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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.


Going Corporate…

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InsideTrack, the college coaching company I have been photographing for the past few months wanted photographs of their new office to show the community of InsideTrack. So I started the day by photographing their monthly phone conference call at 8:30 in the morning.

Now come on, who wants to be photographed at a meeting at 8:30 in the morning? I was not expecting to get very much as I tip-toed into the room… and well… all I can say is these people make early morning conference calls look like fun and it had nothing to do with me… I was just a fly on the wall.

And that was the case for the whole day… good light combined with pretty people who are happy with each other and with their jobs… it made my job really easy and fun.

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I am excited that their new website is coming out into the world very soon because it showcases a lot of my photography. It will be a really nice addition to my resume! I would love to work with more companies who are doing good work in the world and who prefer to use real photos of their people instead of stock photography (to see a comparison between stock and nonstock you can look at their current website which has stock photos.) I hope this is a trend that continues.

No time to write even a blog post…

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I am not complaining that I am busy… because I feel super lucky that I am busy, but I have been photographing so much that every time I sit at the computer, I have 10 different programs processing files that I haven’t even been able to update my blog… which is frustrating because I have lots to share.

I am working on a new project for a company called InsideTrack. They provide free coaching to university students, as they transition between high school and college. InsideTrack is putting together a new website because they don’t want to use stock photographs anymore, so they hired me… yay yay yay.

First they sent me to Portland, Oregon to photograph the coaches, then to Monterey to photograph students, and I am going to SF tomorrow to photograph more coaches and staff, and then to Flagstaff, Arizona next week for more students…. so…. combine that with my other job documenting offices, and planning a wedding that is happening in 17 days… and I repeat… I am very very busy.

So unfortunately, I don’t have much time tonight to catch up, but I wanted to at least post something.

Here are the coaches in Portland. I guess it isn’t surprising that people, who coach college students for a living, are all very easy to talk to and fun to hang out with, but it is a nice bonus for me because it makes my job so much easier and more enjoyable.

Portland looked nice, from the very small glimpse I had of it. But my biggest regret is that I didn’t take a photo of the best doughnut I have ever had in my life. If you ever have a chance to go to Portland… go to Voodoo Doughnuts… so so so good. I brought Arann home a maple bacon doughnut with two long strips of bacon on top… he is in love.

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And below are the students I followed around in Monterey at California State University Monterey Bay. Of course they were all super fun and easy to photograph too. But you can’t really be a grumpy student when your campus is on one of the most gorgeous coastlines, and when surfing is one of the classes you can take… and when your mascot is the otter, which happens to be one of my favorite animals on the planet. I definitely would have rather been an energetic and playful otter than a wrinkled old bulldog (sorry, Lindsay, that is blasphemy I know.)

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So that’s it for now… more to come soon.


Cute Baby Face…

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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.

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Beauty…

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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.

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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.



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