Marge was my lovely great grandmother who recently passed away at the age of 90 years old.

She lived a long, amazing life, and this is a post for her family members to collect their respective memories of this amazing woman.

One of my favorite photos of Marge:

These are my two bitties, as we call them at home, Daisy and Mia.

Daisy we got in Summer of 2008. Eric (my fiance) and I had been living together for almost a year at that point when I brought her home from Joshua Tree (my hometown in California).  We both instantly fell in love with her little antics – and she’s SUPER tiny for a cat, although she’s full grown.

Mia we got just before we moved to Ramona (a small town in San Diego, CA).  It was the right time – when we got her she was SO SUPER TINY – and she’s always been adorable as well.  It took a bit for Daisy to get used to her, but now they’re constantly cuddling and licking each other.  Too cute.

So if that wasn’t enough adorable for you, I’ve uploaded a few pictures (more casual “around the house” aka my photojournal pictures.)

Daisy cat and Mia photos at flickr.

Maggie is this lovable pooch who lives in Joshua Tree with my great grandmother. She’s an adorable little puppy dog (well, now a full grown dog) who is SUCH a people person, so keeping her entertained for the camera was pretty easy. This I actually did at her house, but I’ll be shooting out of DK3Studios – it’s an AWESOME studio, perfect for these not-your-average photography.   I’ll be taking some pictures of my bitty kitties soon so you can see more examples of pet portraits!

Seriously, how can you not love a dog face just as cute as this? I even put these up on a CafePress site, so if you’re a Shih Tzu lover, get some greeting cards, stickers, or etc. or give it to your favorite Shih Tzu fan this Christmas!

Anyways, I’ll be adding contact and pricing information, but if you want photos NOW (especially in the San Diego and Ramona Area – I do take pictures of ALL animals), don’t hesitate to email me about pet photography.

I did a photography project with Medusa Salon in Huntington Beach. While most of my photos were in the Cherry Fizz Pin Up and Fashion/Portraiture category, I did a few family (and kids!) photos. I’ve got two more that I’m editing to be more “Cherry Fizz” like (we’ve got a faery princess in the works and a punk rock prom queen, ha!)

Okay, I can’t help it. Little kids are adorable. Especially punk rock kids.

Took me a while to get these edited, but I’m so excited to share these photos with you!!!  My mom is always supporting my photography, so she set it up so I could take photos with this family in her kitchen.  I’ve only recently started to get into family photography, because I know that the moments in life are precious and you want your kids to have awesome pictures when they’re older.  In fact I recently asked my great grandma to give me some of my old baby photos so I can scan them in. These photos are so fun – I can’t wait to take some more!

This last one is me playing around with photoshop a bit – I wanted to make it a little Jill Greenburg inspired.

See more of my family photography from Southern California.

The $50 headshot special has been around for a while.  Many of my friends are actors in Los Angeles and Orange County, and I’ve always given them a fair deal.

So if you drive to my neck of the woods in Ramona, California – you’ll only pay $50 (Yes, only Fifty Dollars!) for a 1 hour session and 1 edited photo.  This is the mini-est of specials I offer, for struggling actors only!  I take great head shots, and I always want to help a young theatre actor or film actor on their way to greatness, and I know that being poor sucks.  Anyways, here’s my latest head shot of my “big sister” Christa Engelskirch!

So many of you know me from Cherry Fizz Photos work I’m assuming, this is a different side of my work.

When you’re starting out as a photographer, people tell you to pick one niche and try to stick with it, but I find myself just going with what life passes my way and stumbling upon unique photo opportunities, so I take them.  I hate being part of a specific mold.   I guess overall my niche is “humans” and occasionally shots of nature.  Truthfully, if you came up to me on the street and ask me what my philosophy for photography is in a single nutshell, I’d tell you…

“I like taking pictures of pretty things.”  – Okay, I know I sound like I’m fwee (three, for those of you not speaking baby talk) years old.

People sometimes tell me that “I have a gift” or a “tremendous talent” – (which, thank you btw, people who tell me these things, I appreciate it.)  Honestly, I don’t see it like that, I just see myself taking images that “feel right.” Either because of my previous musical training that gave me great timing, or perhaps just an artistic mother who raised me in a cultured world, I am able to create images.  Hopefully lasting images, even iconic images.

I went to school with a ton of film majors, I’m not even close to done uploading all of the film stills I did during my senior year where everyone wanted some film stills!   But film never drew my heart strings like it did my friends – I love watching film and studying it, but as far as the process of making films, I was content to let my friends create glorious tales of wonder while I got to enter that world for a brief time as their on set photographer.

At school I did photojournalism as a little side hobby, briefly joining The Panther Newspaper for a year, the first semester as their photographer, the second semester as the photo editor.  While I enjoyed it, I was needed elsewhere in the land of Cherry Fizz and created lots of portraits and worked on many projects over at my other side of work.

I guess you could consider here the “Kansas” type place and Cherry Fizz the “Oz” of sorts, if you want to put it into as easy a category as that.  But truthfully both of my sides go hand in hand for the type of person I am – caring, kind, simple, but also in your face, brash, and outspoken about things she feels strongly about.  Hopefully seeing this site will let you see the other half of what I do – not someone who just Photoshops the hell out of pretty girls to make them look like a cartoon or painting.  Instead you’ll see a person who at the end of the day just knows how to take any situation and make great image from it.

I apologize ahead of time, for the bulk of photos on this site.  At the writing of this post there are over 400 – about 100 belonging to the fine people of One Performing Arts.  Tami McQueen has been an inspiration to me on following your dreams and your entrepreneurial spirit, while still keeping artistic visions intact.

The other reason I have so many photos is I feel that if you’re trusting me to do your family portraits or your event or whatever, you shouldn’t just see the one good shot from the hundreds I took, and that you may pay tons of money for one good shot.  So get lost in my galleries, that’s what they’re there for!