura Ingalls" and "Firefighter T.



This morning we awoke to chilling temperatures in the mid-20's! BURRRR... When I looked out the window I saw frost blanketing all things outdoors and a slight fog to the air. The kids said, "look mom it snowed!" I had to tell them it was just frost. And so, when I took our daughter to school (it was almost 9am) it was just 31-degrees! Winter isn't too far off from us now. It's a perfect Autumn day! I am enjoying the frost. I had to scrape the ice off my windshield this morning! Time to winterize and get the snowtires on this coming month.

Have a Spooktacular day!

Florida "R" Family

Another family session during my recent visit to Florida! My sister-in-law found this beautiful location for us complete with this fabulous white home (seen in background) and mature trees with hanging spanish moss. Yum! What a location, waterfront and all. Meet the "R" family. What an adorable family! It was such a pleasure to meet them. With limited time, the sun sets early these days (geeze!), we moved around this park capturing some of their fun personalities. Here are some of my faves from the shoot.

Thanks for posing for me "R" family! Your photos are ready in your private online viewing gallery on my website.

Florida "M." Family

My family and I recently traveled to Florida for an 11-day visit with family. It was so much fun and great to be in 80-90 degree temperatures. While visiting family we were introduced to some of their friends and neighbors and scheduled some mini-shoots with them. This family was a pleasure to work with and so happy and sweet together. I enjoyed it very much and hope they like their pictures as much as I do. Thanks so much for posing for me! Stay tuned for more pictures and another photo shoot shots coming this week. =) For now, here is a sneak peek at their proofs.

Introducing..........

,,,MY NEW WEBSITE!

http://www.angelaschwartzphotography.com/

It's finally here! What took me nearly two-months of research, reading, planning, building, rebuilding, ordering, more building, design work and style, and more redesigning to finally happy with the design and now launching the site live! Few, I get exhausted just reviewing the process. But needless to say, I'm so thrilled with the results. I'm so excited to share them with you all. I invite you to drop by my virtual storefront for a self-guided tour of the great unveiling of ANGELA!

And of course I'd love to know what you think. Try out the new "contact me" section and send me your thoughts, "way-to-go's", or "this stinks my photos aren't in your portfolio". =) And if you aren't in my portfolio, you should be! I will be scheduling sessions after October 25th.

seagull delight

Today we have wind, stormy clouds, rain and even some hail. While out and about running errands we headed for the harbor for some inspiration for my class assignment. Yup, I'm taking another photography class. This weekly focus is action shots. When we drove into this mostly vacant harborside parking lot we noticed this lone vehicle with a man tossing bread to a sea of seagulls! They were swarming all over the place in flight and darting to and fro for a shot at snatching up the beloved bread. I instructed hubby to stop our vehicle and I held out my camera and started shooting. What fun! The seagulls saw us and thought we had food too and soon enough started trickling over to our vehicle. Sadly, we had very few food scraps (darnit, usually the kids leave something on the floor!). Well, after about 5 - 10 minutes the gentleman in the vehicle had had enough and drove over to us and he said he had some bread remaining if we wanted some. And we gladly accepted his offering. Two full loafs of bread and a kind thank you with a smile later and we were feeding the birds! Well, we (my hubby and son) and I was behind the camera firing away hoping to capture their acrobatic feeding frenzy! It was high action and they were darting here and there and soon were on the vehicle. It was exciting! My adrenaline was pumping and I was all jazzed up. It was 20-30minutes of excitment and about a 100 shots or so later. These are my top four picks. What a generous and kind man to share his daily ritual with offerings with us. We really appreciated it and if there was some way to get him a photo I would gladly offer him a print of him in action. Maybe someday. For now, Thank you, to a generous fellow.


I took many shots to get this one just right. They were catching the bread in the air! Now that's some serious coordination. Amazing flyers.

Stormy weather yields some awesome dramatic lighting and sky. Here the bird is illuminated against a dark sky and stands out in a somewhat 3D effect. LOVE that! Getting those birds into the light was a huge challenge that as you can see paid off with persistance and best of all patience.

I should have framed this shot in black so that you can see the sea of milky white clouds here. Hmm... maybe Ill change my template for showing. I just love this. It is not desirable to have the same color against the same color background but I'm totally weird, and love it! I just love the milky subtle graces. It feels coastal to me. =)

Thanks for stopping by!