Metta's wild adventures in toddler photography

I thought I was being helpful, but I'm just not sure. A new friend of mine needs a few pictures of her little girl for an upcoming 2nd birthday announcement, so I offered to try out my new camera and get some really cute shots. I looked at some great photography of kids the night before, I was all pumped to try out the camera with this new little model, but it turns out I had some tough competition: pinecones, rocks, even DIRT was more exciting than I was. This little girl is so fun to hang out with, and she is the biggest smiler, but for that one hour she insisted on looking serious, looking down, or looking away! I should invite Marcos to come along on these excursions... he can make a great monkey face...

(Before and after photoshop on this last shot...)

Brazil #4: VÍDEOS (videos)

I have been wanting to post some of the short videos we took in Brazil. This video is of Thatiane at her 15th Birthday party, dancing with her father! In Latin America, the 15-year birthday for girls is exceedingly lavish, and this was no exception! Prior to this dance with her father, there had been a procession with candles, she received a ring from her father, and cut the cake! Dinner was served at 1am, and we got home from dancing and the festivities at about 4 in the morning.... Whew!



Thatiane blows out the candles!



This video makes me laugh every time. I thought Marcos was taking a picture, not a video, so just us all bobbing, waiting for the flash cracks me up...



This is Danny and Grandma dancing to the "YMCA" song at Sammy and Mariana's wedding. The quality of the video took a hit because blogger automatically reduces the size of the video while it's loading so that it's not too heavy, but you can still get the drift...

Brazil #3: CASAMENTO (wedding)

The main reason we went to Brazil was to attend the wedding of Samuel (Marcos' brother, the youngest of the four siblings) and Mariana Ribeiro. In Brazil Temple weddings are not recognized legally because they are not public, so most Brazilian members of the church who wish to be married in the Temple have a public wedding the evening before their sealing. Sammy and Mariana rented a local event hall, which was separated by dividers into two sections: the wedding ceremony portion with the wedding aisle and rows of chairs, and the tables for eating and dance floor on the other side of the partition. The wedding started at 8pm, and the consumption of amazing cakes and dancing with a live band went into the wee hours of the night!

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the wedding night, and outside the Campinas Temple the following morning.


Mariana signing the wedding certificate. Her veil must have been ten feet long, and was bordered by beautiful lace. The bishop of their ward conducted the ceremony, and it was short and sweet.


Yep, I think he likes her.



My favorite picture of Sammy and Mariana taken the night of their wedding. The best part of it: they didn't even know it was being taken!


Sammy and Mariana with Pai and Mae, in front of the backdrop provided by the professional photographers.


Belle and Pai.


Sammy and Mariana outside the Temple in Campinas, Brazil, on the morning of July 12th.


The Prieto clan (minus the newlyweds and Marie and Kaitlyn) in front of the Temple. Marcos and I came from North Carolina for the wedding, and Danny and Belle came from Utah. We didn't know Belle was going to be at the wedding until she showed up at the airport with Danny! What a great surprise!



Metta in Macro Mode ("M cubed") again...


Mae and Pai: Truly the best couple at the wedding.

The Prieto Boys: Samuel, Marcos-the-most-handsome (Mariana, Marie and Mae may disagree, but I am the one writing the blog), Daniel and Pai.

Okay, listen, I'm experiencing Blogger Burn-out right now, so I'm going to stop. Roger, over.

Brazil #2: TRABALHO (work)

One of the pleasures of being on vacation is that it often means taking a break from work. Although Marcos and I did not do much work while we were in Brazil, I found myself interested in people's daily existence, and what they do professionally to support their families. In these next photos, I've included just a few shots of what work is to a hand full of people in Sorocaba, Brazil. You'll notice that I left out pictures of people sitting at desks. Truthfully, I didn't take any, because it wasn't a stretch of the imagination from what I was used to seeing here.

Pai (Marcos' dad) is a lock smith, and for many days of our vacation Danny (Marcos' brother who was visiting from Utah) went to work with him at the shop. One of the first days of the trip, our cousin Giselle taught Danny and I how to reproduce keys! The process was really quite straight-forward, but learning how to do it gave me one of those "I feel useful" kind of feelings.

For some women (and presumably men) work happens at home, and often in the kitchen. After a Sunday evening event at church, we gathered at Tio Gilson's home (our uncle) with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma for a late family meal. Tia Claudete and our cousin Claudia had made the most delicious baked rolled sandwiches and cake. I love how Tia Claudete is ruling the kitchen in this photo.

Police men in downtown Sorocaba. Most of the time Police men drive little cars, but I thought the horses coupled with those caps were a nice touch.

It is quite common to see people on the streets who make a living from collecting recycling from garbage bins, and taking it to the recycling centers to trade their collection in for money. It is nice to think that so much waste is being recycled, but isn't it a privilege that most of us can make a living engaging in other work? On one occasion a little child was perched on top of the heap of garbage.


At a Churrascaria, the famous Brazilian bar-b-que all-you-can-eat restaurants. Waiters come from the kitchen with steaming hot meats on a skewer, and slice as much as you desire right onto your plate. And there are so many different kinds of meats! Beefs and porks, and sausages, and chicken wrapped in bacon, and even grilled pinapple and baked cheese... There are little spinning dials on the table, and when you are stuffed, you roll the dial from the green "yes please" to the red "no, thank you" and the waiters know that you are finished.

Marcos talking with the workers at the juice bar. Thankfully, they gave us the recipe for"Swiss Lemonade", my new favorite beverage: whole lemons, peeled and cut into 8ths, ice, and sweetened condensed milk to taste blended in a blender and poured through a strainer to catch the lemon pulp and seeds! ONOlicious!

Brazil #1: CORES (colors)

So, we're back from Brazil, and I can't say enough about how much we loved being there. Marcos and his siblings were together with their parents for the first time in seven years, and it was so cool to see them in action. I think I gained eighteen pounds for the amount of time we spent gathered around the kitchen table eating Mom's delicious food, but for the QUALITY of time that we spent together as a family - that sort of feel good, laughing, teasing, happy time - I would have gladly gained eighteen more.

I was thinking about making our Brazil experience into blog entries, and the whole idea seemed overwhelming. How do you summarize such a vast experience? And then I had it: in categories! While I was taking pictures of our trip, I thought that it would be nice to have an entry dedicated to colors, so we'll start there... with colors.

This is me in downtown Sorocaba, the city an hour outside of Sao Paulo where the Prietos live. If you look downward in Brazil, the world is not very colorful - just a smear of smudgy browns and grays - but if you look straight ahead, it's eye candy. Through American eyes it may be considered somewhat garish (though through Japanese eyes, rather dull), in Brazil many of the shop fronts and walls are painted very colorfully. I rather enjoyed the more haphazard look to the town.


Sorvete! Up on the hill above one of the main roads in Sorocaba is a wonderful ice-cream shop. I chose guava, which was heavenly, and Marcos chose rum-raisin. This picture was taken against a metal garage door.


Here I go again in Macro mode on our new camera. This was experimental, with the bamboo in the foreground being in focus, and Marcos faded into the background, but it came out oh-so well. We didn't even intend for this to be such a model shot, but with Marcos' natural good looks and charm, it's difficult to stop the flow...

Tangerines at the local farmer's market. Each day of the week, the farmer's market meets at a different local around Sorocaba so that local buyers have a regular source of produce close to their homes.


Hawaiianas on display at the grocery store. This is THE brand of all brands when it comes to buying slippahs in Brazil, but for the most modern styles, prices range up to $20 for a pair of rubber slippers. That's love.

Last American Moments

So, we went to the Bramwell's tonight for Sunday night family dinner. The Bramwells lived in Kailua for my last years of high school and beyond, and then moved to North Carolina about two years ago! When we came out to UNC, they were one of the two families we knew who lived in the entire state of North Carolina. The close love relationship started back up with their family when we inherited Nick Bramwell's kitchen table and chairs when he moved from his "guy pad" back in with his family (which was a vast improvement from us eating off of a cardboard box in our empty apartment), and has blossomed into us feeling like members of their clan. We always drive away so happy after we visit them.

David Bramwell (dad) has two pet parrots

Today was a special occasion, because Nick Bramwell has been called on a mission to Sao Paulo North Mission, and today was his last Sunday in America for two years. He leaves for Brazil on Wednesday, and we leave on Thursday, which is amazing. He will actually be serving his mission exactly in the area Marcos' family lives, of all places on earth. We're hoping to coordinate our Temple schedules when we're down there, so that we can see him in Brazil. We've seen him every Sunday night for a month, and have had a chance to study from the missionary manual, the scriptures, and of course, some Portuguese.

Uncle Gavin had a Birthday, and the family has a great tradition. They throw a (sterilized?) penny into the batter, so that whoever ends up with the penny in their cupcake or cake has good luck all day! Marcos got the penny! I really like this tradition... so it may be a keeper. It may even take the drudgery out of baking for me.

Marcos shared some scriptures with Nick that helped him in Japan, and we all gathered around to listen and add to the conversation. Marcos has a real knack for teaching spiritual things.

Part of the reason I'm so ready to post entries is because of this new camera. Check out this shot. It combines two of my favorite things: Marcos and dessert. Don't read into the fact that the dessert is in focus, and my boyfriend is fuzzy in the background. Marcos is still the most beloved.

The Bramwell's family card game is "May I?". It's a good addition to our library of Gin Rummy (Pratt family game) or Canasta (Prieto family game).

Next picture he'll be "Elder Bramwell" with a suit and tag. How exciting!

Our first born

Our first born is a camera, and believe me, getting ahold of this perfect little angel took so much work that I might as well have given birth. He's a Canon A720 IS, which was recommended by a professional photographer at church, and so far he's been a dream. Here are the first few experimental shots I've taken in "micro" mode, which may be my favorite mode ever. What do you think? Go ahead and click on the images to see them in normal size; the photos are much more impressive when they're larger. Enjoy, and stay tuned for more!

So, as you can see, he's brilliant with plants. These are a few of my first garden explorations.

Welcome to Paradise

So, I finally have a blog entry for our trip to Hawaii. Since the other entries have been text-heavy, get ready for some eye candy.

So, we stayed at the Maero's house, along with The Gibson family. The mom Lindsay is one of my best friends in the world, and this is her little daughter, Malia. The last time we saw Malia she was just a few months old, so it was exciting to meet her all decked out with personality.

There is a common misunderstanding that pineapples grow on trees. Well, this is just to set the record straight. Pineapples grow in big fields very low to the ground, with very spiky leaves. Random Fact: when you are preparing a pineapple for consumption, if you cut off the top and put the base into the ground, it will grow another pineapple out of the center of the leaves!

Auntie Gail and Mom at mom's graduation dinner! Yay, she finally finished her Masters degree! The ceremonies were really spectacular, and we really screamed when they called her name.

Marcos is amazing with kids. It's a real turn-on.

The girls started a Surf Club every Thursday morning. We joined in a few sessions on the days we were in Hawaii. Leslie definitely won the prize for "most pregnant surfer" at 8 months along.

I personally think I win the prize for "most brave" with bearing those big, white thighs. These pictures, by the way, motivated some fitness. I'm now running a few miles a day. I hadn't even realized how fatness creeps up on you when you're in grad school and not paying attention!

Heaven, anybody? Linds was adamant about doing a sunrise hike to the pillboxes above Lanikai. These are the legendary twin sister islands called the Mokuluas.

The hiking clan: Maero family, plus a few, minus a few.

Girl's Night Out! We started off with Happy Hour sushi, and migrated to the Cheesecake factory, where we more than compensated for being so healthy the first round.

Malia is such a heart-breaker!

Ah yes, and there was a waterfall.

This was a humbling experience. I thought I was a decent photographer, but I still have to hone my skills a bit with kids. Marcos must not have been making the monkey face in this one, because the whole series was rather unimpressive and the kids are disengaged. Better luck next time!

Linds and me at church.