Melting My Heart.

The other day, four (almost) new college graduates and I headed to the park for a photo shoot to celebrate and help remember their college years.  I absolutely LOVED working with these amazing people!  

But what made me truly appreciate working with them was hearing the news that one of the girls showed her mother the photos and her mom started crying!  That melts my heart.  When I think about how much the photos I took mean to someone, and can move them to tears makes my job beyond satisfying.

I hope you enjoy some of the photos from our shoot!  Enjoy! :)

I'm a bad blogger.

I have realized lately that I am one of the worst bloggers around.  I think I get too busy and excited about everything else in my life that I forget about keeping people in the loop via my blog.  I wish there was a reminder that I could set on here (not sure if it's possible) that would remind me to blog more frequently.  I apologize for not blogging in nearly a month.

But to get you up to date with everything, Morgan Hill was AMAZING!!  It was such a great opportunity that has really brought a lot more opportunities that I could ever imagine.  We (All Action Shots Team) was invited to take photos for the preliminaries for the next Summer Olympics to shoot the swimmers trying to qualify.  I think this will take place in Colorado. So exciting for such a great company!

See the link below to see how many different athletes that the photographers shot!  http://wwc.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=7978443

Secondly, life has been busy lately because my husband and I, along with our dog, moved into a different apartment.  We are so excited to be finally (somewhat) out of boxes, although we still have a ways to go.  At least we can function in our daily lives now right?  Well, sort of...

Now, the fun part.  We went on a couple of day "road-trips" lately.  My husband surprised me and drove us to a place called Three Rivers (not quite sure how to describe where it is) but it was B-E-A-U tiful!  Of course I took a million and a half photos, which sometimes drives him nuts.

PS.  I would absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to do a session here with someone!!

(Below are taken with my camera self-timer)

 And yes, I did run back each time...even across the street (below)

We also went to Monterey with a couple of good friends.  It was fun, fabulous and I think I learned a whole new appreciation of the city.  I wouldn't mind doing a photoshoot here too! :)

And now for the photography part, I have been shooting action shots in the evenings of softball lately.  In between dodging foul balls, and getting asked questions such as "who's mom/aunt/sister, etc. are you?" and sitting (literally) on the first base line, I am having an AWESOME time!!  I often wonder what mom/aunt/sister would have that large of a camera and being willing to actually sit on the field...but that's besides the point.  Below is a sneak peak of a photo from one of my shoots.  I purposely chose a photo where the athlete's back is to me, due to copyright and confidentiality issues.  Enjoy!

Text me to a great opportunity!

Today I received a text message from Jim.  Jim is the owner and head photographer from All Action Shots, a local sports photography business, that I have been working with the past couple of weekends.  When I first saw the text I didn't recognize the number (I accidentally deleted all of my contacts the other day), and then I read the body.  It was asking me if I would be able to join them in Morgan Hill (near Santa Cruz, Ca.) for the rest of the weekend because they needed some extra help.  They were swamped today and are expecting to get even more busy this weekend.  

After talking to Jim about the details and getting it approved by my husband (more like showing him how excited I was) I am Morgan Hill bound tomorrow night!  

I am sooo excited!  I can't wait for this great opportunity!  

See ya Sunday Fresno!  Hello Morgan Hill!!

Lunges...300x's

Yesterday I did about 300 lunges.  You know, lunges, the leg exercise.  I worked with All Action Shots, a local photography business specializing in action and individual/team photos for local youth athletics.  And let me tell you, I had a BLAST!!!  It was such a good experience working with everyone involved.  I learned a lot and can't wait for more events with the team from All Action Sports.  

Now you must be wondering why I was talking about lunges at first.  Well, taking photos, posing little kids and holding a 10 lb (...well pretty close) camera all day does it to you.  Up to help the child pose, lunge down to get at the child's eye level, stand up again to fix the child's hat, repeat with next child.  Repeat 300+/- more times.  Total we photographed over 900 youth baseball players.  

3 photographers divided by 900 kids=at least 300 lunges and one tired, and sore, Stefani today.  

Sore legs=well worth the great experience!!!

I highly recommend All Action Shots to anyone looking for a great, patient and understanding photographer who takes high quality photos made with pride.

Documenting Love.

Checking the mail and seeing some photos from previous shoots used on a wedding invitation and an engagement party invitation within a 2 week period has been one of the greatest joys for me lately.  It makes me feel so blessed to know that my work is bringing joy and happiness to others. 

I LOVE photographs!!  

I LOVE taking photographs!!  

And I LOVE the gift of love that it brings!

To me, a picture creates a story.  It shows exactly how life is at that very moment.  It documents.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to document your love!

I hope years from now you and your loved ones look at these photos and love still feels your hearts.

Romance. Friendship. Love.

Meet Hannah and Michael.

Hannah and I have known each other since kindergarden.  We went to school with each other all the way up until we both moved away from home for college.  We have kept in touch since then, but had never met up since we were living in different states until now.  Hannah has always been a sweet girl, and now she is an amazing woman of God.

And Michael...well, Michael was the guy that made fun of me in high school and copied off of my work in chemistry, even though I barely passed chemistry.  He can always make you laugh and is not afraid of being goofy.

With that being said, I hope that you are able to see just how much they love and adore each other in the photos below.  

...life as you picture it...

I find myself going through my daily life seeing frames that I could get if I was looking through the viewfinder of my camera.  I often think...humm, if I took a picture right now, this is what I would do.  I do this A LOT throughout my day.  A couple holding hands, the happiness in the faces of children when they see something new and exciting, and the tears when they fall down.  The beautiful nature that God has given us.

To me, a photograph is a memory frozen in time.  It captures a story.  The emotions, expressions, feelings of the people within the story.  A photo can be put away for years and years, often forgotten about, and when found, can bring a flood of memories back to the viewers mind.  And memories within that photograph can be different from person to person.  I find it very difficult to abstain from taking photographs, especially in rare occasions.  My husband, however, looks at it differently.  He told me yesterday (we were at the snow) that I needed to put my camera away.  When I asked "why?" he said, "...you don't need a picture of everything, this way, we can come back and make more memories..."  

...life as you picture it...