Bubble Gum Portraits

           


Bubble Gum Portraits
On Location Photography By Elizabeth Donham
By Appointment Only
Elizabeth Donham (916) 716-5665
Elizabeth@BubbleGumPortraits.com





Bubble Gum Portraits by PhotographerLink Elizabeth Donham is a professional photographer serving the greater Sacramento area. That means Sacramento, Roseville, Fair Oaks, Elk Grove, Folsom, El Dorado Hills, and not Boston, New York or Philadelphia but she will travel to both Los Angeles and Chicago for commissioned works. . Elizabeth loves photographing newborns, babies, children, kids, families, tweens, teens, senior portraits on location and the occasional wild turkey on public lands. She was once told that adding keywords on the main page of her Bubble Gum Portraits website (specializing in newborn, babys, kidz, childern, and families) would help her google rankings. She was also told that adding words on the main part of the Bubble Gum Portraits website (specializing in little kids, babies, enfants, infants, seniers) would not help her all. Stuck at quite a contradiction, she resorted to referring to herself in the third person, spelling and misspelling words randomly, in some flailing attempt to manipulate misunderstood, unseen forces that literally held the balance of her professional career in their invisible hands. Some days, when Elizabeth Donham, professional photographer of Bubble Gum Portraits is not photographing newborns, babies, maternity, pregnant, kids, children or the like she sits around trying to come up with clever ways to say the same thing over and over again, close to_______times. (I, er, Elizabeth Donham of Bubble Gum Portraits would be happy to tell you how many times but it turns out given that we really don’t know what we are doing with keywords at Bubble Gum Portraits I have no idea what number to fill in the blank with.) Elizabeth Donham of Bubble Gum Portraits loves peas, portrait photography, portrait photographer, portrait photographers, short walks on warm beaches, Sacramento area photographers, Sacramento area photography, portrait photographer, portrait photographers, and photography. If wish to schedule a session with Elizabeth Donham of Bubble Gum Portraits, please call 916-716-5665 or email at elizabeth@bubblegumportraits.com

My name is Elizabeth. I am photographer. I used to hate it. Now I love it. Hope to meet you soon!

I am never quite sure why there is an “about me” section on business web sites. If you are here it is because you are interested in portrait photography. Maybe you are an expectant mother or you already have 4 kids pulling you from high chair to high school football games or maybe you’re also a photographer looking for what else is happening in the industry or maybe you have WAY too much time on your hands and you are randomly surfing the net. Whoever you are, however you got here you are welcome. I am here because I am interested in photography too.

I love reading other people’s ‘about me’ section. In this day and age of reality TV we all seem to feel like we need to know more-more-more. While I love to know more - the sharing part is less familiar to me. And I have to admit - without attempting to sound paranoid - I am not so sure how much sharing is good on the internet. When it comes to my photography - ask me anything and I’ll tell you. But if it is about my kids I get a bit funny. I am so proud of them - they are such a big part of my life (the very center in fact) - but they are living their own life and they deserve to tell their own story. You’ll see in my blog I do mention them and even occasionally post pics of them (they are so cute!) but I’ll refer to them with little pet names. My 13 year old daughter is ‘Big Girl’ and my 10 year old son is ‘Little Man’. I’ll hit highlights about them from time to time but unless they ask me to share something about them I’ll keep that to a minimum. Likewise with my clients’ and their children I keep details to a minimum. They aren’t in the witness relocation program but I do adore referring to them with nicknames and initials. My goal as both a mother and a business owner is to be fun and responsible. If I have mentioned an individual by name it is because they (or their parent!) is okay with it. Likewise with images. If they are pictures you’d let your 3 year old and your Grandmother alike look at over brunch I post them as I wish. If they are ones you might not want your family or neighbor or client to see, then I always ask first.

I guess here is a good place to mention that I am very open minded and my portfolio represents that. (Consider this your first heads up that I love all loving families.) My beliefs include that every child is a gift and should be celebrated. The family we are born into was meant for us, as is the family who chooses us. For most of us that is the same family, however, our paths to our families are varied. Whether my little clients come to me from natural conception, in-vitro fertilization, adoption, foster care, Mom and Dad, Mom and Mom, Dad and Dad......it is all the same difference to me. We each walk a path of adventure and discovery in this lifetime and some of us have very exciting, rich stories with lots of twists and turns. I believe each winding turn leads us along our journeys, with no step mistaken, and that it is a blessing when our paths cross.

My personal path is not so colorful. Fred, my husband and business partner, and I met when we were both 16 and attending a local high school. Marrying your high school sweet heart is not something I would particularly suggest for most people, but it has worked out very well for us. We have been together almost 20 years and married nearly 14 and we still LIKE each other. If you are questioning why I would type like and not love each other, my best guess is you simply met your life partner within the last 3-4 years! It turns out I suspect that many long term relationships could be saved if couples understood that liking and loving are two very different things and for most of us it is easier to love your partner! Fred and I have decided to also be ‘in like’ with each other and as result we laugh a lot.

Another result of this like thing is the desire to be together. I am not one of those adorable photographers who will put up a nice bio abut how they have loved photography since they were 4 years old and Santa brought them their first Kodak. Photography got me only because Fred already had me. He studied photography as part of his degree in marketing. Turns out he really likes photography. He specializes in architectural and product photography but back in college he would photograph EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Nothing was off limits. I would think we were heading to the coast to spend a few glorious hours in my favorite place in the universe and instead I would be ‘almost there’ but the ‘lighting is perfect to photograph this run down barn/flower/bird/piece of litter/roadkill”. If I heard another utterance of f stop, shutter speed, iso setting or depth of field discussion I was fairly certain I would black out back to junior high math classes........It drove me NUTS!!!!

To be fair, my issues with photography go way back to my childhood. Family portraits are not fun when divorce divides the family into ‘before and after’. After a few divorces and marriages made many orphans of my holiday and vacation snap shots I was pretty certain I could live with never seeing another family picture again. Later, as a Senior in high school when I was editor and chief of our small campus newspaper, our facilitator suggested I go over to the ROP Photography instructor for a quick tutorial on my camera. It was, admittedly, a very cheapy film camera with a cheapy plastic body and no bells and whistles. This point was underscored to me by the instructor who exclaimed, “Did you get this out of a Cracker Jack box?!?! You expect to take pictures with this thing!?!!?” He had no idea that “thing” was the best I could do. Needless to say I was pretty humiliated and not terribly motivated to put my neck out again anytime soon. I am ashamed to say I left his room in tears and figured his reaction justified that my life didn’t need photography. The ashamed part is not so much the tears (not a very proactive reaction, eh?!) but the fact that one person’s ill-informed perspective would define me. He had no idea at all my hate/hate relationship with my orphaned photos or that my Mom (again newly single) had done the very best she could provide me with a camera for this class.

Fast forward a few years and now I am ‘almost’ to the beach and listening to a man I love drone on and on about photo geek topics. I was at a crossroads. I was very certain we would be in love forever and ever and ever (and a day, of course!) and the idea that photography had become the third wheel to our relationship was a bit overwhelming to me. It was time to get serious and learn to photograph - I mean, how hard can it really be?!. Within a few months, I can tell you I was NOT in love with photography. Have you ever taken your camera out of program mode? You know where something really smart and clever and small and fast inside the camera tells it what to do as if by magic and all you have to do is push “the button”? Have you ever taken it out of program mode - put it into manual mode and then asked your camera, nicely, to do something? As it happens, cameras really don’t need to be spoke to at all, especially nicely. Husbands do.

Me yelling in frustration at my husband that when I was at f/5.6 and 1/125 of a second my exposure should be perfect (stomp food here) and it’s not (whine here) didn’t win me any brownie points. Okay, so being the lone, long-suffering spouse was not a role I wanted but neither was tired, bitchy hag wife. What to do......what to do......Turns out that like much of life, photography is simply about doing and doing and doing and doing. For the most part I tried to speak nicely to my husband when he was teaching me. Like when my exposures were wildly off because I liked to think about shutter speed, aperture and iso but never all three at the same time. In fact I am pretty certain that Fred would occasionally play games with me and mess with my settings when I wasn’t looking. Almost plausible but not quite given he is always quite engrossed in his own images unless I pester him for help. So, this diatribe begs the question - why not just leave the darn camera in program mode?

Because YOU deserve better - I deserve better! What is the point hiring an artist with just two colors and one brush? I want to be the artist with the full bag of tricks. I want to understand all sorts of different lights, lighting conditions, and various impacts on my art because then I can make them work to my advantage. I knew I had slipped over to the dark side (or shadows vs. highlights in photograph speak!) when Fred and I honestly had our first heated tif over ideal light temperature setting for a particular indoor session I was doing with mostly available light! When was the last time you debated the merits of 5250k vs. 5800k with your spouse? I rest my case.

The friendly competition between Fred and I is very much alive today. We are dedicated Canon users. We each carry the 5d Mark ii but I have to admit I have been eyeing other bodies. Camera bodies that is. I may be loyal forever and ever and ever (and a day, of course!) to Fred but when to comes to equipment it is easy come, easy go. I love my L series lenses (the f/4.0 28mm-105mm and the f/2.8 70mm-200mm being my two most favs) and my 580 EX flash (from time to time) and right now I am wondering if I have outgrown the (admittedly full screen sensored) Mark ii. The focusing points on the new 7d are pretty hot. Never mind the concerns about megapixel alone being the make or break point with cameras. So what if I switch it up and lose a few mp’s? It is not only about the size of the file but what you do with it!

I have strong opinions about things (or so I have been told.) My favorites to photograph are other peoples newborn babies. The rest of the family and stages hold a close second. My own family a solid last place. (My kids are not fun to photograph anymore. I think I broke them early on from too many lenses in their personal body space. The telephoto lenses wigged them out - they kept yelling “Go away paparazzi!”. I love them but I really need YOUR babes and kids now...sorry if that comes across too desperate.) I have never photographed road kill. I love peas. I don’t photograph rainbows or lighting so please don’t attempt to make small talk with me about this the day after a big storm. Yes, your baby is the cutest ever. (Somehow I can sleep at night saying this again and again. I will post pictures of an ugly baby the second I find one - I swear!) No, I don’t want to expand my portfolio by photographing your sister’s wedding for free. Yes, I would love to show you a few settings on your own camera. No, I was not aware there was another computer besides the Mac, very interesting though. No, yelling at your seven year old to “Sit DOWN and say CHEESE or I will cancel your birthday party” does NOT count as being helpful to me during a session. Yes, most babies will cry during our session just so I can add their photo to my Crybabies section. No, I never require bare bottomed babies to pee/poo during a session. No, I don’t hope for it. Yes, it happens, a lot. Yes, I really am okay with it. No, I don’t own stock in Lysol but I have considered it on a number of occasions. If I won the lottery I would still photograph families and probably pay for the college education of each newborn I had photographed. (Call 916-716-5665 now to schedule that appointment for your 5-11 day old today - You could have one stop shopping for birth announcement photos and college education!) Any other questions for me? I’d love to hear from you.

PS - Sometimes I have a hard time clearly speaking my mind. In case the last few (11) paragraphs really confused you; My name is Elizabeth. I am photographer. I used to hate it. Now I love it. Hope to meet you soon!