Lifestyle session: Chris B

The other day I had the pleasure of photographing local author and friend, Chris Barzak. He wanted a photo for his new book which is, coincidentally, debuting on my 40th birthday! We're talking about having a combination book signing/birthday bash to celebrate. More on that as the details are finalized.

We had a lot of fun on this shoot. We walked around downtown a bit and found some really cool locations. Since Chris is also a friend we decided to be a little more adventurous than I usually am and went down to the river and up to the old B&O Railroad station. A while back they redid the station and turned it into a restaurant but the restaurant ended up closing a few years ago and now it's only used for receptions and parties and such. (This will hopefully be the place for our combined bash.) The places we found will definitely be on my list for future use! Really cool stuff!

Here's some of my favorites from the shoot. Enjoy!


This one is my favorite but not the one his editor chose.

Chris was really open to more of an artsy look so I had a little fun :)

I really like this one too.

Another one I had a little fun with! I LOVE how it turned out.
Chris and I were able to go inside the B&O and took these on some FAB, old pieces of furniture.

This is the one they chose for the book. (We hope :-)
A cool shot I captured as the train was going by. Man, was it loud and windy! (Thanks to the FAB, Kacie Jean, for this idea!)

Chris being his smiley self.

Some fun ones near the local art scattered around downtown.

Practice what you preach

Since I did a bit of preaching yesterday about being "green", I thought I'd share with you how I am trying to implement some greener practices in my business.

• I use minicards from moo.com for my business cards. These cards are half the size of a regular card so I use half the paper. Also, all their paper comes from sustainable forests.
• I offer online proofing instead of printed proofs or proof books. This cuts WAY down on paper.
• I post shipping boxes on Freecycle for recycling.
• I'm about to switch web-hosting companies to ThinkHost which provides hosting services powered by 100% renewable energy.

These are just a few of the things I'm trying to do for our planet. I'm always looking for ways to be greener in life and in business so if you've got more ideas I'd love to hear them!

Cheers,
Jaci

Earth Day: Be Greener

In honor of Earth Day, here are some fun or not so fun facts:

• We, as Americans, make up 5% of the world's population but use 25% of the world's resources.
• Americans use over one billion plastic bottles a week.
• Plastic takes up to 500 years to decompose.
• In one year, we generate enough hazardous waste to fill the New Orleans Superdome 1,500 times over.
• In 1987, Americans generated almost enough trash to fill a 24-lane highway one foot deep from Boston to Los Angeles. Disposable diapers alone make up enough trash to fill a barge half a city block long, every six hours, every day! (Can you imagine how those numbers have changed today?)
• Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
• 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year.
• Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.

I'm certainly not one to say you must change your lifestyle and be green but there's gotta be at least one thing you can do. One less paper towel a day, bring your own coffee cup to work, catch a ride with a friend. One thing across the span of the world can change a lot!

Here's a few sites that can help:

Freecycle.org --My new favorite place! Gotta couch you don't want? Need a dog crate for you new puppy? This is the place to look. Everything listed on Freecycle must be given away, free. So things get recycled instead of landing in the garbage pile.
The Story of Stuff --Grab your spouse, your kids, whoever you can get your hands on and watch this 20 minute movie. It's an eye opener!
Enviromapper --Allows you to type in your zip code and find out where all the hazardous crap is around you.
Earth911 --Has great info and allows you to type in what you're disposing of and your zip to find the nearest recycling/re-use locations.
WeCanSolveIT.org --This is Al Gore's newest baby.

And here's a few just for you locals:
Treez Please --This organization is near and dear to my heart. Started by my friend, Deb Weaver, Treez Please acquires abandoned spaces (think, a place where a house used to be) and turns them into "pocket parks" filled with beautiful trees and flowers.
Green Energy TV --Here's a place where you can watch (and upload) videos about being green. Whether it's composting or solar energy, Green Energy has it.
Grow Youngstown --Their goal is their name. They want to "promote local growth of food, forage, forests and fuel sources within 60 miles of Youngstown by creating Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), sponsoring urban gardens, food forests, and nurturing young gardeners."

Being greener isn't always the easiest choice but it is an important one!

Flashback: The 80's

A little back story:
I'm a couch potato. I'm not proud of it but there you go. I'd rather watch the movie than read the book. TV is usually the last thing I do before going to bed. However, I don't necessarily want my kids to emulate my couch potato ways which is why I want to kiss the inventors of TiVo. After the under 10's go to bed, I can catch up on my Y&R (yes, I watch soaps...so sue me), watch Lost or Heroes, or take up an episode or two of Mystery Diagnosis.

This brings me to last night. At about midnight I decided to flip on Mystery D. This is the kind of program that doesn't require a lot of thought because there's no real story lines to follow, just some random person(s) with some weird, hard to diagnose ailment. I LOVE this kind of stuff! The mystery lately, though, is why my preprogrammed show on TLC is instead recording things on VH1! I've missed the last four episodes because this. Turns out it's not all bad though and has produced some happy and highly entertaining accidents like the one I watched last night..."100 Greatest Songs of the 80's". I tried to turn it off, I did. I looked at my watch at about 12:20 and thought, "Gee, it's getting pretty late" but I couldn't pull myself away. I was laughing so hard and having too much fun.

What I realized as I watched this was that music really does put a time frame on your life. As the different songs were being played, memories of my 8th grade rollerskating party, graduating from high school and breaking up with my boyfriend appeared in my head. I instantly remembered where I was, who I was and who I was with. It brought back the feelings and emotions of the time and put a smile on my face for the hour I watched. I never understood how much of an impact these songs had until last night, and I wonder what those songs will be for my kiddos.

So, in an effort to share the memories, here's the top 20 songs as voted by the public for VH1. May they bring back as many happy thoughts for you as they did for me! BTW...what's your favorite song from the 80's?

*As a special treat, go HERE if you'd like to see the videos.*

1 Bon Jovi / "Livin' on a Prayer" 1986
2 Def Leppard / "Pour Some Sugar On Me" 1987
3 Duran Duran / "Hungry Like the Wolf" 1982
4 Michael Jackson / "Billie Jean" 1982
5 Prince / "When Doves Cry" 1984
6 Hall & Oates / "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" 1981
7 Guns N' Roses / Sweet Child O' Mine 1987
8 Madonna / "Like a Virgin" 1984
9 Run-D.M.C. / "Walk This Way" 1986
10 AC/DC / "You Shook Me All Night Long" 1980
11 Journey / Don't Stop Believin' 1981
12 Whitney Houston / "How Will I Know" 1985
13 U2 / "With Or Without You" 1984
14 The Bangles / "Walk Like an Egyptian" 1986
15 Van Halen / "Jump" 1984
16 INXS / "Need You Tonight" 1987
17 Whitesnake / "Here I Go Again" 1982
18 Dexy's Midnight Runners / "Come On Eileen" 1982
19 Cyndi Lauper / "Time after Time" 1984
20 Rick Springfield / "Jessie's Girl" 1981

For those not easily offended: The Stage at the Oakland

I had the pleasure of photographing the Oakland's most recent Stage. For those who may not know, the Oakland is a progressive, downtown theatre that isn't afraid to push the limits and puts on productions like "Dog Sees God" and "The Full Monty" (opening May 2nd). Once a month they host an open mic night called The Stage. This is almost always an enjoyable, if not controversial, evening. This evening's performances included, but weren't limited to a hip-hop tap dancer, a skit entitled "Rock and Roll Jesus" and a young man reading a monologue called "My Angry Vagina". In preparation for the upcoming "Oakland's Next Top Drag Queen" contest, Brooke Slanina, the theatre's president and host for the evening, transformed herself, with the help of Robert Joki, into a real live drag queen. Hilarious!!!
Thanks for inviting me down, Brooke. I had a great night! BTW...the next Stage will be May 22nd at 8:00pm so if you're local, get your bootie down to the Oakland!

Here's a few pictures and a slideshow from the evening.

P-365 catch up

Whew, I've been super busy these past few weeks and am playing P-365 catch up. So much for trying to get them uploaded weekly. Oh well, at least they're done now.

Lots of fun and exciting things happening around here. First off, be on the lookout for my new website which will, hopefully, hit the internet waves sometime soon. I'm also working with Courtney over at Judith Shakes Designs to give my blog a much needed makeover. I'm very excited and can't wait to share them with you!

My calendar is filling up quickly. I'm going to photograph friend and author, Chris Barzak, for his upcoming book which happens to be scheduled for release in November on my 40th birthday. I've met with Stephanie from 831 Photography about shooting some weddings with her this season. She's a great lady so it should be lots of fun. I'm also scheduled to second shoot in Pittsburgh with the FABULOUS, Kimberly Reed, on the 16th and 17th of May as well as in Chicago on the 31st! I had the pleasure of meeting Kim at Flourish (she was one of the instructors) and I'm so thankful I did. I learned so much from her! I'm so honored and excited to second with her and so happy that I get to see her again. Can't wait!!

Also, at the end of this month, I finally have a meet up with fellow photographers, Cat McKinley and Ticia Mangino. I'm really happy about this as our first attempt was thwarted by bad weather. (Damn snow!)

Anyway, I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Happy Spring!

Cheers,
Jaci



April 11, 2008: This squirrel was very belligerent and kept clicking and flicking his tail at me.

April 10, 2008: Movie night. We saw "Juno" and it was great!


April 9, 2008: Boston giving Miss Emily a push on the swings.

April 8, 2008: One of friends, Chris and Tony's little powder puffs!


April 7, 2008: OK, I cheated on this one but I couldn't post just one of these cuties! This is the green-eyed brother of the little guy above. One day, I'm going to cat-napp them both! :)


April 6, 2008: Potted plant at the salon.


April 5, 2008: My new shoes. YUM!


April 4, 2008: Boston loves his beanies.


April 3, 2008: More spring flowers.

April 2, 2008: Arrived home to the Crocus in bloom.


April 1, 2008: Last day with Grams and Pop.

March 31, 2008: The gorgeous, Andrea Flanagan.

March 30, 2008: A cool Denver bridge.


March 29, 2008: My bruised leg from skiing.

Slideshow: Andrea

While I was in Denver I met up with a fellow photographer, Andrea Flanagan and I'm so glad I did. What a great lady! We met for coffee and had a little get-to-know-you time. It was evident quickly on, given the topics of conversation, that we were pretty comfortable with each other. We decided to get together later in the week for a photo swap. One thing about photographers is that we're usually more comfortable behind the camera so we hardly ever have decent pictures of ourselves. At least that's the case for me. Or should I say was the case. Andrea took some awesome images of me and I'm SO happy that we were able to find the time to do this. BTW...see my new profile picture over there? That's one of hers. :)
If you are in the Denver area and want FABULOUS photos of you, your family or your wedding, she's your gal. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
Thanks again, Andrea. It was a pleasure! Can't wait to see you next time I'm in Colorado :)



Check out the slideshow from her shoot. It's hard to get a bad picture of this gal. She's gorgeous!

Playdate with Emily and Max

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Tani Spielberg. Her daughter, Emily, and my kiddos met while playing at mall. Grandma brought them there to play one very rainy Saturday. We found out that Emily goes to school at the JCC which is right around the corner from my house and decided to meet for an official playdate. The kids had a ball playing together (even with Ridley plummeting to the ground when she tried sliding down the pole by herself.) I had fun as well. I always like meeting new people especially when they are nice as she is. We are going to try and meet later this month for a "grown-up playdate" so we can chat like adults :) I can't wait!

I got a new camera that came in the mail earlier that day so the playdate was just the excuse I needed to test it out. The photographer in me can't pass up an opportunity to photograph a cutie-patootie and the scrapbooker in me wants to document every moment of my kid's life. LOL! I'm very happy with the results. What do you think?

Rara, What's the "A" word mean?

I had this conversation with Boston the other day. He sprang it on me as I was folding clothes. It went something like this:

Boston: "Rara, what does the "A" word mean?
Me: "Huh? What "A" word?"
Boston: "You know, the "A" word."
Me: "Where did you hear that?"
Boston: "At McDonald's, when we were playing, there was boy who said, 'she said the "S" word and the "A" word.' " Then he says, "I know what the "S" word is but I don't know what the "A" word means?"
Me, semi-mortified: "You know what the "S" word means?!"
Boston: "Yes, it means stupid."
Me, breathing a HUGE sigh of relief that my son's innocence has been preserved for at least a little while longer: "Yea, stupid is a pretty bad word, isn't it?" :-)

Slideshow: Butterfly Pavilion

Whenever we are in Denver, we LOVE to visit the Butterfly Pavilion. This is such a fun place for the entire family and it's so educational! My kiddos and I have a ball here. There are live bugs, which is always a HUGE favorite for my son, and my daughter, of course, LOVES the butterflies. Actually, this year, my daughter was as big a fan of the bugs as she was the butterflies and vice versa for my son. They both held Rosey the tarantula and got to pet Fred, a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. I held Rosey but, umm, no thanks on the cockroach. He creeped me out!
Anyway, I made a little slideshow of our time there.
Enjoy!

Cheers,
Jaci