What I've been eating

It's been about a couple of weeks since I've blogged so I thought I would share what I've been eating. I love to eat so I take pictures of my food pretty often. =)

This was my first time baking Fococcia bread. It' turned out sooo yummy especially after it was dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Oh and you can't forget the salt and pepper.

This is what I had with my fococcia bread. Mmm

Now this picture below is my beautiful and amazing personal chef aka my grandmother with my little cousin Justin. We were all eating at my grandmothers house yesterday and he surprised us with a little visit. He and his wife who happens to be pregnant (yay!!) just moved back from North Carolina. We are all very excited to have a new baby in our family. He is a marine and will now be stationed in California. His older brother Brandon is currently serving in Afghanistan and will be coming home next month. Brandon will then be stationed in Hawaii. (Woo Hoo!!) Our family is already planning a trip to visit him in Hawaii.

This is what grandma made for us yesterday-Pozole

This last picture was taken a couple of Sunday's ago. I took my 4 little monsters to church with me. After church I took them shopping to sephora. Well I shopped while they sat in the tall make-up chairs eating lollipops. I must say it was a challenge walking with 4 kids in a parking lot. On our way home we grabbed some Mcdonalds and had a picnic out in the yard. I actually had chicken nuggets for lunch. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. =) Later that day I went to the market by myself and I couldn't find my car in the parking lot. I was standing right next to my car staring right at it wondering where my car was. Well the reason why I didn't recognize my car was because I had 3 car seats in the backseat. I felt pretty dumb but I made myself laugh.

Thursday

I wasn't sure what to title this post. I was going in the "I love L.A." direction but then I thought that was kind of lame. (I do love L.A.) I also thought about "Freeways" but that didn't have a cool ring to it and I know that I have blog readers that are not in this country and might not know what a freeway is. =) Hi Nadia! So, I simply went with Thursday. Why? because today is Thursday and Thursday's are well on their way to becoming my favorite day of the week. (Sorry, Saturday) The reason I wanted to blog about L.A. and freeways is because as I was driving home today I realized that I was on a total of 8 different freeways. Only in Los Angeles is that possible in an 8 hour period and I was on several of those freeways 2 or 3 times. First I took the 5 North to the 2 North to the 134 west. Then in the afternoon I got on the 134 East to the 210 East to the 605 South to the 60 East got off the freeway then back on the 710 North back to the 60 West. So with that I thought I would post some pictures of Los Angeles.

Now on to the reason that Thursday's are becoming my favorite day of the week.....here it is....My grandmother cooks whatever I want on Thursday's. (insert cheesy smile here) She is an amazing cook and I learned everything I know from her. I hope to be half as good a cook as she is someday. This little tradition of ours started about 6 weeks ago. Thursdays are now the day that my family comes together to laugh, eat, watch spanish television and eat some more. I have to admit that I am totally spoiled by her cooking and I am loving every minute of it. Here is a picture that I took with my iPhone.

Jaylee

This is Jaylee after her afternoon nap (which would explain her beautiful bed head hair). She is so precious to me and she also happens to be my favorite model. She is soooo photogenic and I love that she poses herself which makes shooting her effortless.

This is my favorite picture of this set

Missing Smokey

I've never been much of an animal lover. Growing up my little brother was the one with all the pets. He had snakes, mice, dogs, rabbits, ducks and I'm sure there are more animals that I can't remember. A few months ago my brother who also happens to be my next door neighbor brought home this dog by the name of Smokey (check out his eyes). I immediately liked the dog because he was extremely calm. Unfortunately, they weren't able to keep him but he did go to a loving home. I have always thought that people that take pictures of animals are kind of weird but I couldn't resist trying out my new 50mm lens on him. I'm so glad I did because now my nephews will have a picture of their first dog.

Catching Up

1-17-2010, originally uploaded by P31 photography.

Here I go again playing catch up. It's been a while since I've posted. I am still going strong shooting a picture a day on flickr. =) It's getting harder and harder to be creative. There have been days where I have literally walked around my house looking for things to photograph.

Last Sunday Benny and I took pictures at this beautiful couples 60th anniversary celebration.

Here is day 19--this picture was taken with my iPhone. This was such a delicious meal.

Here is day 20 another picture taken with my iPhone

I think I entitled this one "my favorite appliance of the day" I know this is not a very good picture but I was totally loving my heater this day so I had to post this.

Here is day 21 It was getting late and I wasn't feeling very creative but I think this turned out well.

Day 23 I shot a wedding this Saturday and this is a picture of their favors.

Day 24 The sky was absolutely amazing yesterday.

Day 15

1-15-10, originally uploaded by P31 photography.

I know that I've been posting a lot of personal pictures. I do have some events coming up so the pictures will soon follow. I figure this is just a way for you to get to know me a little more and at the same time I can create a habit of blogging.
This is a picture of one of my favorite things to eat (there is a list). It's become a habit, routine or tradition in our home. My hubby knows that whenever we rent a movie we also buy chips & chile. They are from El Siete Mares. I've been eating these chips since I was a kid. They never sold the chips separately until I cam along-true story. =) I've been messing around with off camera flash and I absolutely love it. If anyone out there is looking for an easy way to get your flash off of your camera you have to buy a ST-E2 from Canon.

My Sacred Corazon

1/13/10, originally uploaded by P31 photography.

Day 13 of 365. Yay! I can't believe that I have been consistent with something for 13 days straight. That has to be a record. I think I deserve some crab legs or lobster. =)

It was getting late last night and I still didn't have my picture for the day. I was looking around for something to photograph and there it was on my left hand. I should look around more often because I absolutely love this picture. I love what it represents and how it makes me feel when I look at it. I am seriously going to blow this picture up and hang it on a wall. My wedding band is beautiful to me, it has 7 little diamonds.......I remember the day I picked it out the girl at the jewelry store kept trying to get me to buy bigger diamonds. I'm sure that it was mostly because of commission but she also kept saying that it was too plain and simple. Well being the simple plain Jane that I am I knew what I wanted. I wanted 7 diamonds and I knew that I wanted them to be really small. I just wanted my band to be pretty and simple. I already had a big fat rock as my engagement ring so I wanted this to compliment it and I think it does just that. The 7 diamonds represent God's number of perfection. I met my husband in 07, truly God's perfection and perfect timing. I know that I was created to compliment him the way my ring compliments the other.

Day 4-Happy Birthday Jojo!

1/4/2010, originally uploaded by P31 PHOTOGRAPHY.

Hi everyone, This is my day 4 of 365 picture. I entitled it "it's my party and I can be sad if I want to". Yesterday was Jojo's 5th birthday. Benny and I went out to dinner last night and unfortunately, by the time I went to see him it was close to bed time so he was a bit crabby.

I love this shot of all the kids in my life.

Veterans Day

Vivian & Dalia

I'm not sure how to start this post. I guess I should start by saying that I don't usually take Quinceañera and Sweet 16 pictures but when it comes to family, anything goes. I was just remembering how in April 2007 my cousin Rick took a chance on me and let me shoot his wedding. It was my very first wedding with my new camera. I was so nervous, excited and even sick at one point. He gave me my start and for that I am forever grateful. His daughters, Vivian & Dalia celebrated their 15th and 16th birthdays together. I am honored they asked me to document their special day.

Here are a few of my favorites







This one was taken by my husband Benny. It's his absolute favorite. I figure if I get to post my favorites it's only fair that I post his too.

Photography School

As some of you may know I'm attending photography school. I will probably be attending this school for the rest of my life. I really enjoy learning the in's and out's of photography. I am currently taking a studio lighting class. I am mostly taking it to learn all I can about lighting. Every other week my class assignment is to bring in models to shoot. I have to meter, check my lighting and pose my models. It's not easy. I'm really liking the lighting part but not the posing. It's proven to be a challenge for me. I can't help but laugh as I type this because I was just reminded of this hilarious website. Sorry I got distracted. But this is what I think of when I think about studio portraits. They are not my favorite but I feel it's vital aspect of photography I must learn. So on to the pictures. I have to thank my close friend Jessica who let me borrow her adorable and lively daughters for the evening. They made my job that night so much easier.

These were someone else's models for the evening. We get to shoot other peoples models if time permits. It can be interesting sometimes.

This is Tristan and his mommy. One of my classmates cute little boy and wife.


Here are my models. Viviana & Tiffany . This was one of the first pictures that I took. They look nice and quiet. Huh! wait till you see the rest. They were just getting warmed up.

Before I go on I have to say that I HAD NO CONTROL OF THE CHEESY BACKGROUNDS that my classmates set up that night. I promise if you hire me that I will never make you take pictures with fake rocks. Unless you want me too. LOL!!! I still think Viviana and Tiffany pulled it off. They look cute no matter what cheesy set I put them on.



The girls loosened up and started having fun. At one point Tiffany was even assisting one of the other photographers.


This is Brandon, my classmate.

This last set was taken without studio lighting


Work it! Sorry Jessica....LOL!!!!!


Viviana & Tiffany,
Thank you so much for being great models!!!!!

Telemundo

This is my friend Paulina-the make-up artist. That's what I call her cause that's what she is. She is not only talented but gifted at what she does. Her resume has definitely grown in the past few months. She is doing make-up for fashion shows, movies, and now T.V. She can now add that she has been a Telemundo make-up consultant. A few weeks ago Telemundo was running a special on how women view themselves and the extremes they go to, to look their very best. The shows focused on plastic surgury, eating disorders, and self image. For the last show Paulina was asked to show the Telemundo audience how make-up can temporarily fix specific flaws we women have. Being the flawed women that I am she asked me to be one of her models. =) So yeah! I was on T.V. but not just on any channel I was on Telemundo. LOL!!! every East L.A. girls dream. I am joking of course, I've never even watched Telemundo.

It was surreal watching myself on T.V. Benny and I had to go over to my brother's house to watch it on his television since we don't have one. (Yes, me, no T.V. that's a whole other blog post.) Like I was saying it was pretty surreal. We had a little "watch Frances on T.V." get together. My mom even came over to watch her daughter get her flaws fixed. I think I was more excited about watching my nephews run around acting crazy excited to see their tia Frances on T.V. Enough about me on to the pictures...........

This is Paulina




this is Abraham (pronounced in spanish) Aah-bra-ahm =) the camera man

I took this from my iphone. I know it's not the greatest quality but it is proof. LOL!!!

Pomona Arts Colony Photo Walk

A few weeks ago Benny and I participated in a photo walk. We had never done anything like this but there we were in the Pomona Arts Colony, walking and taking pictures along with nearly 100 other photographers. What is a photo walk? Well it's a bunch of photographers walking around with their expensive equipment taking pictures of whatever is in sight. Some of the teacher's at my school have organized a few walks already so we plan to tag along whenever possible. Before I go on and show you some pictures I have to say that street photography is really not my thing so this was a challenge for me but it was fun and I can't wait to do it again. Here are a few of my favorites








Now here are a few of my husbands favorites


This is the picture that I was taking as I had my body on the ground of an alley

As I was on the ground I yelled out to my husband " I wish I had a fisheye lens!" a photographer that was walking by came over and handed me his 16-35L lens. It wasn't a fisheye, it was even better than a fisheye. Thanks John! So I got both of these shots with his lens.

I actually like it from this angle a little more than from the ground.