New Employee!

A great friend of mine from school started working with me in the last few weeks. Tracy Melchiori is one of my old roomates Brooks Institute of Photography and we have stayed great friends. A few weeks ago I had a big project for KB Homes and conned her into helping me shoot. Turned out she really loved it! So she has decided to finally take me up on my offer to work with me. She'll be working partially as a Marketing Manager and Photographer. So far we have been bouncing a lot of ideas off each other and it's all working out really nice! I'm pretty excited! This is a great job for her to work part time and work on her Fine Art Photography! The last few years she's supported so many other photographers and not worked on her on work. So I want to be able to help her in return and push her to work on her art! I'll try to get her to show some of her work on the blog!

Great Condo For Sale!

It's been a few weeks! I've been busy and I think it's time to update the blog! Last Friday I got an email from Jim Parrish wanting a quote for his condo that he is selling and at the bottom was a PS saying how great my blog was. I love to hear that! He said it made MediaCarrot seem more human. I had no idea that my little blog would really catch attention, but I'm sure glad it does.

So Saturday morning I went to his beautiful huge condo and took some virtual tours and photos. Jim and his wife Sara (spelled just like my mother's name...that either means she's a great lady and probably a little wild!) were just really really nice people! It was such a relaxed and nice shoot. It was a great nice Saturday morning! So, take a look at the Virtual tour here!

San Diego

We were in San Diego a little while ago and I thought I'd put up some of the photos that I took. There are a few I think are pretty fun. We had gone to ComiCon (I'm not sure how it's spelled) It's the huge comic convention in San Diego. My boyfriend is an Animation Board guy. He had quite a few friends at booths in the convention and just running around. It was my first time but it was pretty fun, well I go back and forth between it being nerdy and fun. But we will probably go next year. Mario will be working on putting out his own books.

While at the convention we took a lunch break with some friends. I have to say, it was the best lunch I have ever had! If you love to be abused by your wait staff and love even more to watch other patrons be abused, you have to go to Dick's Last Resort! We stayed twice as long as we needed and I laughed so hard! If you ask for a straw they throw 20 at you. If you want a refill, they bring you a pitcher all to yourself. They really love making a fool of you, but it's great! Really really fun.

Afterwards, we took off for the water front to look at the boats and see the "Star of India". We didn't see the star of India but we toured the Russian Submarine there and another pirate ship. Check out the photos I took there. The green photo is taken on the submarine threw the parascope, I think it's one of my favorite photos!

Wedding Weekend

I spent this weekend in Paso Robles, CA for our friends' wedding. They are wonderful friends that I got as a bonus when I started seeing my boyfriend. Let me tell you, I have been excited for their wedding for months! It was beautiful! As hot as it could be, but well worth it.

The ceremony and reception were held at the Still Waters Winery. The view was incredible and the grounds beautiful. It was a short wedding ceremony and a nice long reception with lots of wine. Even the caterer marinated the tri-tip in the wine from the winery. What could be better than that!

It was really a great weekend full of fun with all of our friends and all the family that comes with these friends. Yes some very crazy family... the Bride's father for one! He said he'd be coming back to CA for my wedding next summer as long as I didn't marry my boyfriend (he really did love my boyfriend!). So I guess we'll have to start planning! Here are a couple shots of the rehursal and one of the wedding. I'm not a wedding photographer but look at that view!

Bella Vista

Equity started building this gynormous apartment complex a couple of years ago in Woodland Hills. I used to drive by it on my way home and watched it progress. Somehow I knew then that I would shoot the photography and virtual tours on it. Sure enough I shot them last week.

Let me tell you I love to shoot for Equity! I've shot a few of their buildings around Southern California. They have the most fantastic models! They are staged so well and really do their job of making you want to live there. This new building has some new floorplans and they are pretty nice...I must have shot more Equity apartments than I thought if I am recognizing their floorplans!

Linda Drive in Torrance

Last Friday I drove out and shot a cute little house on Linda Dr. in Torrance. Ante Perkov filled out my order form online and I went out there 2 days later. Apparently he's been reading this little blog here, when I walked up, he said he felt like he already knew me from my website and blog. So now I know this isn't just fun but it works!

I'm still not sure what Ante does formally. Obviously an agent, I think Investor, owner of Ante's Restaurant, and apartment building owner. For some reason I think there's more on that list. Either way he is helping his friend sell her house. Check out how cute this house is and check out the virtual tour.

Another Ojai Photo Shoot!

After Shooting for Jeff Goodman a couple of weeks ago, he passed my name on to couple other Realtors. Low and behold I got a call from Vivienne Moody from Coldwell Banker Property Shoppe. I drove out last Thursday and shot two beautiful houses for her. I was ready to move into both houses.

One was atop of a hill, beautiful views but lots of walking up and down the hill for photos! There was just so many different places to photograph there; Reflection Pond, wine cellar, Great rooms, and gardens! I had such a great time shooting and the owners were so fun to talk to. Take a look at the virtual tours here.

The other was a warm family home. Smaller but so welcoming and great little outside areas to hang out. A beautiful porch area, firepit area, hamock, a huge tree to sit under. I loved all the outdoor areas to lounge around. Inside was a nice big fireplace surrounded by a huge open living area. I liked everything being open, being able to visit with the family while working in the kitchen. Take a look at the Virtual Tour!

Sulphur Mountain

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Jeff Goodman from Goodman and Associates. Jeff hired me to shoot a beautiful house on Sulphur Mountain Rd. What I didn't expect out in the hills and farmland of Ojai was this beautiful Tudor style home. Add to that 19 acres of beautiful hills and trees and an amazing view of Ojai Valley and you have an incredible property! Take a look at the virtual tour here.

When I was in school I would drive out to Ojai from Santa Barbara and shoot any of my photo assignments that I could out there. So it was really a treat to get out of Los Angles and take the drive up to Ojai.

And now I owe Jeff a huge THANK YOU! He has passed my name along and now I have two photo shoots in Ojai tomorrow afternoon. It should be a beautiful day out there!

Little School of Music

A friend came to me a couple of weeks ago, asking if he could surprise his girlfriend with a virtual tour of her music academy "Little School of Music". Mindy would be going out of town the next week and she left him a copy of the keys. I thought this was one of the funnest ideas!

One evening when everyone was gone, we snuck in and shot. It's a beautiful little school in Santa Clarita. Teaching music to children from toddlers on up to 10 years old. As you can see in the virtual tour, it's a really fun place that any child would want to learn in! Chris wanted to make sure we got the right feel of the school. We must have done well because all I've heard from him is how we got the exact feel and how much everyone loves it! So take a look and let me know what you think!

My First Blog!

Beginner here! Blogs seem to be an effective business tool for many companies, so I thought it's time to give 'er a try. It's also a chance to show the other types of photography that I shoot. I'm actually looking forward to this quite a bit. I want to show my personal photography, and also the beautiful houses and businesses that I get to take photos of(you might even get a glimpse of my family and friends).

I also plan on creating virtual tours of Los Angeles. Once I get this project started I will put the link up for anyone to use. This will be an ongoing project for me. I want everyone to feel free to use it. This can be something that realtors send to new clients planning on moving to the area, for use on websites, and to also use as a virtual tour sample. I'm sure we'll think up many more uses. It should be an interesting project to help me come up with new ways to photograph and new places to see. Stay tuned!