Photography – Moniemuse

Photography Style

I started teaching myself photography when I couldn’t find the type of photos I needed for design work. I read websites and discovered photographers I wanted to be like. I asked friends if they would let me photography them to practice. I copied other photographers and found myself struggling at shoots.

It wasn’t until this year, nine years since I started learning photography did I finally discover my style. The answer wasn’t in a web seminar or a blog, the answer was found when I became the client.

What type of photos do you want your photographer to take on your special day?

As a bride, I wanted a photographer that knew how to capture random moments, notices happy accidents, and sees those moments no one else notices. As I looked for a photographer I kept seeing shots that could be googled.

Looking at your work, which ones are your favorite shots?

I realized I was the photographer I wanted to hire! There must be others out there who would like my style… I have a style!!!

When shooting Miranda’s graduation pictures, the day went so smooth. I was able to direct her with ease. She felt comfortable and we had fun! Photography no longer felt like work. After all the years of struggling with my settings, dealing with harsh sunlight, nervous subjects, and flash malfunctions, I was able to capture shots I am proud of because I gave myself permission to be the photography I am – not what I think others want. All the normal elements that go wrong didn’t stop me from capturing photos I loved.

A Book and Spring Flowers

You know we all have our thing, the thing we are self conscious about that seems so large in our own mind. For some reason the feminist movement has made being a woman confusing, should we or shouldn’t we be proud to be a woman. The modern world seems to encourage us to be more like men, and to ignore what makes us different. For years, I avoided wearing dresses, or to wear too much make up, afraid it would make me look weak, but it all goes much deeper than that. Now that I am in my thirties, a department director and soon to be wife, being a woman seems like an impossible achievement to master.

The book Man and Woman: A Divine Invention by Alice Von Hildebrand came to me while listening to Eric Metaxas interview. I would be lying if I told you the pressure of becoming a wife isn’t freaking me out a little bit. Is there a wife bootcamp I can attend to get me ready for the challenge I’m about to face? Probably not, but reading more about my new calling would give me an idea on what I am to do.

I know becoming a wife is deeper than cooking or the classic 1950’s woman. In fact, while reading the book , I began to see being a woman is a divine gift given by God – which I never really looked at it that way.

“[Male & Female] They are two beings of equal dignity, but complementary; therefore, they are mutually necessary for enriching one another.”

Reading about the power of a woman made me embrace being femine. The weeks following completing the book, I bought flowers for the video office. It was a small act, but for me it was part of embracing the fact I wanted flowers because they are beautiful. It brighten up the room and I enjoyed looking at them while I rendered.

It was interesting to read about the influence a woman’s heart can have on society. I thought about when developing a video project, what heart can I bring to my work that I usually ignore?

“Without feminine, contact, men will never develop their “human side.” They become inventors, creators, and producers, but their own being remains an uncultivated field.”

She quotes another fellow writer, Adolf Von Hildeand, “So it is that we love a woman as our holy ghost; through womanhood we develop our most human element into full sensibility; the rest of our being belongs therefore to the outer world.”

“We live in a world that has become more and more dehumanized, more and more heartless, a world dominated by technology, by machines…The machines cannot smile or utter a word of comfort to the sick, who are desperately in need of understanding, patiences, and compassion in order to carry well the cross of physical and psychological suffering. Human persons are made of body and soul, and the body cannot recover when the soul is neglected.”

“Feminist forget that to be a wife and a mother, to create a home and to be there to give love, and to listen to the little woes of the little ones who crave for tenderness and affection is like being the sun illuminating a dark world.”

Something Gus told me when we first met, he said I bought color into his world.

“Each sex has its role; each has its talents; each has its mission.”

I loved learning about the beauty I hold and the call on my life to deliver it into the world.

I don’t think I would have been able to embrace my femininity without falling in love with my future husband’s masculinity. Our different strengths together make us better people. I’ve never had so much confidence like I do now, and its not because I’m no longer alone, it’s because his perspective are my blind spots, and my perspective his blind spots. We help each other in so many ways.

Male and Female, how beautiful they complement each other.

What an adventure we are about to take on. Its going to be fun.. says the happy engaged woman about to marry the man everyone said didn’t exist.

Two months to go..

Getting Married

I’m – I mean, We are getting married! On to a new adventure called responsibility. I thought long and hard when Gus got down on his knee and asked me to marry him, actually, it took me 4 seconds to answer. I thought about what this new promotion in life would mean, what would I be giving up? What will I now have to do? I thought about how hard everyone says marriage is, and well, if I was going to go into battle, it would be Gus who I would want to fight along side.

I take no credit in finding Gus, and I am sure he would agree, we accidentally found each other. I was in the middle of working, and he wanted to check out the control room at church. Time stopped when we saw each other, actually I pretended like I didn’t notice him noticing me. I played it cool that day, and I am still playing it cool. Hopefully he doesn’t notice my flaws, like how I think I am the main character of this movie. He would say that he is the main character.

From a distance you may think we have it all figured out, the only thing we know, there is nothing we can’t solve together. We kept being engaged a secret for six months, why you ask? We’ll we needed time to trouble shoot all the questions – where? when? wedding? who is invited? babies? Yes, yes, yes, no, yes! haha.

I’ve always been a late bloomer, I was the last of my group of friends to kiss a boy, to move out and now to get married. Most of my friends have pre-teens, actually I’ve lost most of my friends to their husbands and children, a real shame!

My life plan was to get married ten years ago, but one problem, I needed someone great – and I wouldn’t meet him until what felt like FOREVER. Its been a journey from that moment when we first met to the ones you see on screen. There was a lot of things that hand to be discuss, fixed and worked out. For that we thank Jesus, He makes the impossible possible and helped us though the process of learning how to love with a pure love.

Wish us Luck! On our way to be married.. 4 months to go.

photos by William Yates

California Road Trip – Santa Cruz

I’ve must have passed Santa Cruz many times while on my way to San Francisco. My Australian friend had went for a visit during her last stay and told me how awesome it was. Gus and I drove up after Santa Barbara and took in the fresh over cast morning at Pleasure Point.

Gus told me about his family growing up in Monterey and suggest we take a drive to enjoy the town the following day. But first I wanted to check out Mission Santa Cruz since we where so close. We went to the church only to discover it was very small, compared to Santa Barbara mission there wasn’t much to see. We enjoyed a walk in the garden and headed towards downtown.

Driving in to the city I noticed the Museum of Art & History, right away I wanted to check it out. I enjoy visiting art museums in new places. I never know what they will focus on and its interesting to see the different exhibits. There was a lot of interactive art displays. I joined in and created a passport about my family history. Gus was impressed at my drawing of myself. I laughed because if there is one thing I know how to draw, is the face I’ve looked at all my life.

Walking downtown was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Looking at all the old buildings and discovering new shops is so fun. We spent some time at the record store looking at all the music past generations enjoyed. I bought two albums for the road trip back but both albums end up sucking, haha. I like taking risk but thank goodness for iTunes preview!

With the last bit of energy we checked out the Boardwalk. Talk about busy! There wasn’t an empty space in the park. Gus and I were so worn out, we spent less than an hour here. I’m sure my 14-year-old self would have loved every bit of it. The rides, the crowds of young people, and all the fatty food!

The next day, we headed over to Santa Cruz Breakwater Lighthouse. My friend had told me about this cute little place to have breakfast called Aldo’s Harbor Restaurant that overlooked the dock and lighthouse.

We got in the car and headed to Monterey to check out Cannery Row and the Fisherman Wharf. We first
took a break at Starbucks which I saw this man and his dog relaxing. He chatted with me about how his dog likes to do his own thing and doesn’t listen. I smiled and laugh at his dog’s little tongue hung out. After we checked our email and social media, we headed to grab some famous clam chowder at the Fisherman Wharf.

Time flew by and back to Santa Cruz we drove. Our vacation time was ending with just a few days left. Two more missions to see on our way home. We stopped by Mission San Juan for a few shots.

We drove to our last mission only to do a drive by. We where worn out and now needed a vacation from our vacation.

I’ve lived in Southern California my whole life and never bothered to visit central California. It was a nice road trip to do with the missions as an excuses to drive and take in the location. It was interesting to visit these historic sites and appropriate a school lesson I kinda slept through in 4th grader. I’m sure Mrs. Luper would be proud!

Huntington Beach

Making the summer official by visiting Huntington Beach. I snapped photos as Gus filmed. I turned off my auto focus and decided to snap photos the old school way. Snapping as I saw something interesting without worrying where my focus points where. It was nice and liberating.

The boys

Taking photos of kids is always great practice, they move around so fast, if I’m busy looking at my settings, I can miss a moment. I noticed the photos of my nephews where extremely outdated. I love capturing memories.

Forever a Student

We live in a great time where we don’t have to go to a room to be a student. We are the generation raised by the Internet, its up to us how we use it. I recently started looking on youtube key words, “start up business” or “photography lighting” to learn from professionals. I want to use the knowledge given freely to learn more about the skills I want to develop. I’ve probably watched every Steve Jobs interview out there.

Creative live.com is one great resources I discovered years ago. If you catch a live showing, the classes are free. They have workshops with professionals on all kinds of subjects. A course I’ve bought was from celebrity wedding photographer, Joe Buissink. Hearing how he developed his business and his photography style has been so helpful to me. There is no excuses when it comes to learning something new. I encourage you to find resources that can make you better at what you do and to keep on growing.

Starting Something New

The current in thing is start up companies. Everyone is doing it. But to be honest, it’s not very glamorous to start a new business. No one knows who you are and you have little credibility. All you have is to hope people trust you.

This weekend we had a very successful speaker and author visit our church. He is wealthy, has a beautiful family, sales millions of books, and travels the world. As I listened to him talk about the early days of having no money and being a newlywed living in an empty apartment, I realized success takes time.

I see many successful large churches celebrating their 25th and 30th anniversary. For as long as I’ve been alive, they’ve been building the church. When I look at the old footage, I see a young passionate person preaching to a crowd of 20 people as if they were speaking to thousands, not knowing that one day they would.

It’s easy to be discouraged when starting something new. It’s tempting to give up and stop trying. But I’m encouraged of the lives of the generation before me that things take time to grow and success is something that is built. It’s those early days of creating the foundation that will determine how long something last.

IKEA

One of my favorite stores to go to is IKEA. I think it’s the showroom display that I enjoy most. It reminds me of the future that could be. One day I will have a house of my own and get to decorate it. Or maybe its because it reminds me of a television set, and photos can look like a movie scene. Whatever it is, there is something magical about that place.

The Buzz of the City

The buzz of the city filled the air with endless possibilities. From the moment we saw the bay bridge we knew we were in for an adventure. I imagined young people working in their studio offices making creative decisions that would influence our culture.

The first stop we made was a hidden coffee shop. When I walked in the doors, I saw tables full of people talking and visiting with one another. I was tempted to ask them what they did for a living so I too could be in a coffee shop on a Tuesday morning at 10am hanging out with friends. We ordered our lattes and pretend we were one of them.

We later made our way to watch the sun set at the beach. The people of the city seemed to be searching for a connection with nature, the parks were full of runners and the beach with surfers. I saw business people in their cars, looking in to the sunlight and an older couple standing at the edge of the sand taking in the moment. Then there was us, talking about hopes for the future.

The drive down the city streets made me forget about what was happening on-line and enjoy the present moment. We kept telling one another to stop taking photos, to look out the window and see what was all around us.

Once we got inside a pub for dinner, I was glad to see there were no big TV screens on. We told one another to place our phones in the middle of the table and enjoy hanging out with one another. Conversations about business and dreams of making money seemed to light up the room.

We tried to imagine the lives of those who call San Francisco home. Its here that the city encourages individuality.

My favorite part of the trip was when we visited a fancy coffee shop that sold toast and coffee for $10. I figured I was paying for the experience of living a life style I’ve only dreamt of. I was inspired by the big groups of people exchanging ideas. I imaged staff from twitter, or from a new high tech company meeting at these very tables, planning on the next big thing. It made me want to create an encouraging community like this back where I live.

We gave ourself the afternoon to be tourist and to visit some well known locations.

A friend told us to visit the Golden Gate Bridge from a different location. I enjoyed hanging out by the water, listening to the birds pass by, laughing and making jokes with one another.

On our final night we left the car behind, and took public transport. We wanted to blend in and feel what it was like to live in such a thriving city. One thing is for sure, living in the city there is very little room for personal space.