Goodnight Irene

We said goodbye to Alex's sister, Irene, for a while. We don't know when we will be back in Spain, and since Irene can't leave the monastery, it's up to us to go see her again. I got so many images that I absolutely love on this trip. It doesn't hurt that the nuns are so sweet and playful. I always want to pick up Halel, the mother superior, and swing her around. She's the cutest thing you ever did see.

 Seeing Irene for the first time. This is what Bella does when she feels shy.

Un beso

On a nature walk. Bella is the leader, of course.

Julietta knows how to give kisses now.

Sunset and playing with Papá.

This is one of my favorite shots with Halel.

A Divine Intervention - Where it All Began

Some may call it a "divine intervention". I do believe that there is a reason for everything. I probably would never admit to my mother-in-law that my inspiration began at the monastery in Sigena, Spain, where her daughter (my sister-in-law), is a nun. I'd never hear the end of it if I even hinted about it!  I do believe, though, that there was something magical that happened to me at the monastery in Sigena back in April 2010. That is when I started trying to take good pictures. That is when I began to blossom.

Have I told you about my favorite quote yet?  I want to add it to the header of my blog so it is always there for us to read.


  "And then the came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

- Anaïs Nin

It gives me such inspiration every time I read it, and reminds me that life is about risks. Sometimes we succeed and some time we fail, but whenever we do something a bit risky it makes us feel so alive!

I think this is the image that started it all. It's not perfect, but I will love it for the rest of my life.

These are some of the images I took waaaay back in April. ; ) I still love some of these. Others I look at and think, "what the heck was I thinking?!" with the processing or exposure... and lots of them are out of focus, something I hardly noticed back then.

For a non-posed shot, it can't get much more beautifully biblical. Not such a huge fan of the processing anymore, but I still love the image.

It's amazing to look back at the beginning of a journey and see how far you've come. I think I will start doing this every six months. It really helps me stay encouraged, and affirms that all this hard work is, in fact, paying off!

My poor purple baby. And I sure wish I hadn't cut off Irene's fingers.

Ok, what was I thinking with the color?? Why would I want them to look dead?!

Edgy!

I love this image.

 And the good news is that we are going back tomorrow to spend the weekend!! I can't wait!!! Let's see what kind of images I get this time. I'll post early next week.

Until then, dear friends, have a wonderful weekend!

20 Houses

A few nights ago I started thinking about all of the different houses and apartments I've lived in throughout my life. I counted 20. That seems like a lot to me, especially since I lived in the same house from ages five to 18. I went a bit stir crazy after high school, I guess.

Julietta, my little "artiste", helping me unpack the arts and crafts box.

While packing up this one, I realized that each time I've packed up a house, I've been eager to get to the next place. I've never felt very attached or nostalgic. I usually even leave a few days early because I can't wait for what lies ahead. I was really caught off guard when I was hit with a sudden wave of sadness as I was tossing out old worn out clothes a few days ago.

Gripping my pant legs. "Ma ma ma ma ma"

I have not been a big fan of living here in Terramelar. To be honest, I've had to fight with my inner grump from coming out on a regular basis. I found it odd that I was feeling twinges of sadness. This house, though, spills over with memories for the short time we were here: Bella took her first steps here, we flooded the living room with a birthing pool, Julietta was born here, the café started doing really well, the economy took a nose dive, the café started to suffer, we struggled with money, we ate at Asian buffets, Alex learned how to make paella, Julietta learned to crawl, Bella started speaking Spanglish, and my photography journey began here. There were a lot of difficult times, but I know when I close the door for the last time, I will probably only remember the good stuff.

Here are some photos I took of my girls with their grandparents, or  their "Yayos". In the first few, Bella and Julietta are dressed like Falleras.( Fallas is the biggest festival in Valencia that takes place in March where all chaos breaks loose. It's an amazing festival where they burn these huge incredible sculptures that they spend all year making.)


I was experimenting with some different types of processing, so there is some variation in color, contrast...etc.

And these are from our New Years day family lunch. In Spain, the entire family gets together to have dinner on New Years Eve, and then after midnight, the party animals go out until the wee morning hours. I don't know if it's such a tradition to have lunch together on New Years Day, but it's a tradition in Alex's family. You eat shrimp for both of them!! MMM!

No, this is not an exorcism. The Yayos are very devout Catholics, and Bella likes to play with the cross.

And so does Julietta!

Being Nice

Is this a photography blog, or a blog about life? Um... both, I guess... I don't know. They seem intertwined to me, so that is what it will be. Life and Photography intertwined. As you know, I have a lot to talk about and no one to listen, so forgive me if I'm long-winded at times.

I've become a bit of a grump. I snap at my two-year-old daughter sometimes. I get angry at little things, like when my husband jokes with me and I don't think it's funny. I want to be nice and kind and sweet and lovely, but sometimes I get stuck on the dismount. I am not as awesome as I want to be.

Last night was the first class from Tamara Lackey's workshop on Creativelive. Like Jasmine Star, this woman is amazing. She is a child photographer, but above all that, she is a self-taught expert on child psychology. She knows how to interact and play and just be with children. She gets down to their level, she talks to them and she relates to them. She tries to empathize with them when their little fingers are cold or if they just don't want to be there getting their picture taken. She is kind.

Although fabulous photographers, what sets Jasmine Star and Tamara Lackey apart from the massive crowd of photographers, in my opinion, is their ability to work with other people. In a word, they are nice. They are the kind of people you'd like to sit down and have a beer with and just shoot the breeze all afternoon long. You know you'd laugh, and you'd be heard and they'd never make you feel stupid, no matter how many dorky things you did!

I have always held faith in that one quality that I believe in so strongly - kindness. I truly think that if you can just be nice to people, to treat them like friends, to talk to them and make them feel heard and understood and welcome and special, well... it will take you places. Unfortunately, it is much easier to treat people the way they treat you.

I meet a lot of grumpy people here. I mean A LOT. And I have to make a conscious effort to be nice to people, because right now in my life, it isn't coming naturally. I either want to shrivel up and disappear, or I want to yell and scream and kick my feet and hit things and yell, "JUST BE NICE... PLEASE!!"  People want to feel like they belong. Believe me, I have never felt so low in my entire life because I don't feel like I really belong anywhere except in my own house with my own family. I feel like I'm completely out of my zone. I want to go home, but I can't. And to top it off, I have very few friends here, which makes me feel grumpy and miserable. Trying to be nice to others when you are miserable is like trying to brush your two-year-old's teeth while she's having a tantrum.

I don't have a photo of that, but I wish I did. The only more difficult thing would be taking a picture of yourself trying to brush your two-year-old's teeth while she's having a tantrum.

The thing I try to imagine, though, is that maybe those other people are feeling just like me. Maybe they are tired of feeling ignored. Maybe they used to say hello to each other, but after they realized that no one was responding, they stopped.

Oh, I don't now. I guess I'm trying to say that it seems too easy -  "be kind and you will be successful", but when it comes down to it, being kind isn't as simple as it sounds. People can be mean and grumpy and rude. People can really suck sometimes. Why would I want to be nice to those meanies?

Maybe that's why those few who make it a goal to really truly understand others, and give them a break when they behave less than ideally, are the ones who do go far.

Kindness isn't given much thought to when we think of factors that influence success in life. But maybe it should be.

The Obsession Continues

Are you getting tired of me talking about workshops? Am I blabbing on too much? I'm sorry, but you're going to have a to bear with me a little longer because I'm just too excited to contain myself.

These photos have NOTHING to do with this post. But I figured you'd get bored with just words.

A few weeks ago my fellow photographer friend, Marty, sent me a link to CreativeLive, which is basically an online classroom. He mentioned Jamine Star, a very well- renowned wedding photographer, would be doing a free workshop. Now, I remembered that my amazing photographer friend (and my very first best friend in the whole wide world), Leah, from The Salted Image, had gone to a Jasmine Star workshop in California, not long ago, so I thought, "What the heck: I'll check it out".

Let-s get this out in the open right now - I'm not very interested in ever doing wedding photography because, well... because to tell you the truth, brides scare the crap out of me! It's just too much stress. I've taught 20 five- year- old kids mostly on my own before. I've run a café before fully understanding how to make Spanish coffee. I've lived in a country before I could understand ANY answer to ANY question. Those are all particularly stressful situations, but a bride on her wedding day? Let's just say I prefer to take my head home with me at the end of the day, thank you very much.  Anyway, reservations about wedding photography aside, I decided to watch. It was going to be a five day event all revolving around a real live wedding that took place in, of all places, Seattle, Wa!

So I tuned in. I had Bella stay with The Ya Yos (her grandparents), and I watched from 9 pm to 2am! What a good decision! It was incredible. She shared all her secrets and tips to running a successful business. On the second day she did the "first look" and we watched her pose the bride and groom and saw how she talked to them to calm them down and make them look beautiful instead of like stiff robotic people. To me, this seems to be one of the hardest things about photography - getting people to look natural and relaxed. I don't tend to like posing, and prefer capturing real moments, but how do you do this during a photoshoot? I still don't know, but now I have some more ideas.

See what awesome posing techniques I learned? Does she look natural or what?! ; )

What did Jasmine do? She told them how fantastic they looked over and over and also kind of made a fool of herself. (I'm totally set, because I do this most of the time anyway, so it's right up my alley). Yesterday, was the wedding. It didn't start until after 2am my time, so I only caught the very beginning of it. But, man, how cool to see a live wedding and watch EXACTLY how the photographer works her magic. And magic, it was. I can't wait to see the photos.

Ok, you made it! I'm done talking about workshops... until September 13th when I start The Creative Light Workshop.