Gary Gionet

Kelly and I hooked up the trailer and spent three days at Morro Bay State Park. On Thursday, we arrived to a hazy afternoon, followed by two days of complete fog (all day long). This image of Morro Rock and the three stacks of the power plant was taken from the rock formation on top of the museum. Thursday, we spent most of the afternoon exploring around the campsite. Oh yeah, we found the Dairy Queen and their .99 cent hot fudge sundaes. That one made into my Favorites list on my GPS! The next two days involved some day excursions. Our first trip on Highway 41 took us to Atascadero, with a stop at an avacado farm (lots of ripe avacados for sale). The following day we took Old Creek Road from Morro Strand Beach up through the lush green countryside. From Old Creek Road we took Highway 46 back down to Highway 1. This is such a beautiful drive up some windy roads that take you from elevation 50 feet in Morro Bay to 1,795 feet at the end of Old Creek Road. Lots of green hills, oak trees, ...

Morro Bay is well known for being a sanctuary for all species of birds. Here we have a Great Blue Heron high up on the trees guarding her nest. For bird watchers this is a gold mine.

Low tide exposed the abundance of sea life around Morro Rock. During a low tide there are numerous tide pools to explore.

A lone pup making his way down the beach. I think at this point he was just exhausted. You've got to love that cute face!

Daddy smiling big for the camera. This guy wasn't going anywhere. He was totally happy in his sand recliner.

The three tenors, uh, well at the moment, two tenors.

We awoke Sunday at 2:00 am to Kelly's car alarm sounding. When we checked it out, we found that a small white truck sideswiped Kelly's car and then ran head-on into our neighbors car pushing it into their second car. The coward fled in his truck before we could catch him. There was a witness, and the suspect left behind some of the front end of his truck, so maybe there is some hope of finding the punk. An old friend from Garden Grove's finest showed up to take the report. I got a brief chance to catch up on the happenings of GGPD. I think the suspect lives in the area, because nobody takes the shortcut through our housing track unless they live in the area. Kelly and I spent Sunday morning and again today scouting the area, but no luck finding the culprit. It's funny, Kelly told me just that evening that when her lease was up, she wanted to keep the car. Is someone trying to tell us something ??? This morning the car was towed to Ron's Paint & Body, owned by my...

Photoshop's youngest reader. Maybe it's the crayons on the cover, but I like to think that Isabelle is going to follow in Papa's footsteps. Well, maybe it's the crayons :))

Ashley and her mother made a long drive to our studio. We spent about 4-hours capturing a lot of images of Ashley. This one is a sample shot using the "green screen" and then, via software, adding in a background. Ashley has such a great attitude, and it was a pleasure working with her. I think she has some modeling in her future! Thank you Ashley for being so patient during a very long day. We will see you soon at your party.

New look for the blog! I was tiring of the old default blog template, so I thought it was time to change it up a bit. I hope you like the new look. Please feel free to email any comments or suggestions. My goal this year - do a better job of adding new blog entries in a timely manner. I've turned on the "Comments" option for all of the new photos posted from this day forward (located directly below the photo). Once again, please feel free to make comments on any of the photographs. Unfortunately, the software does not allow for commenting on photos posted before today. Thank you very much for taking the time to stop by and check out the entries. I really do like hearing from you, so drop me an email, or better yet, sign the guest book at my web site www.garysphotographs.com Select "Guests" then "Guest Book" and type away!

One more photo from Alisyn's series. This is her favorite, I think, so I had a poster size made. Alisyn was a real trooper helping me work through a book of poses. She is always happy to be in front of the camera. Thanks Ali for all your help! Enjoy the photos, Love, ug

Alisyn came to the studio today to help me practice with my new software. The software, Primatte works with monochromatic colored backdrops, i.e., green screen, blue screen. Our friends Mark & Mary were so generous this Christmas and purchased the software as my gift. What a wonderful surprise that was. Today, I finally had time to practice with it. Thank you Mark & Mary!

This is an another example of the "green screen" used to place Alisyn in front of a wall.

Courtney, our niece, came by the studio today to take her graduation pictures. We are very proud of Courtney, and the great progress she is making. Courtney is a beautiful young lady, as you can see from the sample photograph. We wish her much success in her life! Love you, Uncle Gary & Aunt Kelly

Kelly and I enjoyed a weekend away at the local RV park. Stephanie and family came by for a barbecue. We had a great time chasing Isabelle around the park. She just loved playing in the dirt. The first thing Isabelle found was a rock. She carried that rock with her everywhere, including in this picture. It's amazing the simple things that amuse the kids.

As you can tell, I am way behind on getting some of these photos posted to the blog. This was taken at Isabelle's 2nd birthday party in December. Sorry for the delay.

Another photo of our little princess on her birthday.

Another late entry. This is a large print I put together just before Christmas for a friend's gift to the child's parents. The actual event took place in May 2006.

Here is a poster I made for the staff at Tustin Hospital. What a great day we had visiting and photographing some amazing kids and their families at the hospital. These kids and their families have such spirit and joy that it is infectious!

A little late posting this family portrait of Amber and her family, taken in our studio just before Christmas.