Playing Catch Up: Maternity Pictures

Freedom...I can taste it. Two weeks away from this cold room and no windows and germy students. Sigh. I'm so happy. It's time to play catch-up on the old bloggo:

At the end of November, I had the pleasure of shooting my friend Javy and his wife, Julieta. I touched on it here. I have not had the time to blog about the shoot, though it's been up on my website for sometime. My life has been a bit of a zoo since we got back from Thanksgiving. Either way, here are my picks from that wonderful day in the sun. I'm happy to say that Javy and Julieta welcomed little Anabel into the world on November 30th. Yey, for babies!

I could live under this tree:

Some taken with Olga my Holga (damn, skippy!)

Writing Hiatus

I'm not going on one. I guess I was just on hiatus without even realizing it. It wasn't on purpose...I just haven't had much free time.
I haven't even writen my morning pages.
I killed my streak.
That's ok, though. I'll just start again.

This weekend was out of control.

By far the biggest in Elaine Palladino Photography history.

I had two engagements shoots and one boudoir shoot.

I also have a maybe wedding this Saturday.

It's all exciting and new and, I won't lie, a bit overwhelming.

Especially because I'm still working full-tiime.

I have so many pictures from this weekend that I want to share, as well as pictures from my friends wedding that I finally got around to editing. All will be revealed this week. I swear it.

Here is my weekend in polaroids:

Thanksgiving in New York

Though we had to cut our vacation short because of the wedding on Saturday, we had a nice three days with Mike's family. I ate more than any one person should and was able to shed some of the bad juju from the past couple of weeks. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures. I could do a whole post on just the food. My best friend, Gisy, says that I could be a food photographer. I just want to use my camera to make the food look as good as it tastes and smells. I'll make that a future post...

I was able to convince my brother-in-law, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Ashley, to take some pictures while the sun was setting:

 

I could fill whole albums with pictures of Mike:

Thanksgiving day we went for a nice four-mile walk on the trail near Mike's parent's house. That's right: FOUR MILES. I was not prepared for that. These are some of the pictures from the trail:

 

Sister

I can no longer fit into my jeans from the amount of food that I've consumed today. It's acutally hard to breathe. Sit around watching TV with Mike's family, finally getting to edit pictures from a couple of events.

Loving this one of Yani and her yellow lab, Linda:

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.  

~ Linda Sunshine ~

Words

“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years”

~ Thomas Wolfe ~

Fall Through My Holga

I broke out my Holga to take pictures of the fall.

I'm still trying to figure this thing out, but I'm happy with what it gave me.

What do you think?

Lorenzo the Wonder Dog

My parents got a new dog.

Meet Lorenzo.

He's tiny, awesome and completely fearless. The dog attacked the vaccuum.

I got a couple good shots of him this weekend. Here is one of his tiny doggie ears.

Debating if we should just go ahead and steal him.

My favorite one. Mike is such a bad influence.

*Folks, the last two pictures were taken by my sister, Mrs. Yanelle Garcia*

"Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams."

Henry David Thoreau was full of crap. Yeah, I said it. It's so easy to "Live the life you've imagined" when you're not scared shitless and when you have nothing to lose.

I just submitted the rest of my application for my MFA in photography. Talk about feeling woefully inadequate. The Skills and Experience section was like a high school student's who just started taking photography classes. Maybe I shouldn't mention this since there's a link to the blog from my portfolio site. But F-it. I'm all for honesty here.

I have never ventured into something that is so exciting and so scary at the same time. Even when I started teaching, I didn't feel like this. I walked into the classroom knowing that I was going to kick ass and, sure enough, I have. For some reason, I'm super confident when it comes to teaching. I know I'm a good teacher. But when you get to other parts of my life, the parts that involve photography, writing (that's a whole other beast) and whether my thighs are slowly but surely swallowing my jeans, I'm about as insecure as the chess club president trying to ask the head cheerleader to prom (I'm stuck on 80s movies right now, people).

Confidence is a tricky thing. I'm confident enough to tell you off if you've scheduled a meeting and didn't bother to show up or to tell two almost-grown 18-year-olds that if they want to fight each other they better plan on fighting me first (I did this while taking off my earrings). I'm not confident enough, however, to say "Hey, I've got this budding business, want me to take your picture?" or "Yeah, I'm in the middle of a novel that's totally going to get published." Um, no.

I'm not whining here. Not at all because, despite whatever I'm saying right now, I'm still plugging along, trying to become a better photographer, trying write 50,000 words in a month, trying some self improvement on the reg. All I'm saying is that it's easier said than done, Thoreau. It's hard enough as it is to take a leap of faith in yourself, let alone to do so confidently. How about I just go in the direction of my dreams? I'll figure out the confidence part when I get there.

~

Here's a picture of my first maternity session. My charming friend from highschool Javy and his wonderful wife Julieta were so good to let me take pictures of them right before she pops. She's due at the end of the month. They are a cute couple who, I'm sure, are going to make one cute little girl.

Moo Cards

So the other day while I was taking pictures at Sammie's 5th Birthday party, I had a lot of parents come up to me telling me that they loved her pictures and did I have a card? Um, no. What I did have was a little NY Giants notepad where I scribbled my number, email address and website in hurried chicken scratch. Totally not what I would call professional. I felt like I was playing photographer. Like I was given a camera, told to point at something and shoot. I still feel like that half the time, but that is neither her nor there. The point is that I needed to get cards and quick. Did I ever!

I have to give complete credit to my girl Lissette who suggested Moo Cards for their super cute cards. I went ahead and decided to rock the MiniCards because I'm not a fan of the standard sized cards and, really, let's face it, I'm not a standard kind of person. I was looking for something that would capture my attention as well as the attention of potential clients. I also needed something that said, "Hey, I'm not a creepy person with a camera. I might actually know what I'm doing."

Enough with the lollygagging! Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

Here's a closeup:

They come with this nifty little box that's just too cute!

So what do you think? Awesome, right? Leave your thoughts in the comments and whether you think I'll be, in the words of MC Hammer, TOO LEGIT TO QUIT.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

Sorry. Got caught up singing the Halloween song from A Nightmare Before Christmas--a movie I love to watch both at Halloween and Christmas. I watch it on VHS. Word.

Here is a preview of the awesomeness that is to come tonight:

I coveted this costume. COVETED. This year I relented and bought the darn thing. No sexy bee for me, my friends. I'm gonna be a big 'ol bumble bee! Mike's going to be a wolf. Full recap tomorrow.

Some other news around Lainey Land...

I found a Polariod Camera, y'all. Seriously. I was hanging around Navarro Pharmacy (only people from Miami can get a full grasp of this place), waiting for Abuela to finish her shopping when I decided to scope out the photo center. I don't know why but I got it in my head that they would still be selling Polaroid cameras. Sure enough, they had two. I don't know when was the last time that I saw one of these bad boys for sale. And for only 35 bucks! I ought to buy the other one and then sell it on ebay because you can't find them now for under $50, if that. So if anyone is interested, just let me know in the comments and i'll go get it for you. All you would have to do is pay shipping if I have to ship it to you.

In other news, I have the cutest dog in the world. My office is tiny (it's a closet we converted into an office) and my dog is an Akita, i.e. Big. For some reason she just wanted to be near me so planted herself right at the door. Check her out and my onestars:

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everybody! Don't take candy from strangers!

What are you going to be this Halloween? Seen any good costumes already?

Polaroids

I'm still in the middle of my grades-are-due-this-week panicked haze though it'll be over by this afternoon so help me.

I've got tons of fun coming your way, but for now I'll leave you with a couple of "polaroids" I took this weekend thanks to the Shake It app on my ipopple. Coolest. Thing. Ever. It turns any picture you take into a polaroid, giving it that awesome contrast and coloring. Thanks to Naomi over at Rockstar Diaries for the heads up!

I ache for my Polaroid camera that I got for my birthday as a kid. Anyone want to get me one because you love me? (UPDATE: Totally, found one! Now you can just find me film.)

My awesome yellow shoes

Story of my life.

Yani giving me the side-eye.

The bejeweled vest I should have gotten if only to look awesome on a regular basis. Let's not forget the "myspace" face.

Cool motorcycle dude.

Cool motorcyle gang. There were others not pictured.

What's great is that you can "polorize" older pictures like this one of me and Mike.

What do you think? Cool, No?

Little Divas

About three weeks ago I went to take pictures at Sammie's 5th birthday party. Y'all remember her from my Tutu Couture post, right? Well, I was not prepared for the cuteness of this party. Amazing. It was basically a spa for little girls. They had a manicure and pedicure station, an area for facials and a salon for hair and make up. I also heard the Hannah Montana live CD on loop for about an hour, but that didn't bother me so much. Seeing these Little Divas was enough to keel over and die, they were so cute. Here are some of my favorite shots:

My Weekend With the Fisheye

I felt like I didn't stop for a second this weekend. I had to chaperone the Homecoming dance Friday night, spent most of Saturday planning my friend Lissette's bridal shower, visited my family, went to a Diwali party, watched the Giants play horribly and went to a book store. Through it all I carried my camera with me. Here is why:

A few weeks ago I purchased two lenses to try and build my repertoire:  a portrait and a fisheye lense. This weekend, in my neverending quest to become a better photographer, I decided give myself a personal project: to take pictures using only the fisheye. Can I just say it's the coolest? It is wierd looking and rather intimidating but it's seven kinds of awesome. Here is my weekend as seen through the fisheye lense I will heretofore call Berny:

What do you think? Pretty cool, eh? What's your favorite picture? Sound off in the comments!