Horse Play

We had the pleasure of photographing Dr. Joan Winter, D.V.M. and her Arabian horse Spuds. Joan practices Western and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine in Simi Valley and surrounding areas.

Is your dog or horse suffering joint pain - she can administer acupuncture to alleviate pain.

Dr. Winter received her beautiful new smile from Dr. Carson at Westlake Dental Arts. www.westlakedentalarts.com

What A Doll!

Someone once told me that my portraits captured the "light" in people. I found it a great compliment. It was easy to capture Bobbi Jo Free's inner light. She just shines.

I met Bobbi Jo when I photographed her at a charity event. I decided she was so inspirational and sweet we just had to photograph her in her art studio at Bell Arts Factory and share the images with you.

The day Grace and I photographed her she was teaching three of her grand kids to make stuffed sheep dolls. It was obvious from her studio walls that Bobbi Jo is talented in all forms of art, but she seems to mostly design and create dolls these days.






Although her studio is small, she fills it with love.






These are just a few of the many dolls Bobbi Jo has created.

Talented Youth of Ventura Perform at the Rubicon Theater

Grace and I photographed the sold out "Kids for Kids" show at the Rubicon Theater in Ventura this past Monday evening. Grace and I loved the show and were very impressed by Toby Tropper who emceed the show and wrote and acted in the funniest piece of the night. Toby is pictured below.




Also watch out for Sydney Unseth. She can't be more than 9 or 10 and is talented enough for Broadway right now. Photos of Sydney in rehearsal and during the show below.




The following was paraphrased from a Ventura County Star article.

Recognizing the Rubicon Theatre Company’s financial hardships and eager to give back, former participants in Rubicon youth camps performed in a one-night “Kids for Kids” youth benefit showcase to raise money for scholarships and future camps.

The showcase featured highlights from past Rubicon youth productions, such as “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Footloose,” “Babes in Arms,” “Once on This Island,” as well as the current production of “Godspell.”

The showcase was conceived and produced by Julie Farrell, 19, a former participant who recently finished her first year as a musical theater major at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa. Julie is in the red shirt with the flowers below.

Pretty Pretty Pony Tale

I took these images of Grace today working her magic. She drew this cute card for her friend's neice's 2nd birthday. She was painting it on the patio in the cool Ventura air. Her work always impresses me.

I only wish my wrist would support me!

Don't you wish you could stop everything you are doing right now and do this! I get to photograph some of the most talented high school dancers - this is Shelby.

Decadence is everywhere!

Sue and I decided to have a little fun downtown on Tuesday, and this is the product! We walked around for about an hour trying to find the letters to Decadent Images without using signs (I admit I cheated a little bit on the 'g', but that was a tough one!). Sue found all the letters to Decadent, and I gathered up everything for Images, and then put them all together.

Each of these letters can be found somewhere in Downtown Ventura, for example, my 'e' came from Jerold Thomas Salon on California St, and Sue's first 'e' came from the lobby of the Perry Mason building.



See if you can identify some of them yourselves!

My inspiration

Frank Niemier, a legendary newspaper photographer, took this photo of me in 1979 when I was 16. He sent me this digital copy yesterday.

I already have a printed copy in my scrapbook and the page that ran in the newspaper - it has been in there for 30 years!

I was a varsity tennis player for Royal High School in Simi Valley. This memory is worth a million dollars to me. It is one of those images that tells the story of the person. I can see the determination and focus in my eyes. Even all these years later, I can say those are two of my best qualities.

This photo is one of the reasons I like to photograph athletes and dancers. I can always look at this photo and remember who I want to be. It reminds me that I can do anything I set my mind to. I want the same feeling for the boys and girls I photograph today.

Check out our photo in 805 Living Magazine!

Dr. Kathleen Carson is a talented cosmetic dentist. She owns Westlake Dental Arts. She is one of our first clients and has been with us almost 6 years. We have photographed many of her clients who have received a smile makeover. The beautiful woman in this ad is Catherine Taggert. We photographed her in her backyard on a sunny day.

Her new smile is fantastic!




***After seeing this post Dr. Carson wanted to add her own comment and say:
“We have had excellent experiences with Sue and Grace and the results are beyond our expectations. Many of our clients whom we have had them photograph in turn have requested their services for their own professional photography needs. Every one has raved about the results. Thank you! Kathleen Carson, DDS”

Thanks Dr. Carson!

July 4th Fun

I celebrated this Independence Day by taking a looong hike in nature with some great folks. I took a lot of great pictures and decided I'd share some with you all. This was my first time heading out to the Punchbowls in Ojai, we had to park across from Thomas Aquinas College to get to the trail, and we ran across Hwy 150 like a pack of ducklings after their mother. Not sure who the Mama Duck in the group was, but I tried my best to keep everyone covered in sunblock at least.

I think it took about 2 hours of scrambling over rocks and trying to find the trail where it had been washed out til we finally got there, but it was soooo worth it when we did. Once we cleared the corner and the actual 'punchbowl' came into view my breath was taken away. Despite the recent graffiti, it was still a gorgeous sight.


The bowl was about 16 feet deep, and there was a high ledge all the brave guys would climb up the rope to and dive in, I'm not nearly so brave, so I just slid off my rock and went for a well deserved dip. The water was FREEZING I found out, but after a 2 hour hike in the heat it wasn't so bad.

Here I am on one of our breaks before reaching the punchbowl. I owe my not sunburnt shoulders to that gigantic hat I borrowed from Sue!

Future Starlet Goes to the Beach on her Way to Fame

Hey ya'll - Sue speaking - "My niece Jessica was visiting this week and I just had to take her to the beach for sunset portraits. She is a recent high school grad and I am very proud of her. Grace and I found this fantastic dress in a local thrift store a few months ago and I couldn't wait to photograph it on Jessica! She was a great sport running around the sand barefoot when it was so cold she couldn't even feel her toes anymore! "

Some more interesting shots..

The first picture is another one of Brigita, I don't know why it wouldn't upload last night. My computer seems to be back to normal today though, so thats handy! Anywho, this leap just blew me away! She would do these from a dead stop, no running jumps or anything!


This second picture was one of the most unique dance costumes I've seen yet, and the dancer in it was unique enough herself to pull it off. I can't say I have a favorite over at Billy Clower, but these girls just endear themselves to me every year.

Congratulations Brigita!

Brigita is one of our many super talented gymnasts, but she is truly a shining star this year. She received the title of Gymnast of the Year, Level 8 Region 1 (she even skipped a level this year!) as well as receiving 7th place at the Junior Olympics!



She is truly a joy to photograph, so much talent for only being 10 years old!

Baby Kendall

This picture is from Monarchs Gymnastics, one of the coaches had an adorable 5 month old girl named Kendall. She is already well on her way to becoming a talented gymnast, she could walk along the beam (when her mommy held her hands) and she could do a tumble down the mat with a little more help from her mom.

Hodge Podge of Silly Shots!

Here are some of the photos that made me laugh from the past 2 weeks, the little gymnastic girls are just adorable and awesome to work with. And then there's me... The last shot was just me goofing around on the last day at Billy Clower, I gotta say, my stag leap was pretty good for not taking a dance class since high school!


I'm not quite sure why I was pointing, they say that's rude to do, oops!


The spider was key in getting this little one to pose, I don't know how she got so attached to a plastic spider, but she just loved him!


I got some odd looks from the real dancers, but I didn't do as bad as I was expecting (and kind of hoping for!).

More Billy Clower

Here are a few more cool shots from our week at BC, with more to come!


Some talented ballerinas!


One of our favorite posers, Molly always has fresh ideas!

Billy Clower Awesomeness!

So we spent this week shooting at Billy Clower Dance Studio in downtown Ventura. The studio has been running since the 1940's and has been a big part of Ventura's culture and character for just as long. Their recital is going to be next Saturday and Sunday, June 27th and 28th at 7 PM on Saturday and 2 PM on Sunday. Go check it out, it'll be at Ventura High School!

Here is my favorite shot from the whole week, the Senior girls were such a fun group to work with and very good sports about posing for this!



(Girls, feel free to use this on your Myspace, Facebook, whatever, just please leave our logo on!)

Molly and Jim's Engagement Session

Yesterday evening we photographed Molly and Jim out in Ojai. A friend of ours clued us in to a very secluded and unique spot to photograph in; its now a nature preserve but it used to be a small neighborhood, so all the street signs, address markers, and street lights are there, but no houses!
Molly was a real trooper, she walked all through the brush in open heels, though she was a little more wary once we spotted a tarantula crossing the road!

We first met Molly and Jim last year when Molly contacted us to photograph Jim's homecoming from the Middle East, we were so excited to be able to share this new special moment with them. Sue didn't know they weren't engaged when we first met them, and when she found out she recommended they do get engaged on the basis of them being such a cute couple, I guess it was good advice! Anywho, without further ado, here are our favorite pictures from yesterday (and Jim's homecoming)!












Here I am walking alongside our tarantula friend, yikes!

Hair Models for Jo Paulo

I shot some pictures of hair models for Jo yesterday, and it turns out one of them was my next door neighbor!






6 more reasons to go get your hair done by Jo!

Cansler Family

The Cansler family won our digital painted portrait package at The Gold Dust Gala, so we took pictures out at Marina Park with their boys and Shatzi the dog. After they chose their picture I took it into Corel Painter and gave it the painted look it has now, after that it gets printed on wrap around canvas and ends up looking pretty fantastic, I think.

Carson Family Painting

I recently finished a digital painting for the Carson Family and their newest addition, baby Colton.

Heather's headshots

Shot some head shots for one of the gals with the Ventura Improv Company. We just wandered around downtown Ventura looking for some interesting environments, I think we got some good stuff!





And of course the obligatory 'moody' shot.