photo shoot--out of town

so today . . . was my first official day of summer vacation. yay!! and i got to go to santa barbara with diandra for a photo shoot.

i know i have mentioned before how much i enjoy getting to go on photo shoots with her, but it was especially fun today, because we went out of town. we planned to leave at 11:00 this morning, and did actually leave the house about that time. but by the time we finished making necessary stops, we didn't hit the 605 north until almost 11:45. other than the usual traffic issues that are ever present in certain parts of our city, it was smooth sailing.

until diandra uttered those inevitable words--"can we stop at a bathroom?"

i didn't mind stopping, but we were apparently on a section of hwy 101 which did not have any rest areas. so we drove on. again she asked, "do you think we could stop at a rest area?" yes of course we can, if you can find one . . .

finally the decision was made to just take an exit and hope for the best. but when you go off the highway in an unfamiliar area and you come to the stop sign at the end of the exit, you have to decide which way to go. we chose right, but it turned out to be very, very wrong.

the sign pointing right had said "business district" which said "bathrooms" to me. so we stopped at the first 7-11 we saw. diandra hopped out of the car and was back in about 30 seconds. "no bathroom," she said. we continued down the road until she spied a jack-in-the-box. bingo! we thought. but no--they wouldn't let her use their facilities unless she bought something, and there was a line! so back in the car and on down the road. next we stopped at a gas station, which had a bathroom that they were willing to let her use. but after seeing that it was completely without paper products and had probably not been cleaned since 1967, she quickly passed. our fourth stop turned out to be a winner! it was a wendy's, and the bathroom was clean and available for use--even to non-customers. the lesson we learned? don't go off the exit unless you can SEE what you are looking for . . .

thankfully we had my gps, which got us back on the freeway--no easy task from where we ended up. actually, the gps saved us more than once today . . .

we stopped in montecito so diandra could meet with david jay, a photographer she has admired for quite a while. he was gracious enough to give her some of his time when she contacted him to let him know she would be in town today. he had some great advice for her on how to build her business. i am continually amazed at how so many photographers in our area are willing to help those who are just starting out in the business. there is such a wonderful spirit of community rather than competition. i think it speaks to the character of the people involved in a very positive way.

while they talked at starbucks, i relaxed in the car. it was a beautiful sunny day, but not too warm. it was just a perfect day. i ate half a brownie, read a little of my book, and tried to nap--but people kept getting in and out of their cars, which was a little hard to sleep through . . .

after lunch, we still had about three hours before diandra's photography appointment, so she decided we should take pictures of me. now, you guys know i am not all that photogenic. and while diandra thought i looked "cute" today, i was not really dressed as i would have had i known it was going to be picture day. nor did i have on "total make-up." today i had opted for "minimal make-up." but diandra said she could fix me right up, and we did have three hours to kill . . .

here's the thing--if she can take good pictures of me, she should be able to charge whatever she wants for photo sessions! and people should pay it! i am not kidding you!! here is one photo straight out of the camera. she caught this when we were laughing so hard that she could hardly focus her camera.we had some adventures shooting these pictures, but i am waiting to tell about them until i post the rest of the pictures she took . . .

it was finally time to meet the bride and the groom. the photo shoot today was for post-wedding shots. they are going to be awesome!! the light was beautiful, the people were beautiful, the setting was beautiful . . . how could the photos not be great? check diandra's blog in a couple of weeks to see her pics. but as always, here are a few i shot of her doing her job . . .we ended the evening by eating a delicious mexican dinner with emily and sean. and we hit the freeway home about 9:30 p.m.

it was a long day, but it was also a lot of fun. i have to say, my favorite part was being with diandra when she was taking pictures. i think i am going to like working with her . . .