What was supposed to be a 5hr non-stop flight from San Diego to JFK
turned into a 10-hour weather-avoiding adventure through Rochester.

We finally made it to our hotel and got to bed around 4am.
Good thing my clients today were so flexible!
I don't think they wanted a photographer working on just a few hours' sleep,
so they graciously offered to reschedule the morning Central Park sessions
that were supposed to happen today.

After sleeping in a bit (only by East Coast standards, though), we hopped
on the Subway to Times Square, saw the big ToysRUs, visited a few other kid-type shops, got some lunch,
then went to see the Lion King on Broadway.
After the show, we met up with my pal Pamela for dinner at China Grill
and a night shoot in Times Square.

We did shots of my large rolling Jill-e gear bag, but those will have to wait
for post-processing on my big machine back at home.

Working on pictures of Mat is MUCH more fun anyway!

Here are some of my favorites:



I love how Mat is as tall as the buildings in the 2nd one -- such a big soccer stud!

Setting up the right camera settings & getting the flash onto Mat was a huge experiment
in trial & error.

I'll post more shots later. Right now, it's late, I'm even sick of working on Mat's pictures,
and that means I must be VERY VERY tired.

Good night from the Big Apple!

~Carey

I'll be away from the computer until next Friday, so if you don't get an answer
to phone calls or emails, that's why.

Mat & I are hopping on our non-stop Jet Blue flight to JFK tomorrow morning
for our big trip to the big apple!

Are you a Padres fan, Yankees fan, or baseball fan in NYC?
Do you want to go to the Padres/Yankees game next Wednesday?

Mat & I got tickets (pretty good tickets, actually), but I think we're going to
skip the game on Wednesday night.
We're already going on Tuesday night for the series opener, and we both
have agreed that two trips up to the Bronx, two days in a row, will be a bit much.

If you want to go, have I got a deal for you!!
EMAIL ME RIGHT AWAY (before I turn off my computer tomorrow morning),
and you can have our tickets for Wednesday night's game!
The tickets are in box seats, section 328, Row H, seats 3 & 4

I have them as PDFs, so I can just email you the pdf, you print them, and show up!

THERE IS ONE CATCH!!
You can have these tickets for FREE, BUT
YOU HAVE TO MAIL MAT the CAP that's the free giveaway that night.
You'll get 2 caps, and you need to send Mat one of them.

The first person to email me & tell me that they ABSOLUTELY WILL
go to the game & get that cap to Mat can have these 2 tickets for free!

I'll do my best to post on the blog from New York, so stay tuned!
My main goal is to get a shot of Mat juggling a soccer ball on his knee in Times Square
(in his soccer uniform ... he's not too thrilled about the idea ... tough pa-too-tees!!)
Wish me luck!

~Carey

Can you tell we just watched "Princess Bride" the other day?

Wuv ... Twooooo Wuv ... hee hee

I really do "wuv" my yellow Jill-e bag!

The other day, Dana & I hit Windansea to get some promo shots for Jill-e bags.
Jill needs some "lifestyle" shots of the bags -- on location, in action, all that fun stuff.

This was a good opportunity to play with my new lights, too.
(A session with no kids on the beach is a great time to practice with these lights!)

Dana did an AWESOME job, and she was my model, too:



Here are some of the shots we've sent off to Jill-e for her promo material:







Thank you, Dana!!! You're the best assistant and co-shooter EVER!

Next stop: Times Square in NYC, where I'll be getting promo shots of my
large black rolling bag!


~Carey

HELLO! My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Sorry.... couldn't help myself!
100 cool person points to the person who finishes this:
"Stop that now. I mean it! ..."

When we were kids, we'd have school fundraisers or sports fundraisers,
and we'd all breathe so much easier when mom or dad would say,
"Give that to me... I'll take it to work with me tomorrow."

Remember that joy and relief!?

Well, since I don't have a normal "office" job, I'm putting my own spin on
"Give that to me... I'll take it to work with me tomorrow."

Mat's soccer team has set up a store for the entire soccer club.
Everyone and anyone can shop shop shop for REBELS gear!
A fellow mom from our team help me set up the store, and I think it looks really good!

If you want some gear from an obscure soccer club in Southern California,
do I have a website for you!

If anything, a Rebels T-shirt could be a great conversation starter:

OTHER PERSON: "Rebels? What the heck is Rebels?"
YOU: "Cool shirt, huh? It's from a soccer team in San Diego."
OTHER PERSON: "Why do you have a shirt from them?"
YOU: "There are kids on that team who are going to be superstars one day.
This shirt will be worth thousands on eBay when they're older."
OTHER PERSON: ...
YOU: "Well, ok. It may not pay for my kid's college education, but I was helping out the team."
OTHER PERSON: "Well, that's nice of you."
YOU: "It's all about the kids."

GET TO THE STORE HERE.

If you don't want to drive to Chula Vista to pick up your order,
be sure to add shipping to your order (it's at the bottom of the store page),
and I'll ship your order to you when it comes in.

Happy shopping!

~Carey

Last weekend I got to play on the beach with this awesome family.
Aunt April was in town in between Naval orders, so she joined in for some fun, too!

Here's a black & white that I love with everyone doing their own thing
(paying no attention to me -- just the way I like it!)


Mom & daughter had a spontaneous race through the shallow water:


Dad decided his big girl needed to be upside down for a bit:


There was some kissing during a stolen kid-less moment.
I loved the ripples of the water and only giving a hint of the mooshiness:


That same big sister is BIG TIME into recycling & keeping the beaches clean:
The family had just done beach cleanup in IB the weekend before,
but she didn't let a photo shoot stop her from continuing the good work:


But don't be fooled -- she's not 100% activist! She's 100% kid, too!
We've all done the "dig as fast as you can like a dog at the beach" at some point, right?
I slowed my shutter down to 1/40th, held the camera very still and got this shot:


Dad made her some BIG GIRL shoes, too, which were hilarious:


Don't you love those colorful tanktops on the girls!? I forgot to ask mom where she got them!
I think Rory would love it for summer, and I love the colors for photos, too!

Enjoy!

~Carey