I wanted to thank you all for visiting my site, for your feedback and for your referrals.

Because of you, because of your appreciation for my art and for my craft, I am able to grow and create the work that I love.

Thank you.

From my family to yours, here’s to an amazing 2012!

The most amazing part of my shoot?
Seeing two of my closest friends, Sam and Jon, become parents.

Words can’t describe the happiness I felt when I learned about Sam’s pregnancy, let alone this moment, when I finally meet their little bundle of joy.

Edwin, I can’t wait to watch you grow and become a wonderful, amazing and talented human being!

Congratulations Sam and Jon!

He says the most amazing things and has the most incredible, awesome, hard -working, superstar mother, Erika.

To celebrate his 3rd birthday while I was in Charlotte, NC, we went to a park and took some photos.

If I can sum up our session with just one image, it’s the one below.

It’s love. It’s a beautiful mamma and her beautiful son.

Erika and Jamison.

Earlier this week, they made their debut with the album, Primavera, now available on iTunes and CD Baby.

The album art for Primavera is a result of Juan’s art direction, design and my imagery. One cool collaboration.

Now go download their tunes and support independent music!

I soon thereafter approached their mothers and took some shots of them too. Hardworking people, some of these mothers are lawyers, nurses, house cleaners and small business owners. In addition to the help we got at the train station when we rented our bikes, these ladies gave us even more insight and suggestions whilst in Sevilla.

Before arriving in Cadiz (read here about it), Juan and I spent a day in Sevilla, where we met some of the friendliest folks in the Andalusia region.

We got off the train and found a bike rental place, where the manager told us the ins and outs of the city, where we should go and where we could stay, and how to get to the heart of Sevilla.

Have I mentioned I suck at directions?…..So off we headed to the center of Sevilla and you guessed it, we got a bit lost…however, magical things happen when you get lost, stop to eat and ask for directions.

This was the case as the hot noon sun was beating down on us, lost tourists, so we decided to stop at the next bar to grab a cold beer and some tapas.

The bar was teeming with children and their parents……a perfect photo opp.

Once we hydrated and ate, I grabbed my camera and asked the children if I could take their pictures – they were not shy – as you can see from these portraits!

Getting lost is sometimes the best thing that can happen to you; these turned out to be some of my favorite portraits of the trip!

]]> http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/children-of-sevilla/feed/ 2 http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/cadiz/ http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/cadiz/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:10:00 +0000 catalina http://www.catalinaphotography.com/?p=3308 Now that I’ve gotten the jumping posts out of the way, here is a photo essay on Cadiz, Province of Andaulsia.

When we first arrived at La Caleta, we saw this group of guys jumping off the pathway, right into the crisp, cool water. Each guy took his turn at jumping, sometimes side-by-side with a friend, doing all sort of flips, turns and canon balls into the water.

…..and then….there he was….Superman, fully suited with cape and the right attitude.

After his hilarious and perfect jump into the water, I made a portrait of him in his full glory.

And because I shoot continuous frames of his jump into the water, I thought i’d have some fun with an animated gif.

Enjoy!

We’ve been traveling these past few weeks, hence the silence on the blog.

I’ve got loads of blog posts and images edit before I share with you, but for now, I wanted to post this one, because this image and experience summed up something important to me about life  – sometimes you just have to jump.

Juan and I spent a day in Cadiz, Spain and were told by some locals that we HAD to go to the Caleta, all the way to the Castillo de San Sebastian.

Always listen to the locals!

After taking in the scenery and heading back to the shore, we caught a group of young men jumping off the path we walked to reach the castle. We stood and watched as they did all kinds of front flips and back flips into the crisp, cool and clear ocean below. The distance between the path and the water was roughly 15 to 20 feet.

Juan and I, while at first didn’t say it to each other, were thinking the same thing. WE. SHOULD. JUMP.

….and so we did and it was amazing…..and this image, of one of the many jumpers that day, sums it all up….

Now I have seen Shantell perform plenty of times in the year we’ve known each other, and I must admit that this was one of my all time favorite shows. There is something about the cello, the way Anna plays so passionately classical and contemporary music and Shantell’s imagery on and around Anna that blew me away.

Without further adue, here are some images from that uber special evening.

Q&A with Shantell took place after the performance.