Hanging Out With a Two Year Old

More often than not, when I catch my kids doing something where I think, “aw, how cute” and want to capture it in an image, the moment is gone by the time I get back with my camera. And that’s fine because I’ll just hang out with my camera and wait for the next moment. And with three kids, those moments seem to happen pretty often. Well, yesterday I captured the following two moments while hanging out with my two year old while the other kids were at school.

In this first one, she had dumped all of the wooden blocks out of this basket and climbed inside with her baby. The other thing that you can’t tell from this image is that she had dressed herself and put her dress on backward. If you look closely you might be able to see the zipper in front.

She’s also very in to her identity right now. This is her climbing up on the sofa to point at the canvas on the wall the whole time saying, “that’s me”.

This is what I love about photography. There are so many moments that occur during the course of a day but most of the time they happen so fast and so often that we tend to take them for granted. The ability to use my camera to capture a specific moment in time that can be reflected on later and enjoyed is something that I am very passionate about. That is why I feel so blessed when my clients hire me to capture the authentic and original moments in their lives that, when looked back upon, remind them of everything that they were thinking, feeling and experiencing at that particular moment in time. A moment they will never experience again but can remember and enjoy through their photographs. Whether they be displayed on a wall or in the pages of an album.

If you would like me to capture these types of moments for you, please contact me.

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Mini-Session at the Pumpkin Patch

Although my planned day for mini portrait sessions at the pumpkin patch booked up before I could even do a blog post about it, I thought I would open up a week day this coming week where people could meet me out at Maris Farms to get their portraits done. So, if you are interested, please contact me so I can get you scheduled for a 30-minute time slot for Wednesday, October 22nd. The cost is $50. For the details on what’s included in a mini-session, please see this post.

In the meantime, have a look at some images I captured when we went to pick up our pumpkins for carving. And just for proof that Seattle does get sun during October, I included this one with the kids squinting their eyes;-)

Can you guess who picked out the big pumpkin and who picked out the mini-pumpkin?

It’s moments like this that help me navigate through the times when they are arguing over who gets to pull the cart or who got the biggest handful of kettle corn.

See if you can spot the pumpkin that’s trying to make a break for it.

We found this Halloween inspired trike at the shop next to where we had breakfast this morning. Glad I had my camera with me.

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Family Photo Session in West Seattle

Considering that I don’t do any advertising, the majority of my clients have been through referrals and word of mouth. Lately I have also been booking more and more people that have just stumbled upon my Web site or my blog. Thank goodness for Google.

Pauline is one of those people that found me online while she was searching for local photographers. She and her husband Kevin were preparing to celebrate their son’s first birthday and wanted to get some portraits done to capture some images that will forever preserve everything that is special about this particular time in their lives. We met on Saturday morning at Lincoln Park in West Seattle and enjoyed the nice (but cool) October morning. Although it wasn’t too much of a journey for them to get to the park, here’s how their son arrived.

Hey, waking up at 5:30 in the morning is enough to encourage anyone to take a nap by 10:00 am. After letting him sleep for a little bit, it wasn’t long before he was alert and excited to take some nice family photos while enjoying himself at a familiar location. After looking through some of these images, I still can’t stop admiring his beautiful eyes. Isn’t he handsome?

And, even though he just turned one last week, this little guy is doing a great job walking. Luckily, we were able to get him to sit still long enough when he was just waking up to get this nice family shots.

The safest place on earth for this little guy; in mom and dad’s arms.

Yes, apparently the strange lady with the camera was more interesting than the ferry boat in the distance. Hey, if it let’s me get sweet shots like this, I don’t mind.

Yes, we do still get sun during October. I added a little texture to this image for a little visual interest.

All I did to this one was add a little vignetting around the image to draw focus to this sweet moment between mom and son.

A sweet profile of a sweet boy.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for sepia.

Dad and son enjoying some smiles and giggles together.

You gotta love the over the shoulder shot. Nothing like being in mom’s arms.

Pauline and Kevin, I’m so glad that you found me online and I appreciate you trusting me with this special opportunity to capture your family during such a special time in your lives. I really enjoyed our time together and am excited for you to see all of the wonderful images we captured. Let me know how you like this little sample.

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Family Portrait Session in Lake Tapps

For those of you that read these blog post titles literally, we didn’t do the session in the actual lake itself. The family just happens to live in the community of Lake Tapps. There, now that that is settled….

Heather contacted me about doing a portrait session with her two girls and their grandma (Oma to the girls). Given that we’re in to the month of October, scheduling for some outdoor shots can be tricky but we were fortunate enough to have a nice sunny Friday afternoon on their gorgeous property. With two young, beautiful and energetic sisters, I think we probably used all of their two acres for the portrait session. And luckily, their daddy was able to join us as well so we ended up capturing some nice family portraits.

This is a wonderful family that has been on an amazing journey over the past year. Their youngest recently had surgery to receive a cochlear implant. You should check out the back story on the blog that Heather set up to document the entire process. It starts out with a loving Mom and Dad being an advocate for their daughter and refusing to accept there was nothing that could be done to help and ends with the amazing moment when their daughter hears her first sounds. Be warned though that if you’re anything like me, you will end up with tears running down your face at the sight of an almost two year old little girl hearing for the first time. What a miracle and answer to prayer.

Heather and Brent, thanks so much for having me out to your home. If I find your story so inspiring, I can’t imagine how inspiring your testimony is to other parents that have hearing impaired children diagnosed with Auditory Neuropathy.

Although it’s only been a few hours since the session and I still haven’t gone through all of the images, I wanted to at least give you this little preview of what we were able to capture yesterday. I hope you enjoy!

I wanted to see what that last image would look like as black and white. What do you think? Does the fact that it’s black and white change the whole feel of this image?

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Family Portrait Session at Lincoln Park – Sneak Peek

This past weekend I spent some time at Lincoln Park with two fun families – Lalisha and her husband Jeff and Jeff’s sister Jody and her husband Jason. And what made it even more fun was that between the two couples, there were four beautiful children. And, as if that wasn’t enough, we had a beautiful 80 degree day to work with.

Lalisha found me online a couple of months ago and wanted to get the family together for some portraits that they could use to decorate their home as well as give as gifts to other family members. As I’m going through the images I captured during our time together, I think they are going to have some really great shots to choose from.

Although I’m not yet done with reviewing their images, I wanted to at least put a few previews out there so that they don’t have to keep waiting in suspense. I’ll start off with a few of the kids and will plan to share some of the beautiful family shots tomorrow.

Lalisha, Jeff, Jody and Jason – I hope you enjoy these portraits of your beautiful children. The only thing I wish was different is that my blog template allowed larger landscape images because it really doesn’t do them justice to shrink them down to this size.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think and check back tomorrow for a few more previews from our time together.

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Star Wars Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated my son’s 6th birthday. Given that he has somehow become a big fan of all things Star Wars, there was little doubt about the theme he would choose for his birthday party. So, on Saturday afternoon we had a lot of fun watching as all of the party guests arrived in their costumes.

Given that Halloween seemed to have arrived early, I had to try and capture a few images. Not the easiest thing to do while also trying to keep 10 kids and numerous adult family members entertained. Nevertheless, the following should provide a small flavor of what the day was like. And, luckily for us, we’ve been enjoying 80-degree weather for the past few days.

And, I have to give a shout out to Jason Miller from Jason’s Coffee Shop and Fine Baked Goods. My husband went in earlier in the week explaining that we were hosting a Star Wars b-day party and wanted a cake to match the theme. Well, Jason ended up designing and baking a cake that looked exactly like the Millenium Falcon. Not only did it look great but it was oh so delicious. The cool thing was all the adults that dropped their kids off at the party had to come in to catch a glimpse of the cake. Check out the pics below and even more important, pay Jason a visit.
Here’s my three little ones preparing for the guests to arrive.

Here’s the lineup. I had to get a group shot early on in the party in anticipation that they may end up shedding their costumes as the party went on. Surprisingly, they didn’t.

Some of the boys have gathered to get their game plan together.

The kids participated in a relay race to free Han Solo from his frozen fate.

Almost free!

The two teams waited patiently for their turn to try and free Han.

The kids also had fun trying to pop each other’s balloons that were tied to everyones ankles. You can be sure that we had to lay down some serious ground rules before we played this one. And, I am happy to say, that we navigated our way through the entire 2-hour party with no injuries.

I had to get a shot of the cake. Too cool!

On this one you can see that the birthday boy got a little help blowing his candle out.

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Family of Five – Portrait Session

Back in April of this year I had the chance to photograph Baby Elizabeth. Well, last week, Jim and Trish invited me back to capture some portraits of their whole family. And what a beautiful family it is. It was neat to see how much Elizabeth has grown and changed since I photographed her in April. It was also fun to include her big sister Abigail and her big brother Jonathan. They were a lot of fun and seem to have such great relationships with each other. It really made for some great portraits.

Jim and Trish, thank you for inviting me back to your home. You have a lovely family and I’m excited for you to see all of your proofs. In the meantime, please enjoy the few below.

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Family Portrait Session With Emily and Her Kids

I am feeling so behind this week and there are a few portrait sessions that I’ve been wanting to get posted but haven’t yet found the time. One of those sessions is from last week that I did for Emily. Emily contacted me and wanted me to come over to her house to take photos of her three children. She warned me ahead of time that her oldest son might be a challenge as he probably wouldn’t be too excited about taking photos and consequently, might not cooperate. However, I was pleasantly surprised to experience the opposite. It was a joy to hang out with these kids. Again, I really think the benefit of what I do versus what you find in a studio is that it becomes easier and more enjoyable for kids (especially kids under the age of six). They aren’t having to necessarily sit still, pose, watch out for that light and other expensive equipment, etc… They are able to just be themselves in a natural environment.

Anyway, thanks Emily for the opportunity to spend time with you and your kids. I’ll be sending you the link to your online gallery to review your proofs today. In the meantime, here are a few from our time together. Let me know what you think.

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Extended Family Portrait Session

I had the chance to photograph Todd, Kristy and Abby back in May. Since that time, baby Wyatt has joined the family, making Abby a big sister. When Todd and Kristy learned that Todd’s brother Chad and his wife Beth were coming to town for a visit, they asked me if I would come over and take some more photographs. Of course, knowing how well the first portrait session turned out, I was very excited. I was even more excited when I learned that Chad and Beth have two kids of their own. Avery and Abby were fun to watch together especially as they twirled around the room in their very pretty dresses. And I can tell that Grant can’t wait until his little cousin Wyatt is old enough to wrestle around and do boy stuff with him.

I had a lot of fun hanging out with Todd and Kristy again and it was great to meet Chad and Beth. And it was a pleasure to take photos of their beautiful children. How fun it will be to watch their relationships evolve as they grow up together. In the meantime, we have some fun photos that reflect what their relationships were like on August 18, 2008.

Todd and Kristy, thanks again for hiring me to take pictures of your family. Chad and Beth, it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope you had a safe trip home. I’m excited for you to see some of the great shots we were able to capture. In the meantime, here are a few to tide you over. Enjoy!

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Portrait Session at Lincoln Park in West Seattle

Wendy is a very good friend of mine from my days at Oregon State in Corvallis. Yes, there are plenty of stories and despite Chris’ urging, I will not share them here. I’ve been fortunate enough to keep in touch with Wendy over the years although, it’s been about three years since we have seen each other. That’s the longest stretch we’ve ever gone but luckily we had the chance to connect this past weekend while she was in town with her two kids.

We hooked up at Lincoln Park in West Seattle and let Christopher and Chloe have fun playing at the park and the beach while I stalked them with my camera. I took a TON of pictures and couldn’t even begin to narrow them down to just a few for the blog post. So, I just grabbed a random handful and after looking at them, think they should do just fine at representing our time together.

Enjoy these photos and leave a comment to let Wendy know how beautiful her children are.

These next two I caught of Christopher while he was playing inside a little driftwood fort that he found on the beach.

After Chris arrived at the park after enjoying his Starbucks, I forced the camera on him and asked him to take a photo while Wendy and I chatted. He snuck up and found Chloe hanging out in the same fort that Christopher had found. How does he get so lucky to capture an image like this by only taking one picture? I’ve taught him well;-)

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