Things I've Learned This Week

For as long as I can remember I've been in tune with my intuition. I don't always listen to her voice, but I do often rely on it. In recent years I've learned to not only listen to her voice, but to act in accordance with it. This goes for things both big and small, mundane and life changing. 

In the past, when I've been driving and seen something exciting or intriguing, I would usually pass it by because it wasn't part of my plan, or it felt like a hassle to turn around and find parking, or any others on the list of excuses I made up.

I drove to San Francisco this week and made a stop by the Golden Gate Bridge. I had seen pictures from Kirby Cove that had a great view of the bridge, bay, and city. As int turns out, I was not the only one with this goal, even for a Wednesday afternoon. Parking was a little bit stressful and I ended up going a little bit farther than where GPS told me to stop...But when I finally got a parking spot, I ventured up and down the ridge to capture these shots. I spent about an hour hiking around and taking in the views. It was so beautiful, and spoke to my soul. A couple years ago, I likely would have gotten out of my car and only taken a couple pictures from where I was parked. Today, I'm working on staying present, taking my time, and enjoying the moment. 

xxo

Love Birds

Last Saturday I did my first couples shoot. My sweet brother was kind enough to let me use him and his girlfriend as my test subjects. I spent the week before looking through Instagram pictures of other photographers and their couples, studying the poses and angles and general esthetics. For my first photoshoot like this, I'd say I'm pretty happy with myself.

xxo

Basement Sessions with City Scout and Inland

Last Friday night I stepped out of my old lady tendencies and went out after dark (note: v proud of myself). I ventured out to Ruhstaller for an event put on by City Scout. This series is called Basement Sessions, and every couple months Ruhstaller and City Scout come together to host local music and a chance to build community. 

I was able to shoot the event and felt all kinds of awkward while doing so. I usually love going out to dinner or coffee shops or road trips by myself. But there's something different about going to an event specifically for socializing yet riding solo. Never mind the fact that my social anxiety is heightened when I go out in Sacramento, where it's possible that I could run into someone I used to know. 

I found myself stepping off to the side to try to hide, and then calling myself out for it and then basically doing laps around the event like a weirdo until Inland came on. (Side note: the worst part of going out to a bar/event like this alone is that suddenly you become a glaring target for strange and/or drunk men to come hit on. It's so frustrating that seemingly every attractive man is either there with an even more attractive woman, or is too chicken to come up and approach me...which could take this on a whole new tangent about how I want the attractive man to approach me but also have a hard time reconciling that with my feminist beliefs...LETS DIGRESS.) Please enjoy these somewhat good quality photos of a phenomenal duo:

Also, holy crap it's a way different ballgame shooting in a dark indoor area. I tried to stay in manual as much as I could, and the editing process was far more nuanced than the shoots I've done outdoors. But this was pretty much the whole reason for me shooting Basement Sessions: to get more practice and work on my craft.

Feels good...

xxo

Things I've Learned This Week

1. It's hard for me to regularly produce these Friday posts (see lack of consistency since introducing this "series" a couple months ago...)

2. The Crocker Art Museum is a lovely way to spend an afternoon here in Sacramento. I've been frustrated about this winter break I'm on since (for the most part) I'm not getting paid. But it has allowed me the time and space to do a little more exploring of downtown and the surrounding areas. 

3. Instaphysique kicks my ass. I've taken three classes now and every time there after my whole body is basically in shock. I took class this past week and a couple days later, as I was coughing, was alerted to muscles in my abs I usually am unaware of...We didn't even do any exercises "specifically" targeting abs. That's just the misery beauty of Instaphysique: you work literally every muscle in your body in an excruciating just 40 minutes of continuous movement. 

xxo

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Towering Over

West Sacramento is definitely up and coming right now. So many great projects and renovations going on just across the downtown area and I'm starting to explore it. The Tower Bridge has always caught my eye with its yellow color. And since it literally bridges the gap between downtown and west sac I'm sure it's going to get a lot more use with all of the expansion.

xxo