Picturing Salem with Derek

A few weekends ago, I had the chance to dash down to Salem (it was the dashing back home that caused a few complications :-\ ) to do a session with Derek and his family. I had a great time wandering around the capital with Derek and his dad! Here are a few of my favorites below, and family pictures will be up soon!

Fall Photoshoot!

It's tradition to have a photoshoot with Franny, Michelle and Cheryl every season. I absolutely love fall. I mean really, really, really love it. So when I found out this weekend that all our schedules clicked with a dry day I could hardly wait to go out and spend a good three hours shooting around campus with my friends! Below are some of the results, the first picture taken by Franny and edited by me.

Assignment Shoot with Karen and Caleb

A few weekends ago I needed to fulfill a class assignment, taking a set of three pictures showing contrasting images and then the two images together. I decided on "little", "big" and "together". I asked my pastor and friend Karen if I could take pictures of her and her son Caleb. I had a great 15 minute shoot with them. Caleb was so responsive to direction and I really appreciate his willingness to participate. Thanks Karen and Caleb!

Running in the Rain with Alyssa

Getting yearbook pictures in can be kind of a time crunch (so many deadlines senior year!), and I was so happy that Alyssa was able to fit them in between piano lessons and heading on a family trip. Although it was pretty gloomy weather last Friday--we're talking lots of rain, some wind and very dark clouds--Alyssa's family was great! They helped me out so much, lugging my gear as we ran from roof ledge to roof ledge, and her dad even manned the reflector! Their fantastic attitudes made running around in the soggy rain tons of fun. So here I present to you some of Alyssa's yearbook photo choices!

Kickin' It With Casey

After running to a nearby park to do Alyssa's portraits, I went back to hang out with Casey. His mom, Paige, wanted me to take some photos of him to update some family with. Casey is always a ham with his "cheese" smiles, but I had a fun time trying to catch him holding still! It's always fun to hang out with him! Here are some pictures from Friday!

Preview for Alyssa's Yearbook photos

This weekend I was able to dash north for a few days of photography fun! Alyssa, a senior from the area, needed to get some quick shots for her yearbook photo before the deadline next week. Fortunately we were able to get our schedules to connect and did a quick session in the wind and rain! Here's a preview image (edited by Michelle):

Horsing Around!

A long awaited photo session took place with Mary today! Michelle and I drove down to the Canby Equestrian Center this morning (passing a really cool tree farm that looked like something straight out of Dr. Seuss land!). I had lots of fun hanging out with all the horses (and Indy too) and got some fun shots! Of course, we did some pictures of Mary and her mom, Lydia too! It was a good experience for me to work with people and animals again, as well as trying to hide a broken wrist :(!!! Thanks Mary for being a good sport and letting us take over the barn...and letting me boss you around to take pictures ;)! Below are some of my favorites, and you can see more pictures of the horses (and pals): here!

This was the horse I always wanted when I was little!:

Horse attitude:

Auntie Mary and Phantom:

Mission Accomplished

After spending a few hours assisting with the local professional photographer I've worked with before, I was inspired to get Emily's senior pictures completely done :) Now all I have to do is send this:

Emily also asked me to mentor her for her senior project, involving photography so I'm really looking forward to helping her out with that too! :)

Senior Pictures with Another Emily!

I was so excited to hear that Emily wanted me to do her senior pictures! I drove up to the Seattle area last Friday but had been scoping out potential locations all week. Finally, I decided to suggest a park that I used go to a lot as a kid. With a cool silo that had been converted into a bathroom, lots of barns, fields and woods, I figured we would have a lot of options. And we did!!! It was great to get to know Emily (she's into photography too--we don't just share a name)! She was up for anything including standing in a creek, field full of crickets and having her picture taken in front of a bunch of families out at the park. We even had some fun taking pictures in the "alien tree" we found in the woods.
I am not done with all of them (in fact this is pretty much it :-/), but I just wanted to share the few I've had a chance to retouch because Emily was great to photograph! I hope she enjoys these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them!





Here is Emily and the alien tree! ;)

Another Senior Session...coming soon :D

So it's already September! Ahhhh! Schoolwork has pretty much blindsided me, but never fear, because I always have time for a photo session (or I make time at least). This past weekend I drove up to the Seattle area for another senior session with a Mill Creek senior named Emily! I had such a blast and am struggling to do homework and not to go through and retouch the 31 images I pulled out from the masses (usually I do 10 to 20 images, but Emily was a great subject and the location had so many options)! So I will leave you with this one preview image and the knowledge that a larger and much more detailed preview is on the way!

It's too darn hot to do anything but take pictures

Yep, it's almost 2am but I'm having a hard time sleeping because it is so ridiculously hot here. We have to keep our windows shut too cause someone down the street is burning stuff...fantastic.
Anyway, today I had an awesomely fun day having a photoshoot with two of my closest friends at home: Katie and Caryn. We drove around various places in the neighborhood and had tons of fun, even though we were dealing with 90° temps and stinging nettles as well :) Here's a quick, unedited look!

My first paid senior portrait shoot!

Yesterday I got to take some senior portraits for a Mill Creek senior named Valerie. It was such a blast! She wanted to take some pictures with her horse, Dane, so I drove up to the barn in Snohomish. After an hour in the 80° sun, Dane started to get a little tired of it all, so we took some single shots of Valerie. They sort of turned out a little different than my usual style, as it was a new experience for me to work with animals and people as well as I was trying to capture her personality. Here's a little sneak peek at some of the pictures :)

Seattle for old time's sake

Eva and I went into Seattle today to hang out at her mom's work, go to Pike Place Market and the waterfront and of COURSE take pictures! So here are today's results:






I had Eva take one of me as well!

A Client Shoot of sorts...

Today I had a photoshoot for my friend Paige and her two boys, Casey (4) and Will (<1). She is planning on printing these and giving them as a gift. It was a lot of fun, and a great to actually get out and take pictures of kids over 10 years younger than me! It turns out it's easier to take pictures of babies because they don't move as much as kids do. These are some of my favorites.