Nevina's Images

I haven't forgotton you.....

2009-12-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Hang tight. I have quite a few posts to update. Two close friends of mine recently wrote their own fairytale after saying their "I do's" in front of a crowd of witnesses that contained their relative and friends. Although I was in the wedding, every chance I got I was pressing down on that little black button that swears to capture bits and pieces of that beautiful day.
Check back in a week or so, and I'll have them posted.

Miss you. See you soon.

Broken Roses

2009-07-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

I love my cat, and he loved my roses.

Thanks Lui.

The Adams Wedding

2009-07-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. Adams: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to photograph your special day. I hope my photos represent the everlasting memories the two of you will share the rest of your lives together.
I found it easy to photograph the two of you. You were naturals in front of the camera.

Shine on.

Baby Bodhi

2009-06-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

A couple months back I had the pleasure of taking photos of the sweetest little boy you ever did see. With his laid back attitude and big blue eyes and giggly little smile, it's enough to make anybody heart melt. Bodhi was an absolute joy to photograph and his mother and father made the session lots of fun!

Adi and Adam, you are one set of lucky parents!

Anybody Home?

2009-06-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like I fell off the earth, but I am still here and kickin'. I am still working on trying to get a website up and going so please be patient, and I promise it will come. I have been busy with work and life. Good thing, I guess but sometimes it takes the wind out of me, and even though it seems like I have disappeared , but I assure you, I'm here, well, and happy! I will be sharing some of my recent work with you, and please don't hesitate to give me your feedback.
Be well!

Erica and Ryan Satchwell Wedding

2009-04-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Late last month I was honored to take photographs of my dear friends wedding. I have known Erica since grade school and met her now husband Ryan the latter part of last year. They couldn't be more perfect together. They decided to marry in San Francisco's City Hall, and I think they made a fantastic choice. City Hall is a beautiful building with breathtaking architecture design and detail, and I recommend anyone that hasn't been inside to stop by and take a look. I met up with Erica's immediate family at City Hall before the bride and groom graced everyone with their presence. When the happy couple arrived, Erica looked so very beautiful and Ryan looked so handsome, and excited to make Erica his bride. We hung around City Hall until the priest was ready to marry the two at the top of the stairs. The entire ceremony took about 5 minutes. It was simple, short and sweet. I couldn't be more happy to see the newlyweds recite their vows and make their future together final and concrete.
The entire day into the evening dinner was very exciting, full of lots of belly laughs (is what I call the loud laughs, that come straight from your belly), many kisses, and tears of joy.

Erica and Ryan: I wish you a lifetime of happiness together, and I am very honored that I was able to witness (on your marriage certificate too!), and photograph your big day.

Cheers to you both!

Night Lights

2009-03-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I have been wanting to go out and shoot some night photography. Just for myself. Everyday I drive an overpass that overlooks the 580 Freeway, and everyday I tell myself that I will take some time in the evening to bring my camera out and photograph the headlights of the cars driving on the freeway. But when life seems to head from one day to the next so quickly, I find myself in the same place the very next day telling myself the same exact thing. Thanks to my beloved beau who encouraged me one night to go out and shoot the night lights I've been wanting to capture. We even made an evening of it. Bundled up in warm clothing, road soda ready and music stocked we drove to Grizzly Peak first. This seems to be a popular spot for the younger crowd for late nights, but since we arrived there early we had the perfect spot. No wonder the peak sees a lot of company at night. The view is absolutely breathtaking! After I took my shots, we headed ......well, home I guess. But we did make one last stop, to the overpass overlooking 580. This is no fantastic scene at night, and certainly not during the day, but nonetheless, I could capture the headlights of the cars passing under. Sounds boring huh? You'd be wrong. I got some great shots, that I am ready proud of.
See for yourself!

I love this shotHighway 580

The concrete that made it all happen

The Jopes Family

2009-03-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

In mid February I had the opportunity to photograph an old family friend that I have known for years. the Jopes family were a lot of fun to work with. They took me to this beautiful winery in the Livermore area. The weather was pretty crisp outside but nonetheless it was a clear sunny day. Photographing a newborn definetly has it's challenges but is no doubt a lot of fun.

I'd like to share some of my favorite images that I captured that day.

The Jopes Family (above)

momma & baby

'Eat Me'

2009-02-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

I am lucky to be surrounded by such amazing talented artists. They are truly an inspiration to me and keep me thriving to look deeper within myself to find my own creativity. My good friend has been creating her own art for many years. Her art is ever changing, ever evolving and just keeps getting better. She has taken her art (in my humble opinion) to the next level and has created something larger than life. (literally too!)
I was honored when she had asked me to take photographs of her newest series of paintings.
This new series is called 'Eat Me'. I find it to be quite fitting considering that they are all self portraits created with a pastry tip.

*All paintings are mixed media on canvas or wood panel*

If you would like more information on the artist, please drop me a line and I'll be more than happy to put you in touch with her.

The Mimosa (40" x 60")
The Super #5 (40" x 60")
The Thursday Night Special (30" x 60")
The Bi-Catch (36" x 72")
The Nightcap (48" x 48")
The #3 (36" x 36")

Kevin and Rania

2009-01-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

I guess the more appropriate title for this blog would be 'head over heals in love' because that's exactly what they are.
I first met up with Rania and Kevin at the restaurant that's in their fancy gym. They were chatting over a drink and when I arrived they offered me a beer (or two.) Don't worry guys; I do know how to take photos sober.
After chatting for a few minutes about what type of images they wanted, they brought me to Rania's childrens' school. Which looks like a college campus for little people. There were rocks, hills, streams, and trees, there was so many different beautiful backgrounds, it was almost overwhelming. Almost.
I guess I forgot to mention that school was not in session, so we were the big kids playing in the schoolyard now.
This was an especially nice day for me, because I am very close with the both of them and we all seemed to connect fairly easy, even with a lens between us.

I think this photo is my favorite of the bunch

Another Reason to Love Oakland

2009-01-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I was running the usual errands, but for some reason it did not seem like the usual day. More and more I have been falling further in love with my neighborhood. I love everything about it; the weather, the local shops, Lake Merritt , and most of all the everyday people. I decided that I would walk around parts of Lake Merritt and see what attracted my eye. These were some of the images I took.

I love this tree

A Tiny Little Fairy

2009-01-04T13:30:00.000-08:00

I took this photo of my niece on Christmas Day. Santa had dropped off a set of fairy wings and I can't help but to think she actually looks like one.

Santa (Little) Baby

2008-12-31T13:34:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post some photos of one of my favorite subject, Kaiya baby! Luckily I still made the 'nice list' this year; by a hair, but still. A few weeks back I met my best friend at her mothers house to take 'Baby's First Christmas' photos. Kaiya was wearing the sweetest dress you've ever seen, and I was told that my friends mother had made it, the entire amsamble. She looked like a little Christmas Angel that Santa had dropped off early. Good Santa.
My favorite part of the night was (naturally) sipping wine with my friend long after her daughter went to bed, and connecting through our conversations (and of course silliness and laughter).

*sigh* These are the days......

This is probably my favorite photo (above)

sleeping beauty

Jesse, Lisa and Monkey Holiday Photos

2008-12-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

Lisa and Jesse are Alameda residents and friends of mine who have also recently got engaged. They asked if I could take holiday photos of them this year with their newest addition, a four legged stubby Daschound, named Monkey. Don't let the photos fool you, this dog is full of energy and personality. It was a challenge trying to get him to sit still, but I think he actually did a great job. Jesse and Lisa seemed comfortable and natural in front of the camera, which made photographing them pleasurable.
When I first arrived to their house, Lisa practically had a glass of wine ready with my name written all over it. While the couple finished getting ready, we did what we love to do best, chat, have a drink and listen to music.
They took me to the marina which is about a 10 minute walk from their home. (of course we drove; it was freezing out!) It was a cool spot, because there was nobody out that day, and the scenery was really nice. (boats docked, the marina, and of course, Oakland skyline).
Anyway, it was an out of the ordinary Thursday afternoon for me, which always means a good time.

Spell Check

2008-12-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

A quick memo. I'm not the best speller, and often time do I fail to spell check.
I'll try to get better at that.
In the meantime, my apologies for any misspelled words.
So there.

My Sister

2008-12-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

My sister graced our family by visiting us for a week just this last Thanksgiving holiday 2008. Thanksgiving is really my mothers holiday, and the only holiday she really cares about, because she gets to do what she does best. Cook for the family. And the rest of the family gets to do what we do best. Eat.
My mother makes (and I'm not joking) at least a 10 course meal. At least.
She loves cooking, and Thanksgiving day is really her day to shine.
This next set of images were taken at my mothers house of my sister. We weren't taking anything too seriously, just messing around and having fun after dinner.

These are my favorites of the night, and I think my family would agree.

Office Hours Are Now Closed

2008-12-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favorite days of the end of the year, by far. My best friend, her daughter and husband came by my little apartment to visit me while they were in the area for a couple hours or so. On a Sunday. Thinking this is a long shot, I threw out the idea to have the new little family stay the night, (offering them my bedroom, while I would sleep on the couchbed.) I must have forgot who I was asking. Michelle is up for anything spontaneous. So the rest of the night was consumed with drinking wine and beer, and catching up. Kevin was a good sport that night, being a part of the night but leaving the girl talk to the girls.
The next morning, we woke up kind of late (it was already decided that they would head home early in the morning).
But I think we were all thinking the same thing.
'Work?' pssht!
We all had work to do yet all independent contractors.
So we made a grown up decision (like Michelle and I would do rather often 10 years ago), and skipped out on grown up responsibilities for the day.
Lucky for us, it was also one of the warmest days in November.
So, we grabbed breakfast and coffee, walked around Lake Merritt, then decided to grab lunch in San Francisco. Somewhere new, but first thing first - we had to get lost driving in San Francisco. It just wouldn't be the same otherwise.

We ate at this little hole in the wall Thai restaurant. I couldn't even tell you the name or where it was. Needless to say that hole in the walls are the best places to eat. We drank some beers, then headed to the beach near the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really fun, cause it was baby Kaiya's first time putting her feet in the sand. And since I'm totally head over heels in love with Kaiya, she was my focus for most of my photos that day.

This day was good for my soul.

Rosarito Cha Cha Cha

2008-12-12T13:25:00.000-08:00

I know my posts are not in chronological order, but who cares. I don't. Like I mentioned earlier, I will be putting up a bunch of my older favorite photographs to share with everyone, and whatever I feel like posting, is what you get.
So this next little bit is of my Rosarito road trip I took back in May 2008. I absolutely love love love road trips. I think the best part about it (beside traveling out of town) is being confined to a small space listening to music hours on end and the connection that happens between myself and my traveling partner. I have never driven across the U.S. border so the whole experience for me was pretty awesome. I don't want to bore you to tears, but I do want to share my experience with you, so I'll try to keep the story short. My partner and I stayed in this nice resort in Rosarito for over a week, but we tried to do 'non touristy' stuff. We opted for the $2 fish tacos (almost on a daily basis) from a tiny taco stand down the way rather than eating food we could get any day of the week from home. Oh wait. I guess one of my photos would give away that I'm not being completely honest. We did eat once with the tourists. And that was our last day there. Let's see, it was half a pound (maybe a pound?) of fresh lobster, rice, beans, chips & salsa, and a margarita for fifteen bucks a person. Probably the best fifteen dollars I have ever spent on a meal.
Rewinding back to midway through on our trip. I had really wanted to go grocery and supply shopping at a local store, and make a big donation to a local orphanage. So we did that. We loaded up on all kinds of staple foods, and daily necessities. I had talked to the people at the front desk of our resort asking if they knew of an orphanage nearby where we can drop off our donations and visit the kids. They had told me that they couldn't really give us directions, but that they can put me in touch with a woman who could help us. Laura was her name. And she is someone that I will never forget. She was an incredible American woman who had made Rosarito her home over 20 years ago, and she spoke of Rosarito with such pride. Incredible. She runs an AIDS hospice down there, and she knows all about the orphanages and is pretty involved with the very unfortunate parts of Rosarito. The Rosarito hills. Now living in the hills here in the U.S., is quite opposite of living in the hills in Rosarito. Anyway, keeping on topic. We met with Laura at the resort with our rental car loaded with tons of supplies ready to take to the orphanage. Laura had told us that they orphanage does not need any clothes cause they have warehouses full of clothes for the children, that over 50 churches donate to. What? 50 churches?
Until this day, I don't really know if this was Laura's intent, but the day took a turn and we never even made it to the orphanage. She had told us that she needs to make a quick stop to visit a family that goes to a hospital she volunteers at periodically. Okay, fine with us. We have nothing to do, and we are on her clock now. Didn't bother us in the least. She drove her car ahead of us, and warned us that we should not be driving the rental car where we were headed. She could not have been more right. This family lived deep in the hills, where there is no pavement, and actually really scary to drive in a ford focus. (Oh, did I mention that the car company had forbidden us to take the car across the border in the first place, so we gave them the silent finger, took the car anyway, and without insurance) I was sure about 3 times that we were going to go over the edge with this little plastic car. I had to trust that my partner knew what he was doing, and keep my mouth shut. Well we finally reached the home where this family lives. I'll try to paint the picture of what this place looked like:
The houses have to steal electricity, cause they cannot afford it. And often times the electric companies drive through cutting the cable to their electricity. So many of the families do not have electricity. There is no running water there either, so the only water that they bathe, wash, and drink is out of a big red barrel that they usually have outside of their homes collecting rain water. They have 1 church in the 'village' and the church will try to help the community with free medical services, and building some kind of basic structure for the lucky family of the year. So this family that we went to visit was a family of 7 (mom, pops, and 5 children) They live and sleep in 1 room, and when I say one room, I mean ONE room. That was probably the size of my living room, which I'm betting is smaller than your living room. They have a non working fridge, they don't have a shower, or even a bathroom, or yes, I almost forgot, a kitchen. When I heard that dad is out every night starting a fire to cook on and keep the family warm, and I saw how they slept, my.heart.sank. Ah, it's even putting alligator tears in my eyes thinking about it now. It wasn't like seeing the homeless in SF. This hit me in the center of my heart. This was the sweetest family I have ever seen. I looked over at my partner, and could tell he was immediately effected by all of this, as was I. I think without question, we knew that this family could use all the supplies we originally intended to go to the orphanage. 50 churches? OVER 50 churches?? something told me that the food and supplies would last a hell of a lot longer and would have actually made a difference for this family. We as we are grabbing all the supplies out of trunk of the car I lost it, I fell apart, and crumbled. I was tyring my hardest not to show that I felt 'sorry' for this family. I tried hiding behind the open trunk for a minute to collect myself. Just as I thought, 'okay, this is good, I'm okay' I saw momma bear start crying. So my strength didn't last that long. I am the type if I see ANYONE cry, I start crying myself. I think it's contagious and I'm easily susceptible to it. So we had this big crying circle going. (sounds funny now, huh? but it totally wasn't at the time)
It was the most humbling experience of my life. Of my life. I was effected. bigtime.
After spending some time with this family, Laura, my partner and I headed out, and Laura treated us for dinner at her favorite restaurant.
The next day she came to visit us, and gave us a behind the scenes tour of the resort we were staying at (she had worked there for several years) and she even pulled a few strings to offer us an amazing spa package for very little cost. I think we may have also made an impression on her, because even after that, the next day she called us and invited us to attend a formal dinner with the city of Rosarito (or something like that) but we did not accept her invitation because we only had little time left and we wanted to....oh, drink beer.
You are probably falling out of your chair right now, so I guess I'll share what was supposed to be the point of this blog in the first place; my photos.
I'm sorry if you feel like you are getting gyped with a terribly long story and not very many photos, but I'm sure you can deal.

First things first.

I think we grabbed some beer before we even checked in.
This was our sunset.

Since we've all seen beer and sunsets before, I want to post my favorite part of the trip.

This was taken right outside of Rosarito The villageThe big red tub near the front door is where they store their water.

If you look near the top right of the photo you will see the church

And our last meal of the trip, that I had mentioned earlier. Our big 'ol lobsters....

These little guys were damn tasty. I tried to pose them after I was done eating, but I wasn't patient enough to start clicking away when our meals came out fresh. This is probably why you are not seeing much else on the plate.

Lovely Baby Bump

2008-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick photograph of my best friend and her husband, together touching and connecting with their unborn daughter.
I love this image because I think it captures the love and connection between man, woman, and child.

Not to mention how beautiful she looks.

Anti-War Peace Rally in SF 2007

2008-12-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

See...I told you that I would bring back some old photographs. This next set of images are ones that I took at an anti-war peace rally last March 2007. It started from Embarcadero, and we walked down to Civic Center park where there was a huge festival going on afterwards, with food, speakers, performers, vendors, the whole nine!
That day was really cool for me. I got up fairly early and headed off to Bart with only my camera, and a few bucks. Since I was trekking it by myself, it was nice and easy to weave my way through the crowd. I have been to a couple anti war peace rallies, and this by far was the largest I have ever seen, it actually gave me goosebumps, and tears (of joy, of course!) seeing so many people come together, literally one-by-one to form a sea of people. I was climbing on top of trash cans, and steel frames outside of tall buildings ( I think used for earthquake retrofitting?) and I'm afraid of heights!! Then ended up with the crowd at Civic Center and I did some speaker listening, people watching, hot dog buying, and just hung out on the lawn for some alone time.
So! Getting to my photos, but finishing my story first: I uploaded hundreds of photos on an old laptop I was using last year, then I uploaded most of them to kodakgallery. Since then, the laptop failed me and died. completely. And back then I didn't back up my photos like I do now, so I pulled these off my site, hopefully the quality is okay. Since I'm missing a bunch of photographs, I am posting my favorites (that I have left) from this day. Looking at the images, it was awesome reminiscing about that day. There were so many bright colored homemade signs, and there were some genius creations, but I decided that it wasn't about the colors or even how 'bright' the day was. To me, it was more the reason we were all gathered together that day; the message we were trying to get across....to bring our troops home and end this war.
So I am posting all my photos in black and white. I thought it made a bolder statement.

except for this one. I like this one in color.

On a Side Note-Yerba Buena

2008-12-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

A quick side note. I had the pleasure of taking band photos for Pills and Jackets; a local San Francisco band- in February 2008 (which I may later post), at Yerba Buena, and it is a really really really great place for taking edgy photos. There are so many abandoned old military bases, and so much beat up 'stuff' that make for great backgrounds and props. Anywho, so my point is, not only can you get the picture perfect San Francisco view from across the bay, but if you wander around the island, and trespass through places where you're not allowed, you'll find some other really cool hidden spots.

San Francisco - Yerba Buena

2008-12-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

Because I have a bunch of older photos that I need to post, I really didn't know what to post first. So I am starting with a few images I took back in early 2007 at Yerba Buena island just off the Bay Bridge. I remember that day, because I got to leave work early (and I never did). I decided to run home and grab my camera and head out to the island to see what kind of shots I could capture. I wasn't the only photographer out that day. Yerba Buena is a great place to get some wonderful 'backdrop' photographs of San Francisco from across the Bay. It was really cold out that day, but of course, nonetheless, I waited for the sun to set to get some, well....sunset shots. I was pretty pleased with how a few of my photos turned out. So here they are....

This photo was kind of hard to take. My fingers were so cold I felt that I could hardly press the button down. Thank goodness it was on a tripod, cause I don't think I could have held the camera.

I know that the last particular photo is not very 'strong' or may even be called a crappy photo, but something about this one I really like. In fact I have it matted in a cool frame in my bedroom. In case it's not evident, it's the top of sailboats that is shown in the photo above.

The Birth of my Photo Blog

2008-12-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

This is my first photo blog entry and I've got a lot of (older) photos that I would like to share with everyone, so until I am posting up-to-date images, there will be an assortment of random photos that I have taken throughout the past year or so. I will try to write a comments or short stories that match the photos.
This photo blog is long overdue, but I had to start somewhere, so please, bare with me.