Last year I had the great fortune to meet a new client whose daughter’s bat mitzvah I will be photographing next month. It happens that she volunteers some of her time to a fantastic organization called “Miracle League.” This national organization, founded in 1998, helps physically and mentally disabled children enjoy the thrills and joys of playing baseball. Each child is partnered with an able-bodied child, called a buddy, for the season (eight games) and together they play the game. The local chapter, Miracle League of San Diego, plays its games at the Engel Family Field inside San Dieguito Park.

My client also owns a web design company - this is where I come in. She was asked to create a new website for the chapter and she had, in-turn, asked me if I’d mind taking some picture for the site. I had a fabulous time photographing these kids - in particular the interaction between the players and their buddies. I also loved capturing the pure unadulterated joy on the player’s faces.

Opening day this year is on March 13th and I will be there with my camera in hand and my two older daughters. If you are interested in learning more about Miracle League and how you can get involved, go to their website by clicking here.

Here are some images from my first experience with them:

Happy New Year to everyone. As you might imagine we here at the studio also made some new year’s resolutions. And one of them is to keep our blog more up to date! I sincerely hope that this new year’s resolution doesn’t go like some of my personal ones ;-)

Anyway, here is our fist blog entry for the year and the timing could not have been better! If you may remember mid-last year I had the great opportunity to photograph Quentin Jammer of the San Diego Chargers for United Way. We had a great time photographing him and the results are finally out. Ads in the Union Tribune having been running for a couple of weeks now and...drum roll please...my first billboard is up (they actually went up earlier, but I couldn’t find the time to go and photograph them for you all). All-in-all there are 16 billboards in and around San Diego. Keep an eye out for them! Until next week, when I write about a project I did for another non-profit recently. Here are two images of my billboard:

We are settled in and are excited to share images of our new studio. We look forward to seeing you here during the holiday season.

You can also check out a virtual tour here

it seems like we have been locked away in a little cave for the last few months doing nothing but packing, construction planning, tearing down, building up, looking at swatches, compromising, brainstorming, making decisions… and sometimes un-making those decisions, unpacking, organizing, expanding, evolving, growing. this journey has been similar to nurturing a relationship- you have to have a lot of patience, a goal in mind, determination and a whole lot of love :)

with that said, we truly are enjoying our new space! michael has a beautiful, large studio that allows him to be more creative and gives him a lot more freedom during his photo shoots. i got my dream viewing room- spacious and extremely comfy for the clients. jen and evie even have their own super cute space where evie can have fun while mom gets some work done. also, we have a gorgeous new vanity room for hair and make-up, a great production and staff area, an event planning space and so much more!

another perk that came with “the big move” is that we got the opportunity to move to bird rock, a family-friendly, hip neighborhood nestled right along the coastline. each year bird rock has a fabulous event called taste of bird rock with bands, activities for the kids and lots of great offerings from local businesses. so with the help of penelope the clown, our awesome staff and lots of ice cream and champagne, we revealed the new studio to our family, friends and clients.

i promise to have images up of the new studio within the next week- but for now, here are a few pictures from the event:

a big thank you to our guest photographer, kyra spengler, for these cute pictures of little evie!






check back for images of the new space in the next few days!!

this is some behind the scenes stuff from a shoot with quentin jammer for a national ad campaign for united way. i am not sure when it is launching, but you will see it on billboards and in print around town.

chaz helped with the shoot, for which we practiced at our new studio first. we then had to mark everything and transport it over to the charger’s headquarter.

here is the final setup at the studio

this would be from quentin jammer’s perspective:

game day!

Unfortunately I cannot show you the actual images, but here is chaz subbing for quintin jammer.

from the actual shoot

We also have a shot video from the shoot, that chaz took with his brand new iPhone. you can see it on my facebook page

we decided to give my daughter, evie, some exposure, since she rarely gets photographed....haha, well actually it’s sort of true (what do they say about the cobbler?)

here are some pictures of our fist ever display ad. it is located at UTC right in front of starbucks and is viewed by everyone leaving the food court:

Sorry for the lack of updates on the new studio. Construction delays and overspending are killing me. Agh! But there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. It’s going to be awesome very soon. I will post some images later this week. If you happen to see Jen at Starbucks or Bloomies take her down—papa needs some new floors!

Professional Photographer magazine recently received the Gold GAMMA Award for Best Single Cover for the May 2008 issue featuring one of my images. The GAMMA Awards are assigned by the Magazine Association of the Southeast, one of the largest magazine associations in the country.

The May 2008 issue featured a high school senior portrait of Paralympian Roy Perkins of The Bishop’s School (Class of 2008). The GAMMA judges commented that the issue of Professional Photographer is recognized for the choice of “an inspirational portrait of a handicapped swimmer staring defiantly into the ocean,” noting that the photography magazine can choose from a variety of great images from photographers throughout the country and in choosing my image “showed that great photography is more than just pretty pictures, it is also a powerful medium that can inspire emotion and hope.” I really liked this last part.

This cover image is one of my favorite senior portraits. When Roy came in to do his studio potion of his session, I immediately liked him - he was calm and cool. While I was photographing him, I had this idea of a portrait and I told him about it. He was all for it. This is one of the few times I saw an image in my head way in advance.

Roy is an inspiration to us all. Receiving the cover of Professional Photographer’s annual high school senior portrait photography issue was thrilling and this award definintely amplifies the honor for me. Here is the cover of the magazine.

Roy Perkins
WindanSea Beach
La Jolla, California

we’re about a week away...but looking at it the construction, I am not sure =] here are some more pictures....

view from the second studio

view of the entire studio space

the split image again. the wall is covered up because they were spray painting - but you can get the idea of how awesome it’s going to be

see those boxes from ikea...I had to take them off the shelf and put them in my cart one by one - all 44 of them and they are not light...on top of that I have to drive up to LA over the weekend to get 60 more because they didn’t have any more in san diego

here is our new may promotion