Pam Biasotti Photography Blog

I have a smile on my face.

Rangefinder Magazine is a professional photography magazine published monthly.  A colleague of mine, Peter Kotsinedalis wrote an article titled “The Professional Edge Combating AWACS Amateurs With A Camera”.  Peter interviewed several photographers including myself regarding the challenge that we as professional photographers have in this day and age of digital technology.   Rangefinder published some of my comments along with a sample of my images!  It was quite humbling and pleasing to open up my issue this month and see my work in print amongst so many talented and amazing photographers!    You can view the online version of this article by clicking this link here or going to Rangefinder Online and selecting the current October issue and scrolling down the pdf files to locate Peter’s article.

Yesterday (well now it’s more than yesterday since it’s the early morning hours right now) I traveled to San Francisco to photograph a family and their beloved toy poodle.  The mom and dad are proud parents of a 7 month old baby boy, S.  This little guy has the biggest brown eyes and happiest face you would ever want to meet.  I promised a few sneak peaks before I get swamped this week.  First we have Mr. Adorable…

Mom and Dad are crazy about their son.

One of the whole family.  It was a challenge to get Toby the dog sitting pretty with baby S.  While I managed to get Toby’s attention, S. thought his hand tasted pretty good.

It was Fleet Week in the City.  Loud planes rumbling back and forth.  My clients were only a short walk away from Alamo Square and we thought it would be fun to capture some shots of the Painted Ladies while watching the Blue Angels buzz by near us.  Unfortunately S. fell asleep on the way up to the park, so Toby decided to strut his stuff and pose.

Thank you B. Family for the nice time together.  I always love a beautiful day in San Francisco.

I LOVED the 80’s.  I loved the music.  Some of the clothes.  The carefree days.  I found an old picture circa 1982 or 1983.  I don’t have the exact date but it was during my freshman year at UCLA and I recognize the people in the photo as my dorm neighbors.  What was happening then?  I recall MTV had just surfaced–maybe not until 1983 but I do recall the one of the first music videos I ever saw was Squeeze singing “Black Coffee In Bed”.  I remember my baseball team won the World Series that year (OH YEAH) and I blew off studying to watch my Cardinals kick the Brewers and win.   I remember hearing the band X for the first time and seeing them play on campus and getting my feet trampled by a mosh pit of army boots.  I remember taking the long walk from Hedrick Hall all the way down to Bruin Walk to get to my classes–no wonder I looked so thin then.  I remember feeling uncomfortable with all the sorority and fraternity folks and all the material people that plagued the surrounding Westwood area and feeling out of place most of the time.  Part of the reason I transferred after my freshman year was the huge lost feeling I felt going to classes with 35,000 other students dressed in preppy clothes with topsider shoes and alligator shirts.  UGH.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine campus if you enjoy all that.  I had enough fun and met some nice people–in fact I still keep in touch with one of my old boyfriends from there but I look at this photo and remember what an awkward, silly time a person of 18/19 goes through.  First of all, I do recall the names of the two people sitting on the bench.   The girl I think was named Vanessa and that’s about all I can remember except she lived on my floor.  The boy in between was named Greg.  I even remember his last name.  Greg lived down the hall from me about 3 or 4 rooms and had not one but two roommates.  Considering our dorm rooms were made for only two occupants, you get the picture.  One of the roomies was a funny guy named Kevin that secretly lived in Greg’s room with his roomie.  Kevin attended all the dorm functions though.  Greg I remember well because we loved the same music.  We quoted musicians talking from “The Decline of Western Civilization” and went to my first X concert together.  See his preppy checked shirt?  I don’t think he was a frat boy, but he played one on television.  In the backround I can see the floral shirt of my next door neighbor Ken.  He and his roomie Steve ALSO had an additional roomie crashing with them all the time.  Then there’s the Princess trying to hide herself from the picture.  She was a really pretty girl, obviously had self esteem issues and didn’t like having her photograph taken.

Then there’s the brunette next to Greg.  OMG can we pluck our eyebrows any thinner?  Unfortunately this poor girl didn’t know about eyebrow waxing or she would have done much better than trying to take it into her own hands.  The shoes… not topsiders this time, but from the white barely showing in the picture, she was wearing K-Swiss.  K-Swiss was the rage in the early 80’s in Southern California.  I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but those shoes were on every foot.  K-Swiss, topsiders and Mia flats.  Red Mia flats to go with those tapered jeans that girls of the 80’s wore while listening to Adam Ant play on KROQ.  Look at this girl’s tan.  Wow, she looks like she might have spent some time out in the sun that summer working on it.  Probably used baby oil or SP2 if anything cause who knew about skin cancer in those days?

Wait…this girl has a camera.  She liked photography even back in her college days…wait…could this photographer be me?   Ummmm yeah….I admit it.  How brave of me to not only admit what year I started college (do the math) but how brave of me to post such a horrific example of how scary the 80’s must have been and how I can hear my children howling with laughter at that eyebrow thin goofy face with the plaid preppy shorts and K-Swiss shoes.  Hmmm. What’s the purpose of this pointless post?  I guess I had a camera in my hand a lot in my young life and found a photo I thought would amuse you.  At least it’s not my prom picture.  That would really make one spit out their Diet Pepsi all over the keyboard.

I am playing catch up this week!  I have many blog posts to show and things to talk about but I wanted to shout out to Jamie from Cowbelly Pet Photography and thank her for her hospitality and workshop!  There are many workshops out there for photographers to attend but I felt that this one was something I was very interested in as far as investing my time.  I have been fascinated by how Jamie runs her business and her success as a pet photographer was shared last weekend in her hometown of Seattle Washington.  It was a long long long weekend but I walked away with some new friends and colleagues.   The weather was typical Seattle unpredictable, but we made the most of what we could and spent a little time with some of her Pug clients, Charlie and Seymour.  I haven’t had a chance to edit them all, but I wanted to share some cuteness with you so you can see why I love dogs so much.  These were some of the best behaved little dudes I have come across in a long time and it just reinforces what some good obedience training can do for you.  We as pet owners are responsible for making our animals good canine citizens.  No one else is–meaning it’s up to us to train them well and love them up.  The more training you can invest in your dog, the happier you will be, the happier he/she will be and the happier other canines will be.  Trust me–obedience training NEVER stops.  Even though Riley is 9 we do our daily obedience exercises in heeling, sitting, staying, recalling, sits and downs, stand for exam, you name it.  I told you I was going to get a CD on this boy someday and I am!

So, Jamie, thank you for spending time sharing your knowledge and skills with me and the others.  I had a nice weekend away from the hetic work schedule I have waiting for me here.  I have a lot to think about and look forward to taking my pet photography to the next level.  I loved your dog Fergie–she has so much spunk and attitude.  

2 of my favorites so far from last weekend

Except he isn’t my baby anymore.  He’s completely a little man who loves sports–unbelievably so much that I suspect he might take Gary Radnich’s job from KRON someday.  This is a child that will wake up in the morning and turn on the television and when I come into the family room it isn’t Cartoon Network I see on the screen but ESPN and he’s intently watching to get the baseball scores.  Listening to him talk stats with his father–OMG my child knows more about baseball than I do and it’s scary.  So today is your birthday.  You are seven years old and I secretly wish you never grow up because I don’t want to lose that little boy.  In a way you have already changed from being a mommy’s boy to a daddy’s boy which can be fun when I want to do something and your dad takes your brother and you to a baseball game.

So seven years ago on the night of the 28th I went to Max’s Diner in San Ramon with a friend to have dinner.  I had my favorite item which is a stuffed baked potato with a caesar salad.  Ironically last night we took the whole family including your grandparents to Max’s Diner for dinner and I had the same meal.  It didn’t even occur to me I was repeating history seven years later.  On the morning of the 29th of September, 2001, I was getting out of bed at 5:30 am to relieve my poor bladder that you so kindly sat on at the end and stood up.  Something was happening.  My water broke.  Not sure it was my water, I called my friend Barbara who I had dinner with the night before and asked her what I should do.  She suggested taking a shower and seeing if it continued after.  I did so and cleaned up and proceeded to saturate more clothing.  Yeah, it was my water breaking not bad bladder control as I suspected.  So, off to the hospital we went with your 6 year old brother who we woke up and dragged out of bed.

It took all day, but at 10:51 pm you finally made your appearance.  You were a VBAC and I was happy to not have to have another C-section.  There were a few moments when your heart rate dropped so low that about 20 people joined us in the delivery room waiting for what you were going to do.  There was a threat of another C-section and I didn’t realize at the time that if you were going to be a C-section that you would be ripped out of me in 30 seconds versus the lengthy one I went through with your older brother.  When one is pushing and concentrating on delivering a baby, one doesn’t understand why there are so many people in the room watching me.  But, thanks to a vacuum your big Biasotti head finally came down and you were pulled out successfully.  You were angry.  You were screaming.  I guess having fetal monitors attached to your head as well as a vacuum pulling out your head is enough to send anyone into a screaming frenzy.  I remember the nurses bringing me a sandwich immediately to scarf down and I didn’t even care that it had mayonnaise on it.  (Those of you that know me know how I feel about mayonnaise).  You cried and cried.  You wouldn’t sleep that night until I picked you up and held you in my arms all night.  That is how we slept–you in my arms.  It was the beginning of the next three years of you sleeping next to me and no other place.  I couldn’t move anyway as the nurse slapped a huge bag of ice on my crotch which I didn’t understand why she did that until the next day when the epidural completely wore off.  Anyhow…I love you.  Happy birthday my darling.  I wish I had decent newborn photos of you but I don’t so I thought I would post a few of my favorites.  Your reddish brown hair that you were born with was so full and never fell out.  Here is my favorite picture of you doing your A Flock of  Seagulls hairstyle.

Love the Fred Flinstone toes.  Sigh.

The next image was your One year old portrait.  By this time you had about 2 haircuts and went blond. Who knew I had tow head recessive genes lingering in my body.

And here is my boy today.  Loving his sports.

And my favorite one I just took a week ago