Self Portrait of a Five Year Old

Just had to share. My daughter had her 5th birthday two weeks ago and one of her gifts was an easel and art supplies. She LOVES to draw and color. It is something that she could sit and do all day. Well, after seeing her first work of art on her new easel I had to grab the camera and take a quick picture to preserve it. When my husband commented to her about the “princess” she painted she said, “no Daddy, it’s me”. So, what do you think? Would your self portrait include a crown on your head? A smile or a frown? Would you be adorned in bright colors like my daughter’s painting or would it be more subdued?

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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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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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Family Portrait Session With Marcus, Marla and Fiona

I was contacted in early July by Marcus who wanted to schedule a portrait session for his daughter Fiona. We were finally able to coordinate our schedules and get together to capture some great shots of Fiona as well as of the entire family on the campus of the University of Washington.

Fiona just turned one and despite the fact that she was not feeling 100% while battling a little summer cold, she was a good sport during the entire session. I really enjoyed being able to observe her sparkly little personality and how cute she looks when she wrinkles her nose when she smiles. And there were plenty of smiles that came once Monster, her favorite stuffed toy, made an appearance. And her sweet little personality came out everytime someone new would walk by. Fiona could not let them pass without extending some sort of greeting and a little accompanying wave of the hand. I also believe I was present when she said “bike”, one of her first words that she uttered while observing all of the people commuting across campus by bike.

I really tried to limit the number of photos from the session that I share here but here are a few samples to give you an idea of sweet little Fiona and her proud Mommy and Daddy.

And to Marcus, Marla and Fiona – thanks for spending time with me and allowing me to capture such a special time in your life right now. I hope that these images will allow you to look back and remember every special little nuance of what your life was like when Fiona was a one year old.

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More Photos from David & Kirsten’s Wedding

After posting some of Chris’ images that he captured at the wedding, I’ve been trying to review some of mine to share. It hasn’t helped that I’ve been out of commission with an injury but what has really made it difficult is that there are so many fun photos to choose from. Given that Chris’ images provided good coverage of the actual ceremony, I tried to just choose a few images to fill in some gaps. Most of them I’m reserving for just David and Kirsten and their families to enjoy but I did want to take the chance to share just a few more with you here.

Here are a few of the flower girls hanging out together prior to the ceremony.

This is a picture of Kirsten after arriving back at the Lake Quinault Resort and making her way down to the ceremony location. Isn’t she stunning?

Here is Kirsten’s mom and stepdad walking her down the aisle.

Here are a couple of David during the ceremony.

I liked this one simply because of how Kirsten’s vail looked.

Here is one of David removing Kirsten’s vail. I’m sure he’s smiling because he knows what comes next.

Making it official by signing the marriage license after the ceremony.

Kirsten and her proud brother and sisters.

Some of the flower girls enjoyed hiding under Kirsten’s vail.

This is David and Kirsten as they enjoy the fireworks display that Jon, the owner of the Lake Quinault Resort, provided for them.

I intruded on their quiet moment together to capture the following two shots.

David and Kirsten, thanks again for allowing Chris and I to participate in such a beautiful milestone moment for you and your families. I’m really excited to share with you all of the fantastic images that we captured to help you remember your special day.

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Rob and Melissa Family Portrait Session

Melissa hired me back in June to help capture Rob’s parents as they celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary. We got back together a couple of weeks ago at her house to try and capture some portraits of her family. Please enjoy just a few samples from the session.

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Clara the Explorer

So, after she came down stairs from her bedroom holding a dress in her hands and requesting to put it on, Clara went straight outside and decided to hunt for bugs. Somehow, despite my level of discomfort around small creepy crawly things, both of my girls are fascinated with (and unafraid) of bugs. Bees are another story. If they even hear a buzzing sound while they are outside, they freak out and start screaming about bees. Yet, they are perfectly comfortable reaching their hands into every nook and cranny of our rockery looking for spiders, ants, beetles and “rollie-pollies”.

The spot that Clara picked to look for some new friends was under a maple tree in our backyard. The branches of the tree filtered the sun so that the only place that had direct light was on Clara. It looked very cool and I don’t think I could have planned the light any better as it really created some interesting highlights and shadows. Check out these few photos that I was able to capture of her while she was digging through the rocks. Although the last picture is a relatively straightforward sepia tone, the others are an experimental recipe that I came up with while having some fun in Photoshop. How do you like it? I guess if I get favorable feedback on the treatment, I’ll record it as an action so that it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice and easy to duplicate on other images.

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Portrait Session With Payschence

I have to start this post out by acknowledging the sales skills of my mother-in-law. Apparently she has been encouraging her co-workers to check out my blog. Well, it really paid off because I had the opportunity to connect with Claudia who wanted to schedule a photo session of her four year old granddaughter that is getting ready to move out of state. I spent this past Saturday morning over at her home following her granddaughter Payschence around with my camera. Payschence was kind enough to show me the playhouse that her grandpa built for her in the backyard, the “mountain” where she likes to spend time thinking and just getting away from it all, her swing set, and a very special Japanese Maple tree that was planted in honor of her daddy.

She is a darling little girl and would make a natural cover girl with all of the posing for the camera she likes to do. Despite some challenging lighting conditions I think we were able to capture some really precious memories that Claudia will be able to cherish for a long time.

Claudia and Payschence, thanks for letting me spend some time with you on Saturday. I can’t wait for you to see the rest of the images.

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Alki Beach Portrait Session #3

The last but certainly not the least family to join me at Alki Beach on Saturday for portrait sessions was Rick, Kari, Grace and Ava. Kari was my very first client that trusted me to take pictures of one of her beautiful girls. You can see a couple of those photos from my very first post back in February. They are also very dear friends with our family.

It was so fun to just capture them spending time together as a family having fun on the beach. Again, I know I’ve said it before but I really like doing the on location sessions with families that have younger children. Instead of worrying about the girls stepping around hot lights and expensive photographic equipment, trying to get them to sit and pose just right and waiting for me to tell them what to do, I just got to follow them around with my camera while they had a blast playing on the beach. Also, while the girls were busy digging in the sand and playing in the water, Rick and Kari had the chance to take a nice (and admittedly brief) stroll down the beach as a couple. I even have the shot to prove it.

Although I was unsuccessful in getting Rick to flash me his famous Zoolander pose, we really captured some nice images and I can’t wait to see some of them up on their wall at home. Take a look at the following sneak peek and let me know what you think.

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Alki Beach Portrait Session #2

So, it’s my pleasure to highlight the second family that joined me at Alki Beach in West Seattle on Saturday morning for a portrait session. Joy is one of the moms that signed up for a portrait session back in February at the MOPS business fair and I’ve been so excited to photograph her and her family. I was even more excited when I heard that this portrait session was a birthday present from her husband Eric and their three children Cassie, Catelynn and Carter. They are a beautiful family and I had so much fun capturing some nice posed shots as well as just watching them play on the beach.

Happy belated birthday, Joy! I’m excited for you to see some of the great shots that we were able to capture.

And for the rest of you, after you enjoy the photos below, be sure to check back tomorrow when I highlight the last family from Saturday’s sessions at the beach.

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