Wednesday morning I leave the warm short-sleeve weather of San Diego
and venture Eastward to the land of Autumn!
My eyes and ears in NYC tell me that the leaves are going to be in full glory while I'm there,
so I'm getting really excited about my time in the city, and especially Central Park!

To keep the warm San Diego feeling going strong,
here are some my my favorite shots from a recent shoot in La Jolla,
and this session was extra special because Katie was one of the super duper moms
from my workshop with Mera back in the Spring!
Her husband surprised her with a Barefoot Memories Platinum Package
for their anniversary a few months ago!
(funny story: I got hubby a 5x7 he could print & frame, and when Katie opened it,
she thought, "wow. gee. great. a frame. thanks." THEN she looked more closely
and got REALLY EXCITED!)

We chose an October session because October is so pretty, and all their little dude
wanted to do was get WET WET WET ... and then get WET WET WET some more!
He got his wish when this wave came along"

(love the biceps & the sheer joy on his face!!!)

We did "The Barefoot Shot" at the end, and I think I have a new favorite!

Can you tell the little dude was not happy to get out of the water?
The sunflare in this image is what I love so much, but whe you've got the sun coming
right into your lens like that, most auto-focus systems will just plain refuse to focus.
So, for this shot, I had to venture out of my comfort zone and use (gasp!) Manual Focus.
It was fun, though! And I really like the results!

Enjoy!
~Carey

PS: There haven't been any cancellations or openings for any upcoming weekend
or Mini Platinum dates. If any come up, I will announce them here.

It's so very strange to shop for coats and scarves when it's 85 degrees at the mall!
Yet that's what I've been doing this week, getting ready for next week's trip to New York.
Prepping for New York, soccer mom duties, and photoshoots have been filling my days,
and the blog has been neglected -- I'm sorry!

I've got lots of pictures to share, though, so I'll spread them out over a few posts.

These images are from my last Mini Platinum day in La Jolla last week.
It was SO PRETTY!
If a family asks me, "When is the best time for pictures?"
Without pause, I say "OCTOBER!! SANTA ANA DAYS!"
The low humidity makes for good hair days, the sky is blue,
(thanks to San Diego Chopper 1 & Chopper 2!!!), the air is warm,
and the beaches are empty!

For this Mini Platinum, I used my 5D and my 24-70mm lens because I wanted to
open up my lens really wide and get a LOT of that big blue sky.

Mission accomplished:



and I had to snap a shot of this:

My camera bag and my client's awesome Gina Alexander bag at the Windansea hut!

Enjoy!
~Carey

PS: I have an update on our little buddy who went in for brain surgery!!
The surgery went VERY WELL, no cancer, and he went home TWO DAYS EARLY!! YAY!!!

Some blog readers may know that I play on a few soccer teams here in San Diego.
Mat taught me everything I know, since I'd never EVER played soccer before I started
playing on these indoor soccer teams.
I grew up sporty, but I never tried soccer.

One of the other moms on Mat's soccer team asked me if I'd like to join a women's indoor team.
Sounded like fun to me! At indoor soccer you get good exercise, some good sprinting,
but you don't run run run run run run quite as much as you do on a full-size soccer field.

So, I joined the HOT MAMAS playing at La Mesa Indoor Soccer.
It's a BLAST!
I've ended up playing GOALIE this whole season, and even though it's not as much
exercise as other positions, it's SO FUN, and it turns out that I'm a decent goalie!

Here are MY goalie gloves that helped me out this season:

It was fun to buy something for ME at the soccer store!

We have one more game left this season, but I won't be there because I'll be in New York City.
It doesn't matter too much, though, because LAST NIGHT WE CLINCHED THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!
We also kept our UNDEFEATED record!

WAY TO GO HOT MAMAS!

~Carey

The radio just said it's already 90 degrees at the airport -- HOT HOT HOT!
It's typical October weather here in San Diego: hot & dry, perfect photo weather!
Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL at the beach in La Jolla.
I wanted to share a bit of a "sneak peek" from yesterday's La Jolla pictures
as well as a little "behind the scenes" look at my workflow.

When I get home from a photo shoot, here's what happens:

1: Images get downloaded to my hard drive & copied to a backup server.

2: I bring up all of the photos in Adobe Bridge, and I go through all of the images,
marking the "keepers" with a star, and leaving all of the others.
(I'll "leave" the ones where people are blinking, etc).

3: I work on all of those "keepers" in Adobe Camera Raw, making slight white balance
and exposure adjustments to make the colors look great. Then I save out jpgs.

4: I work on all of those jpgs in Photoshop, enhancing colors if I want to, cropping out
junk in the background if needed (bringing the focus of the image where it needs to be),
and creating a black & white version if I think that photo will look great in b/w.

5: Create online galleries for the client(s), get their CDs burned, print their shipping labels,
and mail out their email saying their online gallery is ready.

All of this happens over several days during multiple trips to the computer in between
MOM duties. I've gotten really quick & efficient with Bridge & Photoshop, so I don't
waste a lot of time on that stuff.

Right now, I've finished step 2 on yesterday's pictures, but one of those pictures is
SO FUN, I wanted to share it with you before I finish the rest of the steps!

Check out the fun this family was having yesterday!!


I LOVE La Jolla in October, and I love families who know how to have fun!

Enjoy!

~Carey

HUGE thanks go out to Val, a wonderful blog reader, who shared the link
to a super fun photo contest!

The contest is for the best "soccer action" photo, and the winner gets admission to the
DAVID BECKHAM ACADEMY for his (or her) WHOLE TEAM!

Of course, I have to try to win this for Mat's team!

I wanted to try to get something like Rob & I created earlier this year,
and I had to create it myself, per the contest rules.

This isn't a "judged" contest.
It will be decided by public internet voters like you during November.
(you know I'm going to be asking for voting love for this, right?)

So, which do you like better?

#1:


#2:




Thanks for your help!!

~Carey