4th of July weekend - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

Every year we go to Clearlake for the 4th of July. I can't remember the last time I wasn't there for the 4th...but these past few years I have been venturing into town for the Carnival/the locals with my camera. I didn't go too crazy this year with the photos, but enough to satisfy me. We also made smores, swam, played, relaxed, watched fireworks. I am not including photos of all those activities, but here are a few (ok more than a few, but still, just a few).











AHHH, sprinklers...


Carnival, Clearlake













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Avi Rose - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

This morning (Isaac was out at a camp out) Avi woke up, and I swear she must do head spins in her bed when she sleeps. Her hair is AMAZING when she wakes up. I had to do a before and after. The before photo is right after breakfast. Waffles with chocolate chips. Thus the chocolate on the face. The after photo is right before we walked out the door to go to camp.

Cutie.

Texas - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

Ah, Texas. I went to Austin to visit my friend Bonnie Berry, www.bonnieberryphotography.com, and to travel the area in search of good photos...I think I found a few. :) It was fun traveling with another photographer who understood my need to stop for the seemingly most mundane of spots...This just fed my fire a bit, and now I need/want to go do more road trips! For me, the experience of the unknown, that's for me. If only I could convince my husband and kids how much fun driving around in 100 degree weather looking for (boring) things to take photos of is. Hmm..that may take me a bit longer.

I had a hard time editing, so I decided to put A LOT of photos up. This in only about 1/3/ of the total ones that I picked as my favorites!

Forgot to post these! Isaac and Avi in April

Ok,I am standing up typing this because Isaac has stolen my desk chair so he can play his Lego Star Wars game on my laptop. It's all downhill from here...

These are photos I took of the kids over spring break in April that I forgot to post. I just love them. They are sitting on our picnic table at Clearlake. This table is the center of pretty much every stay at the lake. It's location is a fixture to everyone in my family. It shows up in many many of my photos.

Isaac is holding up the newspaper because it's his birthday. April 6.

Summer is Here!

Well, the kids are out of school, and now they are hanging out at day camp...but before that, we went up to Clearlake. A great week. A week of NOTHING, but just being. Loved it. We had rotating friends come up and hang with us....and I am embarrassed to say that I barely took any photos....I was enjoying the air too much to even pick up the camera....nice to give my visual brain a rest though. I am attaching a few photos, not all of them, I'll get to that later (after I get back from Texas, yay Bonnie!) next week.
But here are a few snaps of Avi, (headless, he barely let's me take his picture any more...booo...) Isaac, Bea and others...I'm not going to name everyone's name, but they are all dearly loved. The second round of friends (you know who you are) will be posted next round.

Happy Summer!



GNATS!! ARGH!

GO ALAN!











Go Dayna Go!

Yay Avi! And also fun with Remote Control Cars

Hooray!! Avi is graduating from Preschool!! Onto bigger and better big girl school. Here are a few snaps from her graduation ceremony, as well as photos from this past Sunday eve. My husband and son have FINALLY found a hobby that they can both geek out on. Which leaves me and Avi to run around and take fun pictures...great for everyone!






And now for the cars...

Holy Smokes, Seriously Cute Henry

So, this is Henry, I photographed him this past weekend. Seriously? He is out of control cute. Loved photographing him. And his mom, makes these AMAZING framed collage-like pieces of art work with photos etc. It's based KIND OF on the whole scrapbooking thing, but the finished pieces are these intimate/powerful/super cool pieces based around simple design and photographs. In the coming weeks I will be posting some samples of her work, and she is starting to take this on less as a 'hobby' and more of something to offer others! I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here is her cutie-pie Henry.

Lots of work, Little Blog time

I'm not sure how many people actually check out this blog, but for those of you who happen across it from time to time...I apologize for being very delinquent in my postings. And now I am about to leave for a week, so there goes that...but in the meantime I feel like I ought to explain myself with a list of my goings-on as of late...
Two weeks ago I photographed an AMAZING wedding in Upper Lake, Ca(some of my faves are posted in this blog post), which if any of you know where that is it is on the North end of Clearlake, where I (my parents/family) have a vacation home, and have been going there since birth. So when this wedding came up there, on a weekend that I already planned to be there...I accepted. And am so happy that I did! So, there was that, and then I photographed ANOTHER beautiful wedding the next weekend at the Pelican Inn at Muir Beach. Hopefully I'll have a few from that one to post soon! (I have to get permission first of course.) I've also been filling my time photographing preschools. So much fun, and it works great with my own children's school schedule etc. I've also done some photo work for a great baby company called Lifefactory.com, and I will post some photos from that as well very soon. The make super cool, toxic free, glass baby bottles. They are unbreakable, because they have this non-toxic squishy (patent pending) silicon stuff on the outside. And they just look very cool too. I've also had my share of very cute chubby babies to photograph....so I've kind of been all over the place with my work, but it's been great. I love keeping it so diverse!

So one more thing I have to mention, my son, Isaac, today finished 2nd grade. Tomorrow, is my daughter Avi's LAST day of preschool. In the fall it's off to kindergarten! What happened? It's all moving so fast! I plan on taking some time this summer to be with them, go swimming, go to Clearlake, you know...live a little. And hopefully, I'll remember to bring my camera with me from time to time....

Here are some snaps I loved from the Upper Lake wedding. I'll post some more photos again soon!

Great Clothes! - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

The clothing brand is Bunny and Bee, and it's GREAT! Way back when, when I was a part of my own start up baby clothing brand, I met a good handful of other moms who were doing similar things. These are creative people, with great ideas, and with the experience of a mom to get what other moms want for their kids. That being said, Jennifer and husband Faez started a super cool brand called Bunny and Bee. Faez is a graphic designer and comes up with the most unique screen print designs. They've recently started doing more cut-and-sew fashion, and I love it.

I've photographed for them a few times, here are some snaps from our most recent session!

To see their ADORABLE clothes go to, www.bunnyandbee.com.

Abbey and cousins - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

I met adorable Abbey at one of my Crackerjacks in-store portrait days last year before the holidays, and her parents called me to do some photos of her with her two boy cousins while they were here visiting from the East Coast. There is one photo in here that just shows how in love she is with them....cute little face.

Getting to know them... - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

I love getting to know my 'clients'. The kids get used to me, they feel more comfortable with me and my camera, they like to show me stuff...love it. This is the third year that I've "worked" with this family, and I always come away with some of my favorite photos. The last couple of photos I've shown here, I wish I had done for me an my family. The generational photo. That's what photography is all about right? Capturing memories, capturing faces, showing who we are, where we come from, where we live. This is why I started photographing in the first place, and this is why I always will.

My Mother's Day - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Anybody who knows me, knows I am a busy body. As my father likes to call me. And it's true, and I'm not ashamed...but for Mother's Day, my family allowed me to do just this. We went to Genova Deli and waited and hour for some delish sandwiches, went to Golden Gate park to eat them, then over to Stow lake and we watched the cool sailboats and scootered around the lake (turns out that's really tiring and I only went around once), then over to the Polo Field area and ran around there. Isaac and his dad geeked out with Isaac's awesome remote control car, while Avi and I ran around leaping and peeking into old horse stables. I took pictures. A perfect day.

San Francisco Wedding - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

I photographed this wedding a month ago...can't believe how fast time flies. I LOVED shooting this wedding. The bride and groom (thank you) were AMAZING and FUN, and I'm not just blowing smoke. I had a great time.

It's morning before I have to take the kids to school so I just quickly picked these as a few of my faves from that day. Just wanted to share a few.

Baby in the Studio - Amy Perl Oakland Photographer

Yahoo Emerson! She is so cute, and made the best expressions...see for yourself. Fun in the studio.