March Madness Mindshare!

LA’s best kept secret isn’t a secret any more. This month’s Mindshare, held at Club 740 downtown, was packed to the rafters with hundreds of attendees. From Harvard professors to indie rock stars, Mindshare is always a mash-up of the best of LA’s social scenes.

The night started off with a hands-on lesson is negotiation, which included maybe the largest group of people ever engaged in single round of competitive arm wrestling. (I’ll have to check with Guinness on that statistic.)

Then, after talks on 21^st century tree houses for adults and a project providing sustainable housing for the homeless of Los Angeles, the evening closed out with an olde-tyme gospel revival. The whole crowd stomped and clapped in time to the wailing of the gravely-voiced lead singer (who looked more like and IT consultant than an old time gospel singer).

Proving once again, that you can’t judge a book by its cover, nor an IT consultant by his pocket protector.

-Catherine

To Shoot a Mockingbird...

Headed downtown with the lovely Harper Leigh for a head-shot session last Sunday. Lower Grand Street under the Disney Concert Hall has the BEST diffused light for portraits, so combine that with a gorgeous subject and its hard to take a bad photo. We were lucky enough to have the LA Philharmonic's rehearsal session next door as our background music. All in all, a great morning.

-Catherine

Pink or Blue?

So much for warm southern California weather. Krisztina, little Morgan and I braved the cold and mud to hike up on Mullholand Drive for a 26th week pregnancy photo shoot. Morgan was a little more interested in my car keys than smiling for the camera, but I really prefer capturing the moment as it happens. He was snacking on a handful of cherrios then marched over to Kristina and grabbed her leg for reassurance... then just as quickly, stomped back over to to the bag of cereal. I was lucky to be able to snap him in action.

Krisztina's husband is away on business so we decided to head out to take these shots as a little Valentine's surprise for him. The happy couple have decided to not find out the baby's gender until the big day, so the pink top isn't giving anything away... but it would be sweet if it did!

-Catherine

New Year's Ink......Ankles Away!

To ring in 2010, Deanna decided to man up and get some ink done! We headed down to the Purple Panther on New Year's day with money to burn and a design in mind. ( Luckily, as a graphic designer, she didn't have to pick one of the generic tribal/fairy/menacing-black-cat-holding-a-revolver designs off the wall of the tattoo shop.)

Anyhoo... she was very brave and only winced once or twice.... after an hour or so in the chair, she walked away with a super-fun tattoo. Luckily, I brought my camera so she'd have something by which to remember the day........

other than her tattoo, of course.

-Catherine

'Tis the Season...

December at Four Eyes means lots of family portraits... so, armed with light diffusers, ladders and even a few dog treats Deanna and I hit the streets with a few families to do some holiday snaps.

I get such a thrill when I look through the view finder and KNOW that I got the perfect shot. Its even better when our client says "WOW".... or in one case.... I think the client said "that's a pretty &$%*#$% awesome pic." Cursing is, after all, one of the highest forms of flattery.

Happy $#%^&&!!^%$ 2010 everybody!

-Catherine

Power of the Pen

How often do you get hand written letters in the mail?

When I was in junior high, we'd slip notes into one anothers lockers and pass crumpled slips of paper in science class. By the time I was 18, my family had moved over a dozen times, so I got used to writing letters to friends in the last town we'd left behind.

Years of moving from west to east and back again yielded boxes of letters from last year's best friends. Hand written, with lots of drawings on the envelopes, doodles in the margins and distinct lapses in time. Often it would take a few days to write a letter so moods and ink color could change from one paragraph to the next.

Not that you don't already know this, but thanks to e-mailing, texting and social networking, letters are far and few between. Further, we expect immediate satisfaction when contacting others. We hit send... then refresh and expect swift replies. Anyway... herein lies the point of this blog....

I'd sent an e-mail last Monday updating my alma mater's alum board on the success of the bake sale we'd had that weekend (see my previous post). So, I'd expected an e-mail back from the director with a note of thanks. Monday.... nothing. Tuesday... zip. Wednesday.... zilch. I was starting to get annoyed.

Then Thursday rolls around and after work, I check the mail. There's an envelope addressed to me from the director. Inside, a thick, creamy note card with the College's seal. AND a LOVELY noted inside thanking me for my efforts. Not just a "thanks".... but a long, thoughtful account of the role I'd played in the success of the event.

I welled up with joy. Seriously. It was WAY better than getting an e-mail.

It's SO rare that anyone (including me) takes the time to write. Getting that note (written in cursive even!), made me want to buy some fine stationary and pick up a pen and start writing to people again. I don't know if I'll doodle in the margins this time around, but I like the idea that years from now, the letter might end up in the bottom of a box of mementos, dog eared, and permanent.

-Catherine

I'm sensing a theme...

Okay, so I know this is supposed to be a photography blog dedicated to weddings and events and such, but I seem to post a lot of photos of food. So sue me! In reviewing the last years posts, we've done a ton of charity and fun raising events this year.... and so it was this weekend.

I'm on the alumni board of my college www.msmc.la.edu and we threw a fundraising bake sale on campus to help raise money to adopt a needy family for Christmas. It was the first bake sale we'd done, so we were a little nervous about what kind of response we'd get. I spent all day Saturday baking... peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, mint chocolate chocolate chip cookies AND... Mexican Wedding Cookies (that's sort of wedding related, right?). And I spent all Saturday night worrying about the sale on Sunday. Would anybody buy our cookies?

To my great relief.... it was a GREAT success! Along with generous donations from fellow alums, our table was overflowing with goodies... and a few apples and pears just to make us look a little healthy. In two hours of selling, we raised just over $300! (I was afraid we'd only get $40 or so). I'm so thrilled knowing that we've made some family's Christmas a little brighter.

Anyhoo... here's a photo I took of the Wedding Cookies.... basically, sugar, flour, vanilla and tons of pecans rolled in powdered sugar. YUM.

-Catherine