Capturing the Colorful

04-16-2014

Where We Live – Newport, Rhode Island Photographer

**No, these are not Newport, Rhode Island photos! Just setting myself up for Google to establish myself there ahead of time.**

I have joined in with some other talented ladies from Clickin’ Moms to showcase the different places that we live. I wanted to join in especially this year because I’ll be living in 2 completely different places and love to see the juxtaposition of it all.

After living in the same state for 22 years I have since been fortunate enough to live in such a variety of places that have so much to offer. I’ve been on both US coasts and now the beautiful island of Okinawa in Japan. I try to never take this for granted and even in those areas that I don’t particularly fully embrace I thank God for being able to have these opportunities. In these last 9 weeks here in Okinawa I find myself getting sentimental about leaving here. I’ve only been here 2 years and feel like there is much more to see so I’m cramming in as much as humanly possible!

There is one lighthouse on Okinawa and the area around it is absolutely breathtaking. The turquoise waters, humongous rock formations and expanse of the sea just draws you in. I could have stood up there forever – so peaceful.

Newport, Rhode Island Photographer on location

I also knew I HAD to venture up to Manzamo Point before I left too because I’ve seen so many beautiful images of this place. And it is even more beautiful in person as it is in the photos. Beautiful water and the amazing elephant trunk of rock. This one wasn’t quite as peaceful with the 100 other tourists there, but still amazing.

I had a photo shoot scheduled for Fukushen Gardens in Naha and it’s a place I wanted to visit for some time anyway. I love that in the middle of a city there is park that just completely drowns out any city noise and is simply beautiful. So many great structures surrounded by waterfall and beautiful greenery.

I can’t wait to explore even more for the next 2 months before we leave this amazing place!

Next go visit where Ashley Callen lives and her beautiful photos!

by Christa

show hide 17 comments

add a comment

Stacey Carpenter - These are lovely!

Asheley - Another place to add to my travel wish list. The ocean views are stunning! Can’t wait to see shares from the next 2 months.

Paige Wilks - These are amazing! That coastline is just breathtaking. I’m glad you started this project before you left Japan! How fun we get to see you in two places

Rebeccah - These make me wish I didn’t live in a landlocked state! So lovely!

Sheila - Love these images of Japan! You did a wonderful job making it seem like you were all alone — where were those 100 tourists??? Can’t wait to see your Newport pictures…it will be a trip down memory lane for me You will love it there!

Melinda Meredith - What an extraordinary opportunity to get to live in Japan. I would be trying to soak it all in as well. Your images are beautiful and give such a sense of peace & tranquility.

jeanine - Gorgeous images! Good luck with your move!!

Christa - Haha! I may or may not have butted my way to the front of the fence!

Christa - Thank you – me too! So many more things I want to photograph in the next 9 weeks – ack!

Dagmara - What a great idea, to take a break from our every day routine and just look around? Must remember to do it more often! Beautiful photos

Faye - Wow! Beautiful images of a beautiful place to live.

Jayne - What an amazing place Christa and yes, you have had an incredible opportunity to have lived here for 2 years!

I love the ocean and buildings of significance – you are a girl after my own heart! I have enjoyed your images very much!

Jen Reynolds - It must have been an amazing experience to live in Japan. That coastline is beautiful & and the architecture is just elegant. Great images- I look forward to next month.

Samantha - Love that third image!! Breathtaking! How amazing to see all of these other countries in this circle – I was sure it would be all North America. I’ve never been outside of our continent, so I am loving all of these overseas images.

selena - Beautiful shots, I would love to visit there some day!

Jessica Lysse Photography - These are wonderful shots! Hopefully I’ll be able to visit one day. It’s great that you have these captured so beautifully so you can go back and visit in your head all the time!

Brittany - Wow! What stunning locations… I just love the third image of the cliffs. I have never seen anything like that in person and you just added it to my list! Beautiful job documenting these lovely areas that you have called home.

04-14-2014

The Jake Ryan Moment – Newport, Rhode Island Family Photographer

You might recognize the dad and daughter from this photo shoot. They made a very special appearance back in February for an awesome themed photo shoot. I felt so honored that Annette not only loved those photos, but also immediately booked me for a tenth anniversary shoot for she and her husband. We coordinated calendars and as luck had it, we were both available on their actual anniversary. We set out for Fukushen Gardens in Naha on a beautiful Saturday morning to capture this special day.

I’m so glad that Annette not only has confidence in me, but that we’ve become friends as well. She has amazing ideas for photo shoots and quite honestly if I were staying in Okinawa then I have a feeling we would be collaborating on many more shoots. I’d love to hire her for her concepts alone! No idea seems to be too big for either of us and lucky for us we both have husbands that reel us in from these ideas!

Annette also wanted to make sure that her kids were in some of the photos as well since, afterall, they were a big part of those 10 years of marriage! They are such a beautiful and great family and as usual, we HAD to get a silly photo in the mix too – it’s not a Paustenbaugh photo shoot without one!

As a child of the 80′s didn’t we all dream of that Sixteen Candles Jake Ryan moment?!! I asked them to do this pose for me and Annette reminded me it was very Jake Ryan/Sam Baker and I have to say it’s pretty perfect!

Thank you so much again Annette and Jason and here’s to many, many more years and many Sixteen Candles moments ahead!

by Christa

show hide 5 comments

add a comment

lisa lacroix - What a neat idea. Your photographed it wonderfully!!

kimberly - Gorgeous images! I love the location.

Sara - I love the piggy back shot! Beautiful!

Emily Supiot - Great pictures! What a fun location!

judy - What a great occasion for photos! love the beautiful couple in the curvy doorway. Awesome location!

04-07-2014

Two Times the Beauty – Newport, Rhode Island Senior Photographer

Living on a very small island combined with a very small housing area on base means that access to high school juniors/seniors is very, very limited. I asked my friend Shelly if her daughter, now a junior, would be willing to be my guinea pig as a soiree into senior photography and lucky for me she said she was willing to do that for me. I’ve only met Hallee a couple of times so believe me I was nervous and hoping she didn’t think I was a total old lady idiot! We met in the Gate 2 Street area where there are lots of colorful doors and alleyways for a back drop for photos.

Because I’ve only met her a couple of times I didn’t notice until we sat down at our first location that she has the most amazing eyes! They are such a gorgeous combination of blue and green and just pop with her dark hair. She may have found me a little stalkerish because quite frankly I haven’t shut up about them since February! Haha!

Lucky for me Hallee and Shelly both liked the first set of photos and booked me for an additional session. This time we headed to the beach with a quick stop first at American Village. American Village alone has some great backdrops for photos.

Araha Beach has some amazing rock formations in the water and it’s just gorgeous there during golden hour. I have some work to do on silhouette photos, but still love how they turned out for her.

I so enjoyed hanging out with Hallee not once, but twice for photos. She such a gracious young lady, asking me about my business, Okinawa, etc. and answering all my silly questions too! Thank you so much Hallee and Shelly for being willing to not only be my guinea pig, but also trusting me to be her senior photographer and do another shoot too!

by Christa

show hide 8 comments

add a comment

kimberly - What a sweet location. Gorgeous photos of a beautiful young woman!

Allyson Hamilton - Beautiful senior photos! What a fun location too!

lorena - Love the location! Great shots.

Dannielle - She is beautiful! What a great variety of locations! Great job!

Karthika - Lovely senior portraits! – great job on these.

Angela Ramsey - I love that location and her eyes are beautiful. Great work!

Paige Wilks - What a beautiful girl! I love the silhouette shot!

Amy - These are lovely Christa! I love how you incorporated the environmental elements to add a punch of color.

03-31-2014

Kids Were Here – The Tween Edition

I missed out on last month’s blog circle because let’s just say I was a little crazy town with sessions and life, but I’m happy to be back this month and joining in with these talented ladies!

This month is brought to you by the letter T. We are in full on tweendom in this house with the roller coaster that comes with it. It is mostly ups, but there are the occasional downs as well. Like the heavy sigh, the eye roll and the “I KNOOOOW”. It has been amazing to see the grown up girl on the verge of little lady that she is becoming just in this school year alone. It actually makes me teary watching her grow so quickly. That baby that was so tiny and fit on my forearm at birth is now nearly wearing my shoe size (1/2 size away) and nearly as tall as I am. She is also wearing enough clothes in a week to clothe a small village.

Can you tell which side belongs to the 11 year old and which one belongs to the 9 year old?!

The bathroom has also taken a tween renovation as well. Let’s just hope that in the next house there is a scoatch larger bathroom to house all the paraphernalia that comes with this territory!

Now head on over to Anna’s blog to see what she has documented this month!

by Christa

show hide 6 comments

add a comment

Emily Supiot - These are great. Time goes fast. My girls are only 2 & 3 now. I can’t imagine the tween years:)

kimberly - Love these details you captured. They tell a great story!

Brenda - Enjoy the tween years, my youngest is now 13 and we are in full on teen mode which is not for the faint of heart! lol The clothes pile unfortunately will get larger and so will the eye rolling.

Shelby Oliver - Such a fun age! My daughter is 2 and I always wonder what she will be like when she is 11.

Christa - Oh boy! Sounds like I might want to go ahead and stock up on wine, no?! There’s a nine year old right behind her too!

Candy Hoehn - Too cute! These are the moments we will all forget and what better way to remember the chaos?

03-27-2014

A REAL Prince Charming – Newport, Rhode Island Family Photographer

When Annette contacted me earlier this year I thought I had died and gone to heaven! She sent me an email inquiring about doing a themed photo shoot with just her daughter and husband featuring a Snow White and Prince Charming idea. Seriously? She had me at themed shoot! I love something a little out of the ordinary and as we spoke on the phone we both got more and more excited about it. Our only issue was the VERY brief time frame that we had between when her husband was coming home and leaving again and crossing our fingers that the weather cooperated with us.

We were so incredibly fortunate that the weather was just beautiful the morning of the shoot. We ventured on the shoot in the beautiful Southeast Botanical Gardens where Annette knew there was still a carriage set up from the holiday light set up. The day could not have gone any better for us. PS – let’s hope they have some beautiful areas like this in Rhode Island!

I definitely wanted to include some details to fully embrace our theme. My neighbor had a perfect basket and the commissary (military grocery) happened to have some amazing apples that week as well. If you have been to an overseas military grocery then you know what an unnatural phenomenan this actually is! And Annette was a genius and was able to grab some gnomes/dwarfs from our 100 Yen store before the shoot as well.

I have to stop here and say what an absolute gem and trooper Annette’s husband was during this entire shoot. He arrived back on island the previous evening at midnight and got up early the next morning to do a shoot for his wife and daughter. He also put on his dress blues, which is amazing to me considering most Marines reserve this STRICTLY for November and USMC ball time. During this entire shoot with 3 females telling him where he should stand, sit, hold, etc. he did not complain one single time. Seriously, not a sigh, huff or squirming. Now THAT is an awesome dad and husband and a real Prince Charming!

Thank you so, so much Annette and Jason! This shoot was phenomenal and will always be one of my favorites!

by Christa

show hide 4 comments

add a comment

Kassie O'Driscoll - I love this shoot, but I am sad that you’ve already changed your location to Newport! I can’t wait to see what you do with your new surroundings, but I’m going to be very sad to see you go! <3

Allyson Hamilton - What a wonderful idea…these will always be special to be Daddy and Daughter <3

Christa - Makes me sad too It’s only for Google purposes though-oy the tears are going to be free flowing!

Paige Wilks - Such a beautiful set. What a wonderful memory of father + daughter <3