Home for the holidays – My final portrait session of 2008

I had the privilege of spending time with one of the loveliest families I know for my last photo session of 2008. Although only two of these sisters are still at home the other three made the effort (and given the weather we’ve been having, yes it was an effort) to make it home so that the family could enjoy celebrating Christmas together. My family and I were fortunate enough to spend an evening at their home the week prior to this session enjoying food, fellowship and singing our favorite Christmas carols. I was so excited to have the opportunity to take pictures of them while they were home because their personalities, especially when they are all together is just priceless.

Tanya, Melissa, Annalise, Jessica, and Jeneale were all primed for an evening of salsa dancing but not until we spent some time capturing some nice images that will hopefully yield a portrait for their dad’s desk at work. With as beautiful as they all are, it will be no one’s fault but my own if we don’t end up with an image that is proudly displayed for all of dad’s co-workers to admire.

You’ll notice that Tanya’s fiance Anthony was even brave enough to enter the fray. With the responsibility of escorting so many lovely ladies, I’m sure that his dancing shoes were well worn by the end of the night.

Trust me when I say that the following is just a small sampling of what turned out to be a great group of images. Thanks for being yourselves and letting me hang out with you at home prior to your big night on the town.

P.S. Let me just say that the small images on the blog do not do the images justice. One more reason why I am investing in a new blog for 2009 so that I can accommodate larger images for all to enjoy.

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Christmas 2008

Although a little late, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I am still trying to get caught up after what turned out to be a very busy December. It’s obvious that my regular blog posting schedule has been significantly impacted. In fact, this is the longest that I have gone without posting; a whole week. I’ve learned that balancing family and my business around the holidays is challenging at best. I’m extending some grace to myself and expect that come January 1st, I will be back to my regular schedule.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a few images from the past week. These were all taken with my point-and-shoot. This first image is one of the pictures from our family Christmas card this year and was captured on the first day of snow that we had on Sunday December 14th. Let’s just say that our kids have enjoyed many more days of sledding since then.

These next few images were captured at my sister’s house on Christmas eve. Santa and one of his elves made an appearance to deliver presents to all the good girls and boys that were there. The first shot is of my two oldest kids and one of their cousins looking out of the upstairs window for Santa and his sleigh.

The next two show how patient my kids can be when they are expecting (and hoping) that one of the presents might have their names on them.

That last picture shows my son continuing to exhibit something he struggles with greatly; patience. Just a quick anecdote regarding my son and receiving presents. On the way home that evening he asked us, “Mom and Dad, if Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Birthday, why do we get presents”. I know how my husband and I responded but I’m curious to know how you would have answered this question from a 6 year old.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and enjoy the rest of 2008. We’ll get back on the regular blogging schedule in January.

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Family Portrait Session in Seattle

The past Saturday I had the chance to meet a really great family and do a portrait session for them at their home in Seattle and at the arboretum. Erin found me online while searching for Seattle area photographers and I’m so glad she did. She and her husband Geoffrey are a delight and I really had a lot of fun spending time with them and their two daughters (3 years and almost 4 months of age). The thing I loved the most was that their fun and loving personalities really came through during their session which made it very enjoyable for me to just hang out and capture images of them spending time together. Their faithful golden retriever of many years even tagged along.

I loved that Erin and Geoffrey were not at all intimidated by the camera. The only problem is they were enjoying their time together so much, creating so many opportunities for wonderful images, I got trigger happy and now have the difficult task of reviewing all of the images and filtering it down to just the best of the best. While I continue that process, I have grabbed a few that jumped out as potential favorites to share with you here.

Erin and Geoffrey – thanks again for the opportunity to spend time with you and your family on Saturday. You are all wonderful and reminded me why I love what I do. By the end of the session, I forgot that I was your photographer and instead felt like an old friend. I’m anxious to share all of your proofs with you and can’t wait to see what you think.

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A Thanksgiving Family Reunion

My friend Cara had her family come to visit for the Thanksgiving holiday. Given that it was a relatively rare event to have everyone together in one place, they asked me to come over and capture some good times the day after they celebrated their Thanksgiving together. It’s a fun family and I really enjoyed spending time with them and watching them interact with each other. My family and I were even privileged enough to join in their Thanksgiving feast the night before. We really enjoyed the opportunity to meet them all.

Although I haven’t had much time to go through and proof all of the images, I wanted to post a few for the family to see while they were all still together. There’s nothing like gathering around the warm glow of a computer monitor and enjoying your family portraits.

I hope you all enjoy these images. I also hope you don’t mind that I decided to go with all black and whites for the blog post. I just watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” so I was in a black and white mood when I posted these. Enjoy and have a safe trip home.

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Family Portraits at the Christmas Tree Farm

This is the time of year that everyone starts trying to figure out what picture they want to use for their Christmas cards that will be sent to friends and family. Julie and Geoff are no exception. They were planning on heading out to look for a Christmas tree to cut down with their two boys and asked me to tag along in hopes of capturing some fun images that might provide some good Christmas card material. So, on Saturday afternoon I met them at the Trees and Bees Christmas Tree Farm south of Seattle for a mini-session.

We were actually able to capture quite a few images in our half hour together. You can check out a few of them below.

If you are still looking for that perfect picture to use for this year’s Christmas card, I am going to be back at the tree farm next Saturday, December 6th and still have some session times available between 1:00-4:00pm. If you are interested, please contact me to schedule your time slot.

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Pumpkin Patch Photos

This last Friday I had the chance to connect with Niesha, the winner of the holiday portrait location contest. Her idea of a pumpkin patch received the most votes and she won a complimentary mini-session which included a 30-minute portrait session, an online gallery of images available for 2 weeks, an 8×10 print, and one electronic image. I met with her, her boyfriend and his darling little boy out at Maris Farm and we had a blast. Here are just a few images from our time together. Enjoy!

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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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The Best Holiday Portrait Location – Random Drawing Winner

The second part to the contest to come up with the best holiday portrait location was a random drawing from all of the people that submitted votes. And the winner is Kendra! In addition to Niesha who came up with the winning location (Pumpkin Patch), Kendra will also win a complimentary mini-session that includes a 30-minute portrait session at a pumpkin patch, an online gallery of images available for two weeks, an 8×10 print of her choice and an electronic image of her choice that she can use for her holiday photo cards.

Congratulations Kendra!

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The Votes Are In!

Well, the poll for the best holiday portrait location in the greater Seattle area ended on Wednesday and it was a tie up until the last minute. But, we ended up with a winner. Niesha’s idea of the pumpkin patch won. Congratulations to Niesha! Just as a reminder, for submitting the winning idea, Niesha wins a complimentary mini-session that includes a 30-minute portrait session at a pumpkin patch, an online gallery of images available for two weeks, an 8×10 print of her choice and an electronic image of her choice that she can use for her holiday cards.

Check back in tomorrow when I will announce the winner of the random drawing. That’s right, I will be selecting at random a name from the pool of people that voted (and submitted a comment to confirm their vote). This person will win the same prize as Niesha.

And for those of you that want to see how the votes played out, here are the details:

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Vote for the best holiday family portrait location in and around Seattle

Ok, last week I asked you to submit your ideas for the best location for holiday family portraits in and around the greater Seattle Tacoma area. Thanks to Steph, Niesha, Amber and Diane for your ideas.

Now, it’s your turn to vote on which of the ideas you think would provide the best setting for holiday portraits. The person that submitted the idea that gets the most votes will win a complimentary holiday mini-session which includes a 30 minute portrait session at the winning location, an online proofing gallery available for two weeks following the session, an 8×10 print, and one digital image that may be used to make your holiday photo cards.

And, there’s something else. I will also select a random winner from all the people that vote and they will also receive a complimentary holiday mini-session as described above. But here’s the deal. The only way I will know you voted is if you also leave a comment. Unfortunately, the software I’m using to run the poll does not collect any information regarding who is voting. So, be sure to leave a comment to let me know that you voted so that I can include your name in the random drawing for a winner.

So what are you waiting for. Let the voting begin!

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