Category Archives: Picture of the Month

Ferndale Dance Academy – Cinderella

June 2017

This was the 15th year I’ve photographed the Ferndale Dance Academy spring production.Laura East and her company of young dancers put on another fine show. Photographing the dress rehearsal I watch the show through the lens of my camera, and it’s always nice to return later to watch the show from the audience.

The entire set of photographs are now available for purchase in my gallery at aestheticdesign.com/fda. All prior 14 years of photos are still available as well in case you missed ordering any from previous shows.

Ferndale Dance Academy ballet dancers performing Cinderella

The Mill Creek Falls Ballet

May 2017

After a long break from picture of the month due to a really wet winter and the unexpected death of my mother, I finally got back to taking pictures in May. I returned to Mill Creek Falls with a new model, Shannon, who had lots of experience dancing when she was younger. It still showed in the wonderful poses she came up with. After visiting Mill Creek, we went to Clam Beach for more photos and it was really hard picking one to feature here. Hopefully, she’ll be in front of my lens again soon.

Ballerina posing in front of Mills Creek Falls

Michelle, Robert & Bricen – Family Portrait in Ferndale

October 2016

I received a message on my phone asking about family and toddler portraits and I was kind of surprised, since I stopped advertising portrait services several years ago. I had to listen to the message several times to catch the name of the person inquiring, and then I realized it was Michelle who I had taken her senior photos and then later she modeled for my Pirating Under a Full Moon shot.

In fact, by an odd coincidence, it was 7 years to the day that we shot Pirating Under a Full Moon when she called.

We scheduled a family shoot at the South Spit beach where I shot her senior portrait photos. They met us in Ferndale, and as we drove over to Loleta, it kept getting foggier and foggier. We shot some photos at the beach, hoping the fog would lift, but instead it kept getting even foggier, until we finally gave up.

Plan B became traveling back to sunny Ferndale, where we shot down in the creek in our backyard. Trying to get a toddler to pose can be challenging, especially when mom is on the other side of the creek. Bricen lost his pants after attempting to cross the creek, and after mom calmed him down we tried again.

It was nice catching up with Michelle and meeting her family, and we got lots of great photos both at the beach and in the creek, but this one was my favorite by far.

Michelle, Robert & Bricen

Ferndale Concourse

September 2016

Labor Day in Ferndale saw a new event this year, a Concourse d’Elegance, held on Main Street. FVFD displayed (but not entered) our 1923 American LaFrance and next to is a 1928 Pierce Arrow Series 36.

There weren’t as many entries as I had hoped for, but it still made for a nice day walking up and down Main Street.

Ferndale Concourse d'Elegance

Margo at Clear Lake

August 2016

No, not that Clear Lake. This is really just a little pond that goes by that name. It is located a short distance off of Route 1 in the South Fork Mountains. After the large forest fire up there in August of 2015, I wasn’t sure if this pond would still be as pretty as it was, but I decided to find out.

I brought Margo along to model. Margo has modeled for me for several years, and her years of ballet training always provide some very graceful poses.

I was happy to see that this pond escaped the ravages of the fire that destroyed much of the ridge line.

Margo at Clear Lake

La Marionette 2016

June 2016

This year, the Ferndale Dance Academy did a revival of La Marionette for their annual spring performance. For the last 13 years Aesthetic Design & Photography has been a sponsor of their production and I have donated taking their publicity and production photos.

Usually my favorite photos come from the Level III dancers, and it’s always exciting seeing them progress every year. But this year my favorite photo comes from one of the very young dancers. I just loved her expression and perfect poise in this photo.

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My Personal Fern Canyon

May 2016

Most of the time, Williams Creek, which runs through my back yard, is the cause of headaches. In the winter it tends to flood, and the rest of the year, I’m pulling the weeds or cleaning up the silt that the winter floods brought. But every once in a while, I take a break from my chores and visit the creek when the water flow is down.

When ever I do take the time to enjoy it, I come away marveling that here, right in my back yard is scenery that other people go on vacation to see. I spent Memorial Day hiking around the banks and in the creek bed. I saw an eel, discovered a new plant, California Manroot, growing on one bank, took both detail shots and panoramas, such as this view of the creek bed, which is like a miniature Fern Canyon.

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Mo’s Back

April 2016

Well I missed a few POTM postings because Christmas day an Eel River Disposal garbage truck pulled out right in front of me while I was riding the KLR650. I was lucky I didn’t actually hit the garbage truck, but I did injured my foot and ribs in the crash that ensued while trying to avoid doing a Wiley Coyote impersonation. So while I was recuperating from the injuries I wasn’t able or interested in going out to take photos.

This month I was finally able to get out, and after many postponements for bad weather, Mo and I finally found a nice evening to take some photos at the South Spit in Loleta. While doing our Victorian shoot in December, Mo demonstrated her awesome flexibility, so I wanted to do a shoot with her based on some of her yoga and gymnastic moves.

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