The Skiver Clan

I met the Skiver Clan at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, which seems to be my default meeting place for Seattle and the Eastside lately. They were my first big family photo session, complete with three separate little families combining to one giant clan. Two grandparents, two grown siblings, two spouses, four little kids/cousins/grandkids. Whew! The two little school aged boy cousins were extremely adorable and really fun to capture on camera. I also had a lot of fun posing the families in different ways to represent all the different relationships that existed.

The Skiver Clan


My theory that the chance of getting everyone to look at the camera grows exponentially more difficult with a) more people and b) younger people is again proven. thank goodness for lollipop bribes!


Grandparents and grandkids


cute cousins


Siblings and cousins


Family units!

The Blumenthal Family

This mom and I have been in the same playgroup since our oldest sons were wee little tykes so I was pretty excited to do their family portraits. I met them at my favorite eastside outdoor location, the Bellevue Botanical Gardens where her two boys gave me a glimpse of my future life! Rambunctious but full of brotherly love, I tried hard to capture their personalities in the pictures. The older one was at the age where he was so willing to ham it up to the camera and pose for me, but the younger one had more reservations. Together though they made some very sweet moments I was able to capture and hope their parents will treasure.

Meet the Blumenthals!


this was taken towards the end of the session, I think you can tell the boys are getting a little tired


Do you know how hard it is to try to get TWO toddlers to look at your camera? :)


older brother


I always try to get the mom in a picture alone with a kid, because mom is usually the picture-taker and never in the pictures herself!


brotherly love

The Smith Family

It's definately the time of year everyone wants nice family pictures done. I've been pretty lucky in that the weather has generally been not raining, which is all you can ask for in the Seattle area. :) I met this nice family at Bothell Landing Park as park of my Holiday Portrait Package. They were very fun and amicable to trooping all over the park to find different shot locations. The biggest factor to work with was the little girl's interest in eating leaves and not smiling at the camera, but I think it worked in our favor. I hope they enjoy the picture as much as I enjoyed shooting them!

The Smith Family


Dad and Emily


mom and Emily


baby on a bridge!


but she's so cute!


one last leaf picture!

Oliver - 9 days old

I had the pleasure of taking newborn Oliver's portraits last week. His mom and I actually went to high school together (way back when!) and reconnected through Facebook. She was kind enough to let me photograph little Oliver, and she also joyfully participated in my eagerness to stage as many hat pictures on babies as possible. The lighting conditions were a little challenging, but Oliver behaved like a champ and pretty much slept through most of the shoot. I present Oliver's sneak peek now, aka The Most Awesome Hat Shoot I've Ever Done.

meet Oliver


Oliver with mom and dad


beanie hat Oliver with a dimple!


I lent Oliver my own apple beanie hat


The Most Awesomely Terrific Baby Hat EVER


baby feet and rings


soft newborn head


baby bottom


kisses from grandma


snuggles from mom

Elizabeth - 3 months old

Elizabeth's parents contacted me to take portraits of their adorable daughter as part of my Grow With Me package. I was excited to meet her and am pretty excited for her next photoshoot to see how much she's grown and learn. I was also excited that their house had these huge, gorgeous windows that let in a ton of natural light and made for a great shooting area for me to set up.

Elizabeth is only a couple of days older than my youngest son Albert, so I had a lot of practice in posing the three month old. As a bonus, Elizabeth's maternal grandparents were there as well as we were able to get some nice generational shots with the whole family.

Meet Miss Elizabeth


her mom was very helpful in finding different hats to use during the shoot


look at those eyes!


baby feet!


a sweet moment with dad


Mommy and me


three generations

The Vo/Vu Family

This cute family wanted some shots of their three year old and seven month old boys, along with some extended family shots as well. We were lucky in that even though it had been raining cats and dogs earlier that morning, by the time of the photo shoot the weather was quite decent. The extended family humored my wishes by me posing them on the side of the street for some great fall foliage. These are the two things I learned: 1) the more people involved in a group shot, the greater the chance someone isn't looking at the camera; 2) the younger the person is in a group shot, the greater the chances are that s/he isn't going to be looking at the camera.

Once we got inside and the kids alone, they were much more cooperative and I was able to get some nice shots of the kids along with some candids of the kids with their parents. Here's their sneak peek and I hope they enjoy the pictures as much as I did!

The Vo/Vu family


their cutie 3 year old




their ever so serious 7 month old - I have a hard time getting babies this age to smile for me!


a sweet moment with mom


playing with dad


the extended family. In this shot they actually are standing by the side of the road, what good sports!

The Stubblefield Family

I first knew of this family once we had our first son Samuel and kept seeing these people walking around our neighborhood with a toddler in a backpack and two Great Danes in tow. We got to know them as neighbors better this year because our sons are in the same preschool class. I was excited to shoot their family pictures this year because they are such a cute family and were very amicable towards fun poses with their dogs. The mom explained to me that family photos including everyone in their family (mom, dad, kidlet, and doggies) were pretty important so I tried pretty hard to get some good moments for everyone.

We headed to one of my favorite nearby parks to shoot at, Bothell Landing, because there's plenty of open area, trees, the nice river backdrop, and it is very dog friendly. I will admit, it was difficult to get all five of them to look at me at the same time for pictures. Being Great Danes, they were bigger than the little boy so they couldn't get too excited or else he'd be dragged off his feet and out of the pose. I got lots of shots with the little boy looking at me and the dogs looking away, or the dogs looking at me, and the little boy looking away. It was a little frustrating, but some pictures did come out quite well. I hope you enjoy their sneak peek!

Meet the Stubblefields!


most of my shots had the dogs looking at each other instead of me!


the "kids"




their cute little boy


the human component of the family


and I finally found a family that would help me achieve my jumping family shot