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My name is Karen Schmautz and I live in beautiful El Dorado County of Northern California.  I am a photographer specializing in weddings, portraits and events. 

Pyramids and Redheads/Sacramento Bridal and Fashion Photographer

Sunday, August 29, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I attended a photo shoot and workshop in one of my favorite locations, Old Town Sacramento.  I never get tired of shooting there because there is so much excellent background.  For example, the above photo.  The sky didn’t quite look like this, so I tweeked it a little to match more of what was in my imagination when I took the shot.  The light was still beautiful because the sun was on it’s way down.  The bride was gorgeous and extremely cooperative.  This is one of my favorite shots from the day.

Here’s another shot with a model in front of the same pyramid building as above.  Shasta is one of my all-time favorite models to shoot because she is innovative, always interesting and gorgeous.

Two models I have never worked with before are in the next two shots.  Naomi, the redhead, has wonderful red hair and a great look.  I especially enjoyed shooting her with the light coming from behind her.

Another new model (above)  with a great unique and sweet look.  Her hair and skin tones were gorgeous with the yellow.

Beautiful redheads seemed to be in abundance at this shoot.  I especially liked this gal’s eyes and hair color with the wonderful tones of the background.

All in all, it was a great day.  I took quite a few shots and there were many other models.  I’ll try to put up  a few more on another post.

Posted in Laughs Unlimited, Old Town Sacramento, brides, portraits

by Karen Schmautz

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Jesse and Jackie Get Married/El Dorado County Wedding Photographer

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Did I mention that I shot a wedding at the end of July?  Did I mention that it was a photographer’s dream wedding?  Did I mention that the couple was madly in love and wonderful to work with and that the bride was beautiful? No?  Well, take a look for yourself.

The groom was equally fun and dashing.  (And so were his Groomsmen.)

The wedding and reception were held at a wonderful Placerville, CA restaurant, Sequoia Restaurant.  The restaurant was originally a beautiful old Victorian Home that was been wonderfully restored.  The light coming through those old windows was a photographer’s dream.

A wonderful time was had by all who attended, including me.  Thanks, Jesse and Jackie, for letting me be a part of your wedding.

Posted in Uncategorized, wedding | Tags: , , , ,

by Karen Schmautz

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I won!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

well, the Sacramento Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk competition, that is. (Sacramento, CA USA (Old Sacramento & Railway Museum)) Now…on to the Worldwide competition.

This shot was a last minute edit and entry.  I saw and photographed this train early on in my walk through the museum. I saw lots of other photogs taking pics of this train from all sorts of different angles.  So, I tried my hand at an HDR (3 exposures) of this beauty.

Here’s the original after combining exposures and editing:

Not very dramatic.  Its an okay train photo.

So, I jazzed it up a bit, added some motion, submitted and crossed my fingers.

Now, my photo gets submitted to the Worldwide competition where the other 1100 winners will be submitted.  Some of the world’s best photographers have submitted their photos of the day. The prizes are pretty good:

“…leaders will have one week to choose the winning image from their walk. All of those winning images will then be posted in the People’s Choice gallery where you can vote for the shot you think is the best. The People’s Choice winner will receive a $750 Adorama gift card and a 1-year Kelby Training Online subscription.

While that’s going on, Scott will also be narrowing all of the winning images down to the best of the best to select the top 11 images from the whole event. Those will be the 10 Honorable Mentions (who will receive a $250 Adorama gift card) and the Grand Prize Winner (who will receive a $1000 Adorama gift card and a 1-year Kelby Training Online subscription).”

Somebody tell me to “break a leg”.

Posted in Old Town Sacramento, Photo Walk, publicity | Tags: , , , , ,

by Karen Schmautz

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Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk: Sacramento Train Museum

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

On Saturday I participated in Scott Kelby’s Third Annual Photo Walk in Old Town Sacramento.  Worldwide there were over 33,000 photowalkers at over 1,100 locations.  Our groups was allowed into the Sacramento Railroad Museum before it was open so that we could use our tripods and not have to deal with tourists.  So, I got up at 4:30 a.m. to be in Old Sacramento by 6;15. There were about 50 photographers who were able to roust themselves out of bed in time to be there.  It was well worth the effort.

We were lead into a large auditorium and given the rules of the museum.  Then, the drama began.  Dave Henry, the leader of our walk (on the right above), called for our attention to be drawn to the solid wall behind him.  As it began to rise we could see that there was a large window behind it.  Unfortunately they forgot to turn off the lights in the auditorium, so all we saw was…ourselves and a fain outline of a large locomotive. Always having my camera ready, I snapped this picture.  The quality is not so good, but you can see the walkers superimposed over the locomotive.

We only had about 2 1/2 hours in the museum before it would open to the general public.  At that point we would no longer be allowed to use our tripods.  Since the lighting was very dim in the museum, a tripod is a must in order to get a nice crisp photo. I wandered around with my friend, a wonderful photographer, Roger Aylstock, for some of the time.  But, as photographers do, our interests lead us in different directions.  I found this wonderful gentleman (above) who was willing to let me take his photo in front of this beautiful train.  (Keep in mind that I know nothing about trains…my brother, Andy Thomas, is the train person in my family.)

Here are some of the shots I took.

At the very end, they took us outside where they had fired up the steam engine for us to photograph.  What a treat.

Now to decide which one to submit for the contest…

Posted in Uncategorized

by Karen Schmautz

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New Guy in My Life

Monday, July 19, 2010

No, I’m not getting a divorce…my hubby is still the love of my life.  But, I did add a new member to the family:

He’s pretty durn cute, but he needs a little TLC.  I got him from the South Lake Tahoe Animal Shelter about 3 weeks ago.  He was badly underweight, lame from a buckshot wound, recovering from cancer, losing his fur from an allergy of some sort and the most lovable dog you have ever met.  Here’s what he looked like the day after I got him:

Yes, he was a mess.  We’ve been walking every day to rebuild the muscle in his back legs.  Yesterday we went 2 miles in two different sessions, but he was limping around and exhausted for the rest of the day.  Today he is also still pretty pooped, but at least he’s not limping around.

Last week he looked like this:

He’s a little timid around water…you can see him looking at the little creek that runs behind our house.

This morning I went out for a Starbucks coffee and since he makes me crazy until I take him for at least one ride in the car per day, I took him with me.  I left him in the car while I quickly went in to get my coffee.  Don’t worry, it wasn’t even 50 degrees outside, so he was quite comfortable and laid down to wait for me.  Then we stopped at this little pond nearby and I let him run around.  He sticks pretty close to me and when he smells something that scares him (probably a bear), he quickly returns to my side.  However, when we walked around this little pond for a bit, I made the mistake of telling him that it was time to go home.  He didn’t hesitate but zoomed off (and I mean ZOOMED) towards the car.  I don’t know him well enough to know that he would zoom over to the car and wait.  All I saw was my brand new dog zooming away from me and since he doesn’t know the new name I gave him very well yet, he paid no attention to my pitiful calls of  “Obie, come back here.”…”Obie, where are you going?” (As if he would stop and answer me.)  and “OOOOOOBIEEEEEEE  STOP!”

When I finally arrived back at my car (trying not to slosh my remaining coffee as I lumbered along), there he was patiently waiting at the car door to go home.

Here he is at the beginning of our walk looking good and raring to go.

He needs lots of work and there’s lots to find out about him.  But he is a dear, gets along with other dogs and seems to love everyone.

Good dog, Obie.

Posted in My Life, Uncategorized | Tags:

by Karen Schmautz

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