Let’s Get This Thing Going Again – The ADP Blog

So… somehow over the past three years, my photography blog died and went to “blog heaven”.  Not sure how this happened.  It certainly wasn’t due to a shortage of clientele or business, as it must have appeared to anyone perusing my website – truth be told, I kind of “hid” this blog for a while.  Not that I didn’t have wonderful clients to feature or interesting things to share!  Truth be told, I have just been up to my eyeballs and then some with transitioning my business from babies and young families to dancers, teens and other people I don’t have to chase with puppets!  I guess we all get caught up in long lists of things to do, children to drive around, images to edit, shoots to plan, etc.  A few days of missed posts turn into a few months of missed posts and then voila!  Three years have passed!  I got hung up on how many words I needed to have for SEO and how I’m just not really someone who enjoys writing.  I am a visual person, so Instagram became my platform of choice.  All of that said, I’m going to fire this baby back up again and see how it goes.  No promises.   Don’t expect literary excitement out of this.  Do expect beautiful images of amazing people who visit my studio day in and day out who allow me into their world to get to know them and photograph them.

So what’s new?  What’s been going on since I last wrote?  A lot.  Many of you may remember my warehouse studio over by the San Jose train station. Well, I moved out of that space about three years ago and into a boutique studio in Los Gatos, sandwiched in between Main Street Burger and Willow Street Pizza.  Due to the wafting smell of bread and pizza that surrounds the new studio space I subsequently gained 15 lbs, then came to my senses six months later and lost it again.  I’ve enjoyed shooting in the colorful, textured back alleys of Los Gatos (yes I can still find dumpsters and stinky alleys even in Los Gatos!).  Again, always glad that my images are not scratch-n-sniff… ew.  Anyway, you can still find me lurking around downtown San Jose and random deserted county parks looking for new off-the-beaten path locations.

I hired Taylor, who many of you have met, about a year and half ago and she has been quietly working away in the background and helping me on shoots.  You’ll learn more about her in an upcoming blog post that I’ll embarrassingly title “Get to Know Taylor”.  She’ll love that :).  As you might have noticed from my Instagram posts, I’ve been focusing on shooting dancers  and growing my dance photography business for the past several years.  Why?  Well, again, I don’t have to chase them with puppets, and they are just amazing to photograph.  Honestly, we have something huge in common:  perfection.  I am very much a perfectionist (another reason why this blog comes and goes – because I ridiculously want every post to be perfect).  Dancers are also perfectionists.  They will work hard to perfect their technique as much as I want to get a perfect a shot.  Blend that with artistry and creativity and we collaborate together very well. Plus, dance imagery makes amazing wall art!  I’ve had a great time traveling to study dance photography in New York City for the past two years and making great friends while doing so.  All of that said, I still absolutely love my high school senior shoots and will be doing those until someone tells me I’m too old and uncool to do them anymore.  I also have plans in the works to introduce sessions for women who “just want to be photographed” (yes they deserve it regardless of their age!).  Stay tuned…

Please follow my dance photography on IG at amydrakedancephoto and my portrait work at amydrakephoto (actually, please follow this account like right now as it is weak junk… I had to spin it out of my dance account which has far more followers).  I think that is about it for now.  I’ve written enough to last the next three years.  Since this is a photography blog, and I’m supposed to be posting images, I’m including a shot of my daughter, Kate, that we took in about two minutes in Paris this year.  (I’m sure she thinks her working leg is not turned out enough but whateva…)  See you when I post again in 2023.