Close

Once upon a time…

The End….

Jude, my stock photography partner, planned a trip to Gabriel Apple Farm, in Graton, this evening. She did a great job of making sure we had lots of models to work with, so we could both go off and do our own thing. While she went off with a cute mom and her cute little boys, I got this crew…

We didn’t have an agenda, which was good because my crew did not want to work with an agenda. So we just played. I realized it has been a long time since I just played… and I realized it was fun.

I think we should all remember to just play as much as we can.

And if you need help on how to start playing, why not start with a little creative writing. Make up your own story about what is happening in the photos above and share your creative fairy tale in the comments below… The best story may just win a prize.

May the person who has the most fun win.


Cute Baby Face…

_mg_6172

Claudia sent me a message saying she didn’t have any photos of her new little guy, so we decided to trade.

She gets cute photos and Jude and I get photos for our stock business.

So I did the family photos that they wanted and then we tried to think of baby topics that magazines might want photos of. She told me babies like bouncing on yoga balls, they like the sound of electric toothbrushes and bath time.

We had a fun hour and fourty minutes… and then it was time for this baby to go to sleep again.

_mg_5906

_mg_60401

_mg_6063-21

_mg_6051

_mg_6166

_mg_5977

_mg_5949

_mg_5979

_mg_6182

Beauty…

gene-012209-610

I saw Genevieve last summer while she was working in a cafe near my house and I immediately wanted to photograph her, but I was too shy to ask.

Luckily, my stock photography partner, Jude, also noticed Genevieve when she visited the cafe and she was not shy about asking Genevieve if she would model for our stock photography business, and Genevieve agreed.

I finally got to meet and photograph Genevieve last Wednesday. The three of us went and played in the mud once the rain finally stopped.

It was so much fun to just play.

We played with dresses, with umbrellas, with rain coats, with movement, with cars, with braids, with facial expressions and with lots and lots of mud. Genevieve was such a beautiful model and so much fun…  we can’t wait until it rains again.

gene-012209-575

gene-012209-528

gene-012209-476

gene-012209-709

gene-012209-358

gene-012209-818

gene-012209-727

Jude and I are always looking for more people to play with us for our stock photography project, so if you would like to join in the fun then please let us know.



What’s in a Name… (please vote)

Dear Readers,

My stock photography partner, Jude Mooney, and I are in the process of choosing a name for our business. Can you please help us by voting on your favorite name listed below. The competition closes Monday evening at 7pm EST… so please contribute your votes before then. Thanks!!

  • Hazel
  • Jane Photo
  • Jane Harper Photo
  • Green & Greene
  • Sweet Pea & Ragamuffin
  • Rusty Thimble Photo
  • The Greens
  • Hazel Jane
  • Hazel and Jane

The idea behind the some of these names (hazel & jane) is that we are creating an alias- a
mysterious female character.

We are submitting this week…

Jude and I met yesterday and picked our top 15 photos to submit to the stock agency in order to hopefully get accepted and hopefully start getting paid for all the fun photo shoots we have been having. Here are 5 of our favorites that have not been posted yet… to see some of the other ones (preteen rock-star and skater girl, bed in field, woman on bicycle) click here.

Don’t worry we only took one photo of crying baby, after her sister knocked her with the plastic fish and before mom picked her up. So no babies were mistreated in the making of this photo… but even crying she is still so cute.

It was hard to choose only 15, we have so many more that we love… so hopefully we will be admitted to the club and then we can put them all in. Thank you to all of our beautiful and wonderful models!!

Summer in Rebecca’s Garden…

My good friend Rebecca runs the Sonoma Garden Park garden and she has started her own business helping people plant and maintain organic fruit and veggies in their own gardens. Rebecca wanted some photos for her business and to help promote the garden and she thought I might get some good photos for my stock photography project. Arann and I were late and I was bummed that we were going to miss the good evening light… but we made it just in time. We had lots of fun eating yummy fruit, arranging bouquets for her Saturday market and drinking cold micro-brews. It was a perfect Friday night and these are my favorite photos….

What does stock photography mean?

Another Petaluma photographer, Jude Mooney, and I are working on building a library of images to join a stock photography agency (click here to see related posts.) So we have been asking everyone we know to help us by modeling for us so we can have enough photos to join… but some people are hesitant to volunteer to be models because they are not sure what stock photography means.

Our photo shoot last week with Kira, is a good example of what it means to be a model for us. It means you doing what you do best, in your environment, and wearing lots of different outfits…. sometimes your outfits, sometimes Jude’s. I think you can guess which outfits are Kira’s and which outfits are Jude’s.

Jude, as well as being an awesome photographer, is the expert stylist in our team. She is really good at details and making sure that everything looks perfect… whereas I am the spontaneous-seize-the-moment and come-as-you-are photographer… which has a different set of advantages.

Once we are accepted (fingers crossed) to an agency, the photos can be selected by magazines and businesses that need photos for stories or promotional campaigns. So instead of hiring photographers to take specific photos, they go to the stock agencies and buy the rights to use the photos. Therefore, the photos need to be somewhat generic and simple. We don’t get to choose what or how the photos are used… but we figure if we take wholesome, happy lifestyle photos then most likely the photos will be used by wholesome happy magazines and businesses.

At first I had a hard time getting used to staging everything and creating fake scenes… but I am really enjoying playing with Jude and with all our wonderful friends who are volunteering for us. We are always looking for more volunteers, so if you are interested in being a model, in exchange for some fun and funky photos, then let us know and we’ll come play photos with you too, even if you don’t have a chicken.



The Rollei Makes it Better….

You know how you just know that a shot is going to be good… well this is the one I was hoping would make me feel better about the eggs in a field craziness last week. The minute I took it, I had all my fingers and toes crossed that it would come out the way I wanted it to… and it is pretty darn close.

%d bloggers like this: