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Who's in charge around here, anyway?

My name is Karen Schmautz and I live in beautiful El Dorado County of Northern California.  I am a photographer specializing in weddings, portraits and events. 

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk: Sacramento Train Museum

On Saturday I participated in Scott Kelby’s Third Annual Photo Walk in Old Town Sacramento.  Worldwide there were over 33,000 photowalkers at over 1,100 locations.  Our groups was allowed into the Sacramento Railroad Museum before it was open so that we could use our tripods and not have to deal with tourists.  So, I got up at 4:30 a.m. to be in Old Sacramento by 6;15. There were about 50 photographers who were able to roust themselves out of bed in time to be there.  It was well worth the effort.

We were lead into a large auditorium and given the rules of the museum.  Then, the drama began.  Dave Henry, the leader of our walk (on the right above), called for our attention to be drawn to the solid wall behind him.  As it began to rise we could see that there was a large window behind it.  Unfortunately they forgot to turn off the lights in the auditorium, so all we saw was…ourselves and a fain outline of a large locomotive. Always having my camera ready, I snapped this picture.  The quality is not so good, but you can see the walkers superimposed over the locomotive.

We only had about 2 1/2 hours in the museum before it would open to the general public.  At that point we would no longer be allowed to use our tripods.  Since the lighting was very dim in the museum, a tripod is a must in order to get a nice crisp photo. I wandered around with my friend, a wonderful photographer, Roger Aylstock, for some of the time.  But, as photographers do, our interests lead us in different directions.  I found this wonderful gentleman (above) who was willing to let me take his photo in front of this beautiful train.  (Keep in mind that I know nothing about trains…my brother, Andy Thomas, is the train person in my family.)

Here are some of the shots I took.

At the very end, they took us outside where they had fired up the steam engine for us to photograph.  What a treat.

Now to decide which one to submit for the contest…

New Guy in My Life

No, I’m not getting a divorce…my hubby is still the love of my life.  But, I did add a new member to the family:

He’s pretty durn cute, but he needs a little TLC.  I got him from the South Lake Tahoe Animal Shelter about 3 weeks ago.  He was badly underweight, lame from a buckshot wound, recovering from cancer, losing his fur from an allergy of some sort and the most lovable dog you have ever met.  Here’s what he looked like the day after I got him:

Yes, he was a mess.  We’ve been walking every day to rebuild the muscle in his back legs.  Yesterday we went 2 miles in two different sessions, but he was limping around and exhausted for the rest of the day.  Today he is also still pretty pooped, but at least he’s not limping around.

Last week he looked like this:

He’s a little timid around water…you can see him looking at the little creek that runs behind our house.

This morning I went out for a Starbucks coffee and since he makes me crazy until I take him for at least one ride in the car per day, I took him with me.  I left him in the car while I quickly went in to get my coffee.  Don’t worry, it wasn’t even 50 degrees outside, so he was quite comfortable and laid down to wait for me.  Then we stopped at this little pond nearby and I let him run around.  He sticks pretty close to me and when he smells something that scares him (probably a bear), he quickly returns to my side.  However, when we walked around this little pond for a bit, I made the mistake of telling him that it was time to go home.  He didn’t hesitate but zoomed off (and I mean ZOOMED) towards the car.  I don’t know him well enough to know that he would zoom over to the car and wait.  All I saw was my brand new dog zooming away from me and since he doesn’t know the new name I gave him very well yet, he paid no attention to my pitiful calls of  “Obie, come back here.”…”Obie, where are you going?” (As if he would stop and answer me.)  and “OOOOOOBIEEEEEEE  STOP!”

When I finally arrived back at my car (trying not to slosh my remaining coffee as I lumbered along), there he was patiently waiting at the car door to go home.

Here he is at the beginning of our walk looking good and raring to go.

He needs lots of work and there’s lots to find out about him.  But he is a dear, gets along with other dogs and seems to love everyone.

Good dog, Obie.

Makeup Artists and Hair Artists: They help make my pictures pretty

These are the people that make the photographers job easy.  Hair and makeup, done properly, can cut down the processing time for me by 10-20 minutes per model.  When I have 5-600 photos to go through, that’s a lot of time for me.  I am very grateful to these hard working artists.

The models are already beautiful, but a good make up and hair artist can turn a beautiful gal into “Drop Dead Gorgeous”.

Also, for brides, I would highly recommend a makeup and hair stylist.  Less stress and they know how to make up your face so that it will look good in pictures.  If you need some recommendations, ask me.

Sierra Springs Photography El Dorado County Wedding photographer: Brides, brides and more brides at the California Museum

I was fortunate to be able to participate in a photo shoot at the California Museum in Sacramento, CA. It was a fun place with colorful walls, great architectural details and wonderful exhibits. The models were gorgeous and fun to shoot.  The event was put on by Mark Behrens and, as usual, was run professionally and smoothly.

I love these events because I get to meet other photographers and learn from them.  I also get to work with up and coming models and I end up with great photos.  Here is but a small sampling of some of the shots I got from this event.

Cigars and Stories

Just for Fun!

I’m trying out a new storyboard for web design.  I thought I would use some pics I had from a day spent with some wonderful friends a couple of weeks ago.