James - two months

Adorable James and his parents came to me for a photoshoot. He's three weeks younger than my Albert, and it was really nice shooting a baby that would behave for the camera! James was awake the entire time, so we spent a lot of time trying to get him to smile. Ultimately, we were unsuccessful, as he'd only smile when I wasn't taking pictures, but I think I got some nice shots that showed the little strong man's personality. Here is a preview of their session!

Meet James


yes, he did find his hand quite tasty in all the shots


fuzzy baby head!


my best shot at a non-serious look from James


I love the looks Dad and James are giving each other


posing with mom


the mom had this idea for a family shot. I thought it was great, and something they could continue to do every year as a tradition as James grows older.


a more traditional family shot

The Wagner Family

I have known the Wagner family since I was in junior high and they've always been very supportive and kind towards me and my adventures. :) The daughter is one of my best friends and we've stayed in touch over all these years. I was pleased to shoot their family photos this year at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens on a gorgeous fall day here in the Pacific Northwest last weekend.

The two hardest things about this shoot were a) getting everyone in focus, in a decent amount of light, and making sure limbs and heads weren't cut off too awkwardly; and b) getting the toddler to look at the camera. The two year old was being two and my regular tricks were not getting any sort of responses from her at all. Combined with the large group setting, it was hard getting a shot where everyone was looking and smiling without closing their eyes at me. I had much better results shooting her one on one with a family member being entertaining behind me. Maybe next time at a large family shoot I'll wear a funny hat and have rabbits pop out of it to garner the kids' attention. :)

Onto the sneak peek!

Meet the Wagners


one of the better shots where everyone was looking at the camera


I love the look in her face here


three generations


and oh look! a real smile!


this is my favorite thing about the Botanical Gardens. It comes with its very own hobbit door! Perfect for toddlers!

Apples and kiddos

Our yard has an inordinate amount of fruit trees for being in the city and a smaller lot. This time of year is apple harvesting time, and I thought they'd make a great background to shoot against. Unfortunately, both my kids had other plans and weren't the most cooperative of subjects, but I did get a couple of good pictures. Yes, all the apples you see were picked from our yard.

If you've been to my website recently, you'll have seen this picture already. For this picture of Samuel, I used my 85mm 2.8 lense with me perched on top of a six foot tall ladder shooting down at him. he refused to lay down in the apples, probably due to the fact that the sky was bright (even though it was overcast). Hence the close cropping.


Albert was much easier to pose. We just laid him in the grass and positioned apples around him. Again I'm up on the ladder shooting down at him with my 85mm.

"mom, what are you doing?"


I moved off the ladder to shoot him a little closer for these pictures. Todd had the great idea to give him an apple so his hands wouldn't constantly be in front of his face.


and finally, a smile!


and what we do with all those apples - make applesauce! Samuel here is operating the apple corer peeler machine.


in action

The Rossi Family

I met this happy couple at Bothell Landing Park in Bothell on a beautiful fall day here in the Pacific Northwest. The park was a really gorgeous backdrop, with a pedestrian footbridge over to the Sammamish River Trail, the river backdrop, and some historical houses as well. I'm really looking forward to shoot there again.

The wife had told me she wanted some family pictures taken in the gorgeous fall foliage with her, her husband, and their two cutie daschunds. It was my first time photographing dogs so I was pretty excited. I was also pretty excited that this couple were pretty easy going to any suggestions I had, including my obsession to get a picture with leaves falling around them - perfect for fall!

The happy couple




the footbridge


in front of the historic old school house


such good sports to pose for me


laying on the wooden footbridge across the wetlands


family portrait


dogs!




the husband had the great idea to have me shooting while the dog ran across to him. This was my favorite shot of that series


happy autumn

The Larson Family

I've been friends with this couple since high school, and their son is just a year younger than my Samuel and are good buddies. Melissa has been kind and very supportive of my journey to become a photographer and has let me take pictures of her son and of her family. Her main goal this shoot was to get a family portrait where Jarrett was smiling, and I think we achieved that result.

Meet the Larson Family


I caught him as he was running around in circles at the park


Serious Jarrett


ready to jump


smiling for the camera

The Mitchell Family

I've known the Mitchell family for a very long time. The daughter and I met on the school bus during junior high, and have been friends ever since. It was my pleasure to take their family pictures this weekend. We met at Martha Lake Park in Lynnwood, which is actually a very pretty little park. It's right by the lake with docks and piers, plus plenty of open green space to play and run around for little energetic toddlers. There were three generations of Mitchells in the pictures, and it was really cute to just see the little cousins together.

One difficuly I had during the shoot was getting both kids to look my direction at the same time and getting smiles. I finally settled for just getting them to both look at me and one of them to smile. I'm also still working on posing, positioning, and shoot bigger family portraits without them looking too stiff or forced. The weather was a bit on the colder side the day of our session, which made finding non-forced poses difficult as people did not want to stay outside for very long. Hopefully with more practice I'll be able to shoot shots that are as fun and candid as my baby portraits.

Meet the Mitchell family




Mom and Dad Mitchell


I love the look on his sweet face


baby tossing!


cousins

Dana and Idris

Dana is a good friend of mine who is getting married. I met her and her charming fiance Idris last weekend at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. They agreed to be my photography guinea pigs and let me shoot their engagement portraits. I was pretty excited, as I'd never been to the Olympic Sculpture Park before and it was a pretty nifty place. Dana and Idris were really great to work with, and pretty willing sports to do whatever I directed of them. I am kicking myself that I didn't bring along my sheet of "interesting and artsy engagement poses" and as such, felt that I had a lot of stiff, formal poses for the portraits. However, I did get some nice shots of the two of them, and definately had a lot of fun in the process. Hopefully they did as well!

The happy couple


such great loving looks they gave each other


Dana, Idris, and of course the Space Needle


they are both great dancers


at the end of this little dance set Idris picked Dana up and I snapped this shot


checking out the view of downtown Seattle


overlooking Puget Sound


and my favorite shot of them