Fall Family/Little Left Coast is 6 months old! {personal}

Visited Banducci's Pumpkin Patch for the first time with Little Left Coast.  Picked out a Mommy, Daddy, and Baby pumpkin - we were grateful to have the opportunity, what with both of our busy schedules, for all three of us to be together at the same time.

Special thanks to Patrick for the photos of the three of us together!

Adventures with Little Left Coast

"Olive You" hat by Macon Hats, gifted by our friend Ann Marie.
Modeled by Memphis (aka Little Left Coast)

Whew!

 

Find Beauty in Simple Things

Was surprised by a friend today with a huge bag of homegrown cherry tomatoes.  Still in the fabulous honeymoon phase with the new 7D, aka Big Momma (as *this* Big Momma is not so big anymore.. woo!) and couldn't wait to use these perfect little niblets with selective AF and the 50mm.  

Oh my nerdy photo habits.. sigh.. just wanted to document these before they were devoured:)


& thanks again Stephanie!

Adventures in Scouting

When looking at a photographer's workload, we commonly assume it's something like.. schedule, style, shoot, proof, edit, deliver and that's the end of it.  Oh my friends, if you only knew how long some of us spend scouting for new locations.. and how much of a bummer it is when a "gem" spot of yours is destroyed.

I always visit the site of a planned shoot a few days before the shoot itself, just to make sure all is well.  Sometimes fields are harvested, trees are cut down, or gorgeous peeling wood planks are painted over... in today's case, I discovered that one of the spots I had planned to use this weekend had been taken over by a group of partying kids. They were as surprised to see me show up with my camera as I was to see them there.  I guess I can't really blame them, it is a secluded area, but it's still frustrating when you've already visualized the entire set.  Back to the drawing board!

Some random photos from my travels today... (17-40mm lens for all)
 

Father & Son

Good morning from little Left Coast!

 

Making the Time

Welcome to the new Left Coast Design Studio blog site.  If you're looking for old posts and previews, you can access the previous Blog here.  Change is good.

Speaking of change, 2011 has been quite the whirlwind for us so far.  Thank you so much to our clients, friends, and families for all of the love and support as prepared for and welcomed our first baby into the world in April.  Thank you especially to my clients who had a sense of humor as I stubbornly completed their photoshoots while 9 months pregnant:) 

We had not yet had the chance to take family photos yet, and as a photographer I really am ashamed to say that.  It's not that we were really waiting for anything, just as new parents I think we lost track of time.  We have plenty of portraits of Memphis, but only a few snapshots of us together as a family.  It seemed that every day our baby boy looked totally different and so much older, I started to panic when all of a sudden it didn't seem appropriate to refer to his age in weeks anymore.. I woke up one day and he was 2 months old.  He was double the size of our little 6 pound lovie we brought home from the hospital.  The longer we waited, the less he looked like a newborn and the more he looked like a little boy.

I was reminded of an extremely touching post by Austin Photographer Michele Anderson (Pinkle Toes Photography) that I had read a while back.. I can't find the permalink for the post right now, but I will post it if I can find it.  She shared a story about a friend who had suffered the loss of her husband in an accident and shared that she felt so fortunate to have been able to capture their last family photos together for her.  She explained how those last few photographs of all of them together went from just family portraits to priceless memories -- and how all too often we keep putting off sessions like that for one reason or another (the hope to lose more weight, waiting for a certain milestone, or just plain getting caught up).  The main message behind her post though was this:

"If you have not had family pictures taken within the past 3 years, promise me right now that tomorrow morning, you will find someone to do it. I don't care if it's a neighbor, I don't care if it's a portrait studio, I don't care if it's a tripod and a remote. Just do it. We have no guarantees in life, but at least we can have the photos to prove that we were here, we were together, and we were happy."

So, armed with my camera, a tripod, the self timer setting, a pair of boots to help me set & run in the field, and a very small window of time before Memphis needed to be in bed, we pulled over on the side of the road yesterday at sunset and took 15 minutes to document our family of three. 


I feel better now.  Just thought I'd share.

Happy Saturday,

LK