Rock On Foldback Time

A while back I blogged about the fabulous Santa Barbara kid band Achilles Heal Project. In the last couple of years there have been many changes with this very talented group of kids. Achilles Heal Project became Fahrenheit 101, and recorded their first original, “I Can’t Wait” written by 15 year old keyboardist, writer and vocalist,  Nik Pearson. Soon after, as the band members each grew individually as musicians, they decided to split and form different bands. Original guitarist, base player and drummer stayed together as Foldback Time, a clasic rock jam band. Vocalist and drummer joined with another group of kids and formed the Fickles.  Keyboardist and song writer is creatively palying solo but joins in with Foldback Time on occasion and has been working with them on writing new songs. They all still work together in varying groupings and support each other as musicains yet the two bands have very distinct and unique sounds. Keep an eye and ear out in Santa Barbara for these talented kids!

Baby Sister

I just had the honor of photographing Kara after the birth of her new daughter Kate. I have loved photographing all three of her babies in their early months. Welcome to this beautiful family Kate!

Ivory’s graduation photos

Ivory came from Missouri to Santa Barbara for part of her summer vacation and while she was here she decided to have her senior portraits taken in our most beautiful city. Great idea! Ivory and I met at the Santa Barbara Courthouse  on a warm and breezy evening and circled the beautiful property with her wardrobe and my camera. I’m emabarrassed to say it is the first time I had ever done a photo shoot on the courthouse grounds and all I could ask myself is why hadn’t I brought clients here before. We had so much fun on the steps, nooks and crannys, in the trees, behind the gates, and in the doorways. What a great spot! Then we headed over to Butterfly Beach for her  beach shots. It was a beautiful night and again we found many fabulous spots to give her senior portraits that special warmth captured in Santa Barbara’s golden hour light.

Honoring Marlena with the Moon

Marlena was recently given a photo session with me as a wedding gift. What an honor for me to be given the pleasure of photographing her! We have both been waiting for the right time to head up to our chosen destination, Knapps Castle, to celebrate this amazing time in her life by creating images of her that she will look back on for years to come. We were graced with magnificent light and gorgeous clear views on this beautiful summer evening. Here Marlena reminds me of a goddess, filled with the promises of beautiful experiences yet to come as she gazes over the horizon.

A Mother’s Love

A Mother’s love determines how we
love ourselves and others.
There is no sky we’ll ever see
not lit by that first love.
Nicholas Gordon

Already In Love With Ruby

I dance in a cumbersome,
out-sized waltz of new life
in love with my body
as it blooms and hovers
over the tiny being cradled near my heart
as if already on my lap.
I savor outlandish cravings,
rehearsals for a lifetime of yearnings
on behalf of this becoming-daughter.
Naked in the morning sunlight,
I anoint my roundness with oil,
lullabying it’s nestling , who, in
matching conception and gestation
is growing a new me, her mother.

Margaret Ann Huffman

Looking Good Naked!

Have you seen the new show on Lifetime called “How to Look Good Naked“? It is hosted by Carson Kressley (Remember Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?) and is a breath of fresh air in this “gotta be a size 0 to look good” society we live in. The idea for the series came from Britain where it has been a hit reality series. According to one UK survey, 98% of British women say they are dissatisfied with their body size and shape. Sound familiar?

I have watched two episodes of “How To Look Good Naked” so far and I loudly applaud Carson for his upbeat, fun, honest, and empowering program that helps women realistically see and celebrate the skin they’re in. The show teaches women of all shapes and sizes how to see their bodies more realistically, appreciate the body they have right now, and “not just accept what they see in the mirror but to flaunt it”. He does this all without ever recommending that they cut a calorie, get themselves to the gym or check in to the plastic surgery center for a little nip and tuck. In fact, he is not recommending that they change their bodies at all, but instead he helps them to change the way they see and express themselves. Truly a refreshing concept! The final recommendation he has for the women he works with is to do a nude photo session. These are some brave women because not only do they do a nude photo session, they do it on national television!

I have worked for over 20 years in trying to help women make peace with their bodies and I am happy for the assistance of Carson Kressley! I have personally seen the power being photographed by someone who can see your beauty when you may be having a hard time seeing it yourself. Check out my women’s collection section of my galleries on my website to see more of my work. Check out Lifetime’s “How to Look Good Naked” and consider celebrating the skin you’re in with an artistic, fun and transformative NAKED photo session. It is a great way to mark a transition, take a risk, celebrate and move toward loving the body you have today!

Celebrating the Mother-Daughter Connection

Some of my all time favorite images I’ve ever made have been my mother-daughter portraits. As a photographer and a mother, it is a joy for me to celebrate this unique and intimate connection that is present between a mother and her daughter throughout the years. I feel honored to be able to capture and archive those moments as I am well aware of how much our children change over the days and years.

My daughter is now 10 years old and is growing up quickly before my eyes. As we build new memories, I can’t believe how easy it is to forget the moments that made us smile, laugh and even cry together in days past. It was this awareness of how beautiful these moments were and how quickly they can slip away that inspired me to begin my study of photography when my daughter was still an infant.

I believe the connection between mothers and their daughters is one that needs to be witnessed, captured and celebrated over the years. I believe in the power of a beautifully photographed image to flood ones senses with the visceral memory of these splendid moments in time!

The Mother-Daughter Project

This summer I read a book called The Mother-Daughter Project: How Mothers and Daughters Can Bond Together, Beat the Odds, and Thrive Through Adolescence, written by SuEllen Hamkins and Renee Schultz. It is a fabulous book written about a mother-daughter group they had formed together with their daughters and several other mother-daughter pairs. The group formed when their daughters were seven years old and they met 1-2 times a month for the next 10 or more years.
When I first saw the book, I was immediately curious about it because of the title and because of the collage of photos of mother daughter pairs on the book’s cover. I found it in the same section that held books that I had picked up but never purchased in the past. These were the books that talked about what a hard time to expect as my daughter enters adolescence, how bad she will feel about herself, how I should expect her to hate me and how she will struggle socially with all the “mean girls” she will encounter along the way. I always felt like I didn’t need to be more fearful than I already was about the challenges that would come along with raising an adolescent daughter so I refused to buy the books until I really needed them (except the must read, Reviving Ophilia by Mary Pipher) and decided to focus instead on the magic of how wonderful our relationship was in the present moment.
This book is different though and it drew me in immediately because it only briefly focuses on the horrific challenges pre-teens and adolescent girls must face in our culture today and then it moves right along to the solution that will help with almost every challenge that will present itself. That solution is based in strengthening the mother daughter relationship in community with other moms and daughters.
After reading and becoming fully inspired by the book I was able to find 5 other moms and their daughters and we started our own mother daughter group here in Santa Barbara. The moms meet once a month to talk about ways we can support our daughters and also issues we find important in supporting ourselves as mothers. We then meet once a month together with all of our daughters. Our mother daughter meetings so far have been held in beautiful outdoor areas of Santa Barbara. We always start in circle with a candle, share wonderful nurturing food, read a myth or a story, dialogue and then do a fun activity. The girls and moms look forward to every meeting and we are growing into a bonded community that deeply cares about the well being of one another. Together we will welcome each new stage of our daughter’s growth and will support each other in helping them become the strong young women our culture so desperately needs.

Photographing with Ken and Mary Goodrich

I had the pleasure of meeting renowned fine art photographers Ken and Mary Goodrich at a local slide show presentation sponsored by Channel City Camera Club. Their work was featured at a special forum scheduled just for them. I introduced myself to them prior to their talk and told them before they left beautiful Santa Barbara, they needed to go up in the mountains to photograph at a site known locally as “Knapp’s Castle.” To my delight, they invited me to join them in a field shoot the next day. What an honor!

The focus of the shoot was figure work with a model against the backdrop of this old estate that is in essence the ruins of what must have been truly a magnificent castle of sorts made of local granite and sandstone rock. The ruins are dwarfed by the beautiful Santa Ynez mountain range.

Our timing was perfect; we arrived and began shooting a couple of hours before sunset, a time period known as the “magic” or, “pink” hour. This is when the sun begins to set and the Southern California sky morphs from a blue expanse to shades of rose red, to orange to pink fading to darkness. That pink hour just before sunset is by far the most incredible time for making beautiful portraits in natural light.
Adding to the magic of the experience was the sharing of ideas and photographing together in a very creative and supportive environment with fellow professionals. Ken and Mary’s energy inspired me!