Along with a fellow photographer and good friend (who made it even more fun!), I photographed a wedding reception recently.  The bride and groom had been married in Portland the weekend before, but decided to have a reception locally so that grandparents and friends who were unable to make the wedding could help them celebrate.

The reception took place at the home of the groom’s parents.  Recently they had hired a creative and quite fabulous person to plan the landscaping of an overlooked piece of their property.  These photos are from that now utilized space.

I loved the plethora of native plant species.  These broad-leaved sword ferns are a favorite of mine.

The salal too.

Mariah’s culminating photo session took place Saturday.  She had fabulous models and did an amazing job!  Mariah worked solo with Will and Raeann from the start.  She planned and implemented a great shoot. 

I was basically along for the ride. 

I took a few photos of these models from afar (trying to stay out of Mariah’s way).  I’ll share them next week. 

Mariah, how fun these past few months have been -  I have enjoyed working with you!

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation!

Talking Jaedyn through what’s next…

 modeling what she’s wanting from Jaedyn…

and loving every minute of it!

Mariah is doing a fabulous job!  Check out her new blog and cheer her on!

Beautiful Brooke, thanks for being our willing “headshot” model.

Mariah will be my intern for a few months as she completes her senior project.  We’ll be brainstorming, designing, and implementing lots of photo shoots together.  We might be looking for models, so if you’re interested, let me know.

Mariah loves photography, is super creative, and lots of fun.  I’m excited to work with her!

Welcome aboard, Mariah!

which derive from a love of organization and having everything in its place (making lists too) -

inherited from my grandpa who also liked to label everything.  I recently found his labeling device.  This is the one I watched Grandpa use time and time again…the one that created the labels I saw everywhere in his basement…and the one that I wanted an identical version of (so I could label everything of mine).

Oh, and keeping manuals.  I found Grandpa’s slide viewer and the manual that came with it.

Also inherited from my Grandpa is my love of taking photos.

How fun it would have been to take photos together.

We’re still sorting Grandpa’s slides and movies.  I’d love to get some prints made…

his photographs make me smile.

I went with a friend and fellow photographer (who is also so fabulous). 

We ate a catered lunch in a posh little corner of the hotel (I should have gotten the turkey and avocado sandwich Melissa picked instead of my chicken cobb salad that was too healthy to come with a cookie).

While eating my salad, I looked across the lobby and saw Jasmine Star and her fabulous husband JD.  I don’t think I gave Melissa much of a choice as I almost sprinted across the room to meet them.  Before you think I was too rude, I did let them finish checking in before I accosted them.  While waiting, Melissa commented that I had lost all color in my face.  Ah, celebrity sightings! 

Refreshed. 

Inspired.

Thankful.

Ready for this day…the last day before school starts for my boys.  I’m looking forward to just hanging out with them.

Hope you have a great Tuesday as well!

I love prints on canvas, and I have been waiting to hang these for quite some time now.

The paint was selected over 9 months ago…

but the room is almost done – yeah!

I’ll post a photo of the finished product soon…I hope.

Sometimes, with my photography, I feel a little bit like this bucket…

like I’ve been in the same spot too long, allowing the never-ending wave action to lull me to sleep with nothing but rust to show.

I’ve always loved taking photographs, but there have been times in these last few years when taking photographs is not fun – when I feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over again, when I look at my photographs and see nothing.

I know there are remedies for this situation.  My husband would say cut yourself some slack.  And I do…once in a great while.

Recently I went with a friend (and fellow photographer) to take photos.  There were no models involved, no time schedules, and no stress.  We began our time together by just walking on the beach, talking as we went.  There was a heavy mist and some light rain so our cameras remained in our bags for awhile (I wasn’t ready to pull mine out anyway).  Halfway back from the point, I looked up from the beach to a nearby island and saw that the mist had vanished.  I took off my hood as we continued to walk.  My friend pulled her camera out.  I waited, enjoying our conversation and loving the marine life around us.  We came upon a rock we had noticed earlier.  One side of it had some barnacle “scars” that made a nice pattern (I’m still a pattern girl at heart).  I took a few photographs but wasn’t really pleased with any of them; I continued to walk.  We photographed some sea stars, some buoys, pilings, and boats.  We both stared at the bucket in the photograph above.  It was my friend who voiced what I was thinking…how do I photograph this?  We moved around,  photographed high and low, photographed objects nearby, even swapped lenses with each other.  I think both of us walked away not satisfied with what we had taken.  But that’s o.k.

 We focused on other scenes and objects.

I went back to the original bucket and focused on a detail. 

Soon I found myself again in that place I love - completely wrapped up in seeing and photographing.

I suppose I may feel like that bucket at times, but I’m thankful for opportunities like this.  It helps me remember why I photograph – it makes me smile.

Have a great Monday!

This elephant had been given a treat of bamboo.  It was amazing to watch it use its trunk and front feet to break the bamboo shoots into smaller sections.

I don’t know how closely I’ve studied elephants before, but I don’t remember noticing all the hair, and I was amazed by the look of their skin.  If I think of elephant skin, I think of the first photo – very wrinkly and dry, almost chapped.  But near their feet, their skin looks almost like velvet (I’m sure it doesn’t feel like velvet, but it looks a bit like velvet).

Have a great Thursday!