Welcome to our new regular blog post, “Food Friday”.  Daniel and I both love to cook and we both love photography so we thought it would be fun to share our journey as we eat and attempt to take great pictures of it!

Today’s Feature: Green Salad with Roasted Pears and Fennel, Topped With Caramelized Onions and Avocado

Recipe:  Throwing together some things in the kitchen!  If you want to know how to prepare, just leave a comment in the comment box!

Pink.  I swore I would never dress my daughter in it.  At my baby shower I asked for “no pink”.  I am NOT a girly girl by any means, and I am not really a fan of all the pink that every. single. thing. that is made for little girls comes in.  I mean, why is it that it is almost impossible to find other colors for girls?  But if you know my daughter Dayla, you know that she LOVES PINK  and she wears some form of pink almost every day.  And ( I can’t believe I am admitting this to you internet) I did dress her in it before she could even express her sentiment for it.  SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. I dressed my daughter in PINK…. BY CHOICE!!  (GASP!)

What can I say, I have bought into that whole, ” joy of having a little girl” thing. Sugar and spice and everything nice.

And I am in it ……  HEAD. OVER. HEALS.

I delight in watching her LOVE all things GIRL-Y.  My heart flutters a little bit when she is in a toy store and she squeals with glee at the sight of pink toys, and dolls, and fairy wings.  The edges of my lips tilt upward when she chooses to wear a dress with her favorite “fancy shoes” to the park.  I don’t mind at all when she wants to wear her fairy wings and carry a wand to the grocery store.  I taught her how to have a “tea party” before she was talking.  I was way more excited to teach her to twirl then I ever imagined I would be.  I get choked up when I watch her dance with her daddy on his feet.  I am loving every moment.

I think what I cherish the most about her girliness is that it is HER.  I don’t push it, I don’t show her the princess things first, she finds them. It is HER.  And I love that.

What is child hood about if it is not about pretending you are a fairy or a princess, or whatever you want to be that day?  I know these moments are fleeting.  I know that it is very possible that in a couple years she could be into something completely different.  I know that it is not a long ways away that she will think pretend and fantasy is for “babies” and that instead it will be * boys*  that hold her attention.  So I cherish these days.  I hold onto them with a white-knuckle grip in hopes that they won’t slip away too fast.

::THE BIRTH OF THIS PHOTO SHOOT::

Dayla adores her friend Tabby.  Whether they see each other once a month or once every other day, she adores her.  A few months ago I saw a photo shoot by this amazing photographer (who inspires me SO MUCH. Love love love her work).  A photo shoot of her daughter and her daughter’s friend, that was so beautiful and sweet it brought warmth to my heart and tears to my eyes.  That day my dream was born.

About 4 months ago I called up my friend Kristy and told her that when January comes, we have got to do a total GIRL photo shoot with Dayla and Tabby.  Two girl friends, in the forest, with every thing I could think of that was * girl*.  This is my first “staged” photo shoot.  It took me 2 hours to set it up, several trips to the dollar store and Michaels to make it happen, and I was beyond nervous that Dayla wouldn’t let me take pictures of her (she IS two), but all my fears were for not.  IT WAS A TOTAL BLAST.  Every thing I hoped and more.  I am already itching to do something like this again!

The set up

A Tea Party!

The girls wandered a little…so I decided to capture some of them separately. First up, Dayla as fairy princess:

Followed by the sweet sweet Tabitha as fairy princess:

Wrapping up “part one” with one of my favorites from the day: Dayla looks into the rabbit hole (or that is what I told her anyway)

I hope and DREAM that some of my future clients are inspired by this and can see all the possibility that YOUR photo shoot can have!  Yes!  We can make it happen!

Next to come…playing dress up…hugs….little bears…guest photographer…and MORE!
STAY TUNED!

Welcome to our new regular blog post, “Food Friday”!  Daniel and I both love to cook and we both love photography so we thought it would be fun to share that little piece of our life with you.  Today’s food post comes with a little story too.

Daniel devours books, several at a time, where I have had one book sitting on my bed-side table, half read, for about 2 years.  I would not consider myself a “reader” anymore.  I used to escape into books and waste away the hours in worlds between pages, but something happened.  I don’t know if it was the text books in college that lead to burn out or the fact that time has become a precious commodity and it doesn’t lend itself to book reading anymore. Every once in a while though I get a book in my hand that is easy to just pour through, a book that reminds me of the days when a sunny spot on my bed and the white crisp pages of a new book was all I needed to feel happy.

There have been two books like this in the last couple years, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and most recently Food Rules, both by Michael Pollan. They are not “diet” books or books about “food science” or books that are preachy in any way, shape or form.  He is just a journalist who writes in a captivating style about: where does food in the supermarket REALLY come from, the challenges the modern farmer faces, how government plays a role in the food that you get in the supermarket, the history of food and how it has changed, and how we should be eating to be healthier.  I tell you, fascinating stuff!

The long and the short of it is, I am inspired and motivated to cook new things, learn to cook with more vegetables leaving the word “bland” out of it, and really just cook MORE.  Hence, the recipe below!  It is spicy, sweet, packed full of veggies, and not short on flavor AT ALL!  Yum-EEE.

Today’s Feature: Quinoa with Moroccan Stew (with acorn squash, parsnip, sweet potato, and carrot)

A little modification of the recipe here

I love this time of day. I just love watching the sun stream in the windows and the warmth of the late day sun. I love it in a way that is not normal, for it makes me happy almost like nothing else can. I always said that if I was an animal in another life, it was a cat, not for any reason other then the fact that I just love to curl up in the afternoon sun. I want to curl up in it and let all the cares and the worries of the day melt away into that sunlight.

January has been a slow month for Sundin Photography, and although I LOVE what I do and CAN’T WAIT for the next photo shoot I have in store (I am excited beyond words for the photo shoot I have coming this weekend!), this slowness of this month has been a welcome change. It is nice to have a to-do list that is only 3 things long instead of 30. It is nice to not to use the words, “I HAVE to get this done today” about 20 times each day. It is nice to be able to stop, watch my daughter playing and really take it in, enjoy her, without constantly thinking in the back of my head of all the other things I could be doing. I love productivity. It is a little strange the way I love it. I definitely get a little spirit lift when I check something off a list. But this last week it has been different. It has been so nice to just sit back and put productivity on the shelf for a while. I know it will be there tomorrow, and that is okay with me. For today I can just sit on the couch, soak in the afternoon sun and let every other thought just melt away.

Here is a picture I took at The Wild Animal Park in San Diego on Saturday.  Something about yellow makes me smile too.

If you want to see some serious camera rigs you have to check out the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park. On any given day you will see a bunch of old dudes wearing khaki vests, Crocodile Dundee hats and hauling around enough camera gear to finance a minor-league baseball team. I can’t blame them though. The San Diego Zoo is an amazing place to take animal pictures and an excuse to have a big lens in your bag.

Ginette, Dayla, and I headed to the Wild Animal Park yesterday morning and had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was the first sunny day in a week and the animals were all out enjoying the dry weather. Here are a few pictures from our morning. Unlike people you can actually take decent pictures of animals in full sun.

For the camera nerds these were all shot with a Canon 5d and the 70-200 F4 (non-IS). I had to bump the ISO more than I prefer to in the shadier areas. Makes me want the IS lens…

Giraffes Aren't So Tall

Giraffe (I love the alternating diagnols with the palm trees)

Protecting the Nest

Lounging Cheetah

Lorikeets on a Log

Meerkats Peering at the Sun