Family Portrait Session at Gas Works Park – Seattle Portrait Photography

Today I met up with Steve and his children to have some fun at Gas Works Park. Steve is my husband’s cousin and we’ve been trying to get together for a while now so that I could get some pics of him and his kids. Despite the fact that it was cold and foggy (hey, at least it wasn’t rainy), we still managed to enjoy the park and get some nice photos while we were at it. The three of them were good sports and I’m glad that we were finally able to get together to make this happen. I think we got some great shots and my only regret continues to be the fact that the constraints of my blog don’t allow me to post bigger photos so that they can be enjoyed in all their glory.

You’ll notice that I didn’t get too crazy or creative on the post-processing of these files (even though my blog is where I typically like to experiment with different treatments). However, there is one image that I decided to make black and white. Also, considering that the background on that image is blown out, I added some texture to it as well. Although it might not be for everyone, I actually like how it turned out. I think the texture adds some depth to the image and it ended up being a nice moment between father and son. What do you think?

Oh yeah, I also snuck one in at the end with all the cousins.

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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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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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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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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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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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Family Portraits With John, Renee, Tommy and Tyler

Today I was able to spend some time with John and Renee and their two sons. We spent part of the session at their home and traveled to Owen Beach at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma for the second half of their portrait session. It’s days like today that remind me why I love doing lifestyle photography on location and not in a studio. I have to imagine that a studio would not have allowed their two sons to be the boys that they are and show all of their great personality (and energy!).

It was fun to watch the boys hang out in their mom and dad’s room. And God bless John and Renee. They have really embraced raising two boys as was obvious when a spontaneous pillow fight broke out. Everyone joined in and it was every man for himself. I’m just glad I was able to hide behind the camera and not enter into the fray.

I’m really happy with the shots I was able to capture today and am super excited to share all of the proofs with John and Renee. In the meantime, I picked a few favorites and had some fun with a few of them in Photoshop to add some nuances here and there – some straight color, B&W, and Sepia but some with a little “special sauce”. What do you think?

Thanks again to John, Renee, Tommy and Tyler for letting me tag along with you guys today. Have fun looking through these photos together.

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San Diego Workshop With Me Ra Koh and Carey Schumacher

Although I still feel like I’m trying to catch up after being away for a few days, I’m also still riding the high from the wonderful photography workshop that I attended down in San Diego over the Memorial Day weekend. Aside from not being able to spend time enjoying San Diego with the rest of my family, the weekend was absolutely perfect. Ok, maybe not weather-wise but it was pretty darn near close to perfect. And, the weather seemed to progressively get better as the weekend went on.

I got to spend three intensive days working with, and learning from, very talented photographers including Me Ra Koh and her husband Brian Tausend and Carey Schumacher from San Diego Barefoot Memories. And as if that wasn’t enough, I had the chance to enjoy this all with about 30 other fabulous women that all have a passion for photography. It was a blast.

There is way too much to share in this one post so I wanted to at least give you a view into a couple of the photo sessions that we were able to do during the workshop. The first is of a mother and her 8 week old baby. We did this shoot at the Rancho Bernardo Inn which is where the workshop was held. The second set of shots were taken at the Wind and Sea beach in La Jolla. That place was gorgeous and provided a wonderful backdrop for some of these family shots.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Also, be sure to check back tomorrow as I hope to share some maternity shots that I got to do for another wonderful and talented local photographer.

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