Pam Biasotti Photography Blog

Archive for July, 2008


I am FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-Photographer Pam Biasotti San Francisco Bay Area

Published July 31st, 2008 in dog, Photography and Me, Riley, The personal stuff | 6 Comments »

By the way, the term free refers to my employment status not to my pricing. Little joke to start off Thursday.

Ok, so it’s obviously after July 29 and I mentioned my life was changing. It changed. Hopefully you have read my about me section here–the photographer in the body of an IT geekette yada yada yada. I might have to redo this now. I am a self-employed photographer full time. That means accepting more clients that I have had to turn away and it means devoting 150% to Pam Biasotti Photography instead of the 105% I was devoting my time to!

For the first time in 22 years (uh oh now you can figure out how old I really am) I am not working for a big corporate company answering to the pointy hair bosses or evil human resource directors as to how much more productivity they can squeeze out of me while cutting expenses more and more each year. (Disclaimer: My last manager was really none of those things and I love her to death and only stayed in the corporate hell hole for as long as I did because she rocked and was the BEST example of what a manager should be) For the first time in 22 years I won’t be walking into an environment where Lumbergh is asking me to work 24/7 on an outage that is really the application side’s fault or the business side’s fault. I won’t be toting hardware from one building to the next or re-imaging a desktop. I won’t be on my hands and knees disconnecting equipment. I won’t be sneezing repeatedly at all the chemical crap in the company carpet. You get the picture. The people who were on the same contractor account as me were awesome. I will miss them all terribly but I won’t miss the days of Dilbert like absurdities that plaque every corporation.

I have done it all. From college I worked in banking as a Customer Service Manager/Ops Quality Control person with an Assistant Vice President title (which is REALLY NO BIG DEAL cause everyone is an AVP in banking), managed call center employees (ackkk fancy word for babysitter of the disgruntled), worked as a Help Desk admin (How many times are you going to forget your password? Sheesh!), Data Security analyst, Network Engineer, IT Consultant, blah blah blah

I went through the motions, did my work as well as I could, gave it my best but something died in me after my youngest came along and I just couldn’t forge ahead the way I used to. I lost my spark. So, anyway, the outsourcing company I worked for outsourced me one last time on Tuesday the 29th. It was a good ride but it’s time for a change and for Pam Biasotti Photography to be a top children’s and dog portrait photographer. I have some big plans and changes coming my way and I look foward to sharing them with my past, present and future clients. Here’s to the next 22 years of doing what I #$%()$%$#’n LOVE!!!

Speaking of love, Riley’s got some new cousins.

Times are changing.

Published July 19th, 2008 in weddings | 10 Comments »

By the end of the month, my life is going to change completely. I will elaborate on that subject after July 29. I have been going through all sorts of highs and lows–denial actually–exhilaration–fear–anxiety–more exhilaration–self doubt. I think I need to have a cold beer.

Here are some more wedding shots from last weekend. I definitely need to keep my second shooter status, as I just don’t think I can make formals look exciting. It’s hard work to shoot a wedding. There are so many inspirational photographers out there that make it look so easy.

Weddings, Dogs, and Bears, Oh My

Published July 15th, 2008 in dog, weddings | 17 Comments »

Ok, I lied about the bears part.

I was out of the office on location last weekend and spent a few days up in the Pacific Northwest with Erika. We had a wedding to shoot and did some dog mini sessions. Weather was sunny, warm and perfect. I was able to breathe smoke free air and escape the fiery haze that has been plaguing the Bay Area for the past several weeks. Here are a few sneak peaks.

I will be returning phone calls and emails beginning Tuesday.

Someone you should meet–Matt and Madeline Logelin

Published July 8th, 2008 in Matt and Madeline Logelin | 10 Comments »

I don’t often add links to my blogroll but this is one blog I think should be bookmarked by anyone gracious enough to come by and visit my own blog. Just a few short weeks ago I stumbled across Matt, Liz and Madeline and was moved to tears in less than a minute. I sat there for what must have been at least 3 hours, reading every post, every comment, and stared at every picture. I cried a lot at first. But I also laughed out loud at Matt’s wit. Aside from the tragedy he and his family suffered he writes humorous tidbits at times that makes you smile for a second as you wipe the tears out of your eyes. Very raw emotion. Very real.  You see, Matt and Madeline lost Liz 27 hours after Madeline was born.

His blog is worth following. His journey is changing day by day as his little girl continues to grow and he continues to embrace the changes that he has had to endure without his wife, Liz. You might want to check him out and read through his blog to understand some of the photographs I have posted here.

Matt and his family were visiting the awesome Aunt Deb in the SF last weekend and graciously invited me to hang out with them for a bit. Every single person that was there had wonderful stories to share about Liz and Matt. The love they all have for Madeline is such a treasure. Such a loving, positive great group of people. It gave me a lot to think about in my own life. This is truly one of those times when you don’t sweat the small stuff because everything is the small stuff.

Here’s just a few images I wanted to share.

While Madeline napped, I was offered good food and drink. The Stellas were my present to Matt. I brought Madeline a little outfit.

When Madeline woke up, Matt introduced us. She’s as beautiful as her pictures on his blog. Her eyes are just like his.

This is my favorite image.

Matt asked me if I wanted to hold Madeline. Are you kidding? Absolutely! I gazed into her big blue eyes and she had no problem with a strange person holding her. I even had the pleasure of feeding her. She drank her bottle quietly while those piercing eyes stared back at me.

We lost the light and soon it was very dark. But we continued for awhile with flash. This is Liz’ mom and her sister. You can see where her big smile came from. Both truly lovely women. Dad isn’t pictured here but he was just as friendly and warm.

Lastly, I wanted to show one shot of Matt with his good friend Ken, “The Bastard”. I just report it the way it’s told to me.

Looking forward to meeting you again next time you are in the SF, Matt. You are doing a fantastic job.

I am velcro

Published July 7th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

According to this pup. His name is Spuddy and was the MOST cuddly Golden ever. Come to find out my Riley is somehow related to him in the ancestor tree. Most excellent. I spent part of yesterday hanging out with lots of Golden Retrievers in Lafayette. The photo was captured by another photographer, Steve Southard. You can check him out here.

I was tempted to make myself look glamorous, but you shouldn’t doctor someone else’s work EVER.  I wasn’t wearing any makeup, my face was full of dog saliva and my hair was definitely bed head style.

Steve and his wife Terry also breed Goldens and you can find out more about them here.

How Was Your Fourth of July?

Published July 5th, 2008 in The personal stuff | 1 Comment »

Low key was ours. We didn’t fight the crowds to watch fireworks. Instead since we live in one of the few cities in that Bay Area that sell “legal” fireworks we bought an atrocious amount of them and entertained the kids for about 20 minutes.

We had some friends stop by for dinner, beer, dessert and pyromania.

All photos were shot at an outrageously high ISO of 2500 at some point. Whatever. My camera CAN HANDLE IT. :)

I didn’t photograph any hot dogs, flags, watermelon eating, picnic tables, sack races, egg tossing, water gun fights, yankee doodle dandy stuff. I just photographed “Safe and Sane” pyro sticks that made lots of smoke and trash to pick up this morning.

Have a fabulous 3 day weekend…I am off tonight to meet some special people that I hope to tell you about in the future and tomorrow it’s a day of photographing dogs.

In the immortal words of Beavis…”FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!”

You really can’t see it here below, but Kyle got a bad @##$# buzz cut last week that I can save for another story because it all happened at a party and I never thought we would leave it with him “buzzed”. I saved $20 and was thrilled. I dig Dante’s new sneakers. When they don’t wear velcro on their shoes they seem so grown up.

It took miss J awhile to come forward with holding one of these. Finally she got up the courage and was sparkling like a champ.

Happy 5th of July!

Oh I forgot to add. Someone from the next street over shot this bizarre parachute firework thing (it was a flare!) that was a big red glow in the sky and it slowly started heading toward my street. It looked like it was about to land on my next door neighbor’s car but instead it settled in a tree in the front yard. The darn thing was still glowing and full of combustible crap and I ran over to make sure their house did not ignite in fire. It was that concerning. Maybe I am getting older, but it was not cool and when you live in a state known for all the fires and drought I don’t get why people do these things. Oh and thank you for all the M-80′s you shot off last night until 1 a.m. people. Thank goodness my dog Riley doesn’t mind the noise, but I can only imagine the poor creatures last night shaking to the shock of a M-80. My poor Golden Paddy used to crawl into the bathtub and shake. That is enough PSA for today. Thanks.

People that make you smile

Published July 2nd, 2008 in dog, Friend, My Favorite Things, Riley, The personal stuff, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

It’s all about the humor. Rule number one in the Pam Biasotti book of requirements for friendship: MUST HAVE A HUGE SENSE OF HUMOR! Last February I spent a weekend in San Diego at the Secret Photography Workshop as a staff member and met some really cool people. Ashley McNamara was one of the funniest new friends I made that weekend. We had a lot in common–she hails from the Bay Area originally and knew exactly where I was from and understood the lingo. We text messaged each other on our beloved iphones. We took pictures of others and ourselves with lots of makeup and teased hair while we experimented with off camera flash in a swanky room at the W.

I love Ashley’s photography–she has a style that’s all her own. This is a capture of her Flickr images that says it all about her. She is a genius who knows how to execute the image! She has this set on her Flickr stream that says “Failed attempt at 365″ which I wish she would just start doing again. She makes me want to do one for myself and I HATE having my photograph taken. (That’s why it’s important to have someone you trust who can do the job well. I was pleased with the outcome.)

So when I knew she was visiting from San Diego a few weeks back she did me the ultimate favor by taking some images of Riley and me for my new dog website that I am working on. I was thrilled–check these out! My portrait session by Ashley McNamara

Which image of Riley and me do you like the best? My favorite is the one blowing in Riley’s ear. Hee hee! I can’t help but wonder if I need me some botox….