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Written by Kim Little, Principal of Pinewood Elementary Last spring, the Pinewood Elementary Parent Teacher Club set out a find an artist willing to brighten the Pollock Pines campus with a custom painted agility trail.  One parent quickly connected the school with Debra Power. Power, a retired science teacher from the El Dorado High School District now spends much of her energy on her passion of art and painting. To the schools delight, Debra agreed to make the group’s vision a reality, plus much more.  After a first walkthrough and meeting, Debra proposed more ideas to beautify the small school…

When you’re a professional wedding and family photographer, you spend a lot of time photographing other people having fun, but don’t always capture images of your own fun times.  You’ve got to set the camera down sometime!  That was the plan when I headed to the Camp Wakka Chikka music festival Labor Day weekend: just some real R&R with family, music, food, and dancing.  Still, being a photographer, I always have to have at least one camera and lens in my bag as insurance against those “I can’t believe I missed that shot!!” moments.  Fortunately for me (but unfortunately for my…

For my first shoot of the year I picked up my assistant Cassie and we headed down to San Francisco for the weekend. We met Emily and Shannon near their apartment in the Mission. Up until a couple days before the session, it was set to be a fabulous and sunny San Francisco afternoon. I had envisioned the sun casting its late light on the SF skyline. This was what I was counting on until my husband hollered down from his laptop that morning….”You know it’s going to be dumping rain in SF, don’t you?”. Well, no I didn’t, until…

Headed over to Gold Ridge on a sunny Christmas eve to capture the Ganno family all in from out of town. This year little Hayes from Colorado was the new addition to the family- just 5 months old. We had planned the shoot for the 23rd but the weather was rainy and I thought it would be best to postpone for sunny Christmas eve. I even had my husband assist me on this one:) A family affair! I think it’s cool when a family who comes together from many locations and generations decides to make this happen. Life is so…

I feel fortunate to get to work with many of the same families year after year. I believe it has been about 8 or 9 consecutive years now with the Anderson family. This year we mixed it up a little with formal attire against the historic Coloma background. I love the grey attire, the bright green grass against the old rock walls. It is fun working with them to come up with something new and fun each year. Below is an image that Jess recently sent me of their wall of photographs from over the years. Seeing this made me…

I have the best job. And, it’s the people that I work with that are most responsible for that. Yes, of course, I live for “creative flow” but without those folks that always warm your heart, I wouldn’t be sitting here while there is a mountain full of snow just up the hill. Ok, not exactly true, I’m a blue bird day skier…In the storm, I’d rather be here right now with my tunes cranked loud and my fire the same, editing photographs that I know are going to make my friends, Tom and Bethany smile. At least I’ll be…

Love was in the air at David Girard for Jenn and Danny, and it was easy to tell why.  These two are beautiful together and how could you not love that? Their wedding was perfect; all the special touches that were put into this day were amazing. From the golf pendant Jenn added to Dan’s boutonniere to the releasing of the doves at the ceremony.  Jenn even had a clever way in which the guests were excused for dinner.  There was not a detail missed! The day started out at the River Rock Cottage in Lotus photographing the bride with…

It’s always great to have family photographs taken at your own home. It’s a wonderful way to remember your first house, the house where your kids grew up, or the house you grew old in. And it’s great for me when the property is as beautiful as the Coyle Family’s is. Our day started out great! Mari must have planned afternoon naps perfectly because her beautiful boys, Emmett and Max, were all smiles for their photo session together in the rocks of their front yard. As the sun was setting behind them, the light was perfect and I couldn’t stop…

Capturing the height of fall with the McCann family at the beautiful Boeger Winery, we were so glad that we also hit a beautiful, sunny day!  It is especially hard for parents of this age group to get it all together, cleaned, ward-robed and to the shoot on time, that I commend Reiko for booking early and giving herself plenty of time to find some cute clothing. As it sometimes goes with these sessions, especially the ones you plan way ahead for:) Hailee fell on the playground a few days before our shoot and scraped up her face so we…