i stumbled upon the website of tara whitney recently and am in love, love, love with her work. i want to someday be able to take pictures like her. she shoots a lot around orange county, where i was born and raised, so i love to see some of the places where i formed many memories.
{please, please, please look at this website. you must see the pictures! i did not want to copy without permission..does anyone know the dos and donts for posting photographers’ work?}
i am a newbie at photography, but i have to admit it is my current obsession. in my free time i am reading books, blogs, websites, anything about how to become familiar with my digital slr and how to manipulate its settings to get the pics i want. most of the pictures i post on my blog are straight out of automatic setting. in the interest of time i don’t mess with them when i put them up on the blog.
my most used model for experimenting and improving my picture taking is, of course, j, and that means that i can’t show my pics online since he’s not adopted yet. i flaked on my sp challenge after becoming discouraged by my skills, but will pick it up some time later. i can, however, see a slight improvement in my pictures, and it definitely helps to use the camera settings, rather than take pictures on automatic mode.
if you live in southern california, and she fits within your budget (sadly, she doesn’t fit into mine YET), you MUST book her to take pictures of your family. her work is beautiful.
her blog is here. and this home movie (something you can also have done by tara and her friend, michel) is something that you must see. it’s gorgeous.
thezestdiaries.wordpress.com 
She is fabulous!! I love the baby shots! Now I want to redo the shots we had done yesterday… grr!
Her work is gorgeous! And that home movie…breathtaking.