Rachel S. O'Hara

I photographed the 12th Annual Awards Celebration for the Sarasota County Arts Council a few nights back for work and had a lot of fun doing so. The Sarasota Ballet performed a popular piece, choreographed by Kate Walsh Honea , and I got some really neat shots of the coffee shop themed ballet (and I love coffee shops!). I could not get many straight on shots since there were tons of people who would have smacked me upside the head for being in their way, but I did manage to manuver myself in such a way that I did get shots i'm pretty proud of. I love to shoot live theater and performances, especially ones that are filled with colorful costumes, bright lights and amazing talent. Here are a bunch of the shots I took of "Percolator". Peace. Love. Happiness. -rso-

So here are some pictures of my temporary home. It is larger than what I will have permanently, but it is a great place to start here in Sarasota. It is an apartment above my landlord wife's pre-school so I am woken up every week day by happy children which is pretty funny to hear. Anyway, I know some of you have been waiting to see it so here are some basic pix I took the other morning before work. WELCOME! Peace. Love. Happiness. -rso-

So as many of you know I have recently moved to Sarasota, FL for my first job! I am working for the Observer Newspapers ( http://www.yourobserver.com/ ) and my first day is actually today! But in order to get to this point I had to DRIVE hours and hours from Cleveland to Sarasota in good old Millie Malibu (yes my car is named, don't judge). Many people know I despise long drives. Three hours to OU would about drive me bonkers. However, now I am the queen of the road! Well, sort of. I made it is the main point. The drive down was not a one day straight shot kind of deal. I made a road trip out of it by stopping along the way to see good friends and go to new places. I visited one of my best friends Laurel Roether and one of my OU pals Victor Rasgaitis in Cincinnati, OH. This was a great two days of good food and funny adventures all around the Cincy area. Next up was my long drive to Matthews, NC where I visited with my old baby sitter, Erin Amelung. Erin is hysterical and someone I...

So one of my last photos sessions I did while on the Cape included some family portraits of Jude and Mike with their grandkids and their daughter (son-in-law is a hard working fire fighter and was unable to be be apart of the fun). I wanted to do something nice for Jude and Mike and I knew they did not have any group pictures of the whole gang together. It was a great hour of shooting and everyone looked adorable in navy and white. Here are some of the photos from the shoot. LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Peace. Love. Happiness. -rso-

Cat boats are a big deal on the Cape. I got to photograph a cat boat sailing event. It was a gorgeous day out and all the cat boats and sails looked amazing against the blue sky and water. I took a lot of photos and cropped a few of them down to long strips with a bit of sky, boats and some water. My editor encouraged me to crop more than I'm used to. Hope you guys enjoy. Peace. Love. Happiness. -rso-