Fancy Nancy

There is this series of children's books called Fancy Nancy.  Maybe you have seen some of the dolls in Target...it is about a little girl who loves being fancy.  Her family is very plain.  Ava loves the books and so does her friend.  Her friend had a birthday party today with a Fancy Nancy theme.  They did a great job with the table, I wish I had taken a picture of it.  They had little umbrellas in the drinks, colorful place settings with beautiful placemats with lots of sparkely jewels and butterflies, lollypops, anything frilly and fancy and girly.  Ava wore  her new headband to the party.

TASP

The end of the school year is very close...the kids graduate on Saturday!  I am so glad to be done with this year.  Last night was the prom.  It was a beautiful night and I am sure the kids had a great time in Boston.  My head is starting to switch gears and think about the summer program now.  I have been asked by them to make a couple of flyers for the program.  I started on the front of one.  Here it is...not done yet, but getting there.  I had to create EVERYTHING on it.  That includes me going outside to find the wood background to take a photo of so I didnt have to pay for a "background" online.  :-)

Collages and Sprinklers

Today I made some promo collages.  I love the senior portraits I took recently, and tried to make a fun collage for my website with them....the rest of the photos are of Ava.  We got her a sprinkler today and surprised her when she got home from school.  She LOVED it!  I grabbed my camera and shot away. (thanks for the idea Barrie)

Wedding

Ok, so my niece is getting married next year.  I have a year to get myself back in shape.  I have to lose this weight I have put on over the past two years.

I have to stop eating at Red Robin!

Senior Portrait

As I said before...when it all comes together, I really love my job.  Here are some photos from todays senior session...(would have been tons better if I had the big expensive camera!)

3 Months

Manny is 3 months old.  Almost 4 months.  Today I tried to document his 3 month photo.  It is always very stressful for me and a difficult process to take photos of my own kids.  I want them to be award winning every time I take a photo and I strive for perfection.  After this shoot I announced that I was quitting being a photographer because I am no good...I am having trouble with my equipment and it is difficult to upgrade due to costs and time.  (time, going to get a new camera)  Right now I shoot just about every day.  The camera I would like to have is $7999.00.  That is the BODY of the camera only...no lens comes with it...if your lucky, they throw in the camera strap.  I feel that having the top of the line camera could really propel me forward in photography and allow me to capture images the way I see them before I even pick up the camera.  I know I would be a much better photographer.  During this photo shoot, my camera battery died and Manny got tired and hungry.  I will reshoot again and maybe be completely happy with what I shoot.  These are cute, but not the standard I would like.

Springfest

Today was springfest here at the school.  It is a day where seniors (a select few) present their senior projects.  Some of them are just amazing...the projects can be on anything that they are interested in.  Today we listened to a few presentations.  It is just amazing how creative some of these kids are.  After the presentations, it is a day where the school hangs out by the waterfront.  We have bouncy houses, water slip and slides, volleyball, bands play, cotton candy, and lots of fun to be had for the students.  

My family and I went to enjoy some of the fun, I could work, and we had a special treat to have our friends join us today!  It made my job that much more enjoyable!!  Thanks for coming down smiley baby and Christabelle!  Nora made a great friend with one of the faculty members daughters.  This little girl is such a sweet kid who absolutely adores babies.  No wonder Nora couldn't keep away from her.  Ava went between the bouncy house and the slip and slide nourishing herself with lots of cotton candy in between.

Manny did great hanging out outside today.  He took some naps in his stroller and just was adorable all day.

Nora's new friend

Class of 2010

The end of the school year is just around the corner.  This year has FLOWN by.  It is amazing how I had planned on more time (which I do every year) for photos or coverage of certain events and they slip right by me and the year is gone.

Today I will be going to some classes to take some photos of the kids I follow.  This afternoon, I am hoping to cover a kid playing with his band, followed by a senior portrait...IF the senior portrait kid responds to the MILLIONTH email I sent her trying to schedule her senior portrait.  S.T.R.E.S.S.  All the while, having my mother babysit for an incredibly long day.

I know I will get it all done and there are some fun events coming up next week that I am really looking forward to photographing.

Here are a couple of senior portraits I have taken in this year and last.  It makes me happy when everything falls into place nicely.  Very satisfying.

Ukelele

After a busy weekend, it was nice to get to go to Ava's school today with my sister.  She has recently started playing the ukelele and is getting really good at it.  We decided to visit Ava's school and perform for the kids.  They all LOVED it!  I sang while she played.  One of my favorite songs we did was "Waltzing Matilda".  Another one was "By the Seaside, by the Beautiful Sea".  The kids danced and sang and gave us a standing ovation while yelling "encore!, encore!".  So cute.

Yesterday I was home with Manny and then had to take a photo of the sailing team.  They just won a national championship trophy and were very proud.  

Sorry I dont have a photo from the big ukelele gig, but here is the sailing team!

5K

What a beautiful weekend it is!  Today me and Ava ran/walked a 5K in New Bedford at Buttonwood Park.  We met up with some mom friends of mine and some of us ran the whole thing and I walked/ran with Ava.  We were second to last in the whole race...and we WON.  It was so fun to have her next to me saying "good job mom!" and I would say "yup...you too...we are almost there!".  Ava has always loved to run or walk anywhere.  She never has been a "stroller" kind of kid.  It is really great.  I look forward to seeing her in her own races in the future and love that we can do them together while I get my muscles and wind back to be able to run the whole thing on my own again.  Some friends took some photos of us...I dont have any to post right now.  But, stay tuned.

Golf and Midwives

Ok, so what do the two have to do with each other?  Well, they are what I had to take photographs of yesterday.  I do a project called "A Year in the Life at Tabor Academy" (for those of you who do not know) and parents hire me to follow their kids around all year taking photos of them here at Tabor for different events.  This year I have someone who is playing golf for their spring sport.  I have never had a client play golf before so I thought that it would be fun.  I was right.  Now I know why people play golf.  These kids get to play on a course that has a waiting list longer than you can imagine with a nice $30,000 fee (that you get back once you are done with your membership)...this is cheap considering the club that just opened with a $200,000.00 price tag to go along with it.  The course we were on yesterday was rated #44 out of the best 100 courses to play in the United States.  It is beautiful being right on the water and playing in the quiet clean grass that I would have no problem stepping on without shoes.  (I know, huge, right?)  Although I had no idea about etiquette (I wore workout pants...NOT allowed...and a zip up sweatshirt...ALSO not really allowed)  no one was on the course yesterday so I did not get in trouble.  Here are some photos from the shoot.  Below is a golf ball that Tabor has made special with the Tabor logo printed on it.  Cool!

Earlier in the day I took a photo of my original midwife.  Because South Coast Hospitals no longer allow VBAC's (Vaginal Birth After a Cesarian) I was forced to go to South Shore Hospital.  I had a great experience there and everything turned out very successful.  I was asked to take a photo of my original midwife for a local newspaper.  She is going to write an article and needed a photo.  I have two that I like and I got to use Manny in one of the images as a prop.  Louise is very uncomfortable posing for pictures, but I think her face says it all with kind smiley eyes that make you as a patient feel calm and reassured.

Treasure Box, Crew team photos

Ava brought home a treasure box from school today.  When she told me what it was, I was so excited to see what was in it...what are her treasures?  I got a good laugh when I saw what was inside.  Treasure is in the eye of the beholder!  She has some yarn and some paper she cut herself.

The athletic department had asked me to take a team photo of the crew team.  They have someone come in from NEW YORK...(yes, thats right...New York) to take the team photos...don't even get me started...the guy comes in for one day while the guy who works in the "cage" (he passes out the uniforms) loses his mind getting the entire school outfitted for this one day.  The photographer races around campus being driven on a gator and takes the photo within 10 minutes.  One of the reasons he does it so quickly is because he has to get to another school.  He took the crew photo this year and a parent had complained that they didn't like the photo.  I didn't see the photo, but I heard that the team had a hard time getting in uniform all at once and because of time, they took a group photo of everyone (instead of individual boats which has always been done in the past).  So, the athletic office called me to re-shoot the photo.  I was happy to do it, although a little annoyed that their "star" photographer could not make the drive from his location to fix his own issue.  After taking the photo, chatting with the kids and coaches, I had to come home and hand make the boarders and do cropping for the photo so it will look uniform to the format that the other photographer uses.  The sky was overcast and white, but I changed that so it appears sunny.   I think it came out great and the parents should be very happy.  Why they want to hire someone out of state vs. me who is literally across the street is beyond me.

My day was very busy and full yesterday between working in the office during the day, taking the photo in the afternoon, working some more in the office in the afternoon, going to my photoshop class (which I LOVE, but an hour is not long enough), meeting my family at the dining hall for dinner and then coming home to do bedtime while Jose had an umpire meeting to go to.  The kids were finally settled around 8:00 and I completely crashed on the couch.  

Here it is 6:30am today, and I already feel that I wasted too much time blogging.  Enjoy the day...so far it looks sunny!

The field trip

We went on the field trip to the beach.  It was very chilly, but watching the children explore and look for sea life was warming enough for us to stay out there.  Before we headed out to the beach, someone showed me some baby birds that hatched in a nearby bush.  As I swept the bush away to get a better photograph, the baby bird thought the falling needles was its mama and opened its mouth to eat.  This shot says it all.  One of my favorite photographs ever taken.  Hands down.

More photos of the trip:    ©Mojaphoto Photography                

"Mum, look what I got...rocks!!!"

Lets have lunch!

Ava's friend : "Ava, lets walk like penguins"

Spider Crab Legs