Good morning from Kick Ranch!

Be prepared to see many sunset images from this neighboring vineyard. Last week, I met with the generous owner who is allowing me access to walk and photograph inside the beautiful property. Here’s my first attempt!

In honor of sibling day, I present my favorite image from our trip to San Diego. I love how he’s just watching her reaction to the water. My niece and nephew:

Spring break travels included a fun day at the San Diego Zoo with my sister’s family.  As usual, I had my camera on my hip, and was ready to capture some great shots.  What a beautiful day!  As we walked down the first walkway, I looked up and had to share my smile by showing this image:

We went to see the Galapagos turtles first.  They were massive!   Here’s my niece sitting on a bronze turtle to give you perspective:

Here’s my favorite shot of those quiet giants.  His (her?) eyeball is filled with tiny bubbles.  

Next stop was the polar bear pool.  While everyone else watched through the thick glass, this guy swam in circles, and I snuck off to the side so I could get a good shot without the glass in the way.  The bear kept repeating the same pattern, so I have several that look very similar, but this one shows his motion best:

This orangutan was sitting behind two trees.  His eyes grabbed mine, and then he allowed me to capture this beautiful image.  I couldn’t help but wonder what he thought of me!

And giraffes are so photogenic!

Though we saw many other amazing animals that day, I’m pretty picky about which photographs I publish.  I’ll leave you with my favorite image of the day.  This toucan seemed to be saying, “What are you looking at?”

I strive to capture photographs that have a story behind them, and pull at your emotions in some way, this shoot was no exception…… My new friend Ksha has lost over 100lbs on Weight Watchers, so inspiring!  She wanted to get some photos with her sister as a gift to herself to celebrate her success.  She’s been watching my photography evolve over the last year, and decided to honor me by hiring me to capture their light.  Other new friends, Don and Jen, have a hot rod Ford pickup and a dune buggy.  Don’s dad builds hot rods, and Don inherited the love of working on them.  I posted some photos of my friend Anne in the dune buggy, and Ksha decided that an old car would be an awesome addition to her shoot.  It’s so funny to me how social media made the connections in this story.  I sent Ksha a photo of the truck, and she decided that would be the perfect vehicle for her “pin-up” shoot with her amazing sister Sette.  Don and I talked about location, and then finally in a quandary, jumped into the dune buggy (super fun) and drove around for over an hour searching for the PERFECT location.  We found it, and then emailed the property manager with fingers crossed!  We got approval to shoot there, and the rest of the story is in the photos below.  Fun cruising down 4th Street with Don on the way to and from the shoot in that truck!  Since I drive one dirty Honda or another, I am not used to that much attention!

Enough text story, here are the GORGEOUS sister “story” images:

A second evening to catch the glorious light of the sun mixed with the surf and happy children.  So many more to go through and edit and share, but these two are special to me!  My nephew, and niece…..

Magical sunset at Ocean Beach in San Diego.  Family dinner with my sister, and our photo shoot was different than planned because the sun went down before we got there, but beautiful and magical just the same!

Traveling for my consulting job sometimes yields a gem like this one! Mist on the field makes you not quite notice the freeway in the background….

Ok, moonlovers… Here’s my series as the moon rose for your enjoyment. Canvas prints will be available for purchase, cost TBD, let me know if you want info when I’m ready to release price and a limited number of prints (no logo on canvas).

Some beauty from the weekend’s wine country adventures. The way the light was filtering through the poppy “hair” was so enticing. So glad I never leave my camera at home!