NEW PROJECT: Brownie Memories

How cute are these Girl Scouts?!?!?! So fuN! I love my job :)

TGIF ;)

I love being a SAHM/very part-time photographer. Thanks, Hun, for working your you-know-what off to provide for your 3 girls!!! Love you!!!

just listed

So I've done realtor portraits for business cards and such. And I've recently done some community photography for realtor marketing. But a few days ago I had my largest realty-related assignment: capturing a home for use in an online virtual tour. It was actually pretty interesting (and very different than capturing humans!) I was happy to have learned how to shoot in full manual mode since I can see a world of problems if one was to rely on an automatic exposure system when trying to shoot interiors. I learned alot and am grateful for the opportunity to expand my repertoire...
If you know anyone interested in this beautiful 5-acre estate in Temecula's wine country, please contact Alyssa at http://awichterman.com/

small is beautiful

Storybook cottage at Disneyland, CA

Sometimes I wonder why I share my life's happenings on this silly blog. I found this website whilst perusing the blogs of other photogs and thought it quite inspiring.

THE [small is beautiful] MANIFESTO:
We believe stories are valuable, no matter how many people read them.
We believe following your passion is more important than watching your site meter.
We believe in the handmade, the first try, the small start, and the good effort.
We believe that small is beautiful...

SO here's to Studio 138, the little blog and the tiny business. ;)

Of Fear & Fudgsicles...

She saw a beetle... and it was black... and big...

Fudgsicles were probably one of my top 3 summer treats when I was a kid. How 'bout you?

natural life

...just a little shot from the riverwalk today.

happy 50th, lulu!

I met my mom, my grandma, my sisters, and aunts at the Mission Inn Restaurant to celebrate my aunt's 50th birthday today. I have wanted to have brunch there since I moved to the area 5 years ago but hadn't had the occasion until today. It was every bit as good as what I'd heard!!! Yummy...
Happy Birthday, Auntie!!!

My favorite season in the 951 is spring: warm enough to enjoy, unlike the hell hot summer season. Since the girls are older now, I look forward to many beach days starting in June...

purple princess

huh favwit culah iz pupah...

I {Heart} Neil Postman

Photo by Lusi
Without a narrative, life has no meaning. Without meaning, learning has no purpose. Without a purpose, schools are houses of detention, not attention." -Neil Postman

I was introduced to this profound and thoughtful social commentator in college when his "Amusing Ourselves To Death" was required reading. Over the last 10 years, I have read many more of his books, including "Technopoly", "How To WAtch TV News" and "The Disappearance of Childhood".

THe information and ideas he presents in his books always leave me so unsettled. On the one hand, I find myself wanting to raise the books over my head and shout "HELLLLLOOOOOO?!?!?!? Has anyone ELSE READ this?!?!?!?!?" His view of society, it's problems and patterns, are so crystal clear. On the other, I struggle with the feeling of "Okay, now what do I do?" In the case of my latest read, "The End of Education", the questions must be addressed and answered for the sake of my one child currently in public school and the other about to start.

Many of my decisions and attitudes about technology education have definitely been influenced by the idea that there must be a foundation of creative and critical thinking before training a child to simply point and click. Both my children have had very (extremely) limited computer time since I feel that young children are mostly kinetic learners, with the best understanding taking place by relating meaning. I haven't found a computer program that will let a child feel, touch, smell, interact and connect with a subject like real life, esp outdoors, does.

This latest read has also expanded another idea first raised in Technopoly: that technological skill is displacing cultural development in American society. I believe that as the middle class shrinks, the differences in class will be seen more saliently in culture more than ever before. There will be those exposed to art and grand music, etiquette and dance, environmental studies and volunteerism; and then there will be everyone else, limited in "worth" - self or otherwise - by their ability to consume the "next best" thing, all the while being enslaved by such products.

So do you think I feel anxious about being a parent in the 21st century??????

We went downtown for some culture this afternoon. We heard a storyteller and listened to some Didgeridoo players...
What is a didgeridoo?


My Weirdos:


i love spring...

more Easter cuties...