Pam Biasotti Photography Blog

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….

Oh Theresa. I am so glad you are awake at 1:00 am in the morning. I am so glad you check your email religiously. I am so glad you are an HTML, CSS coding goddess of the high heavens that was sent to this earth to rescue people like me who make the mistake of having her website through an unmentionable company that has given me 400 new gray hairs over the past two weeks. I might know something about building a server, maintaining a server and networking….however I hate coding. Theresa helped me out tonight. It was a hairy mess–really poor customer service from the unmentionable company. So thank you, my friend. I raise my Irish Coffee to you and will buy you many when you come back up to visit.

The good news is that I have a website again and you should be able to access it. If you still are getting any kind of error message feel free to shoot me an email. It’s 2:26 am–I think it’s time to catch some zzzz.

Update:

Everything is running except the gallery/shopping cart which is being worked on right now. Thanks for your patience.

Oh, I have left my heart in San Francisco many times. There is no city like it and there will always be a charming draw of people to our city by the bay. I mentioned to you in a previous post that I was waiting patiently for Connie and Terrilyn to arrive to attend a workshop with me. It was called the one light workshop and we had an excellent time. The hardest part for these ladies was staying awake! The workshop usually goes into the wee hours of the morning and by midnight California time, they were exhausted and we headed back to casa Biasotti for some sleep.

The next day we had some time to play and we stopped by to pick up Theresa, who has family in the Bay Area. Theresa is the Blog Queen extraordinaire. She can get you set up and running a blog in no time. So the four of us headed out to city. I had warned my East Coast buddies that California is a deceivingly cool climate this time of year. Bring layers. Bring your jackets. Prepare to freeze your buns especially in the evening. I was most worried about Terrilyn, as she is from the west coast of Florida and spends many of her photo sessions frolicking on the beach in the warm Gulf of Mexico waters. Connie had informed me that in Maryland they were having awesome warm weather but since she once lived in California I expected her to remember how cool it can be in the evening.

The day was sunny and bright and we didn’t do too bad until the late afternoon. We started our journey through the city and headed straight for the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove across the bridge to Marin County and had a great lunch at Sam’s in Tiburon.

As photographers, we always have our cameras ready. After lunch we stopped to catch the reflection in the window. Pretty cool, huh? We thought outside the box on this one didn’t we? Connie took this photo. She gave me permission to post this. It is copyrighted by Barefoot Photography.  (Snicker snicker)

After lunch since we were in the neighborhood, I thought the best way to experience the Golden Gate Bridge and view of the city was to take the ladies to the Marin Headlands. There are many beautiful views and photo ops. Lots of fun. You have a gorgeous view of the bay, the city and the bridge. Plus four wacky women. Excuse my expression. I don’t know how to jump gracefully and beautifully. Tyra would send me home for not photographing well. That is why I get behind the camera and not in front of it.

Theresa wants you all to know that she really can jump high, but in that picture (which was the best one of me jumping) she doesn’t really show how good a jumper she can be.

So here she is. This is the lady that does Blogs for Photogs. SHE JUMPS

Connie jumps too. Somehow a small child got stuck to her leg while she was jumping. It was very difficult to carry him around in her leg the rest of the day.

I also want to make a quick disclaimer before other photographers look at these photos and tell me to clean my sensor. I am quite aware my sensor is dirty and needs cleaning. I am also quite aware that I should have used the patch tool to remove them. Thank you for noticing in advance.

Here are a few more.

Another Connie photo that she gave me permission to use. Obviously *I* didn’t take it!

If they were a band they could use this on a CD cover

Ok, so for the two people left reading my blog because I know I have probably lost everyone else by now, let’s move on. I had to take the girls down Lombard street, as cheesy as it is. I wanted to show them the world’s most crooked street and it was near the Buena Vista anyway.

The Buena Vista. Oh my. How can you not go there? I go there every chance I get when in the city. World FAMOUS Irish Coffees. Yum. Terrilyn doesn’t do coffee so Theresa had hers. Connie politely sipped hers. Theresa and I knocked down Terrilyn’s and a few more.

Theresa took this photo. I am using it with her written permission. Very important to get permission and not steal images from other photographers.

Now doesn’t that look refreshing and tasty? Since we were feeling good from those drinks, we walked around the area and checked out the cable cars and did a little shopping for the families. Here are my Rice A Roni ladies enjoying an authentic cable car. They had it all to themselves.

Are you still with me? Should I break this up into part 2? Hmmmmm. To be continued I guess………….

I was getting all ready to come here and post about my trip to San Diego and the fun times I had helping out at the Secret Photography Workshop but I will save that for another time. I spent my birthday on Monday driving home from San Diego for approximately 8 hours to get home in time to go out to dinner with my family. As you know I still work in the IT industry and work closely with the desktop support team. Tuesday morning I log into my laptop at home and begin sifting through my emails. I can’t understand why all the work I supposedly had coverage for was not completed. There were things in my mailbox that hadn’t been touched. A co-worker instant messaged me and said “Isn’t it horrible about Marc?” I thought “What?” and instantly knew it was bad news. My colleague Marc had passed away on Sunday. He was very close to me in age–if not a few months younger. I saw an email from my manager asking me to contact her as soon as I was online and I called to get the devastating news that my co worker had passed away. We don’t know why. I know he was having some health issues and wasn’t looking like himself the past few weeks. Today I went into the office where the company had a memorial lunch and grief counseling session for those of us that worked with him. I have never been to something like that, but it was a good thing to go to this. I heard some stories that made me smile through my tears and nod my head in agreement. Marc was an easy going, hardworking desktop technician. He was extremely intelligent and well read. His passion was marine biology and he was quite active as an environmentalist. I remember him riding his bike to work from San Ramon to Pleasanton often and I remember his Merrell shoes. I remember his shirt always half tucked in or out and his messy hair. He was the favorite technician on campus–all the executives and upper management loved him. He was the tech that fixed their PC’s and Blackberry phones in a pinch. He worked diligently and was dedicated to getting his work completed. His laugh was unusual and infectious. I can hear it still. His desk looked like a tornado hit it always, but he knew where everything was that he needed. After spending the great part of yesterday in shock and denial I realize today that he really is gone and will be missed. Someone at the meeting said that some people don’t live that long and make their mark on the world and are taken away too soon while others live forever and go unnoticed. Marc definitely was someone who left us too early and will be greatly missed by us. I took this image of his desk with my iphone today. You have to understand it never has looked so clean and neat. A co worker left a nice vase of flowers on his desk as a tribute to him but what makes me smile and tear at the same time is the slices of pizza someone left on the desk next to the vase for Marc. The company was always giving him their food because he worked so hard at his job that he often worked through breaks and lunches. So when I saw that pizza on his desk, I knew it was for Marc. And that makes me cry a tear for a man that left way too soon. Rest in peace.