Talking 'bout my generation...

well, 3 generations of women. Grandmother, Mother and Daughter. Remember this family? Well, Grandma was in town and we went for a photo session before she left back to the states.
Here's some from the session:
The girls:

The gorgeous eyes of little Miss. Z.

There is a special relationship between a Grandmother and a Grandchild...

The face says it all: 'Yes, Mum, I can stand all on my own and soon, very soon, you will be chasing me all over the place!'

A Black and White. I still love those Black and Whites. They are timeless for portraits...

A beautiful end to a beautiful session...

Bon Voyage...

Daddy O...

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
A traditional Irish blessing...

Here's my version (of course!):
May the internet connect to write to me.
May the wind not blow you overboard.
May the sun shine warm upon your bald head;
the rains fall soft upon your rusty ship and until we meet again,
May you hold many lovely travel gifts in the palm of your hand!

This would be one of Loubie's: May many rainbows light your day!
This would be one of April's: From thinkexist.com Winnie the Pooh quotes:
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever."

We will miss you...

A Dandelion of a Family Session

Two boys. A Mum. A Dad. Me (dressed like it's winter) and a somewhat chilly Sunday afternoon. Amber was referred to me for a Family Session and we decided to do a Castle Ruins shoot. I was a bit worried about the weather, it's been cold (Okinawa cold and windy), but we chose the right day, the wind had died down, and the light was good. Since it was a little chilly, so we started off with some running and jumping, to get warmed up...

The boys were fantastic on the shoot. The youngest was VERY into picking dandelions and collecting the stalks. He was very sweet. I love how you can see the seeds being blown off in this first shot...and look at these baby blues...

The oldest was so polite and CUTE (they both were). He was also a great big brother, smart and loved being photographed (again with the baby blues)!

A mother and son moment...You can see one half of the beautiful eyes mix...

The family on the ruins steps...

After the shoot, I decided to go and take some personal photos at the ruins (well I was here already, might as well make the most of it, huh!). I wandered around taking photos of flowers and a weird (April's description coming up...) 'half bird, half bee creature'. It was so fast flitting (is that a word?) from flower to flower, before I could focus properly, it was off...anyone know what it is??? (It looks like a hummingbird here, but it def. isn't, it's bum was like a bees!)

Then...I literally walked right into a Cherry Blossom Tree. This time of year is big in Japan for viewing the trees. Okinawa blooms first. This was just one tree. Up North, there are hundreds blooming and there are big festivals. I spent some good time here taking photos, and talking to myself LOL then I realized the ruins may have closed so I headed back to the entrance and they were just locking up! That would have been a little crazy, looked in the ruins with the haunted hotel looming in the background!

All in all, a great productive afternoon. Thanks so much Amber and Family for coming out to play, I am glad you love your photos and that we got to actually do them with the whole weather right now! :o)

More Cherry Blossoms coming soon (hopefully) too...

What did you do New Year's Eve?

Life, Oh, Life (LOVE this song)...I am in awe of women and what we can do. That, I definitely am, after my recent photo shoot. I wasn't expecting a New Year shoot, but the main subject decides when the shoot will be happening!
I was honoured to be invited to photograph a birth recently. I got the call on New Years Eve. Carrie (Mother-to-be) called and said that things should get going in a couple of hours. My family and I went out for a bite to eat and then hubby dropped me at the hospital. Just in time. As we pulled up, my phone rang. It was Dad to be, Scott, telling me the baby will be here soon and am I anywhere near (by any chance!)? (Bear in mind, that Carrie has had super short labours in the past)...'No probs, I tell him, I am downstairs!'
Great timing! This was the first time I was meeting Dad Scott and only the 3rd time I've met Carrie (remember the last post about meeting her through Jannine and also 2 of her girls were models for the 'Especially For Girls' shoot)...Right there, you know that this is one open and cool family.
WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE. Carrie was made for childbirth. I think there was less than 2 minutes of pushing and that little beautiful, perfect girl was out. And Carrie, well, she was still fluttering those eyelashes, like she has just sat down for a cup of tea and some chit chat. All this and not an epidural insight. As I said, she was made for childbirth!
Me, on the other hand: hair flattened on my head on one side, half headed mohican on the other, looking like a deer in headlights, screaming 'where's my epidural'!

I got to photograph the whole deal (crowning and actual birth, which I won't be posting here!). I was lucky to get it. Push 1: crowning head. Push 2: baby out in less than 15 seconds!
Here are some of the evening...What a Happy New Year!

I walk in and here is Carrie, looking like she's about to give birth in less than 15 mins (not!). She looks fab doesn't she!

A baby girl is born!

A story is told...Dad cuts the cord, I squeeze in between Dr's and Nurses as a Mother meets her child...

This is one of my favourite images...it is so raw and real, the motherly love envelopes the whole exposure...

Weighing in at 7 lbs, 8ozs in the Happy New Year corner is baby B!

Proud and Happy Dad holds his daughter for the first time...

Now, Mum gets some cuddle love time...

The proud new parents...

After the shoot, I gave hubby a call to pick me up. He had bumped into my friend, Shelia, while over at American Village, so we hung out for a while. Later, we went on the Ferris wheel (finally...10 mths after being on Island)...which was actually rather, errr, boring (especially after my exciting night!). Finally, a couple of white zinfandels later, 12am came around, us and the kids (yep, they were still up all excited) watched some fireworks from the roof and that's when the party in the living room started...the i-pod got plugged into the TV and we rocked out for a good hour, while calling family in London and New York! :o)
CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU Scott and Carrie and the rest of your children and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Smokin' Hot (if the water wasn't so cold!)

I LOVE couple shoots. I haven't done too many and need to do more. Hint, hint - couples out there...I was so excited when I saw these getting downloaded onto the computer. I LOVED how they turned out! Before I start with my rambling, I must share my best shot of the morning...

Ha, ha, just kidding! This is the exact moment in which the quite cold water hit my bum! (I have many more shots like this too!). Yes, we went slightly wild on this shoot. And when I found out that Jannine actually had a bikini on underneath her clothes, it was game on! Between Erik and I, she was not going home until we had gotten right in the water!!! Jannine and Erik were actually all the way in by the end and I was up to my waist. And it was not tropical summer temp water, let me tell you!

First, I have to tell you the story of how I met Jannine.
We were at Loubie's preschool friends b-day party at Mona kids Jungle (sort of like snakes and ladders for any Brits reading). Loubie was having a lot of fun playing with a little girl. Mum (Jannine) came over and said that was her kid chasing mine around and we got chatting. She is from New Zealand. We both lived on the same Street on Camp Pendleton but at different times. Then we found out, we both had the same job as a Facilitator for the ASYMCA's Operation Hero Program at the SAME SCHOOL (again at different times). What a small world!
Jannine just started her own girl's clothing biz, Especially For Girls, which she hired me to take the photos for. I then did some photos of her daughters. Her hubby was deployed at the time. BUT, he is back and I grabbed the pair of them for a shoot at the beach! I have only known Jannine for a short while, but she is really cool and I consider her a friend indeed! That's how it rolls out here.
Colour or Black & White, that is the question. Well, we'll take both!

The couple before the mad sea dash and then during!

A silhouette...not much guessing to where this is if you're one of the photographers out here!

We were lying in the sand, under caves...

Sitting in the water...

That's when the fun really began...

Jannine (Mother of 2) is a marathon runner in case you are wondering where she gets the fabulous body from...

I messed around with this one post process and I quite like how it turned out...

I think Erik is thinking of auditioning for GQ Man or something! He was the one who was in the water first, up for anything, seemingly uncold...Any male model scouts out there, email me and I'll pass the info on!!! (But I want my 20% LOL!!!) This one's for Jannine...

Meeting Jannine actually led on to a coming soon blog post. I met Carrie through Jannine. They are long time friends. (As in Longer than a year, which is WOW here! I think they have actually known each other for about 5 years - their daughters are best friends from San Diego). Carrie was 9 mths pregnant and totally into having her birth photographed. Something I have wanted to do for the longest. I never knew if it would materialize, what with timing, but it did and it was great. So, watch this space...
Jannine and Erik. THANK YOU for being into swimming in the sea in the name of art!!! It was a blast!

Remember Little E...

Here?
Well, here she is again, this time at the beach, no tutu, but she is just as busy as ever! This time Dad was in the session. Don't they make a nice trio!!!

Mum and daughter get some in-air hugs and kisses time...

While Dad takes the in-air love to another level...upwards! She doesn't look like she is having too much fun up there, does she?!!!

As it starts to drizzle (check that sky out in the previous photo) Dad frames his girls for the last portrait before we all head off out of the rain to edit photos (me) and bake cakes (Marisa)...Click the link to see Marisa's cake making info...very creative.

Fun Family Session

This session was rescheduled a couple of times because of the weather and we got it on the 3rd time!
Here is the sneak peek from last week...
and here are some more from the session...
Baby bright eyes in B&W...she was so good for the whole shoot! Lucky me!

Brother sharing a tender moment with sis...

We are family...

Dad and son share some time together...

The new parents...very cool and lovely eyed people ;o)

Thank you for coming out, Nyoka and family. I am glad we finally busted the weather!

The (rolling and laughing and jumping) Stones...

A couple of Saturdays ago saw us up at the crack of dawn (not a pretty sight in my case!) but it was oh so worth it. It was the Oliveras' shoot swap #2. This time with Shelia Stone (my friend, foodie and fellow photographer) and her family. We ran, we jumped, we laughed, we borrowed a trolley, and we rolled!
After, we headed off to refuel at Cafe Caracalla. Later, we refueled once again at Cactus Eatrip (yeah, that is of name of a cafe with lovely bagels). To see Shelia's photos of us, click HERE.
Without further ado, here are some of the morning...
E runs up and introduces her, ahem, crazy, jumping parents...

Ta da...here they are, people! Yes, they do seem a tad loco!

Dad looks on and is thinking 'yep, that's my wall jumping wife!' E, totally oblivious to what's going on behind her!

It was faced paced action all the way!

Yes, that is Dad, the trolley rider at the bottom right!...

I LOVE this one!

We had to take a break at some point. Can I say E has Mum and Dad right 'under the croc!'

Cue smoochy love song...cue bird song...

An ode to Shelia's shoes...Shelia's shooting shoes, so red they are. They drive cars, hit bars, check out spas and of course, photograph spectacularly like they are from Mars!!! (I know you might think I am actually insane at this point!...not quite but close! I used to write raps ya know!)

We ended the shoot by hijacking someone's bike, and the kids pretended to run each other over!...

It was super duper fun, Thanks so much S. It will be sad to see you leave Oki. Who are Rene and I gonna find to replace ordering everything on the menu at Cappriossos? (Totally spelt wrong!) Huh, huh? Laughs...we had a few!
Check out Shelia's site for her new wedding portfolio. Yee haw for Texas! Ride 'em cowboy!