Halloween Rain...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all doing well out there this week! As usual, a whole bunch to share over here. To start, I was recently hired to do a new baby/family shoot for a lovely group of people. We took a quilt out to a beautiful local park and started snapping away. I think we got some really good shots and what a fun time we all had! (Goodness, I think photographing babies is my new favorite thing to do.) Take a look:

And, this month is The Stapelia Company's 5th anniversary! Can you believe it?! I scarcely can, myself. So many wonderful projects and opportunities during that time and I'm busier than ever, which is so good. To celebrate Stapelia's birthday every year, I shoot, design and print Halloween cards for clients, friends & family. (I'm way too busy at the holidays to send out Christmas cards, and I like Halloween much more, so it's my way of connecting with the people in my life through my work in a personal way.) Well, this year's card went out last week and I believe most people have gotten it, so here it is! (Also now available as a fine art print on Society6.)

I went to a wedding this past weekend way up north for some very dear friends of mine. What a beautiful day we had! And all of the guests stayed overnight in these beautiful, modern cabins right on a lake. Perfect autumn experience all around. I don't take my camera along to events like these, even just to get candids, especially if they've hired a wedding photographer. I find I have more fun if people don't know I'm a photographer. Point is, I didn't get any pictures of the day, except this shot of the wedding bouquets I took with my phone. Now, imagine all of those beautiful colors and textures multiplied a hundredfold into a full-blown wedding and you'll have some idea of how wonderful it all was! I wish them both nothing but happy years ahead...

The rest of my weekend consisted of doing fun Fall things like listening to ghost stories at Portland's Victoria Mansion (an historic mansion in the area that's beautifully ornate and was gas-lit for this particular event, which made for a creepy good time) and carving pumpkins! This year, I wanted to try a new idea out which involved inserting a gourd inside a pumpkin like a skull and then making it look like the pumpkin was blowing open to reveal the skull inside! It was a lot of work, but a friend and I managed to do it after several false starts. (Tip: definitely get doubles of everything for mistakes... Hahaha.) Take a look! Whew. I love Fall so very much.

And this car was just parked in Portland right by those beautiful fall trees, so needless to say, I had to take a picture!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Wee Darklings...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope you are all well out there this week! Things here are busy as usual, but I have finally completed all of my business-related Halloween tasks, including my annual Halloween card! This year's card was a ton of fun to do, despite some weather issues and a reschedule. The kids I used in this shot were amazing and patient and focused. I got really lucky. Take a look at the card shot and some portraits I took for the kids' parents. Perfect 1950's, eh? (You may view the rest over on Flickr if you're so inclined.)

What else? Oh! Well, things over at STAG are really humming along! In just a couple of months, I've had over 60 sales and I have shipped things to Canada, Australia, Germany and all over the U.S. I also recently had an order from a photographer in New York who needed some cocktail picks from the shop overnighted to her for a shoot! I wonder if they'll be famous? But, there is so much more to come to the shop. I am making a concerted effort to really pump up my inventory for the holiday season and now Etsy offers Gift Cards! So, if you love vintage, or have your eye on something, stop on by and give the man in your life the gift of timeless style and class.

So, I have been tasked with creating a Halloween costume for one of my nieces this year and maybe you followers out there can help. She wants to be a "robot monkey." Does anyone know what that means??? I mean, I was picturing sort of a Flying Monkey meets a robot. Maybe.

Like this, only less creepy gorilla.

Or this, only less idiotic grown man in a monkey suit, more cute child in a monkey suit.

Or this? Terminator + a spider monkey?!

I don't know, but it's going to be interesting regardless, and I'll post pictures of what we come up with next week.

And speaking of crazy, I found this amazing old ad that really ran in magazines and stuff, for Thorazine. (For those of you not in the know, Thorazine is used today to treat schizophrenia and dissociative disorder. It's hard core.) I don't know why this ad frightens/makes me want to laugh so much. Maybe it's the old man and the cane. Maybe it's the horrible overdose of horse tranquilizers they were regularly prescribing back then to old people. Whatever the reason, this ad is a win in my book!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...