Moving the Blog

I've decided to start a blog using wordpress! It looks like a cool site and I like the layouts etc so I am switching over. I would love to see you there!
http://lauradienzo.wordpress.com/

Found the Funky Chair

I've been shopping around at Antique Stores, Yard Sales, the Goodwill Store, Craigslist etc.  Looking for a funky chair that I can use as a prop for portraits.  I went to a yard sale a few weeks ago and the guy asked me if I was looking for anything in particular.  I told him I was looking for a funky chair and he actually described it back to me pretty well...he got it!  Most of the time when I am asked if I need help finding what I am looking for (especially in an antique store) I usually tell people no, that I will know it when I see it.  Well yesterday Ray and I were out walking around downtown Atascadero after meeting Patricia Newton, the newest artist at  Envisions Gallery  and I saw "it"!  I saw it, in of all places, the back of a pick-up truck in downtown Atascadero.  I had to run home to get some cash since I wasn't out shopping for a chair at the time, and especially not in the back of pick-ups!
I have big plans for this beauty in the form of gorgeous purple velvet fabric that I happened to pick up at a garage sale a few weeks ago.  More photos to follow!

California Photo Festival!

What a great week!  It was inspirational, instructional,  exhausting, surprisingly wonderful....I think I am running out of adjectives!  I was able to volunteer for the week at the 1st annual California Photo Fest which Light Workshops in Los Osos put on.   In turn for volunteering I was able to attend much of the events, seminars and workshops at the festival with the other photographers attending. 
There were photographers mostly from California that converged upon San Luis Obispo County for the week with their bags of gear, extra large lenses and leggy tripods.  There was even a photographer there from Malaysia and one from Moldova (another volunteer and I had to Google that to find out where that was which is between Romania and the Ukraine).  Others came from Florida, Connecticut and Arizona.
The people from Light Workshops are amazing people and they did an amazing job putting the festival together!  Granted, it was the first annual, and with the first comes a few glitches which they are more than happy to be working on for next year's festival to make it even better.
The instructors were talented photographers and really good at communicating their craft to other enthusiastic photographers eager to learn.
There were early morning sunrise photo shoots every morning at beautiful locations throughout the county such as vineyards and the bluffs above Cayucos.  There were also sunset photo shoots each night at similar locations with some well-attended shoots of horses on the beach.
It was a friendly little community that I saw every day for six and a half days and I actually miss seeing them now.  It's been fun seeing the images that people have posted up on a flickr group formed just for the festival, you can check it out too. 

Beautiful Autumn Evening for a Portrait

What gorgeous evenings we have around here in the fall!  I had the privilege of taking a portrait of a sweet and beautiful family in Templeton the other night.

I was really thankful for my faithful assistant who was my chief bubble-blower, dolly-carrier, baby-distracter and all-around kinda guy!  (Thank you Ray!)

The girls each have the sweetest disposition and I loved it when I asked them if they wanted to do something fun and they all shouted "YES",  just before I told them they were all going to be jumping in the air together!  What fun!

Project Car for sale for the not so faint-hearted mechanic!

  To top the evening off we all went out for yogurt in Atascadero and the youngest had lost a lens out of her glasses.  We spent a little while with a flashlight looking for it on the ground, she got right in there in the search!  Thankfully, the lens was found in the car!

Beetle Triumph

I watched in awe a couple of weeks ago as a large beetle was swimming in my pond, triumphantly make his way out of the water.  I was babysitting a 7 year old boy and I'm not sure who was more fascinated by it!  We watched as the beetle made his way to a lily pad, climbed up on it, swam towards a rock by the water's edge and climbed right up out of the water onto the rock!  The whole drama played out over about 15 minutes!
Here are a few photos of the inspirational climb of my backyard beetle!

Swimming towards lily pad.

Climbs up onto lily pad.

Climbs out of the pond onto rock.

 

Out of the pond!

Straddles between two rocks.

On the road to freedom!

East Coast

Just returned from another trip to the east coast, this time Ray joined me!  What an adventure it is to hang out with a large family!  There are things (and people) that I really miss about living back east...
I love going seeing the green scenery along the highways, the historic architecture and Atlantic Ocean. 

Feeding the swan family in Westhampton Beach, NY

Just a few of the thousand or more photos I took on the trip.

Pebbles in a rusty post along the beach in Greenport, Long Island, NY

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Model Shoot

I did a fun model shoot the other day for my fantastic hair stylist Tami Gardner at Park Avenue Salon in Paso Robles, CA.  Her model is actually a beautiful college professor and not a "model" but she did a wonderful job!  She told me that she learned everything from "America's Next Top Model".  She would make Tyra Banks proud!  Tami is super talented at hair and make-up, a genuine artist!  Here are a few photos of the shoot. 

The first picture is the first time she saw herself in the mirror with more make-up than she is used to wearing.

Photographing kids

I love taking photos of kids in their element which is one of the reasons why I don't have a studio.  Nothing like a photo of a stiff kid with an forced, awkward smile to convince me even further!
When kids are in an environment that's non-threatening and fun for them they generally forget that you have a lens pointed at them.  This isn't always true about adults, myself included.
I had fun this Memorial Day weekend photographing some children having fun in a backyard.  Even though I shot about 100 photos it never seemed to interfere with their candidness.

It only takes a second!

We were watching three children last night at our house and one of the kids just turned one a few weeks ago.  Even though she is very small and very cute I was reminded of how quickly little ones can end up where they don't belong.  I turned my head for a minute while the little one was crawling around on the floor and then I heard a splashing sound.  There she was on the floor splashing her hands in the dog's water bowl surrounded by a pool of water!   Just before that she had discovered the doggy door out to the back patio.  She didn't seem to understand that she could have crawled out through the door but she seemed to like how the door flapped open.  

My husband and I both came to the conclusion that babies really don't have a clue about social etiquette.  (the seven year old wanted to know what etiquette was)  Babies will let their noses run, speak loudly in indecipherable languages in public places, emit the most unbearable smells and be covered in food and they really aren't bothered a bit about it!  When exactly does that all change?

Loads of Personality!

I survived a week back in the Philadelphia area babysitting my two little nieces.  They are beautiful little girls with an incredible level of intelligence and personality.  I really enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them a little better.
For someone who doesn't have any children it was somewhat of a culture shock being on duty 24-7 with them.  I had great intentions to get some work done while I was there and was also hoping to get some beautiful photos of the spring colors and green grass.
I was able to take some shots but only got a couple of scenery photos.  The girls gave me lots of opportunity to capture their little personalities on my camera!
One Saturday I was a "soccer aunt" driving from one game to another.  Not sure how moms do that week after week!
I've got tons of stories of being with them for only a week but one of my favorites was as we were driving to a soccer practice the five year old expressed her opinion about soccer.  "I don't want to go to soccer practice, it's stupid!  All you do is run around and kick a ball, it's just stupid!"  Another favorite is on my last day the older one came into the kitchen and gave me a big hug and said, "Aunt Laura, I am so glad you came!"  :-)
I think it's pretty obvious from the photos which one thinks soccer is "stupid"!

Adelaida Cellars

Spent a busy morning yesterday taking canvas prints down from Upscale Resale in Templeton then driving out to beautiful Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles.  
I put up the new metal prints,  canvas prints and the new greeting cards, in the tasting room.   It was really hot outside when I arrived and the tasting room was nice and cool.  It was just shortly after noon on a Monday morning and the tasting had already begun.  There were a few people there from out of state.  Paso Robles is becoming quite the destination.  One couple was mentioning that they had spent the weekend driving all over the county from Los Osos, Guadalupe and San Simeon and now Paso Robles.  That is a lot to cover in one weekend.  I was just reminded that we live where people come for vacation!

Metal Prints!

I am so excited about the metal prints that I just received!  The images look like they are in HD on metal! 

I forgot to order hanging hardware on them so I had to figure out something on my own.  I didn't want to drill holes in the metal and wasn't sure how I was going to attach hardware to the back of the metal that would be flush against a wall when hung.
I asked an employee at the local big home improvement store if he had any suggestions.  He totally wasn't getting it and an older shopper walked up to us and asked the employee if he had a measuring tape he could use.  The employee said he would have to go and find one for him.  The shopper said, "you run like a bunny and get me a measuring tape and I will help this lady".  Well this home improvement store needs to hire guys like this!  He was totally helpful and had just the right solution!  So I bought some epoxy and hardware and got the hooks installed on the back of the sheet metal today!

Quilts!

Had a great time yesterday photographing one of Rana's amazing quilts for her website. Here is a photo of one called "Rub A Dub".

Shopping

Shopping around right now on the internet for a website that can host my photos for events and portrait shoots so that clients can view them and order them directly. There are quite a few choices (and good ones) out there!
Right now there are three different ones that have caught my attention!
zenfolio, pictage and smugmugpro look like great sites but hopefully I find the right one for me and my clients!

Nice Lunch Break

I got to sit on the beach again this week but it was for a quick lunch break today. I was at Oceano Dunes state park at the place just before the cars can drive on. It was a hazy day and I grabbed my camera with my wide angle lens already on hoping to get some nice shots of the beach. I didn't have my polarizing filter on this time (doesn't fit on my wide-angle lens anyway.) Here are a couple of my shots from the beach.

Polarizing filter

I was at Avila Beach today for a walk (it was idyllic!) and I put a circular polarizer filter on my lens since it was so bright out. Well, the photos didn't turn out like I had hoped. I guess I need to do a little research on the proper way to use it. When I got home I took a shot outside my front door and the photo wasn't bad at all.