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.

I was taking a bunch of pictures of some of my younger relatives (children, nieces and nephews and their friends) while they were playing Guitar Hero a couple of weeks ago.  For the most part, these young people were having a lot of fun, but their faces were not showing it.  Their eyes were glued on the tv so that they could play the game.  But their faces were rather expressionless.  However, there is always one who is not afraid to break free from the crowd.

I caught this moment of my daughter cutting loose and thoroughly getting into the part of lead singer.  In fact, she reminded me of a picture of an infamous rock star from the 60’s…

Not to say that my daughter is anything like Janis Joplin, but the pose reminded me of her…and since I’m reading Annie Leibovitz’s new book, “At Work”, I was more in the mode to think about rock star photography.  (I can’t find the name of the photographer who took the above photo but I do have a link back to where I got it.)  Annie Leibovitz is a very famous photographer who started out photographing rock and roll stars for Rolling Stone Magazine when they were both just starting out.  She’s taken absolutely fabulous photographs of some of the most famous people around…including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore (pregnant and nude) and the Queen of England.  She also has a fantastic series called “Disney Dream Portrait Series” using famous people cast as Disney characters.  Take a peek by clicking on the link.

At any rate, I don’t think I’ll ever make it to the level of Annie Leibovitz or the photographer who took the above photo of Janis Joplin, but I do enjoy photographing people when they are having fun and aren’t aware of my camera (for my kids, I don’t think they would recognize me without my camera in front of my face, sad to say.)

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.

My dad, Richard M. Thomas, passed away quietly on January 4, 2009.  He suffered a stroke in November and his health went from bad to worse.  We celebrated his life at a funeral service on January 13, 2009.

It was a beautiful service in a little chapel in Placerville.  Since my dad was in the navy, he was honored by the VFW with an honor guard and a beautiful send off and the family was given a burial flag.  It was extremely touching and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.  My brother’s good friend, Pastor Steve Moore performed the service, my brother and nephew played an echo taps on the trombone and trumpet.  I provided a picture video of my dad’s life.  It was very respectful and a celebration of the gentle, intelligent and funny man that he was.

As a surprise, my good friend Pam (background) contacted my best friend, who lives in Southern California, and encouraged her to come.  I was so surprised to see my beautiful friend Julie and darling Pam walk into the chapel right before the service.

After the service, the family, the pastor and his wife, and my good friends headed downtown for lunch.

Here, my two sons and my oldest son’s girlfriend pose for me before heading to lunch.

Here are my youngest son, my daughter and my niece…waiting for lunch.

I’m a very lucky and blessed woman to have had such a wonderful father.  He loved me, my brother and my mom very much.  We were his life.  He taught me to study hard, have a sense of humor and above all, there is nothing more important than family.

Thanks, Dad.  Rest in peace.

I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph a little boy’s first day of preschool.  His mother shyly asked me if I could document this important day in both of their lives.  How could I turn her down?  It never even crossed my mind.

We met at a park about 1/2 hour before he was due at school so I could get a couple of shots before the excitement took over.  It was cold and foggy but I knew the story I wanted to tell.  He excitedly got out of the car and began walking to the park with his backpack.  It was the perfect picture of a little boy going off to school for the first time.  So…snap!

Then I had him get up on some of the jungle gym equipment so that I could get some head shots.  It was too cold and wet to play on the jungle gym, happily for his mom, but it made for some interesting effects in the photos.  The background virtually disappears in the fog leaving only his face showing all the excitement of his new adventure.

We left the park and headed out to the school.  He was incredibly excited to see the playground at the school.

As we walked up to the school and just before we walked through the doorway, he showed a little apprehension about the whole school thing.

But, he was a trooper and never cried nor said he wasn’t going to go through with the whole thing.  He got inside and saw that the rooms were bright, cheery and toy filled.

He found this toy camera and began to take pictures of me.  Heh.

When it was time for mom to say goodbye, he looked a little concerned, but he “manned up” and let his mom walk out the door without him.  I think mom had a harder time than he did.  But his mom told me that when she picked him up later on…he loved it and can’t wait to go back.

What a supreme honor to be part of this next stage of their lives.

We had our major Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve this year because that was the best time to get the entire family together.  All my children were present along with my mother-in-law and my son’s girlfriend and her little boy (pictured above.)  My husband prepared a fantastic meal of prime rib, roasted potatoes, peas with pearl onions, roasted brussel sprouts with parsnips and English pop overs.  It was to die for.  I don’t why I didn’t take a picture of the food…dumb, dumb, dumb…

Truly children make the holidays magical.  I caught the photo above when my son’s girlfriend and her son were checking out the Christmas tree.  The tree lights provided the only light for this photo.  He’s a cute little guy and I took quite a few pictures of him.

Here’s one of him again with my oldest son.  My son loves this kid for a number of reasons…number one being that they are two of a kind…full of energy and a little crazy.

Here’s a couple more of my favorite shots from Christmas…

My oldest son is kind of a goof and he was making these faces as his girlfriend was talking to my husband.  She wasn’t even aware he was doing it.  She got a good laugh when she saw this series.  Good thing for my son that she is a good sport.

I hope your Christmas was a merry one and that at least one of your dreams come true in the new year.

]]> http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/2009/01/03/family-christmas-favorites/feed/ 0 http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/2008/12/23/christmas-at-my-house/ http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/2008/12/23/christmas-at-my-house/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:21:17 +0000 Karen Schmautz http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/?p=265

It’s been a rough season for us as my dad has been in and out of the hospital since the middle of November.   This will be the first Christmas that he has not spent with his family…ever.  He’s in a full care nursing  facility at this point after living in an assisted living apartment just a month ago.  The difference?  A stroke.  Strokes are not good for anyone, but it is especially hard on him because he is also struggling with his memory.

So, I’ve been trying to document all of our Christmas activities in word and photos…like a docudrama…so that he will be able to participate through photos.  I was over there today visiting him and I brought my little photo book.  He was able to pick out several members of the family and even smiled a little.

These photos are for my dad, who has always been there for me.

My brother sent me a beautiful flower arrangement with a candle in the middle.  I used my star light filter to get the lights to sparkle.

The other day it snowed and I wanted to go out and take some photos, but the roads were pretty icey.  So, I settled for taking a photo of our street on the way home.

Corby has been actively involved in decorating the house this year, unlike years before.  Usually he dreads the whole Christmas decorating thing, but not this year.  It even makes this little snowman happy to see my husband involved.

We like to make a gingerbread house every year, but this year it hasn’t turned out so well.  First, the frosting was too stiff and we couldn’t squeeze it out of the container.  Then, we thinned it out a little which made it too soft, so the roof kept falling off and the walls were caving in. Sigh.  When the houses (we did two this year) were finally ready to decorate, all the decorators had given up and gone home.  I wonder if the dumb houses will last till next year.

This is a picture of my oldest son trimming the tree with some of the ornaments we have collected over the years for him.  It was always our tradition to purchase one special ornament per child per year so that when they got their own home, they would have a start on their own ornament collection.  Even though my son doesn’t live with us anymore, he put his ornaments on our tree because he didn’t have a tree of his own.  Maybe next year.

So these are some of the photos I made for my dad’s Christmas photo book.  So far, he likes them.  They are good memories for me, too.

You can look at some Christmas ornament photos while we are waiting…

When my husband and I were first dating we were both on limited budgets, so he helped me make my Christmas decorations for my tree.  I bought a bunch of little white plaster ornaments, some paint and some brushes and we painted our ornaments.  He painted this little penguin over 25 years ago, and it’s still one of his favorites.  I think he is waaay cuter than the ornament.

Some of the first ornaments I ever made were little felt ornaments.  I think I made these in the 80’s, and I still love them.  Here’s a little Santa from the set.

I bought this little plastic ornament in honor of my husband’s and my first Christmas as a married couple.  It is really not very pretty or interesting.  I’m not even sure why I got it, but we still hang it every year.

I made this nerdy little ornament (photo shows front and back of same ornament) the year after we got married.  I think I was learning to cross stitch and this was my first attempt.  This one always makes me smile.

So…I always like to go down memory lane at Christmas time.  These are just a few of my memories.

(PS  I did a little digital scrapbooking on these photos.  I used elements and papers I purchased from scrapbookgraphics.com.  There are a bunch of very talented designers over there and these little graphics make digital designing a snap.)

]]> http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/2008/12/19/christmas-oldies/feed/ 3 http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/2008/12/03/family-times-are-the-best/ http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/2008/12/03/family-times-are-the-best/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:08:26 +0000 Karen Schmautz http://sierrasprings.commanderdata.com/?p=242 My niece

This past weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, was a time to visit with my family and spend some time at Tahoe with my brother and his daughter.  Although I love to take photos of people, there is no better photo opportunity for me than photographing my family.  This weekend was great for that.

My niece (above right) asked me to take a few head shots of her for a Christmas gift for her grandfather.  So, I took her outside and we just had a good time together taking some photos.  She’s quite photogenic (maybe aside from the above photo) and a fun gal to be around.  She and my daughter (above left) are close in age (6 months apart) and close friends.  They also look quite a bit alike…many people mistake them for sisters.

So here are a couple of my favorite photos that we took together.  Isn’t she just the cutest thing?

She also brought her boyfriend along.  So, I dragged him outside to do a brief photo shoot of him.

He was cooperative and fun.  It doesn’t hurt that he is very handsome.  I enjoyed getting to know him a little better.

But, the most fun was when I took my niece, my daughter and this young man outside to do a photo shoot with the three of them.  They found some old hats in the cabin and insisted on using them as props.  I’ll let the audience be the judge.  (I told them to pretend they were at a cowboy’s funeral.  This is the pose I got…snort.)

Cue the James Bond Music.

This is not Vermont, in case anyone was wondering.  (I may return to Vermont photos later.)

This is Preston Castle in Ione, CA. I attended another one of those wonderful Mark Behrens Portrait Workshops over the weekend.  Beautiful models and fabulous location. Preston Castle is an abandoned Home for Wayward Boys owned by the state of California from 1893 until 1964, when it was abandoned for a more modern juvenile detention center (located next door to the castle.)  The castle fell into terrible disrepair, but has recently been marked for restoration.  The light in the castle was provided by the large windows and a few electric lights here and there.  Tripods were a necessity, for the most part.

I’ve been on a photographic outing to Preston Castle before with my camera club (El Dorado Camera Club.)  However, the only people involved were the other photographers and generally photographers don’t like to be photographed (a little odd, but it’s the way it is.) The only way to catch most photographers in a photo is to wait until they are busy concentrating on something and then, quick, take their picture. (We had about 40 photographers at this weekend’s shoot so it pretty much looked like this all over the castle.

This workshop was truly exciting because I love to photograph people in interesting places.  And there were interesting people and interesting places aplenty.  Like these 1940’s style pin up models.

And this very striking Russian model (who is the same model as the James Bond girl above).

There were also these guys who were perched on the roof of the castle and were apparently part of the greeting party.  I bet this place is really creepy on Halloween.

Here’s a very small photo of the castle that I took a couple of months ago when I was with my camera club.  Pretty cool, huh?

I may have some more photos of this workshop to put up tomorrow, or I may return to Vermont photos…