Archive for February, 2012

Chico Maternity Photography: A little T+A

February 29th, 2012

T + A are about a decade in the making, I think. T and V (me)’s story began about 13 years ago. We were freshman in college. I remember the day I met this girl! It was SuperBowl Sunday in 1999. We met because our boyfriends at the time were friends with each other. It [...]


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T + A are about a decade in the making, I think. T and V (me)’s story began about 13 years ago. We were freshman in college. I remember the day I met this girl! It was SuperBowl Sunday in 1999. We met because our boyfriends at the time were friends with each other. It was the typical, “Hi, my name is…”. I don’t think we spoke the rest of that day. You see, T always credits me with having a good memory — I don’t — I just remember important memories to me. It just so happens, the day I would meet my best friend and matron of honor was that day. I don’t think we spoke much in 1999. In 2000, our boyfriends had become roommates. That summer, they left – one to fight fires with the Fire Crew and the other to go surfing with friends down south. So, we girls took over the home. It was at this time we bonded, got to know each other, and became close friends. T is great — no — AMAZING!!!! We would make sure that we each woke up early in the morning to go running. She would smoke me everytime! We would cook dinners together — she taught me how to barbeque. She even got me a job working at Starbucks. We ended up working together and were even supervisors together. We had a blast – she taught me all she knew about being a good Barista. A couple years later, I hit a rough patch in my life — a REALLY rough patch. She was there for me. Day or night — I could count on her. She put a roof over my head and food in my belly for many nights — not once complaining or asking for anything in return. Til this day, I get teary eyed thinking about all she’s done for me. She literally picked me up every day and helped me get through the darkness over to bright sunny skies. I am lucky — no blessed — to call this girl one of my best friends! I don’t know if I’ve actually said this to you, T, but THANK YOU. From the very bottom of my heart, thank you for everything!

So, enter A. She met A through a family member at their annual family party. It’s fun and people travel from all over to come to this thing. It’s an entire weekend of fun! I have to say that A could not be a better match for T. A is so kind, super smart, and hilarious! He treats me like part of the clan and I am so grateful for that. When I visit, it’s usually an entire day. T and I will girl talk all day long laughing and talking about anything and everything. So, I’m glad A doesn’t mind me stealing his wife for the day!!! So, A is sweet – we can all agree on that, but when I say he’s a genuinely good person, I don’t mean, he just helps elderly women cross the street. This guy does that AND he donates his time to many charities and I think it’s so awesome! He and T together have done work for many organizations including the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization. They’ve inspired me to be a lot more philanthropic (well, and my mom).

So, T is also super creative! She basically thought of everything for her maternity shoot, so I can’t take full credit for her images. She came up with a lot of these ideas and they are just brilliant!

These two together are creating good juju big time! Now, they’re gearing up for a little one to come as we speak. They decided not to find out the sex of their little peanut, so I’m sure the anticipation is just unbareable right now!

;

They’re such wonderful people I have no doubt that they’ll be even better parents. I got a sneak peek at the baby’s room and it is absolutely gorgeous. They did such a wonderful job decorating. They have such great colors and a mural painted on their wall by a local artist. This artist did an AMAZING job — really phenomenal.

I thought this was such a cute idea of T’s. We tooled around at Bidwell Park in Chico and got some fun shots! They are such an easy couple to photograph. They played along with me and my crazy ideas! Hahahah — if I could have had them do the Toyota jump (please tell me I’m not the only one old enough to know what this is), they totally would have!

So, T has been keeping track of her belly throughout pregnancy. I thought we definitely had to add one more belly shot into the mix.

Okay, just one more…

Congratulations T+A!!! Your little one is so lucky to have such beautiful and kind parents. This world is definitely better for having you two in it and we’re getting a bonus today! I love you guys and can’t wait to hear from you!

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Sacramento Fitness Photography: Fitness Rangers

February 22nd, 2012

This last week I got a call from the Fitness Rangers and was super excited to be able to return to do photos for them.  A few months back, I was introduced to them by folks over at Kidaround Magazine (awesome magazine geared toward families and children – stay tuned for their next issue about Pets [...]


Posted in: Fitness
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This last week I got a call from the Fitness Rangers and was super excited to be able to return to do photos for them.  A few months back, I was introduced to them by folks over at Kidaround Magazine (awesome magazine geared toward families and children – stay tuned for their next issue about Pets and Families!!) when I helped with a project.  So, it turns out that they had some exciting news!  They recently moved into their beautiful new 5000 square foot facility and needed some new photos.  Of course, I was eager to come and see the new digs!

Dana, the Fitness Rangers’ awesome manager, asked me to visit a class to really showcase their cool new bootcamp room.   So, I arrived early to take some shots of the various areas of the gym and their new fancy equipment!  I will be returning soon to check out their pilates room and childcare — yes, CHILDCARE area — so, please check back to see updated photos!

They have a neat little area with television sets and endurance equipment in case you didn’t want to do a class and just wanted to use their facility

 

They have some fun equipment including kettle bells.

 

 

They also have a ton of dumbbells.  They have dumbbells located in their bootcamp room as well as outside of their bootcamp room.  Additionally, they have a large rack right when you walk in with varying weights!

 

 

They got these neat squat racks and Olympic lifting platforms against the wall of the front of the gym.  It’s a neat little set up!

They’ve got the Concept 2 rowers as well.  They look harmless, but wait until you get on one and have to try and row 2000 meters as quick as you can.  It’s rather unpleasant.

There were a couple of other fun toys to play with and their awesome bootcampers were kind enough to show me the battle ropes!

They also have this neat little platform training device called the Vertimax.  It’s supposed to help with explosive leg power and speed.  It’s actually kind of neat!  It can be used to help build strength with weightlifting as well.  If there are some trainers out there reading this, you can find out more info about the product here.  This just looks like it would not work out well for someone like me because of my accident prone nature.  I will be returning to their facility again to grab some shots of the finishing touches of the gym and I might see if I can hop on that thing.  I’ll make sure crash mats are available for me — hahahaha!

 

Kind of awesome, right?????!!!!

Now that the tour was complete, it was time to get down and dirty.  Bootcamp was scheduled to begin.  They have a room dedicated to just bootcamp.  Perhaps I’m not as hip and trendy as I’d like to think I am, but their bootcamp room was different than others I’ve seen.  I’ve been in a traditional gym group exercise room before — you know what I’m talking about — wood floors, mirrors all around and aerobic steps stacked and stored in the corners.  This room was pretty neat!  They do their classes in the dark, but with some colored lighting.  They shut all the doors and air conditioning is available, so they’re recruits (this is what they call their attendees) don’t get too hot.  The room is lined with treadmills in the front, mounted bars in the back, TRX bands, mounted time clock, and some crazy switches for their stereo or lighting system.

They split the group of about 20 up into two groups.  They started their warm up on the treadmill and the two groups would then alternate their positions.

Thereafter, they moved onto their next exercise involving kettlebells.  The interesting thing is while Matt, the trainer of this class, was demonstrating and explaining the exercise, there was no sitting or standing and chit chatting for the next exercise.  Everyone had to be plastered against the wall in a wall sit — kudos, Matt, that is wicked!  I was super glad I had a camera in my hand at that time.

Next circuit:  kettlebells and squats.

 

After their next exercise they moved onto another circuit.

You might notice that Matt is EVERYWHERE!!!  In your typical group exercise class, you don’t typically get this type of attention.  I thought it was awesome he was able to provide this level of service to the attendees of his class!  I’m no expert or anything, but I think this could be attributed to how the room was set up.  He did an awesome job working with a variety of skill levels!

Their last exercise I thought was super clever!!  After they turned off their treadmills, they put mats behind the treadmills.  Part of this circuit was you had to do pull the treadmill belt toward you a certain number of times and then do sit ups.  It looked crazy hard, but fun.  Obviously, their recruits were having a good time!

Thank you so much to Dana, Adam, Matt, and your fabulous bootcampers for having me in your class!!  You guys are awesome!  Keep up the hard work!

If you’re interested in the Fitness Rangers services, you can visit their website at:  www.fitnessrangers.net

They are located at:  1717 34th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816 | phone: (916) 739-1100.

Their hours of operation are:  Mon-Thu: 5:30am-9pm | Fri: 5:30am-7pm  | Sat: 8am-4pm | Sun: 8am-12pm

 

 

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Introducing Glamorous by Victoria Flower Photography

February 17th, 2012

  I’m really pleased to be launching “Glamorous” by Victoria Flower Photography.  So, What is this about?  Well, if you read my previous post about Glamour and Boudoir Photography, I briefly talk about what a shoot like this does for women.  So, I thought about the experience some more and decided I wanted to create [...]


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I’m really pleased to be launching “Glamorous” by Victoria Flower Photography.  So, What is this about?  Well, if you read my previous post about Glamour and Boudoir Photography, I briefly talk about what a shoot like this does for women.  So, I thought about the experience some more and decided I wanted to create something for women.  Let me first share with you, how this idea came to fruition.

I have had to fortune of being a gymnast, working in dermatology and working in pediatrics.  This all started back in adolescence.  As you all well know, gymnastics is a sport for the elegant, powerful, and petite individual.  I was powerful, but far from petite or elegant.  I was built like a rhinoceros (still am).  I was able to move super heavy things very short distances.  I was big and bulky — obviously not the typical build of a gymnast or someone of Asian descent. It wasn’t just me.  I had a couple of team mates that struggled with bulimia and anorexia in adolescence.  They were super strong and beautiful girls, but the pressure of what we view as beautiful in the media was at it’s height and they weighed more than 100 pounds and felt as though they needed to remedy that with drastic measures.  Later in my experience as a gymnast, I had to have my body fat checked and I was definitely higher than what was expected by my coach and I was asked to drop weight.   So begins my journey of finding comfort in my own skin.

After completing my education I worked for 3 years in dermatology.  I primarily worked in the cosmetic side of dermatology working with lasers to treat various imperfections.  Here I was exposed to women who constantly picked out their flaws and theses were such amazing women — gorgeous women.  It made me kind of sad.  I wanted these women to see just how beautiful they were!

After spending some time in dermatology, I found myself working with the pediatric population.  I took care of some patients who were battling anorexia.  These were extremely bright and beautiful girls who for some other reason could not see that they were beautiful.  It made me sad that they would fight this battle probably for a huge portion of their lives.  I just wanted to somehow prevent them from experiencing my own lifelong struggle with finding “beauty” whatever that is.

I think the definition of beauty varies a little from person to person.  For me, I think that feeling has to come from the inside and this feeling is connected with confidence.  I think helping boost confidence helps us boost our own concept of self worth.  So, with these experiences and ideas, “Glamorous” was born.  I have assembled the best make-up artist in the area as when as a phenomenal hair stylist to provide an individual the ultimate in the pampered and celebrity-like experience.  The make-up artist for our Glamour packages is Liz Bagatelos of Liz Bagatelos Make Up Artistry.  I’m so fortunate to be working with her, her fees can be up to $200, but we’re fortunate to have her for a sensational packaged deal.  We also have the faulous Emily Sinnett of Sassi Salon.  She is amazingly talented and loved by her clients and has graciously offered her services for our glamour packages!!

Why should they be the only ones who get doted on?  Maybe you know someone who has been recently divorced that needs a little boost in confidence, maybe you just had a baby and you want to be reminded that you’re still fabulous and probably more so now because of your mama glow, or maybe you have a special someone in your life that you want to spice things up with.  I think as women, we find ourselves taking care of others and we tend to neglect pampering ourselves!  This is a great way to pamper yourself, let someone take care of you for a few hours, and show your inner beauty.  Well, whatever the reason that you want to get glammed up and get photos for, I am here to help along with a fabulous group of women.  We want to help you walk out into the world a little taller, a little more confident, and with some proof that you are truly glamorous!

To book your session, or for more information, please feel free to contact me at info@victoriaflowerphoto.com.  We are already scheduling specially priced sessions in April and May of 2012!  Come join the fun and get glamorous!

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