Beautiful house, beautiful family, not much more a photographer could want in a session. Once again, candy was used for bribery purposes and lucky for me the candy hearts ended up making fun photos too just in time for Valentine’s Day. Totally not planned. One thing to note is that parents worry that their children are too energetic but really that makes for the most fun photos in my opinion. I just sit back with my camera and capture the magic and personality of a fun family interacting. These sessions end up being my favorite.

On another note unrelated to this post, I plan on adding more watermarks to my photos going forward. I hate to do it but after reading this article yesterday regarding photographers finding their images on websites I’ve decided to be more proactive in preventing photo stealing from happening. I think it looks terrible though so I am going to tread lightly and not watermark through faces as I’ve seen other photographers do.

In my last post I promised “beach photos coming soon”. I meant from my trip to Mexico but alas those are on hold as I have some newer! more exciting! photos to post from a session with a very special one year old and his sister this week. I am trying something new on this post. I’m adding a music button so you can listen to music while you look at the photos. Trying this feature out on this particular family’s photos makes a lot of sense too because this little guy’s dad is a very talented musician. In fact, that is how I first met the Dad — back in the days before diapers when he could still tour!

This was a fun session. I will either be popular with the neighbor kids (I used a pack of Skittles I found in my camera bag to bribe during this session) or they will hate me… when they are old enough to care about their cute little baby butt shots being taken by me. I’d better stock up on the skittles I guess.

My camera was starting to rust this January so these photos make me really happy — especially because there is a lot of love for this family. (And look at their cute new beach house! Love!)

I fell in love with this town and the Gata Gorda Inn. Andy, my husband and I had road tripped through Baja in 1994 for 3 months and we developed a love for the country. That said, we hadn’t been back to Mexico since 2004 due to the perceived “danger” of the drug cartels. Fortunately we found this little beach gem of a town seemingly untouched by the drug wars (read this article for more info). The town was a haven for surfers, artists, hippies, gringos, expats and mexicans alike — and they all intermingle. My idea of heaven — and I immediately started thinking, how can I retire here?

All right, enough with this prelude! Let’s get on with the photos of COLOR! And seriously, I mean color. No monochromatic gray of everything in Seattle. Did I mention I was in heaven? Indeed. (Part 2 will be beach photos, I promise.)

My photo session with the L family was bittersweet. For one I was really happy to see my former neighbors who have since moved to the midwest, and see how their daughters have grown. And I was really honored they’d hire me for a photo session on their vacation. But then sad part was that it made me miss them! We had a fun time at the Normandy Park Cove which worked great because in the background of many of the photos you can see their old (and my current) hood of Three Tree Point. Their mom described the girls as Tomboy Princesses. I love it! They are ready to jump, leap, explore and play in the sand — but always wearing a tutu! Awesomeness. I found I edited many of the photos in black and white because you know, Seattle is GRAY. Why not play up the gray with more gray?

Of course the session ended with a non-waterproof pair of Uggs wading in Puget Sound.

Hope to see this family again before the girls are really grown up!

As a rule, I always start off the new year with naked people on my blog. This year is no exception. Once again the crazy neighbors of Three Tree Point flirted with insanity by jumping into the less than tropical Puget Sound for a swim. I prefer my perch from shore with my camera as my excuse.

Happy 2012!

…and an apology to anyone who didn’t get this in the mail! Here it is, our holiday card from my family to yours. I hope 2011 was kind to you and that 2012 is off to a peaceful and refreshing new start!

Many blessings!

I just want to gush about this wedding. Holly and Erin had a rough year and a beautiful Hawaiian wedding was just what they needed. Holly has been a dear friend since I first met her my freshman year in college and I feel blessed to have been able to fly to Hawaii to be there and capture the love story unfolding. A big thanks goes out to Fran Doniego, my second shooter (who had the idea to climb up on the roof of the venue for ceremony shots) and who also was cool enough to drink coffee on the beach with me the following morning in our pajamas! What a team we make!

For wedding guests, the full gallery is on its way!

P.S. I also designed the wedding invitation (first photo, in the sand); the favors; table numbers and placeholders).

There is a bright side to this cold, blustery (and yes of course rainy weather) we’ve been having. The color. The beautiful fall leaves. I was so happy to have this family say they wanted a session with the leaves. This is the second time I’ve photographed this family. The first time was the absolutely most freezing cold session I’ve ever done. And when I say freezing, I mean below zero freezing! It was also the quickest photo session I’ve had. This year was cold too. They said next year we are shooting in July! Well maybe they’ll change their mind when they see the color of these leaves.