Laura met me at the El Dorado Hills Town Center for a photo shoot.  She was going to meet with a potential agent and need some portfolio shots.  She is a delightful young woman with gorgeous red hair that I wanted to highlight.

In the above photo we placed her against a rustic redwood background and used a simple black bench for her to sit on.

Placing her against the sky not only emphasized her red hair, but it also highlighted her beautiful blue eyes.

Here, she changed into a new outfit.  We placed her near some columns and a dark background.  This background made her stand out.

She has beautiful, long, lean lines which I wanted to emphasize with the angle of the stair railing and use of the strong architectural lines in the background.

Here she is showing off her curves.

If you want to set up a mini shoot with our studio, send us an email at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net.  Included in the price is one hour of shooting, one location, one outfit and your choice of 5 edited high resolution photos to download from your personal gallery.  Price…$85.00.  I promise it will be fast and fun.

Wish you were here!

My favorite things combined:  Landscape photography and People Photography…all in one great weekend. These pics are from my weekend photo adventure and workshop with Mark Behrens and a bunch of wonderful photographers and models.  On Saturday we traveled around to a bunch of different wineries and vineyards searching for the National Geographic moment.  We had the advice and teaching of a wonderful landscape photographer, Dean Gustafson.  He helped me capture the below photo along with several other ones, below.  Very nice man. Here’s a few more shots of the landscape portion.

Napa Winery Tower

Rose in Sunshine

Fog rolls into Napa Valley

Hot Air Balloons over Napa Valley

What a great time we had in Napa Valley this weekend.  The whole weekend was devoted to photography.  Saturday was spent studying landscape photography with the help of landscape photographer Dean Gufstason.  I learned so much from him.  He is an excellent photographer (click on his name to go to his web page) and was extremely helpful and kind.

Sunday, we journeyed up to the private Behren’s Family Winery where we literally had the run of the place.  I have lots of photos to edit, but I’ve put a few here for your enjoyment.

I’ll probably do a little slideshow later on and I may add some more to the blog by way of a light box, or something.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun.  Thanks to Mark Behrens for putting the whole thing together.  Disneyland for photographers, indeed.

I was fortunate to be able to participate in a photo shoot at the California Museum in Sacramento, CA. It was a fun place with colorful walls, great architectural details and wonderful exhibits. The models were gorgeous and fun to shoot.  The event was put on by Mark Behrens and, as usual, was run professionally and smoothly.

I love these events because I get to meet other photographers and learn from them.  I also get to work with up and coming models and I end up with great photos.  Here is but a small sampling of some of the shots I got from this event.

I love porches…especially porches with rocking chairs or adirondak chairs.  There’s something so inviting about a porch with comfy wood chairs.  I’ve noticed, as I’ve been weeding through some of my older photos, that I also like to take pictures of porches.  I thnk it’s because I would love to spend time on these porches…just watching the world go by.

New houses don’t have front porches so much anymore.  Nowadays,  you see your neighbor’s garage door magically open and the neighbor drives into the garage (maybe he waves as he goes into his secret car storage area), the door closes behind the car and you don’t see your neighbor again until morning when the garage door opens and out he drives.  And many people live in newer homes with backyard patios, surrounded by fences, so you really don’t spend much time getting to know your neighbor.

I liked it when houses had porches.  Porches in the front of the house.  Porches that invited your neighbor to come sit a spell.  Have a lemonade.  Watch the kids play on the grass.  Talk about the family and the job.  Have a cookie.  Those kind of porches.

Sitting on the porch on a summer evening was the neighborly thing to do.  Porches are just plain friendly.  Even when the leaves haven’t been swept off them in a couple of days.  Even when their is no roof and it’s really a deck.  Porches with comfy chairs just make you feel good and help to slow everything down.

Maybe porches represent a time gone by, never to be recaptured.  But, I don’t think so.

We all need a porch in our life.