When Jenny contacted me about doing a session of her family I could tell right off the bat that we would hit it off. Her plan was to photograph her family and then capture her grandmother's 90th birthday party at the Allegria Hotel in Long Beach. The venue was just gorgeous with all the natural light and large windows. Here are just the photographs that I captured from her family's session. We had such a blast!
365 Project, June
So I finished out June, I think maybe I missed one day or two. Not too bad. It was a really busy month with the end of school and so much going on. I really hope to get outside more in July with my photos but my kids are so tired at the end of the day it is hard to motivate any of us to get outside.
365 Project June
Maternity Beach Session
I am so excited for my friend Floryn and her hubby Francis to be having their second baby boy. I photographed Floryn back when I first started out in photography, but our friendship goes way back to growing up, back when I used to sing and dance on stage. Floryn still performs on stage as an amazing dance instructor and she is also a super accomplished business star with Rodan and Fields, which is why her skin looks so flawless! I can't wait to get to meet their new little boy and I know he will be just as cute as his big brother!
Friday Favorites
One- SCHOOL'S out for SUMMER! WOO HOO! Today is our last day and my kids have to go to school for an hour, so silly. So after I drop them off I head to the bagel store and get bagels for lunch and after pick up we head straight to the beach. Such a fun tradition! And of course I will be taking the traditional "Last Day" photo today. Here is last year's and the first day of this school year, they grow so fast!
Two- Summer! So, summer was my favorite season when I was a kid, as an adult it has never been my favorite because I don't love the heat. But, as a mom, I LOVE summer with my kids! First off, I love that we have no obligations. We don't have sports we have to shuffle to, or speech appointments, or any standing appointments and we really fly by the seat of our pants. With that said, my kids do go to camp and they LOVE it, and I do work during the summer photographing two camps and it is a blast, but other than that we really go with the flow. Owen is doing a basketball under the lights league, but it is very casual and only once a week, so I don't really think it counts.
Three- I am currently reading this book and it's written by Tsh Oxenreider who does the podcast I recommended called The Simple Show and it is all about her families trip around the world. Let me tell you it is giving me major wanderlust! The other thing I love about the book is how she is so real about travel, and the positives and negatives of traveling with kids.
Four- Cilantro Lime Chicken. I have made this a couple times now and it is DELISH! Marinate boneless skinless chicken thighs in a combo of olive oil, the juice of two limes, cilantro, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then throw them on the grill. YUM!
Five- The beach! As I said above we are heading to the beach today. Living 15 minutes from the beach is a favorite of ours.
Check out these links for some more Friday Favorites. Momfessionals TabandErika GraceandLove
What I do while I edit, it involves a lot of Netflix and podcasts
My messy desk
While I edit I need to have background noise. I used to have a laptop and was able to edit my photos from the comfort of my couch or bed, but then two years ago I spilled coffee on that laptop and fried it. It was a sad day for sure, but I was lucky because I use backblaze so I had all my worked backed up and it was more of an inconvenience and expense than catastrophe. Anyway, for the past two years I have been chained to my desk while I edit, which means I have had to find other ways to have background noise. Of course, I often listen to pandora radio, but radio can get boring and monotonous, enter Netflix and Podcasts.
So, I am sharing this with you in the hopes that you can give me some recommendations, and also it's my hope that if you are stuck at a desk like me this will give you some new shows or podcasts to listen to.
Let's start with Netflix, and when I say Netflix, I also mean Amazon Prime Video and any other streaming service. When I edit I can't watch a new show that I really need to keep my eyes glued to the screen because my attention really needs to be on the computer screen so I try to choose shows I have either watched before or that I can really mostly listen to and still understand the story line. Here are my favorites below and please send me some of your favorites in the comments.
Moving along to podcasts. I am embarrassed to admit that I only started listening to podcasts this past fall. I knew what they were and tried to get into them a long time ago but just never found one that I liked. Anyway, I also used to love reading the blog Young House Love, and when they stopped blogging I missed them, but they started a podcast so I figured I would give it a shot and instantly realized I had been missing out on podcasts.
There are four podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. Two of the podcasts, Young House Love has a podcast and The Chris loves Julia Podcast, are about home design. The Simple Show podcast is a mix of travel, family, and books, all of my favorite things, and the last podcast, How I Built This, is about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists and how they built their businesses and brands.
I also find myself listening to podcasts in the car or when I am cleaning or straightening up around the house.
Check them out on iTunes and leave me some recommendations of podcasts you listen to. I really don't love mystery or murder, but if you know any that you think I might like, please comment below.