Happy Thursday Blog | Loving Care Photography

Instagram #FebPhotoADay

2012-03-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

I have mentioned before how much I love Instagram on my iPhone. I think it is a fun app and a great way to take pictures when you don't have a camera on you. During the month of January I kept seeing people post photos with the hash-tag #janphotoaday. I was curious and did some internet searching and found the #febphotoaday list created by @fatmumslim (I placed it on the bottom right), so I decided to follow along with the theme of the day. Each of the photos below was taken on a separate day in the month of February. You can view my Instagram feed online here, but if you have an iPhone and you want to follow along live my username is @picatoria.

Overgrown Road

2012-02-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday

2012-02-16T20:32:00.001-05:00

I hope you had a beautiful Valentine's Day! Here are some belated flowers for you:

My Camera Bag

2012-02-09T22:35:00.002-05:00

I was looking for an attractive camera bag for about a year. I needed to carry my camera body, an extra lens, and all my other stuff such as a wallet and cell phone. I finally came across Jo Totes and the Betsy bag in particular that looked really good. It was affordable, roomy, and it looked like a purse! I was sold. It's a really awesome bag and I am really happy with my purchase. I love the front pockets and the back zip pocket that fits my iPad! If you want to talk about my search in more detail, just head on over to like my facebook page and let's chat!

Puerto Rico: El Yunque Rainforest

2012-02-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

Puerto Rico: Fort San Cristobal

2012-01-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

Puerto Rico: Old San Juan

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

Naples Botanical Garden

2012-01-12T20:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday! I went to the Naples Botanical Garden at the end of last year with my sister. It was a hot day, but it was the first time I've been there since they revamped it. I loved it! It is just gorgeous now, check it out. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Naples! I would love to do a formal shoot here, there are so many great backgrounds. All shot on Kodak Portra 400 with my Nikon F100 and developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.

St. Louis On Film

2012-01-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! Here are my personal photos from St. Louis on Kodak Portra 400 developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab. Note: I was not the photographer for the wedding; the bride was one of my college roommates and these are just my snapshots.

Graduation Day

2011-12-29T09:41:00.000-05:00

Earlier this month my younger sister graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida with her Bachelor's degree in Marine Science. She wants to work with sharks! I am so proud of her and all of her hard work. Here are some photos of my gorgeous family! Congratulations Jacquelyn!

Holiday Wishes!

2011-12-22T13:11:00.000-05:00

Hello! I have a little announcement and this little snapshot below says it all:

!!!!!

My soul mate asked me to marry him (almost) two weeks ago and I have been on Cloud 9 ever since! We are so excited and it has just made this time of year so much more amazing!

I also want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a joyful holiday weekend with your loved ones!

Happy Thursday: Sunset Walk

2011-12-01T08:42:00.000-05:00

Sometimes all you need is a walk to the beach to watch the sunset...

P.S. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! It's now December, yay!

Tokyo Day 7: Sayonara!

2011-11-17T10:53:00.000-05:00

Overall my trip to Tokyo was exciting, overwhelming, and fun. It was a great experience for me to explore such a foreign city as well as bond with my father. I loved it! Here is a little slideshow of all of my photos from my trip. I have also set up a shop to order prints. Thank you for the great feedback from these posts!

My Tokyo Trip from Victoria on Vimeo.
Song: "Die On The Floor" - Franz Ferdinand

I never would have made this if I hadn't seen "This Is Japan!" by Eric Testroete. http://www.vimeo.com/2721992

My photos can be seen here in this Flickr album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/picatoria/sets/72157614424786240/

Tokyo Day 6: Shiodome, Roppongi Hills, Odaiba

2011-11-10T16:09:00.000-05:00

On our final day in Tokyo, we went to the Tokyo Tower. It is really bright orange! We didn't go up it, but I ate a banana and chocolate crepe underneath. We walked around this area and then headed to Roppongi Hills, a mall in Roppongi. While there, we had a curry udon for lunch from Sugamo Kunaya. Curry is one of my favorite foods and this did not disappoint! Afterwards we went to Akihabara to find some neat little electronic. My dad bought my mom a skinny AM/FM radio. We then made our way to Shimbashi and took the Tokyo Monorail across Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba. We walked around, watched the sun set and went back to our hotel to change for our fancy dinner! My dad and I then went to Tofuya Ukai underneath the Tokyo Tower for a traditional Japanese dinner with many many courses. My favorites were the deep fried tofu with sweet miso sauce, charcoal-grilled wagu beef, and the steamed soft abalone. Since it was traditional, the servers wore kimonos and serving was part of the dinner and it was a true art form. We also had to take our shoes off for the tatami mats and to go to the bathroom, they loan you a pair of traditional wooden sandals. They were the hardest to walk in and I kept losing them; it must have been a hilarious sight! A really fun experience!

Adios!

2011-11-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

I will be out of town from today until November 9th. I will be responding to any phone calls or emails starting on Thursday November 10th.

This time I am going to Puerto Rico on a family trip! I have never been before and I'm so excited. I've heard great things about it and I can't wait to take photos of Old San Juan. We are also planning on exploring the rainforest and kayaking on a bioluminescent bay! I can't wait to tell you all about it. Please let me know if you are going anywhere this holiday season!

Tokyo Day 5: Marunouchi, Shibuya, Harajuku

2011-11-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

Our fifth day in Tokyo was cold and windy! After watching the sun rise, we started out visiting the Imperial Palace in Marunouchi. Afterwards we went back to Shibuya and crossed Hachiko Crossing a bunch of times. It is just so impressive and intimidating and amazing! We then walked down to Omote-sando and had brunch at Fujimama's. The food was fantastic: coconut french toast with banana-almond butter with an apple spiced with cinnamon lemonade. We then went to check out the Japanese cosplayers in Harajuku. It was really cold, but there were still some people out there. Around the corner from there was Meiji Shrine. Massive wooden torii gate leads down a long path. While at the Shrine we saw a traditional Shinto wedding procession taking place and we learned that the 3 torii gates reduce the shock of going from the physical side to the divine side. We observed how prayers are done: 1) throw coins into slots, 2) bow twice, 3) clap twice, and 4) pray then bow once. Afterwards we went in a couple stores to check it out. Kiddyland was the best - I loved it there! It is definitely something important to see! Since it was really cold, we decided to go back to the hotel and have an early dinner at a place called Local India to get our fill of tasty naan bread. All-in-all, a nice casual day.

I'm in these next two below:

Tokyo Day 4: Shinjuku and Ginza

2011-10-27T09:30:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately my camera was out of service for the morning of the fourth day since I had dropped it on the floor at the restaurant the night before. I was lucky that the only thing that was broken was the battery pack holder AND Nikon is from Japan! We travelled all over Tokyo by train on this day. So, we got up early and headed out to Akihabara, aka Electric Town, to look for a replacement part. We were sent to the Nikon service center in Ginza...which ended up being closed for the whole weekend! There was only one other Nikon shop in Tokyo -> in Shinjuku. But before leaving Ginza we headed to Bic Camera, to see if they had the part. They did not, but a man who spoke perfect English called the Shinjuku store for us and put the part on hold for us. We were blessed with incredibly nice, helpful, and English-speaking people on this day. Short story long, we finally bought the $6 part in the Nikon Service Center in Shinjuku. The views from the building were amazing! We decided to explore Shinjuku which was so colorful and fun. We also visited another shrine: Hanazono Shrine. As we strolled the streets I was on the lookout for used camera stores, but didn't find anything that struck my fancy. Afterwards we headed back to Ginza and explored the stores and architecture, including the Sony Building and Mikimoto. The only thing I bought was a cake from Baum Kuchen. After heading back to our hotel, we had dinner around the corner at an ethnic restaurant called Mangrove Cafe, which was very yummy.

Join Me!

2011-10-25T09:14:00.000-04:00

I don't know how many of you iPhone users use the app Instagram, but I love it! It is one of my favorites. Basically, it is a free app that allows you to apply fun filters and then share your photos with:
a) your twitter feed,
b) your facebook friends,
c) email,
d) the instagram community, and
e) others.

Here is a user-created web viewer to view my instagrams: My name is @picatoria!

I heard about the Worldwide InstaMeet and thought it would be fun to meet more Instagrammers here in Naples. Other cities have had a few meetups and it always looks like a lot of fun. Read about past Worldwide meetups here.

So if you use the app, or would like to meet up, I will be at the Pier tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM for a little walk about. Let me know if you'd like to join! Click here to download the app to check it out!

St. Louis by iPhone!

2011-10-13T21:23:00.001-04:00

I had a great time in St. Louis even for such a short time! I saw some great old friends and attended a beautiful wedding. Unfortunately, we were so busy catching up that I didn't take very many pictures at all. However it is good to really enjoy yourself sometimes. Here are the few iPhone pictures I took:

Out of Town

2011-10-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

Hello! I will be away from Naples over the weekend. I will be unable to answer any questions or comments, but will be back in touch as soon as I get back!

I am going to St. Louis for one of my freshman year roommate's wedding. I'm so excited! I have decided to only take my film camera and iPhone. I haven't just done film since 2002. It will be a great time and I'm sure I'll have a post about it later. Have a great weekend!

Tokyo Day 3: Asakusa, Ueno

2011-10-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

The third day I woke up just before the sun. I watched it rise from our hotel room and it was truly one of the highlights of my trip. Amazing! When he started out, after struggling to buy an all-day pass with everything in Japanese, we took the JR Yamanote line from Ebisu to Shibuya and then we hopped onto a Tokyo Metro Ginza line to Asakusa. What we did not think about was that it was rush hour. The Ginza line was absolutely packed! Everyone was squeezed in and the whole train moved collectively around bends, etc. I could not wait to get off! Today was another very busy day where we saw a lot of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. In Asakusa we saw the Senso-ji Temple, Asakusa Shrine, and the Edo-Tokyo Museum. We then took the Sobu line from Ryogoku to Akihabara and the JR line from Akihabara to Ueno. We went to lunch and pointed to the picture we wanted to eat since nobody spoke English. Once in Ueno park we saw the Kiyomizu Kannondo Temple, the Gojo Shrine with lots of torii gates, the Bentendo Temple in the middle of the reed-infested pond, went in the Shitamachi Museum (fun), loved the Toshogu Shrine because it was very old, and ended our day at the Tokyo National Museum to learn some history of Japan. So much walking! We ended our day with dinner in Gonpachi in Roppongi, which was delicious, although I unfortunately dropped my camera on the floor and the flap holding the battery pack came off! More to come on that in the next post...

Tokyo Day 2: Tsukiji, Ebisu, Shibuya, Harajuku, Aoyama

2011-09-29T08:04:00.000-04:00

Our second day in Tokyo was packed full of walking and interesting sights. We woke up at 5:00am, before the sun and headed out to the Tsukiji Fish Market. It is an absolutely amazing sight and is a must for every traveller to Tokyo! One of my friends from college happens to live outside of Tokyo, so we planned to meet up. He took us around the Shibuya/Harajuku/Aoyama area. Plus we got to go to a place for lunch entirely in Japanese which was good. There was a ton of visual stimuli all day and everything felt picture-worthy.

Tokyo February 2009: Day 1

2011-09-22T11:32:00.000-04:00

Back in February of 2009, I took an amazing trip to Tokyo, Japan with my Dad! We had never taken a trip with just the two of us before, but it was a great bonding experience. Plus I got to take so many pictures, but I never had much of chance to share my experiences. I hope you will enjoy a few weeks worth of posts about my short trip.

Day 1 consisted of a very long flight from Dallas-Ft. Worth to Narita, followed by the Narita Express to Shinjuku. Then we changed to the JR Yamanote line to Ebisu, where our hotel was located: The Westin Tokyo. A very nice hotel that I would love to stay in again! By the time we got there it was already dinner time and we were exhausted. We went over to Roppongi in a taxi to a restaurant called Robataya Roppongi. The food was excellent and everything was cooked really well. I tried hot sake for the first time. I loved all the little details here: picking out my own sake mug, a little ceramic tray for another customer's reading glasses, and everyone in the restaurant yelling something out whenever you order. The scallops and enoki mushrooms were my favorite. After dinner we did a bit of walking around, but went back to the hotel and went to bed because we were exhausted.

Holiday Card Session!

2011-09-21T23:22:00.001-04:00

I am so happy to announce that from now until November 6th, I will be offering a special family session including one pack of 25 holiday cards!

The session includes:
- approximately 45 minutes of shooting
-at the location of your choice
-up to 6 people (including pets)
-an online gallery of 30 images
-a custom-designed package of 25 holiday cards with your favorite image.

Additional prints and cards can be added at additional costs. The package is also being offered at a reduced price of $150! Simply send me an email to set up your session. I look forward to hearing from you! :)

Love,
Victoria
Loving Care Photography

victoria@lovingcarephotography.com

I love Polaroids!

2011-09-01T19:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Thursday!

See some of the polaroids pictured here

Happy Thursday: Refreshing Edition

2011-08-11T09:12:00.000-04:00

At the beach...

2011-08-08T18:08:00.002-04:00

sun, shadows, sand, seagrass, soccer, shoreline, serenity

Happy Thursday: Spiderwebs

2011-08-04T06:06:00.001-04:00

I don't like spiders, but their webs are beautiful.

Devon's Second Birthday Party

2011-08-01T10:33:00.002-04:00

I have been looking forward to posting these images! My boyfriend's nephew turned 2 last month. I took my new Nikon F100 and some Kodak Portra 400 film to shoot the party. I was worried I hadn't loaded the film correctly, but luckily I had because these images are great! Again I have to thank Richard Photo Lab for doing a great job developing and scanning them. I love these, even the blurry ones!

Happy Thursday: Manchester United

2011-07-28T08:40:00.004-04:00

My boyfriend is a huge Manchester United fan. He just got back from a business trip, but on this business trip, he also went to see them play for the first time in Chicago. Here are a couple of cute pictures of him showing his support. Have a great weekend!

Trying to Grow Plants

2011-07-27T11:25:00.008-04:00

I am not good at keeping plants alive. I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to keep them green! This is my last attempt earlier this year. Unfortunately, they didn't even last for two months. Any suggestions on what I can try to grow? I was thinking of just switching to plastic.

Stephanie's Headshots

2011-07-25T08:14:00.021-04:00

Stephanie was my contest winner back in April for my Grand Opening Mini-Session Giveaway! So, one day last month we spent a half hour taking some gorgeous headshots for her. She is an amazing singer and needed some headshots she could take along with her to her contests and auditions. It was such a fun time and we got some great images. Her smile is so contagious and I really love these photos. And of course, she also rocked the "serious face." Thank you Stephanie, it was a pleasure shooting you!

Happy Thursday: Last Day of June

2011-06-30T06:19:00.001-04:00

Have a fantastic Fourth of July Weekend! This picture is from the July 4, 2009! What are your plans? I will be hitting up the gorgeous Southwest Florida beach at some point. Happy Independence Day!

Mom and Dad 30th Anniversary

2011-06-27T20:20:00.000-04:00

Today is my parents' 30th wedding anniversary! I am so lucky to have them as parents and I love them so much. Their never ending love for each other and for me has been and always will be my inspiration for living and loving. A couple of weeks ago I took them on a photo shoot on 3rd Street as a gift! The pictures came out great! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Happy Thursday: Birthday Edition

2011-06-23T15:20:00.000-04:00

Today is my birthday!

Happy Thursday!

2011-06-16T07:40:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd share the best picture I took on the first couple rolls of film. This is my dog Chardonnay. He is a West Highland White Terrier, or Westie for short. He is almost 16 years old, but doing very well for his age, although he usually looks pretty scruffy. He is very loved.

Around The House (Film Part 4)

2011-06-15T17:49:00.000-04:00

This will be my last post on my Explorations in Film series. I must thank Richard Photo Lab for doing an amazing job developing and scanning my film. And I never would have even picked up my film camera again if it was not for Jonathan Canlas and The Film Is Not Dead Guide. In fact, if you are interested in purchasing you can use the coupon code HAPPYCUSTOMER to get $10 off! I cannot recommend it enough. Jonathan is a complete open book, plus his work is amazing! The guide will teach you a lot, whether you shoot digital or film. I am planning on reading it again since I went to eBay and purchased a professional 35mm film camera: the Nikon F100. I just finished my first roll and am going to be sending it off next week, so I'll let you know about the results!

Jimmy P's (Film Part 3)

2011-06-13T10:15:00.000-04:00

If you guys have never been to Jimmy P's Butcher Shop & Deli you must change that...immediately. The meat is so so so good and their wraps are also great. I love the Buffalo Chicken Wrap Jesse and I went for a walk to get lunch and I took my film camera. We found that piece of paper below on the grass with those drawings. All shot on Kodak Portra 400 with my Nikon N65. Again all of the photos were developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.

Happy Thursday!

2011-06-09T06:12:00.004-04:00

Fifth Avenue Art Show (Film Part 2)

2011-06-08T11:38:00.002-04:00

When Fifth Avenue South had one of their art shows in April, my boyfriend Jesse and I took a walk to go see it. I usually try to go to one of the art shows every season. It's a really exciting environment and I love looking at all the art. Here are some more film shots on Kodak Portra 400 with my Nikon N65. All of these film posts were developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab...all the way in California. I haven't compared them with anyone but I'm very satisfied with the results.

Explorations in Film Part 1

2011-06-06T08:41:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I dug out my old film camera (Nikon N65). I grew up on this camera. I learned photography on this camera. It felt great to play with it again. We have some beautiful light here in Southwest Florida, which makes for some fun photos. Here a few of the purely nature shots. These are all shot on Kodak Portra 400.

Happy Thursdays!

2011-06-02T11:01:00.001-04:00

My mother has always said "Happy Thursday!" So every Thursday I plan on posting one picture that makes me happy. I hope it cheers up your Thursday just like my mom always did for me as a kid.

Welcome to My New Blog!

2011-05-18T13:44:00.000-04:00

Hello! Thanks for visiting. I have copied over a few of my old posts from my old photography tumblr. I will try to post here pretty regularly. You can read about me or connect with me by clicking on the pages above.

Devon

2010-10-05T17:22:00.002-04:00

Priya + Ojas (Engagement)

2010-08-07T18:12:00.001-04:00

I had my first real photo shoot a few weeks ago! One of my best friends, Priya, is getting married next year and she asked me to take some photos of her and her fiance so she could put together her save-the-date cards. I was very flattered, but extremely nervous. I suggested we go to a local park and then did some location scouting about 20 minutes before we planned on meeting. It was so much fun! I also enjoyed seeing Priya and Ojas interact without anyone else around. I hope someday I get to do a few more photo shoots, I feel like I learned a lot with this one. Thank you Priya and Ojas for letting me take your photos!

Orchids

2010-07-21T12:59:00.000-04:00

For my birthday last month, Jesse had flowers delivered to my office. They were beautiful purple orchids, so of course I had to take some photos. I even got out my macro lens to take them.

Polaroid Week 2010

2010-05-08T22:08:00.003-04:00

Every year Flickr hosts a Polaroid Week. It is one thing that really excites me about participating in. I love polaroids! My camera used to be my Dad's and I really should use it more.

Collier County Fair

2010-02-26T21:11:00.001-05:00

I love taking fair pictures! They have such a vintage quality about them regardless of how or what you shoot them with.

Collier County Fair Animal Portraits

2010-02-21T18:24:00.001-05:00

Last weekend Jesse and I went to the Collier County Fair. It was the first time for him and the second for me, but first in a long time. We had a great time walking around, having a few snacks, taking pictures, and looking at animals. I didn't want to ride on any of the rides, because I don't like how easy they are to put up and take down. This post will show the animals we saw at the fair.

Christmas

2009-12-28T18:10:00.001-05:00

Bird Sunset

2009-12-01T19:07:00.002-05:00

I've been noticing a lot of birds grouping together lately. Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds comes to mind and is a little strange but makes for some amazing visuals. On Thanksgiving my family and I went to see the sunset and saw a ton of little birds on the edge of the water.

Katie and Chris's Wedding (St. Louis Part 5)

2009-10-11T12:36:00.001-04:00

Here is the final part to my vacation in St. Louis. Katie and Chris have been together for 9 years, since they were both sophomores in high school! They are the cutest couple and encourage and compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses. The wedding ceremony was really fun with a live choir group singing their favorite songs on the Wash U campus. And the reception was absolutely stunning with gorgeous candlelight in a fantastic location with a great view of the Arch. Congratulations and good luck to them! A+

Wash U (St. Louis Part 4)

2009-10-04T18:15:00.001-04:00

Of course we had to visit my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. It had changed quite a bit since I last saw it. But it still had a feeling of home for me. It was nice to see, but I'm so glad I'm not in school right now.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour (St. Louis Part 3)

2009-10-03T12:01:00.001-04:00

This was another first for me, and it was so interesting! I'd never really thought about what went into making beer before, but it is very scientific and interesting. I would actually love to work here or somewhere similar in the lab, and I don't even like beer!

Inside the Arch (St. Louis Part 2)

2009-10-01T15:07:00.001-04:00

Despite living in St. Louis for four years during college, I never went up the arch! I'm not sure how that's possible, yet I and many of my friends managed to do it. It only cost $10 each to go up and I definitely recommend it since you have some beautiful views. The tram car isn't as small as you think it'll be and once you are up in the arch you don't really notice how high it is (630 ft).

The Gateway Arch (St. Louis Part 1)

2009-09-29T18:06:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I took a vacation to St. Louis for my friends' wedding. I was away for four days and had so much fun! It was a much needed vacation. I'm going to break the trip into a few different posts starting with the star of the city, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, also known as the Gateway to the West: the St. Louis Arch!

This last one is one of my favorites from the entire trip!

Parasailing Over Naples

2009-09-01T11:36:00.005-04:00

My boyfriend and I went parasailing for the first time on Sunday. We used a disposable waterproof camera to take these shots. It's been a while since I've used a film camera, but film was my first photography love and these just show me why. I love the way the colors came out.