San Francisco Photographer – Bay Area Portrait Photography

Hi everyone! Just wanted to say ‘hola’ and that I’m still here even though I haven’t blogged in a while.  I’m thick in wedding season processing and feeling the pressure of getting all my work finished.  It has been really enlightening this year on what it takes to be a wedding photographer.  So much more happens before and after the shutter stops clicking.  It is _a lot_ of work and I’ve been heads down just trying to stay on top of it.  So I’ve been in a little hibernation mode but I’ve missed everyone.  Don’t get me wrong I LOVE what I do.  I love bringing out the best in people.  I love capturing the honest real moments, both quiet and rambunctious, that arise in every situation and person or couple or family or group.  I’ve just had to really concentrate and fill orders and haven’t had much time to blog and being social.   But that will change soon!  🙂

I want to share this amazing video with you.  It makes me smile and sort of explains why I love to photograph people.  Hope it makes you smile too.  Let me know what you think!  🙂

CONTACT ROSAURA to shoot your wedding FIND ROSAURA on Facebook.

I’ll be out of the studio this week at Jazz Camp West, where I’ll be singing and dancing and photographing the week’s events.  It is the best week of the year for me because it combines all my passions into one amazing week.  If you are at all artistically inclined, think about joining me next year, you won’t regret it!  Here’s a random assortment of photos from last year.  See you soon!

CONTACT ROSAURA to shoot your wedding FIND ROSAURA on Facebook.

People often say to me, “You must have a bunch of great photos of Gemma!”   Ironically, I don’t have many great shots of her.  For me she’s the hardest person in the world to photograph.  She’s constantly moving or wanting me to play with her and, of course, I comply.  Last week I took her tutu with me when I picked her up at daycare.  I decided I was gonna practice and try to get some good shots of my Gemma.  She was in her comfort zone at daycare so she just did her thing.  Thank you to Sonia, our amazing daycare provider, who let us stay late to get some shots.  Enjoy this impromptu session.

March has really rocked my world, both professionally and personally.  I have so much to share that I think I have to break it up into parts.  Earlier this month I attended WPPI (Wedding, Portrait Professionals International) in Las Vegas.  I was really excited about it.  How can I not be excited (and a little intimidated) meeting up with about 14,000 photographers from all over the world?  The convention coincided with my sister Maria’s birthday and also the 2nd anniversary of my father’s death.  I knew that I needed and wanted to do something special to commemorate them, especially my father.  So when I saw that Jesh de Rox announced that he was going to be doing his ‘Upward Spiral’ event, not knowing exactly what it was but knowing it would be special, I changed my flight and hoped I could find a place to crash that night.

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Well, I have to say that making that last minute change was one of the best decisions I made in a long time.  I had never met Jesh but knew his philosophy of life through his twitter/fb posts so I was excited to meet him. And wow, what a way to meet him.  His event was an interactive concert.  Him telling stories, playing music, and challenging us to explore what holds us back from living & loving fully in the NOW without any caveats.  He had us draw our fears/what holds us back, he had us wish the hardest and most sincere wish we could ever for our neighbor to to let go of those fears, he had us sing like no one & everyone was listening, and laugh and be human with each other.  All of this surrounded with his lovely voice and original music.  And all of this building up to one of the last experiments.

Photo by John Michael Cooper

He had us partner up with someone near us, a stranger, look into each other’s eyes and say, ‘you are not alone’ to each other.  Each time saying it in slightly different ways.  It was incredible how deep it was to sincerely look into someone’s eyes and say this.  Really mean it.  Really feel it.  Really accept it.  Even more incredible was how a slight inflection, change in spacing, in emphasis, in softness can change the impact of the message.  It was a lesson in being present, in letting go of fear, in language, in love, in community, in being human.  I was lucky enough to do this experiment  with Jesh.  This is how I met him for the first time.

Photo by John Michael Cooper

So this is what set the tone for me for WPPI.  I felt love and accepted and more calm because of it.  In a sea of 14,000 people it is ironic that you can feel alone, isolated, a newbie who doesn’t get invited to all the parties or dinners.  Yes, it can feel a little like high school.  But with this amazing experience I was able to just relax and be in the moment and enjoy my first WPPI experience.  Not worry about what others are doing and be present with the people I was with.  Just talking to Jesh was a good lesson in being there.  Being locked in.  Even after the concert, he hung around and talked and loved people.  And even though there were tons of people waiting and wanting to speak with him, he never looked away.  He never lost connection.  He was locked in and engaged no matter what was happening around him.  He makes you feel special.  He made me feel special.  I am so lucky to have meet a new friend, Lucia Castaneda, who was also there at the concert and took these 2 photos of me and Jesh just talking.  And we talked for a while.  We talked about music, singing, the lose of my father (well, just the physical lose, we are still connected)… it was amazing!

Photos by Lucia Castaneda

Can I tell you?!… I”m also majority excited about his Beloved project and how he’s applying this philosophy of life to photography and helping couples reconnect and make their love even stronger.  More on that later.

Oh, and I _did_ find a place to crash that night.  Not only did I meet Lucia, but I also met Kirsten Lewis.  Wow, what another twist of fate!  She’s an amazing photographer and person with a super contagious smile and laugh.  She got me excited about The Foundation Workshop and so much more.  I could go on and on about her and her friends that I also met, Kathryn, Oliva & Beth but I will stop there.  Just know that they are good people and I feel so grateful to have met them!  🙂  Wow!  This was only day #1 and I was already flying high.  🙂

Big thanks to John Michael  & Dalisa Cooper of altF for opening up their rocking studio for this fantastic event to happen

So every year, photographers from all over the world attend this conference in Las Vegas:

This year I’m super lucky to be able to attend WPPI in Las Vegas for the week and learn, mingle and party with the best in the industry.  It will be my first time and I can’t tell you how excited I am!   Along with all the classes (and parties!), another great thing about this convention is the trade show. I get to check out first-hand all the great and varied new products there are out there and deciding which ones to offer to my clients.   Seriously, it is _the_ major event for photographers every year and I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to go.

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With so much going on, I will not be in communication much for the week but I promise to get back everyone once I return (and have some cool photos to show too).  Gracias & Viva Las Vegas!

I’ve been thinking a lot about my life priorities. My big life priorities. Digging deep and really asking myself tough questions. Making decisions on how I spend my time and with whom I spend it. At the same time, really cherishing every moment and every interaction I have with people, be it my family and friends (old and new) or the folks bagging my groceries at Trader Joe’s. Life is short and I want to be present and aware of all the good things that surround me constantly or be brave enough to make the changes to make it so.

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Being this present has made me really be painfully aware of how quickly Gemma has been growing and growing up! I’ve been taking the time to love her even more fiercely than ever before. Enjoying our hugs that last so long, enjoying the silly songs and games she makes up, telling her ‘I love you’ several times a day and loving her say ‘i lub you too’, dancing with her, making her belly laugh, looking deep into her eyes and smiling, holding her sweet little hands just because… I have so much hope & love for her and so much I want to share about being a woman, a caring person, a grateful person, an independent and strong person…

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I recently came across a blog post by Deb Schwedhelm that displayed a video created by Katherine Center for the Mom 2.0 Summit.  The words really resonated with me about being a mother and woman.  It says the things that I would tell her one day…:

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WHAT I WOULD TELL HER:
(If I knew what to say.)
You are a miracle.
And I have to love you this fiercely:

So that you can feel it even after you leave for school, or even while you are asleep,

or even after your childhood becomes a memory.
You’ll forget all this when you grow up.  But it’s okay.
Being a mother means having your heart broken.
And it means loving and losing and falling apart and coming back together.
And it’s the best there is.  And also, sometimes, the worst.
Sometimes you won’t have anyone to talk to.
Sometimes you’ll wonder if you’ve forgotten who you are.
But you must remember this:  What you’re doing matters.
And you have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs.
The truth is, being a woman is a gift.  Tenderness is a gift.  Intimacy is a gift.

And nurturing the good in this world is nothing short of a privilege.

That’s why I have to love you this way.  So I can give what I have to you.

So that you can carry it in your body and pass it on.
I have watched you sleep.  I’ve kissed you a million times.  And I know something that you don’t, yet:
You are writing the story of your only life every single minute of every day.
And my greatest hope for you, sweet child, is that I can teach you how to write a good one.

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To my Gemmita, I look forward to all our great conversations and experiences together as you write your own story.  Thank you for the opportunity to be part of it all.  To life, to love, to the balancing game!

I also want to take the opportunity to thank my friend Catie Ronquillo for being inspirational to me and helping me spur on this recent introspection with her blog Project:  Joie de Vivre.

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