Let me just tell you - the place is SUPER NEAT. There are aquariums, there’s a planetarium, there’s even a little rain forest in an egg. And the whole thing is tucked inside Golden Gate Park, which is home to a ton of other fun stuff to do.

Naturally, I took my camera. Rebecca and Joye were using two of the three Red Bat lenses on their pregnancy shoot, so I took what I like to call “The Drainpipe”. Let me talk about The Drainpipe for a moment. It’s a 70-200mm lens with a minimal focal distance (how far you have to be from your subject for the lens to focus) of about 5 feet, it weighs 3 pounds, and it’s painted white. It’s a beast, and I love it. It hardly ever leaves my camera. The reason I bring this up is because I wasn’t sure how well that lens would perform in a dimly lit, crowded place.

The answer: AMAZINGLY. Yes, I had to stand pretty far back from the glass to get the fish shots below. Yes, it was sometimes difficult for me to shoot with all the people. But that lens has a bit of magic in it…maybe it’s the length, or the whiteness, or something, but when people see it, they tend to get out of the way. They don’t really see me, but they RESPECT the lens. It’s kind of an odd phenomenon to watch. Here’s the lens, by the way (this was taken by Rebecca, who was taking a picture of me while I was taking a picture of Laurie King):

Anyway, the point is that I got some great shots, I’m now sold on aquariums, and you should visit the California Academy of Sciences Natural History Museum if you get the chance.

The photos below are from a pregnancy photo session that happened last week. We’re sitting in the birthing tub on the expecting parents’ deck. Right before this, we’d taken pictures of Claire and Garrett in the tub, knowing they’d enjoy looking at those shots after the big event happened. Garrett decided we needed a bio photo, so he took my camera and made us get in. I must say, he knows how to take pictures.

We haven’t had time to process the rest of the photos from this shoot, but as soon as we do, I’ll show some to you. They were marvelous, if we do say so ourselves. Photographing a pregnant woman is a thrilling experience. As it turned out, we did this pregnancy session just in time. Five days after the shoot she delivered a healthy baby girl. Congratulations, Claire and Garrett. We can’t wait to meet (and photograph) your new daughter!

There I sat for hours on end, reading books about grief and books about spirituality and books of intense and very clever modern fiction. But during times when I was too upset about my lot in life to concentrate on any of that stuff, I turned to the mystery novels of Laurie R. King. They never failed to pull me through the bleakest moments. Reading her books isn’t the same as distracting oneself with trashy fiction. She touches on many subjects that hold sometimes painful meanings for me; her characters deal with grief, with inner conflicts of faith, with all kinds of difficult situations that feel familiar. Yet somehow the overall feeling is not one of heaviness. The plot carries you forward as you read, or maybe it’s the academic slant, or just Laurie King’s smooth descriptive ability. I’m still not sure exactly why this all adds up to comfort. But I know there are people all over the world who feel the same way about this author’s work.

Never did I imagine, as I read alone in the bookstore, that I would someday be at Laurie King’s house, taking portraits of this author for her new book jacket. But that’s exactly what the Red Bats were doing on October 17, 2008. I’d taken her picture before, but this was the first time she sat for a portrait session with us.

Patrick’s camera decided to break during the first fifteen minutes of the shoot, which almost sent me into a panic attack. It felt weird to hear silence instead of the rapid firing of his shutter somewhere nearby during a Red Bat shoot. My own clicking sounded loud and awkward. But despite the breakage and the near-panic, we both ended up with great shots. And now Laurie King is in the process of choosing her jacket photo.

As you’ll see in the photos below, Laurie is a wonderful subject for portraits. And her best friend in the world seems to be a certain very special cat.

Thank you, Laurie. We think you’re the tops.

To quote from the Be Present website :

“Be Present is building a social change movement in a world where racism, classism, and homophobia still exist and historical barriers have divided us. Our work is designed to answer the question: What does it take to create and sustain positive change in this world? Be Present uses a model of transformation, the Be Present Empowerment Model (BPEM), which was created by Lillie P. Allen to provide individual empowerment and collective leadership skills first, to African-American women, and now to women from all walks of life, as well as men and boys.”

At the invitation of my friend Olivia, I attended the conference and met some truly amazing individuals of all ages. Here are some of my favorite shots from that weekend, including photos from Creativity Night (there were a lot of talented actors, singers, dancers, and artists of many kinds at this conference), photos of Walker Creek Ranch, and photos from inside a weird little nature museum.

Tim and Erin spent some time in Santa Cruz recently, and while they were here, I took some engagement pictures of them at the beach. My sister Joye was there to direct and wield colorful translucent scarves. And yes, Tim and Erin were wearing their birthday suits for part of the shoot. Let it be known: if you want nude engagement photos, we are totally willing to help you out with that. We know the perfect beach for it, too.

Here are a few I really liked.

She said it in her quiet, sweet voice, with wonder sparkling in her eyes, and I felt honored to be the only bachelorette party attendee who knew just why Rachel wasn’t drinking champagne, or why she ordered a huge entree and couldn’t finish it. My darling nephew Jasper was only a few months old and he’d already completely taken over my heart, so the idea of babies expected and babies arriving was synonymous with happiness for me.

A few months later, when I ran into Rachel in the grocery store, I pounced on her and asked to be allowed to take pictures of her during the later stages of her pregnancy. Alas, it was not to be, as Rachel was on bed rest during that part of her pregnancy and thus unable to pose for my camera. So it was very satisfying to finally photograph Rachel this September with her six-month-old daughter, Sadie, and her husband, JR, as we strolled under the redwoods at Henry Cowell State Park.

Rachel and family are quite happy with the 150 or so (I know! It’s a lot!) photos they got with their dvd, not to mention the tear-inducing slideshow made by Patrick. Here are a few of our favorites. Bathe in the love of this adorable young family. And please call us if you’d like some family photos of your own. Especially if babies are involved. We LOVE babies.

We tried to capture some of their love story in photos, which turned out to be quite easy with these two. Every gesture shows how devoted they are to each other, and how much they simply enjoy one another’s company.

We’ll be photographing their wedding next August, and that day will be filled with friends and family, so I’m happy that we got to capture a more private side of their relationship before then. And also happy to have gotten them to ourselves for a few hours, because these two are really, really fun.

Thanks, Kimma and Keith! We hope your engagement year is blissful. You deserve it.

So what is he like in person? He’s quite charming and entertaining, and clearly brilliant. There’s an element of the impish and the unworldly in his persona. Happily, Terry Brooks is not the kind of author who dislikes his fans. You can write letters to him, and he’ll read them. He answers questions from his fans on his website, and hosts a forum there. And at Bookshop that Saturday, he had us all laughing and lining up for an autograph (or, in my case, a better shot). I think it’s time for me to get caught up on my Terry Brooks novels- word has it this one is very good.