Stephanie & Danielle

Last week I had an awesome time hanging out with my friend Darcy and her two daughters, Stephanie and Danielle. We’ve been trying to make something happen for quite a while but with the busyness of summer and the somewhat unpredictable weather, it seemed like it would never happen. Well finally last week we were able to connect and spend a few hours together on a nice sunny afternoon.

These girls are so much fun to hang out with and I love taking photos of them because they make my job so easy. First, they are just gorgeous, as is obvious from all of the photos I will share below. Really, in order to get good photos of them, I just need to make sure that I don’t mess up because they always look so beautiful. Secondly, they both have such great personalities and are just a lot of fun to hang out with. Consequently, I end up with a lot of really fun photos of them. I mean really, I should have warned you earlier but this post will involve more images than I’ve ever posted at once before. And believe it or not, I actually did restrain myself somewhat. I originally had a handful more that I wanted to post. It was just so difficult to choose.

I’m really hopeful that I’ll have many more opportunities to take more photos of them over the years. I think Stephanie is going to be a senior model for me and when Danielle is a little older, I hope that she too will be a senior model. As you’ll see from their photos, they certainly have the model part down.

Thanks Darcy, Stephanie and Danielle. I had a lot of fun tagging along with you guys last week and really hope you enjoy what we ended up with. 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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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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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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Photo Shoot With Zachary

This morning I met Zachary and his mommy and daddy down at the park to take photos now that he’s a big one year old. It took Zachary a little bit to warm up to the strange woman with the camera but once mommy started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, he was happy and ready to go. There nothing quite like a mother’s connection with her child.

We prayed for good weather and were not disappointed although we did have a little damp grass to deal with. I’ve included some of my favorites from this morning and I’m sure you’ll agree after looking at them that Zachary is one of the cutest little guys you’ve ever seen. How can you not love those dimples?

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40th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday afternoon, I had the privilege of doing a photo shoot for a family that had gathered to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of Bob and Musette. What an awesome milestone and certainly a reason to celebrate. I was very humbled that Melissa wanted to hire me to capture such a special memory.

They had gathered over at the house of their son Ryan and his wife Erin before heading out in a limo to a nice dinner in downtown Seattle. Before they headed out, they let me spend an hour with them capturing some fun moments of them, their children and their grandkids. Bob and Musette have four sons and, having three older brothers of my own, it was fun to observe the interaction between the them. Some of the photos I was able to capture certainly allow their personalities to shine. And all of the grandkids are just adorable and despite not always wanting a camera pointed at them, I was able to capture some very precious shots.

Bob and Musette, I’m really excited for you to see all of the great images I captured of you and your family. In the meantime, please enjoy a few samples below to tide you over. And to everyone else, please join me in extending Happy 40th Anniversary wishes to Bob and Musette. I hope that you and your entire family have many more opportunities to celebrate together.

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Family Portrait Session With Dave, Kelly, Macey and Hailey

On Wednesday of this week I had the chance to do a family portrait session with Dave and Kelly and their two beautiful daughters. We’ve been trying to make this happen for a while now, but we were holding out for nice weather and a yard that was in full bloom. Well, the yard is in bloom for sure but we realized we couldn’t keep waiting for the weather. (Is it just me or is anyone else tired of our June weather reports showing nothing but cloudy and rainy skies with high temperatures in the low 60s? Maybe I just got spoiled during my trip to San Diego.)

I met Kelly at MOPS this year and have really enjoyed getting to know her. She’s a very sweet gal and I really appreciated her being willing to support me by signing up for a portrait session when I was first getting my business started. It’s been about 4 months since she signed up so I’m glad we were finally able to get together and make this happen. They have a lovely home near the lake and the four of them make a beautiful and very photogenic family. Their girls are darling and I really had fun seeing how the personalities of all four of them came out during the photo shoot.

I’m really excited for Dave and Kelly to see all of the great proofs that I have ready for them. For the rest of you that will not be fortunate enough to see all of them, I’ve included just a few samples below from our time together. Enjoy and please feel free to leave comments about how precious their two girls look in these photos.

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Family Portraits With Todd, Kristy and Abby

This morning before church I was fortunate enough to be invited into the home of a wonderful family to do a portrait session. Todd and Kristy are getting ready to welcome a baby brother for their beautiful daughter Abby and wanted to capture what they look like as a family of three before the new addition arrives.

Given that Kristy is an interior designer, it’s no wonder that their home was beautifully decorated. If you are in need of an interior design consultation, be sure to contact Kristy. Trust me, she’s wonderful.

I had a lot of fun capturing some great images of the three of them. They are a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to getting our families together sometime soon to fire up the BBQ and get to know each other better. The three of them make such a great looking family, I can’t wait to see how the arrival of their new son adds to the mix. Thanks to Todd, Kristy and Abby for allowing me to invade your space this morning and enjoy your company for an hour.

Here are just a few samples from our session. I hope you enjoy!

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How to Photograph a Toddler

A lot of times, after looking at children’s portraits that I’ve done, people will ask me how I manage to get the kids to sit still for the photos. I have to admit that more often than not, the answer is, I don’t get them to sit still. I just photograph them doing whatever they happen to be doing. Sometimes, they do settle in and sit still for a moment and when they do, I take advantage and snap a photo. It’s not necessarily a science and there is certainly no secret. Although, if there was, I probably wouldn’t give it away for free here on this blog;-)

I think at some point I would love to have a home based studio where I can have the nice backdrops and lighting to ensure that I can always get the perfectly exposed portraits however, I enjoy the fact that I have the freedom to shoot on location. I love the opportunity to capture families being authentic and “in the moment”. As a mom of three young children, I know what it can be like going to the studio, knowing that we only have an hour to try to get it right. There’s so much pressure to ensure the kids are behaved enough so they don’t break some expensive piece of equipment or that they will be able to sit still and in one place (actually, the specific spot that the photographer tells them to) long enough to get at least one decent photo to purchase. Usually both Chris and I are stressed out trying to keep everyone together and happy throughout the entire session and hoping that the photographer’s patience doesn’t wear too thin.

That’s the level of empathy and understanding that I bring to my sessions with families. I really strive to make it a stress free and enjoyable time together. I think it really comes out in the photos I’ve been able to capture too. I know that, personally, I’ve had a blast working with each of the families and I hope that I’ll have the chance to do their family portraits for years to come.

But, speaking of getting kids to sit still, Clara seemed to be in a rare mood where she wanted to sit still for mommy to take some pictures. It was too good to pass up. Although it wasn’t in the best location, both in terms of lighting or backdrop, I’ve learned to take advantage of these opportunities when they are presented. I hope you enjoy. Personally, I think she’s darling and I can’t believe she’s almost 2-years old. Here she is in all of her navy blue splendor (another hand-me-down from her big sister, Kelsey).

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