As with most things in life, the real “magic” of photography often happens outside of  the most well laid photographic plans,  or the expected outcomes of any shoot.   Such was the case with this image from a recent promotional shoot at the Zen Lounge in downtown Mountain View.  More on that shoot later – I was fortunate to have access to the time and talents of  fellow industry professionals such as Monina Wright and Christina Romero, and I want to share the results of all their hard work in a future blog post or two (or three!)

People who know me well say they always know when I’ve found something special because the click of my shutter is preceded by a sharp intake of breath,  which is then followed by a moment of complete silence during which my lungs graciously stop pestering me with their breathing efforts while I ponder the amazing visual opportunity that lies before me.   Fortunately,  my lungs always decide to start breathing again so I don’t pass out in the midst of my latest visual discovery…

The image above is the result of one of those moments where the sharp intake of my own breath (and subsequent complete lack of oxygen to the brain)  reminded me to take advantage of a serendipitous moment at hand, and not pass it by in order to methodically pursue The Plan I had initially developed for that day.

Oh, and another thing about my serendipitous moments – 9 times out of 10 they are the result of perceived failure.  In this case, it was a communication failure between my lights and my camera that prompted  me to rework my whole set-up and find these amazing ambient light patterns that looked like tiger stripes when they wrapped themselves around my wonderfully patient and accommodating model.  Voila! There was the moment, the intake of breath,  and the creation of some of my favorite images of the day.  Funny how life works, isn’t it?

AND, a HUGE shout–out to Erika Taylor Montgomery of  Three Girls Media and Marketing. She literally made me sit my avoidant self down and blog along with her over the phone this morning in order to get my lazy blogging butt in gear and actually post a blog entry.  LOL! Pathetic, I know…  Thanks, Erika!!!!!!!!!

A boy. A girl. A wedding. A vineyard. Perfection

More to come…

I’m interrupting  a good half-year  or more of  blatant, SHAMELESS neglect of my blog  today to post a picture.  Yep, a picture.  I know – woo-hoo,  right??   Like, congratulations Lisa, that’s what photographer’s are SUPPOSED to do with their blogs – post pictures!!  Okay, so I’m a little slow…

ANYWAY, here it is – a kinda cute photo of me, Carl Mindling and Stacie Tamaki at  the South Bay Wedding and Event Professionals Get Together at California Cafe in Los Gatos (SEO connoisseurs will appreciate the inclusion of four hyperlinks in one sentence. Not bad, huh?)

Why am I posting this particular photo, you might ask. Well, the answer is simple: Stacie told me I had to or I wasn’t allowed to take any more pictures of her ever again.  EVER.  And just like that, Stacie found the trigger – the one thing guaranteed to end my multi-month moratorium on my blog, and force me to confront and come to terms  with my highly advanced case of BLOGGERPHOBIA.   I mean, telling a photographer that they CAN’T have photographic access to a potential subject?  Nooooooooooo…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Such a reality is  even more unpalatable then WRITING FOR MY BLOG.   And so it has come to pass – here I am. Writing. For my blog.  (oh look – did a pig just fly over the moon? I’m pretty sure it did…)

Sooo… what is this intense congealing of the brain that leads to Bloggerphobia? Well, fortunately for me, Stacie has already written  a blog entry  about this heinous affliction on her uber-fun and eminently readable  Flirty Blog.   Read on, if you will: How to Overcome Your Fear of Blogging

So there you have it in a nutshell – Bloggerphobia.  A pharmaceutical-worthy  mental  mind-warp indeed,  but thanks to Stacie no pharmaceuticals were needed – just a healthy amount of good old-fashioned prodding, a lot of good-natured ribbing, a smattering of  guilt (my favorite inducement technique)  and a great big juicy motivator in the form of  photographic ACCESS DENIED. Phew!  It ain’t easy curing Bloggerphobia!!!

Oh, and by the way, Stacie is going to be teaching a seminar for the blog-impaired, which I’m highly recommending since heck,  NOBODY ELSE has been able to convince me to write a blog since November of 2009…  Check it out!  Beginner’s Blogging 101 Seminars

Confession: I thought my Mom was mean because she TORTURED me by combing and pulling my invariably knotted hair into pigtails every morning. Yes, it’s true – I was horribly abused during my childhood (I was FORCED to eat vegetables too. It’s amazing I’ve turned out as well-adjusted as I have, really) I remember also that when I reached the age of about 10 I went through The Great Pigtail Rebellion because pigtails were for children and I wasn’t a child anymore! Thus started the era of one sleek, understated ponytail, and the end of pigtails with bright ribbons in my hair. I felt liberated…

Fast forward to my adult incarnation and the realization that I think there’s pretty much nothing cuter than little girls with two tiny pigtails sprouting out the top of their heads. It’s just so…childhood! Go figure…

ANYWAY, here’s a teaser of Desi in her pigtails running around at an apple orchard. More to come…

It’s not really a writing kind of a day (all of today’s words seem to be jammed up inside my head in a huge alphabet soup type of jumble) so…. how about a photo?

More to come – I think. Me and this blogging thing still haven’t come to terms with each other yet, so I’m still taking little baby steps!

I must admit – even though I’m one of those “creative types”, my creativity has never extended itself to the space within which I live. For whatever reason, I have always been somewhat Décor Challenged and friends visiting my apartment often wonder why I’m holding an indoor garage sale. Well folks, that’s not a garage sale, that’s just my idea of livable space and yes, I realize I need HELP!!!!

Sooooo…. enter the experts: Caitlin Campbell and Kathy Sturr of Two Views Design. Caitlin and Kathy decided to host a Wine, Dine and Design evening at Design Mart in San Jose, so I jumped at the opportunity to surround myself with beautiful things, and people who knew how to create elegant home design with beautiful things. I figured if nothing else I could maybe guilt myself into making my home look nicer by staring a more perfect world in the face.

Well, as it turns out, I WAS inspired and motivated with absolutely no guilt involved. I enjoyed the evening immensely, and not just because I got a goody bag filled with chocolate ☺ Caitlin and Kathy lent us their interior design expertise and gave a wonderful demonstration on how to create two different looks in one room simply by switching out your accessories – magic, I tell ‘ya! We also watched a demonstration by Kren from Bloomster’s Floral Designs, who proceeded to amaze us all with his ninja-like floral skills (I have NEVER seen anyone create such gorgeous, complex arrangements with such speed and finesse. I was mesmerized) He also custom designed a wonderful floral extravaganza for the winner of one of the door prizes. (oh, did I forget to mention door prizes? BONUS!)

ANYWAY, here’s a few photos from the evening. I had a blast, and would like to give thanks to Caitlin and Kathy for creating such a fun evening, to Kren for giving such an entertaining and informative demo, and to Sharon and Kevin Daroca of Design Mart for allowing us to romp all over their showroom after-hours! Sharon and Kevin were welcoming and fahhhhhhbulous and added so much to the fun, relaxing atmosphere of the entire evening.

Shiny, sparkly things…

Some of the raw materials Kren used for his floral creations

Kren amazing one and all with his mad skillz

One of Kren’s creations incorporated into one of Caitlin and Kathy’s room set-ups

One more thing – Caitlin and Kathy also have their own individual design businesses. Be sure to check out Symmetry designs, and Inside Out Designs to learn more about Caitlin and Kathy and see more of their work!

I found myself rather fascinated by a large letter “A” the other day. Sure, I’ve been using the letter quite regularly since kindergarten, but it just takes on such photographable character when it’s a semi-gianormous, three-dimensional creation surrounded by all sorts of funky murkiness and texture. Irresistible!

And thus, another mini photo series was born:

The experience wasn’t complete for me, however, without the addition of a model into a few shots. In this case, “modeling” also included being locked out of an apartment complex and squeezing under a gate in a party dress – without damaging any of the sequins! And people think modeling is an easy job…

At any rate, I got to experiment a bit with mixing flash, video, and ambient light, and learned a valuable lesson in keeping track of such small but necessary things like keys and cell phones. (You think I would have learned that lesson by now. *sigh*)

The idea was to bring in external illumination, but have it match the somewhat jagged, textural, ambient illumination that caught my attention in the first place. Night illumination creates such an “otherworldly” feeling, so I wanted to work off of that feeling with this particular set of images.

Many thanks to Kaelyn for making herself available on the spur of the moment, and for so patiently dealing with the sometimes less-than-orderly process of trying on a new idea for size Your willing participation in all aspects of the evening is greatly appreciated!!!

A meltingly hot day in June provided the backdrop for a gorgeous Rose Garden ceremony, and a spirited reception at Roux in Santana Row. As hot as it was, the weather didn’t seem to matter at all once the ceremony began, and the celebration that followed banished all thought of the heat from our minds as Andy and I continued to document the events of the day. There’s NOTHING I love more than a good party…

Soooo…. here are some photos to supplement all the verbiage

Ah, the perfect summer shoe -Comfort AND Bling – gotta love it!

A “Mysterious Secret Agent” shot of Melissas’ son in his tuxedo…

Playing around in the gloriously speckled hallways of the Valencia Hotel:

Some images of Sidneys’ daughters:

More images from the ceremony:

Melissa and Sidney created their own personalized version of the popular sand ceremony – sand was poured to represent not only the two of them, but their children as well. It was a beautifully visual way to represent the fact that Melissa and Sidneys’ marriage is a merging of families, as well as the joining of two individuals .

One of the portraits we shot during our evening walk around Santana Row:

The official “What sort of crazy thing can I do with their rings?” shot:

And I must admit – there are plenty of entertaining photos from the reception as well, but, well – the day is beautiful and I’m going outside to play, so here endeth this blog Andy and I give a great big THANKS to Melissa, Sidney and their family and friends for making us feel so welcome and being so much fun to work with. You definitely made our job a LOT easier! Thank You, and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

The gypsy in me loves hearing about new adventures, especially when those adventures belong to people I know who are using them to push against their personal and creative boundaries in the hope of achieving personal growth.

This is where my tremendously talented friend Gillian enters the picture (no pun intended, I think…) Gillian has headed down to LA to attend FIDM and pursue a career in fashion. I can’t think of a better fit than GILLIAN and FASHION – I really can’t – and I’m pretty psyched to see where her combination of raw marketing talent, style sense and enthusiasm takes her. On with the adventure, I say!

Speaking of adventure – Gillian, my beloved gold chair, and I had a small photo adventure a few weeks ago at my storage facility. I’ve been dying to do something photographic with all those orange doors for a while now, and of course Gillian had the perfect outfit picked out to go with my highly orange theme-of-the-day.

So, here’s a few photos:

My latest thrift-shop find is a lampshade that ACTUALLY MATCHES the aforementioned beloved golden chair. Vintage ecstacy for Lisa!

As you can see, Gillian is definitely the shy, retiring type… yeah, right…
In fact, Gillian is one of the few people I know who can make loitering at a budget storage place look drop-dead sexy – now THAT’S talent!

So yes, my friend and muse has happily succumbed to the lure of LA, I am absolutely thrilled and excited to see what lies ahead for her. At moments like these I realize I haven’t lost a friend – I’ve simply gained a place to crash in LA!

Just kidding Gillian (maybe) – Love ya’ darlin’! GOOD LUCK IN LA!!!!