Lipstick & Lights! Ladies Night Boudoir Photography

Much like a shy guy on a first date, I get nervous before shoots. I am not sure if it will ever go away. It is part of my ritual that I go through before every single job. Yesterday the check list began with; tri-pod...check, light stands....check, forms, papers, reflectors....check,check, check. Camera....nope. Where the hell is the camera?!

I looked up at Roger in embarrassment as I realized I was so nervous for my ladies night boudoir sessions that I left the camera at home...along with all the lenses. Luckily I am a hop and skip from the studio, but that gives you a good idea of how nervous I was. I could have been any twenty something guy on a first date as he realized he left his wallet at home.

Once a session is in full swing my nerves escape me and I wonder what my problem was to begin with. Much like a fantastic date, once I met up with all the ladies, laughter, conversations and wine passed the time at record speed. I can't think of anything more fun on a Saturday evening then spending it with beautiful, confident and creative women! Miss Tania Voochen was available for hair and make up and did a bang up job on glaming up the ladies.

I just got back to the studio and as I am backing up all the files, I thought I would post a quick photo from the event. I didn't get permission from the ladies yet so I will just give a quick little kick off photo that sums up all the success of this little project until I can post more! Thanks to everyone that came, it was such a blast!

My Not so New - New Years Resolution

SO I did decide to exercise more this year, with my new Julianne Michael's DVD and sadly I haven't even so much as located the video in my house. It is there, I am just not sure where. The goal was to tone a bit and shed a few in anticipation of my wedding this year. As it pushes toward February I am thinking it might end up being a New February Resolution.

Exercise wasn't exactly my very top priority this year on the list, although it was close, instead I mentally wrote "Be More Decisive" above "Exercise" in my mind, this is particularly important especially in one specific area of my life; my wedding (I truly am the worst bride ever). My problem is really that I love just about everything, and can see really awesome potential in most options. It drives everyone crazy including myself. That also might be called optimism, except if you never make a decision, time and opportunities pass you by...say for example the last year and a half of my engagement and not a plan on the books!

This week I decided a couple of things;

A) To plan my wedding or at least put other planners more in charge of it

B) Make one solid decision even if it was deciding to buy a planning book.

I am proud to say that I completed both A & B without having to spend money on a planning book! I bought my wedding gown today...well my parents did anyway. After going back and forth between a few options(big surprise)..I really just couldn't decide! They were both so different and equally highlighted very different parts of my personality. Both were fantastic and after Jen my lovely lady at Bella Donna Salon went through her time tested questions to narrow it down my indecisive nature proved to be no match for her method. I couldn't decide...so I had my Dad decide. Viola! One wedding decision down about 2 bajillion more to go. While I was trying on my dress for the last and final time Jen mentioned she thought I had lost some weight since the first time I had gone in to see her....looks like I won't have to consider myself such a slacker in January after all !

Because a blog is just boring without at least one photo and because I can't post a picture of me in my dress yet, I thought I would post a photo of an adorable pair of one of our past bride's shoes because that is what I have decided I am most excited to purchase next!

In the Swing of Things

Before I whisked away on my European Christmas vacation I was spinning around and around with all the craziness that comes with leaving for three weeks during a holiday, graduating college (yay!), finals (boo!) and all of the regular holiday season madness.

I had originally thought that I would have blogged more while on vacation and share all the amazing things that I saw and discovered in my little public journal if for no other reason to remember every single thing. Aside from my first night there I didn't blog once. No Happy Christmas from London or even a Merry New Year from Dublin....nothing. I also thought I would take a bajillion pictures of absolutely everything and while I did come home with about 452, that is certainly not a bajillion, that is about how many images are shot in the first half of a wedding. I took my little cannon elph and snapped randomly, like a true tourist. I came home with too many pictures of buildings and of course a ton of Greg; my forever favorite subject. I will post some of my vacation later and maybe sporadically when I am feeling over worked and far away from my fantastic vacation that I waited my whole life to take. Just to throw me back into the swing of things I thought I would post a favorite session from before I left.

Meet the Glarborg's! Their family is adorable and I am always envious of young parents that are so comfortable with the idea of parenthood. It frankly scares the crap out of me, but seeing parents like this make it seem a whole lot less scary...

I love this one! We is such a little momma's boy...

London Blogging from a far away town...

We landed! After gathering our bags, stumbling around the train station, and realizing the only thing I forgot was an umbrella, we made it to our hotel! Greg scolded me for bringing seven pairs of pants as he lugged my suitcase up 5 flights of stairs, (what a doll) but if too many pants and no umbrella are the worries than we are good!


We are staying at the AROFSA hotel and as Laura and Greg were filling out paperwork, a front desk woman asked if I was Chantel and then handed me a lovely little blue box ...a Christmas present you could say. I knew what was in it but I was still excited. I unwrapped it slowly, and found the most adorable set of keys, two of them were these large old skeleton keys. They were dropped off by a Christmas elf of sort, and offer proof that Christmas this year will be one of the most memorable and treasured.


A couple of weeks ago one of my most favorite clients, Jack Mills, came in to pick up some photos. We chatting about what we were doing for the Holidays and I mentioned that Greg and I would be flying into London on the 20th. He asked if we were spending the Holiday there, I told him that we had decided against it because every hotel I had checked seemed to be crazy expensive for the Holidays. I told him we had decided to spend Christmas some place else so that we didn't deplete all our vacation money on hotels. Jack said we should really experience a London Christmas and then went on to mention that his brother lives in central London and would be in the U.S. over the Holidays. He said he would contact him and was sure that he would let us stay at his flat. I was excited but didn't want to count my chickens...A week later I received a detailed email from Jack's brother David, with directions for the key drop off and a list of awesome stuff to do while we are here. How sweet is that? Christmas Elf indeed! I love this man and I have never even met him!


Tomorrow we will head to the flat and unpack a few things as we will be there until after Christmas. I found a really awesome website with posts of favorite local walks around the city with historical landmarks, parks and of course, including the necessary pub stops in between. I think tomorrow Greg and I might check one of those out. My sleep schedule is all crazy and as Greg sleeps and I blog, it is snowing lightly outside. I have experienced snow at Christmas before, but this is a different snow...kind of drizzly and more wet, softer and not as cold. Pure bliss... and I am going to try to remember every minute of it!

Us attempting to not look touristy in the tube station...fail.



I wish my front door keys looked like this!



Our little room for the first night.


I just brought my Cannon Elph on this vacation and even though I wish I had the Nikon at times I think I am glad to travel so light!

Nicholas Howell

Although physically I will be far far away on Tuesday, my heart will be here, and more specifically it will be at the base of the Sutter Buttes. My memories will lie in Sutter, and even more specifically in this little nook to the left of The Howell residence, on College Avenue, referred to by many as "The Kick-it Spot". The Kick it spot was the teenage version of a fort. The ground was worn down from visitors and a little two-seater chair swing was pushed up to the side of the house creating a cove. It was perfect for avoiding parents and indulging in forbidden cigarettes and other teen curiosities. The real draw to this haven aside from it's secret charm was the host; Nick Howell.


When I was in High School I spent much of my time with Stephanie Howell. We drove back and forth from each other's houses. Like all high school friends we couldn't spend enough time with each other. Aside from our wardrobes, & lip gloss, we shared parents and siblings. Our lives meshed together...our families became each other's families. And while my little sister and Stephanie irritated each other like true sisters do, Nick and I were friends.


When I transferred to Yuba City high as a sophomore I didn't have all that many friends in my grade. I remember being overwhelmed by how many people there were compared to my former, much smaller school. One day when I was walking to class alone wallowing in my unpopularity, I familiar voice yelled my name from across the quad. It was Nick, and at that point I had just seen him around Stephanie's house when I visited. He was there for an ROP mechanics class, He came jogging over, talking a mile a minute and in a matter of 30 seconds I had transformed from "the girl Steph brought around" to a friend. That was how Nick was, instant friends with everyone.


Aside from Nick's lightning speed conversations, and laissez-faire lifestyle, he was charming. He was a master at the wink and had a teasing smile that danced around the corners of his mouth and eyes. He had a harmless naughty streak that people found refreshing and attractive, rules didn't apply to Nick and the world was his playground. The consequences that most find from a rule-less life added character to Nick, and with that character came more friends from all walks of life.


Stephanie what I wanted to say when I found out Nick had passed away, is that even though my emotions weren't obvious, I am grieving for you. I want you to remember that your brother thought the sun rose and set with you and that he adored you. I want you to remember how he used to coax you into taking him to a friends house or to the store with just the simple words "C'mon Steph". And you would even when you didn't want to, because he was so very persuasive and charming. I want you to forget about the horrific way that he left this world and remember every single wonderfully small and perfectly irritating thing that he did that made him your little brother. Through tears while typing, I want you to know my heart will be with you and your brother on Tuesday... sitting on the kick it spot swing, smoking an imaginary cigarette.

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill went to the park to have their holiday photo taken...

I wanted to post a quick blog today and quick it is!...I love these two and look forward to their session every year partly because as Jack gets older I have to make fewer embarassing dog noises to get his attention and partly because Jill is one of my very favorite people! Below are a few that I thought the world should see...

Business Cards to Brag About!

At the risk of sounding vain, be prepared to come across the cutest business cards EVER! I picked up our new business cards about 2 weeks ago...now these aren't your run of the mill, hand'em out and toss into the trash business cards. These babies are so stinkin' adorable and a ton of time, love and labor went into them. I squealed in delight right there in the print shop...like a toddler that has just been handed one of those giant swirly suckers at Disney Land. As mentioned in previous posts we are under going serious re-branding, and although it is a marketing fanatic's best dream to turn something drab into fab, it is seriously a lot of decision making... and I am notorious for being a horrible decision maker (See Greg, I can admit it!).

If you are ever in the market for a graphic designer seriously look at Kathy Mitchell. I can not say enough good things about working with her. I stumbled upon her site pretty randomly while researching designers and chose her out of all the people on the information super highway. She is based in Tennessee but her geographic location didn't hinder our efforts in coming up with a logo and business card design. Her work is wonderful and her personality and patience with my indecisive nature will get any of my future business and all of my referrals. She is magical in her talents!

The third factor in the equation in getting these bad boys completed, was Blue Moon Printing! Now I love Blue Moon Beer, so their name resonated well with me when they were highly recommended by Manpreet Bains over at Pulp Papery. She is an expert in the "pretty paper industry" so I trusted her for it.They are based here in Sacramento and they are fantastic! We received a tour of the facility and suggestions on what paper would be best for our cards. I really wanted something that had a matte finish and a thick-ish card stock, instead of something shiny. They are beautiful, and the highest compliment for me right now, is to ask me for a business card, I will beam and hand it over happily!

How could this be so hard to come up with you ask?! Three colors, three fonts, which photos fit the best on the inside and send the right message?....a bajillion revisions...

These are the photos I chose for the card that Roger shot of me during my branding shoot

In return for taking such lovely photos of me, I took photos of Roger for his card. I was really really happy the way his card turned out...charming, professional and pet friendly is how they read when you look at them..How very Roger!