This year, I am SO excited about a blog circle I am doing with some amazingly talented photographers. Each month, we will be exploring a different kind of light. Last month, it was window light. You can see those images right here!  And this month, we are exploring un-natural light, or artificial light… pretty much, any kind of light that doesn’t come from the sun! I was really excited about this month and also excited about another little thing that has been brewing in my head, so I figured I would combine both of those ideas into one, which brings me to my first image!

I’ve been wanting to miniaturize my kids for a while and finally got around to completing one of my ideas! I’m super happy with how it turned out! I shot the soap, bubbles, and my son with strobes and then manipulated the images in Photoshop to create my little baby boy sliding down a bar of soap!

I have other ideas but wasn’t sure that I wanted to do them with artificial light, so this is the only miniaturized kid for now!

And here are some other images shot with artificial light:

My daughter lit from the bedside lamp at night:

My daughter’s hands lit by a candle and my phone (Brightest Flashlight ap) held by my son, camera right:

And then a bunch of pictures shot in the rain and lit by my car’s headlights! This was short, but fun!

I’m pretty sure my daughter is attacking my son with the umbrella here.These were a challenge but SO fun! I seriously am just loving the idea behind this project and hope you do too! I hope to learn how to use light in new ways and was especially excited to play more with artificial light!

So, how this works is you get to go check out another amazing photographer who has also used artificial light this month! Go check out the wonderfully talented Bethesda, MD newborn, baby, and family photographer, Tonya Teran of Tonya Teran Photography! I love her work and if she’s sharing pictures of her kiddos, watch out. They’re ADORABLE.

If you like what you see, you can follow me on Facebook! …

I can’t believe I only missed one month of 11 on 11 this year! It’s been a great way to keep me taking pictures of my family and forcing me to get in front of the camera! Every month on the 11th, my insanely talented photographer friends and I post 11 pictures shot in the past month. The last one being a picture of ourselves! You can see some cool underwater ones here, or some other fun underwater images here, or some funny ones of my daughter’s hair right HERE!

This month was kind of a fun month. But I didn’t take my camera out too often. Pretty much my kids and husband are completely over my camera, so I try not to torture them too often. So, without further ado. The last 11 on 11 or um (ahem) 18 on 11….

We went to The Exploratorium in San Francisco.  

That’s an amazing place to learn and discover. We had a blast!

We spent the day there. Had to take some breaks.

A big celebration this month was Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving, my mom was in the hospital getting chemotherapy for brain cancer.  It was a tough time for the whole family. This year, she’s home and has had clean scans (MRI’s not showing any cancer), so it was a much more celebratory Thanksgiving!

We ended up celebrating The Morita Family First Annual Pig Out Wig Out, or as my friend dubbed it: Thankswigging.

The wigs are an interesting story. It started off with me buying a black afro at the 99 cent store. I brought it home, tried it on, and was immediately smitten. hahaha! After posting some gorgeous phone snaps with various members of the family, including the cat, wearing the wig, my sister-in-law suggested I get more so that we could wear them to Thanksgiving.

I tell you. My brother married a genius.

So, back to the 99 cent store I went, and I may or may not have bought every single wig they sold.

Before Thanksgiving, I brought them over to my mom’s house only to discover that she LOVED them. We had SO much fun wearing them that I was now certain that Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without the wigs.

And I was right. Wigs are awesome.

I love my crazy family.

After Christmas, my sisters will be in town too. Can’t wait for the next family photo shoot!

My genius sister in law definitely got into character.

Sort of.

My brother is tall.

My dad, or should I say, the Asian Richard Simmons, was a good sport. He was cold and just wanted to go inside and eat dinner. So we did.

My little family also went to the Christmas tree farm in Castro Valley. They are all rather sick of my camera, but I managed to get a few pictures anyway.

My beautiful daughter.

My son… well, he hates my camera. When he was younger, he was SO good in front of the camera, but as he’s grown older, that has changed. Makes me sad. I need to figure out some better bribes. I still love this picture.

And this one too. It’s him. And I adore him.

As we were ready to head out, I forced my three loves to let me take their picture.

Hear No Evil, See no Evil. Say No Evil.

Or is it Hear No Evil. See No Evil. See No Evil?

I love them.

So, there you have it. My pictures from this last month…. But let’s not forget my image! I know… I know…. I look fabulous with long wiggy hair. hahahaha!

Not sure yet if this 11 on 11 thing will be continuing into the new year, but you can always follow me on Facebook!

Up next is the completely amazing and wonderful Columbus Newborn and Baby Photographer, Fran Barker of Fran Barker Photography.

Her work is amazing. And she’s uber awesome as a person too. Go check her out!

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On the 11th of each month, I post 11 images shot in the past month, with the 11th being a selfie. You can read more about it HERE.

If you follow me on Facebook, I’m afraid many of the images you’ll be seeing here are repeats. I’ve been super busy and haven’t been shooting as much as I like. But, here I am on the 11th hour the night before the 11th, getting my post together. I just couldn’t stand to miss out on being part of this amazing blog circle with my talented friends.

So without further ado… 11(ish) pictures shot in the past month, posted on the 11th, with not one, but TWO self portraits. Go me.

The boy melts me. LOOK AT HIM. Looooove.

This little guy is Mr. Personality. I swear.

Does this count as a selfie? Those are my legs. LOL.

I love his little Adidas. That guy has put a hole in a shoe in 6 weeks. The Adidas hold him. Solid shoes. But I warn you not to get too close to them. They smell like death.

We went to Trader Joe’s. We love that store. He had a lot of fun at school on Halloween. Here’s a mask he made during class. I love how he put the spider riiiight in the middle.

And let’s not forget about my pretty gypsy. She melts me too. Such a sweetie. Here she is at school.
And then at home right before we left for Trick or Treating.

We had some gorgeous weather this month. And she discovered those rubberband dealies that you make into bracelets and stuff. Dang, I wish I had thought of that. I’d be rich.

And I know he doesn’t have a helmet. He actually grabbed his dad’s skateboard and rode VERY slowly for about a minute. Skateboards sort of freak me out. lol.

We played at the park, then lay down to read for a bit. My sweetie and me….

Next up is the beautiful and insanely talented Marie Sant from Bloom and Grow Photography.  I just had a peek, and OMG, so many beautiful images. Go check her out!

And if you like my work, you can follow me on FACEBOOK!

If you want to learn how I edit, I teach editing workshops. I haven’t figured out my next one yet, but if you sign up for my NEWSLETTER, I’ll let you know when I know!

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