Lenny Lee here to tell you there’s not a thing wrong with being a dog. Case in point; my adoptive parents, Niki and Barrett Lee, had a big celebration in my honor a few weeks ago. They apparently wanted me to know how much they loved and appreciated me in their life (and really who wouldn’t?) so they planned this great event for me to be a part of. They even had a team of professional photographers along to capture images of me in all my furry glory.

We started at the old Powerhouse in Folsom. Here I am sitting on Niki’s lap. That’s Barrett next to her.

As you can see in this image above, I’m on my best behavior—too bad you can’t say the same for Niki and Barrett!

This is one of my personal favorites, probably because the photographer actually understood who was supposed to be the top dog today.

Now here we are going to play. Don’t mind Niki and Barrett’s goo-goo eyed look, you get used to it; I did.

You’ll notice Niki is holding me tight. I think she was afraid I was going to chase the squirrels, but I really was trying to be on my best behavior.

Here are Niki and Barrett exiting through a set of pretty doors. I’m not entirely sure what went on in there, but even I could tell they were extra happy when they came out of this building.

Since everyone else was kissing and hugging Niki and Barrett when they came out of that special building, I just had to do the same.

Okay, even though I’m not actually in this picture, it is one of my favorites. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic.

And finally, one of Niki’s favorites.  Bye! I’m off to find a fire hydrant!

Lenny

I am in love with all of the photographs we took that day. It has been so hard for me to narrow down a few to show you. Jacqueline was amazing. She was so relaxed and easy going. You can tell in all of her photos that she was having a good time. Even when she’s not smiling she has such depth and emotion in her eyes.

This is a new location that we have discovered and I think it’s a keeper. I can’t forget to thank Coby the horse and Emily his owner for all the help. Sometimes working with animals can be very difficulty but just look how willing everyone was to be a part of the shoot!

We also got to spend a little time at my favorite shooting location… the old barn. The image below is my favorite photography of the day.

Thank you again Jacqueline for being my model and thank you Emily for the help with Coby.  It was a great day!

I spent a couple of months scrounging garage sales and the swap meets for gadgets and gizmos that would fit this genre. I had collected some interesting backgrounds that I had planned to use with my models in post production. Lucky for me, Melissa had a Victorian Christmas party in December and provided me with a wealth of Victorian costumes.

This first image above is Christopher. He is the son of a good photography friend of mine. So you can see the type of work that goes into this image, I’ll show the original pictures.

First is the image of Christopher shot against a plain wall. Lighting is from a front light (not shown) and the two edge lights.

The background is made up of some close up watch parts contributed by my neighbor, the jeweler.  I extracted Christopher from his image and add a grunge routine to bring out detail and add him to the background of the watch images (adding a color overlay).

Here are a few more from this shoot. Thanks again to Richelle, Christopher, Holly, Amber and Lauren for modeling. Thanks Melissa for the costuming.

I finally got my baby fix! It’s been too long since we’ve had a baby in our studio. I’d like to welcome Will! Only  nine days old!

We got to shoot the whole family too! Mom, Dad and big sister Charlotte.

We really tried to do some thing new and fun. What do you think?!?

We had such a nice time with this wonderful family. I can’t wait to shoot them again and to see how much they’ve grown.

#1 Audrey Baby – I know you must be surprised that an image of my own daughter took the top spot…. Well I can’t help it. She’s just so cute and I hardly ever can get a decent smile from her. It makes mommy proud too that she wants to follow in the family business.

#2 Carli Stone – I love her expression. We took so many wonderful photos but if you knew Carli you would say that this one is her. She’s always laughing and smiling.  Her nose is so cute too!

#3 Baby Gemma – This one was hard to shoot but the reward was worth the effort. Love the cute baby hat!

#4 Feet – My clients say I have a foot fetish… so what, it makes for amazing art! Look how cute this triptych turned out. I am considering this one photo because I knew when taking these images they were always meant to go together.

#5 Point Cabrillo Lighthouse – This is the first “professional” image I took. I’m not a huge landscape fan but I’m really happy with how this one turned out. Unfortunately my ISO was cranked through the roof  (3200) giving it an unusual texture. I love it all the same.

#6 Baby Violet – I love this family photo. It is so intimate and sweet. Love photo’s in B&W!

#7 Congratulations Paul & Ashley! This was the last shoot of the year for us. It turned out Amazing! The couple hasn’t even been in yet to see these images. I just knew I’d love this one as we were taking it! I bet the wedding photo’s will make next years top ten!

#8 Cowgirl – Once again I’m drawn to B&W. She was so much fun to shoot! Beautiful smile and such a sweet girl.  Loved everything about this day.

#9 School Time – He’s such a little stud! Rosy cheeks and everything. These were close friends of ours that moved east this past year. I’m so sad for that too…. I could photograph him everyday!

#10 Wedding Bells – I am such a fan of unique images. This is very typical of my style of shooting. Not just because it’s feet, but of the composition and color. It goes best as a cluster with three or four other images but I just had to add it. LOVE IT!!!!

I started 2011 with a short trip to Tahoe with my wife. We happened across these paddleboarders on the lake in mid-January. I caught them with the sun going down and captured this.

In February, I took a short trip to Napa with my photography friends Karen Schmautz and Steve Batz to shoot the mustard flowers. I captured the next three images there. The first won me 1st place and Best of Show in the Placer County Fair. The second was selected for the Schools Financial Credit Union 2012 calendar. The third image won me a 1st place in the Placer County Fair in the Black & White category. I manipulated the original image to look like an old image in a scrapbook.

Next are two images I took on a vacation to Ft. Bragg. The first image was an idea by Brittany to use her daugheter as a photographer. A variation on this is now on Brittany’s business card and maybe it will make it into her top ten. The second image was an experiment in light trails on the beach.

Next are a couple of portraits of my grandchildren. First is Shawn with a new background we made. Second is a concept shoot that I did with both the boy grandkids. We set them up as cool skater dudes and they carried it off well. CJ is the skater dude.

Next is an image from the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. Very interesting location to photograph (assuming you like grungy old buildings.)

Lastly is a image from a photo shoot up in Williams setup by my friend Mark Behrens. I really liked how this turned out in black and white.

That’s it for me. I hope you enjoyed them. Check back tomorrow for Brittany’s top ten!

We spent last Sunday afternoon in Nevada City at their Victorian Christmas. They had closed off the main street and all the shops were open and decorated, plenty of street vendors, and several people in period costumes (although not as many as we had expected.) My sister-in-law and her daughter were in town so they went in costume as did my wife. Several other people were in interesting costumes. It was a nice day walking through Nevada City.