Posted in: Event photography | family | My Life | Senior Photos

Last night I had the honor of attending my son’s high school graduation ceremony.  It was cold and pouring down rain, but after a while it stopped raining and we could enjoy the ceremony.  I didn’t bring my big gun camera (canon 7d) because I didn’t want it to get wet, but filmed the whole thing with my little Canon G12 (I love that camera) which I wore around my neck and it fit snugly under the umbrella.

My daughter helped me out a bit with the filming, so I made a slide show of the whole event.  Enjoy.

 

Congratulations, Pat.  Your dad and I are very proud of you!

NEW! NEW! NEW!  UPDATED! updated with new video! click on link below!

Patrick Gets Graduated…New and Improved

 

 

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  • May 30, 2011 - 8:33 am

    Debbie - Love the grad show Karen. Great use of video and G12 stills. This deserves posting on the Enthusiast site. People are probably interested in seeing grad shows right now. You did really a wonderful job of story telling with all the elements and didn’t need a lot of fancy stuff to make a great show.

    Congrats to your son! WooHoo!

Posted in: architecture | Event photography | Fashion | landscapes | portraits | Weddings, Engagements and Anniversaries | winery

 

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.

 

 

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Posted in: Trash the Dress | Weddings, Engagements and Anniversaries

I had the extreme honor of attending a photo shoot put on by Betty Sederquist at a wonderful location owned by a couple of artists.  One of the most amazing parts of the property was this darling little lilly pond.  We were lucky enough to have several gals there who brought their wedding dresses (or found some dresses to borrow) and were willing to pose around, over and in the pond.  They were brave gals because, although the pond was beautiful and full of lilies and iris’…it was also full of algae, frogs and probably other things.  For this post, I’ll highlight Alyssa.

Here she is inside a willow tree.  We set up one light about 3 feet from her face inside the tree with her in order to get this shot.

This next shot is the same set up only she is about 1/2 foot closer to me and I cut back on the ambient/available light.  This gives the photo a slightly creepy/Twilight-y look.  I like it, but I wouldn’t do it for every bride.

These next shots were taken on a little rickety bridge over the lily pond. I love the reflection on the first one.

Someone told me she looked a little sad on this next one. Maybe.  I think she looks more pensive or thoughtful.  I love that she’s dipping her toe in the water.

Here she is in a canoe on the pond. I love this shot with the lilies in the background

Here, she is finally in the water.  I think this photo is my favorite of the series.

And last, she finally gets out of the water.  Even though she is pretty mucked up, she is still beautiful.

Next post will be from the same shoot, but with different models.  I hope you enjoy these.  I loved taking them.  Thank you Alyssa.

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  • May 18, 2011 - 3:49 pm

    Shannon Daly - I love the ones of her in the water Karen! This whole set is super beautiful!

  • May 18, 2011 - 4:38 pm

    Karen Schmautz - Thanks, Shanny. That one is my favorite, too.

  • May 18, 2011 - 4:39 pm

    Karen Schmautz - Thanks Shanny. That one is my fav, too.

  • May 18, 2011 - 7:05 pm

    photowannabe - Lovely Karen.

Posted in: family | My Life

Staying close to home with my family.

Here’s the annual Mom’s Day Photo, taken after my three children took me out to lunch at Bricks in Placerville.  And it wouldn’t be my family if they didn’t harass me with at least one photo of them goofing around.

Went to a high school play that my youngest son participated in. (That’s him in the back top tier of the risers and wearing the cool vest, with his arms outstretched.)

We also celebrated my oldest son’s 26th birthday at our house…That’s him, with his darling girlfriend, standing under the Happy Birthday Banner.  That banner goes up for every birthday and then I make the birthday person stand under it for a picture. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of that banner.  Woe be to me if I forget to hang it up.

I got a portable off camera Beauty Dish, which I practiced with a little when I had the family around… Here’s my daughter with Obie T. Dog (the “T.” stands for The).  Beautiful light. Even more beautiful gal. (Yes, I’m biased, but she is very pretty and funny, too.)

Then below is my daughter with my youngest son, who will be graduating from High School this year (sniff, sniff…insert tears.)

Then I did a little personal work with scenes around the house and around the area…

Here are some emerging Fiddler Ferns in my front yard.

I drive by this scene every day.  I love those two old cars and I have photographed them before, but this is the first time I’ve gotten the barn and the pond in the background.

And then on the way home from my Mother’s Day lunch yesterday, I saw these donkeys in a field with some birds riding around on their back.  I just had to stop…

This week I will be officially starting My Beauty Campaign (assuming the weather holds up), doing a photo shoot with a couple of college gals (assuming the weather holds up) and attending a workshop (assuming the weather holds up…)  You know what they say about “Assume”.  It makes an (insert above picture) out of “U” and “Me”.  Ha!

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  • May 9, 2011 - 8:07 am

    photowannabe - Love the photos of your family and the critters in your neck of the woods.
    They are a great peak into your lives.
    Sue

  • May 9, 2011 - 10:37 am

    Karen Schmautz - Thanks, Sue. It’s nice to be personal sometimes.

Posted in: print competitions | Published, Publicity and Gallery Showings

Last night my camera club, El Dorado Camera Club, had a print competition.  The club hosts a print competition three times per year and it gives the members a chance to exhibit their work and have it judged by an impartial non-member judge in front of the other members.  In other words, one needs to put on their thick skin, put the prints up for scrutiny and learn from the experience.  It makes me nervous every time I do this, but I have learned so much from the experience.  I would recommend that all photographers put their work thru a competition such as this because it is a wonderful learning experience.  I put up 10 prints in 10 different categories.  I won some, came in second in some and lost others.  All in all I was pleased with my performance and I thought the judge to be quite fair and informative. Below is a collage of my winners.  They are cropped differently than when I presented them for the competition, but you can get an idea of the variety I presented.  The top three all won First Prize.   Obie, the dog’s, picture, the beautiful girl with the roses and the Bride all won Second Place. The Violinist and the Las Vegas Reflection also won first place (along with two others not shown here), but there was no other competition, so I don’t really think that counts.

Enjoy!

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