This morning when I went over to my computer to do some editing of a photo shoot I did on Saturday, I discovered an elf in my coffee cup with a memory card.

The back story about this elf is that about two months ago a friend took me to a “Seconds” store in Carson City Nevada to “look around”.  I discovered some darling elves made by “Annalee”.  I purchased six elves dressed in red and green to add to my collection of bendable elves.  Everything was fine until we brought down the Christmas decorations from the attic.  That’s when the mischief began.

I’ll take a look at the memory disc and see what he’s been up to, but I have a weird feeling about all this.  I don’t know too much about shelf elves, but I’m thinkin’ they are supposed to stay on the shelf.  At any rate, here’s a couple of my favorite photos from the photo shoot.

Red Dress and a Mink

Red and Green look good on her

Blue Truck Red Truck

I’m sensing a theme here…

I mentioned that I had attended a workshop and portfolio building photoshoot for models and aspiring models a couple of weeks ago on a rice farm in Williams, CA.  Here’s a little bit of behind the scenes and a little bit of my finished product.

Or, go here for full screen: Workshop on a Rice Farm

It was a long day, but great fun!

If you like what you see and you would like to have some great looking photos like these, send me an email at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net and we can set you up!

I spy with my little eye

Actually, I couldn’t decided between these two shots, so I put them both in.  I love taking photos of children, especially when they are just acting like kids.

Bored

It was tough to pick because I had so many fantastic people that I was fortunate enough to photograph this past year.  Thanks to all those who touched my life with beauty and grace and down right fun.

Enjoy

I’m just finishing up my last “studio lights” portrait assignment for the Folsom Lake College Portrait and Wedding Photography class I’m doing.  So, as usual, I called in the fam.  Pictured here are my headless oldest son, my son’s headless girlfriend and her little boy (not headless).  He’s been in many of my pictures before and I got a fairly decent picture of him without his mugging for the camera.  Now this is not the photo I chose for my formal portrait assignment, but it is one of my favorite photos of the session.  I used my new studio strobe and pocket wizards.  I feel so professional…

This is the photo I chose for the assignment.  There are several things about it that I don’t like…mostly technical (like the chair back, the shadow on my son’s chest, her “bolt upright” pose), but it’s okay for a formal pose.

I also had this one:

which is OKAY, but my oldest son has a really fake look on his face and Dino’s smile is beginning to wane.  (He was getting pretty tired of this picture taking business by then.)  Plus, the boys’ clothes are a little disheveled.  And, there’s a little space between her hair and her face that’s annoying.  Picky?  Yes, but we are talking about trying to make a photo that you would be proud to have hanging over your fireplace.  After a while these things would start to bug you…so, it appears I need a little more practice with formal photos.

Now you can see why I like the first shot.  Here’s another one I really liked:

Again, not a formal pose, but this type of shot is more my style.

And this one:

And this is much better of my son with Dino:

Both of them have a fairly natural look on their faces.  I think I still need to work with my oldest in order for him to feel more comfortable with the camera in front of his face.

So, thanks to my family who helped me out yet again.

This is almost too much for my eye to handle, but I just couldn’t stop.  Lori has so many wonderful elements and papers and frames…and I actually removed some of the elements.  At any rate, it was a fun way for me to add some creativity to a photo that I really like.

Hmmm…maybe it is a bit over the top?

NAH!

My little friend came by to help me make some Mexican Chicken soup last night and he brought a school friend of his…Freddy the Frog.  He was Freddy’s caretaker for a week.  At the end of the week he returns the frog and turns in a one page story about his time with the frog.  So, I took a couple of pictures to help him tell the story.

Sadly, while my little friend was making the soup, the frog apparently got tired of reading the recipe to him and began to slide down the counter.  He’s apparently a rather lazy frog.

Alas, I wore out my little friend with all the cooking and picture taking, so he was a touch grumpy when I suggested he read a quick story to Freddy so I could take the last picture.  It was a tough day of going to school, caring for Freddy and visiting me.  It wears me out just thinking about it.