Rockin Out!

Last Friday night Dave and I surprised ourselves and managed to get down to an after 10pm gig and a 45 minute drive to see that crazy cat Johnny Vibrato rock out on his guitar. He's one of our favorite musicians. He does mostly his own rockin blues songs and whatever favorite covers he's in the mood for. We love him cause he's the real raw deal. I've never seen anyone disappear so completely into an instrument! He and his guitar rock as one.....even on top of the bar or tables or whatever he can work in the room.

I brought my camera to play with in the intimate and intensely dark restaurant/bar La Vita Gustosa. Then when I walked in and heard the music I looked at the drummer and found it was none other than our favorite drummer man Liviu Pop! He's a rockin, funky jazz drummer who we catch at the jazz shows at Szechuan Tokyo in town. We could not have seen that coming. So we were doubly treated to major talent and endless energy. And I have add that Johnny and Liviu are sooooo genuine, gracious and fun loving it's energizing to be around them.

I think it was going on like 2am and Johnny brought out his acoustic guitar and played some of his new songs and John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" (which I sing at least every day in the car....with Bonnie) Be still my heart.......I love acoustic guitar! Then after the show, he shared some more acoustic with us. What a night... and morning!......we didn't get home till 3am.

It's good to know Dave and I can still manage that once in awhile.

Spring vacation

Thankfully I was not on the receiving end of his next throw........but ya gotta love the electric doo!

Zach's bliss......

I got to spend some time last week during this blissful weather down on Mari's farm.  They have lots of animals to snuggle especially bunnies.  The kids love to spend the day there......ok, who am I kidding, they'd love to live there and spend their days exploring the woods and swamps, climbing trees and catching critters.

Some down time

Oren, the charmer, at 3 1/2 months.

Discovery is everywhere.......

The simple pleasure of making spit bubbles to impress Mom...  

Joy's joy.

You know you wish you could ROCK this hat............

It's school vacation week so I've had the opportunity to have a little down time while home with my kids during this super warm Spring week.  On Monday I got to hang out with my friend Joy, who brought her 3 1/2 month old son.  Now, as much as I love being with Joy, I gotta say, her baby boy stole the spotlight all afternoon.  

Photographers Workshop

On Monday I joined about 20 other photographers at an all day workshop that the super talented  Carla Ten Eyck and Steve Depino led.  

What a fun challenge the day was!  It was a "get out of your comfort zone" day.  We did a lot of shooting with the basic instructions of "use a lens you're not comfortable using" and "direct the models".  Now for some that may be no big deal, but for me (and some others there) candid, observational shooting is my thing.  But you know what?  I got into the moment and really tried to communicate the vision of what I wanted to capture to the models.  They were amazing too and game for anything......including the "escaping bride scaling a fence" that I envisioned the moment I saw Cara, our bride model. 

 

It was also such a great experience to watch the other photographers set up and direct their shots.  There certainly was a lot of creativity flowing ALL day long. 

 

After shooting the couple, the fun loving and super posable Justin & Mary Marantz we all had to choose 4 photos from the day to throw up on the big screen for everyone to critique.  What worked in the photo, how it could be better with a crop or color change etc.  I loved seeing the resulting shots after having watched their creation. 

 

Thank you Carla and Steve........I can't wait till the next one!

Animals in the House

A very spoiled foster kitten "Danny" who fell asleep in a doll bed........really, all we did was tuck him in.

My daughter has a big heart and some of her happiest moments are when she is with animals.  She does foster care for the Humane Society, so on past occasions our home has been host to several sets of motherless kittens, a mother rat with 14 little pinky babies that grew into very sweet, attention loving pets, and most recently a mother rabbit and her 4 one week old babies.  It's a lot of fun to watch them grow and also a lot of work too.  She never complains, just names each one as they come in the door and showers them with love and affection until the day they have reached an age when we must bring them back to the Humane Society to be adopted out to permanent homes.  Recently she and her friend started a neighborhood pet sitting/walking business.  I thought it was a great way for her to earn some money and do what she loves.  She told me she wanted to give all the money to the Humane Society so they can help more animals.  Like I said, she's got a big heart.