More about me

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I realize that I don't talk about myself much, so I'm using this blog post to rectify that situation. I'm Alex, 31 turning 32 on saturday, and besides being a mom and a wife and a budding portrait photographer, the biggest thing going on in my life right now is being 38 weeks pregnant with our second. Yes, that is right, I am a girl (I've had a few clients be confused about that). :) Due to my rapidly approaching due date, I'm taking August - September "off" from scheduling client shoots, but I'll be scheduling shoots again probably mid-September onward. In the later fall I also plan on having a Family Portrait Package special in time for the holidays, which I'll update more about later.

In the photography realm, lst weekend I purchased the spiffy Slik Sprint Tripod since our other tripod broke in half. It's super light and very accomodating for my photography needs (which are pretty much learning about self portraits and self family portraits). I set it up to take a couple of maternity pictures of myself to document for this pregnancy. For this setup I had my backdrop with the black velour draped over it, and a ball suspended by twine from the ceiling to "focus" on while I set the self timer. Note to self: much purchase remote trigger soon.

self-portrait at 37 weeks


out, baby, out!


Samuel wanted in on the picture taking as well. the composition is a little off, but not bad for a last minute 3 year old addition :)


a recent shot of Samuel


and my husband


So that is me and my family in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed this blogpost and always, comments are welcomed!

The S Family photoshoot

I met this family on location at Idylewood Park in Redmond. I don't think I've ever fully explored that park before, so Samuel and I headed out there early to check it out. If you haven't been there, definately go! It's got a great open area for frisbee, picnic areas, an awesome play ground, and the best part - a real sandy beach with a swimming area maintained by lifeguards! It was a beautiful place to shoot family pictures.

My biggest hurdle for this photoshoot was their cute little boy - who would not smile for me. I tried all my usual tricks - food bribes, Mr. Panda the Pez Dispenser, making clacky noises. The parents even tried to help by playing peekaboo behind my head. This worked great except for family shots. I was a little bummed I didn't capture very many smiles and instead got a lot of pictures of a solemn little boy. Next time I'm coming better prepared with maybe bubbles or some sort of talking toy to try to capture the toddler's interest!

Here's a sneak peek at some of their pictures. :)

the only smile I got from the little boy - the dad was jumping around behind me making quite the show for this to happen


my "artsy" family shot I was trying to emulate from all the nifty posts I see on ILP


Dad playing with the kiddo


same shot, testing out the "vintage lomo" action. Not sure what I think of the bright color overexposure for this particular shot


here is mom looking thoughtful for me. she was a very cute pregnant woman!


Pensive, thoughtful toddler


playing with his favorite puzzle, but still no smiles!


mom and dad!

April's family and maternity shoot

Another shoot I did last weekend. This is a sneak peek at April's pictures, mainly because her little girl was so cute. These were all shot on their deck or in the backyard in the evening light. I learned to take snacks with me to bribe kids to hold poses or generally smile at the camera (with permission from the parents, of course). This time I took animal cookies (my stand by) and a panda pez container. The panda pez container was a HUGE hit, I pretty much could get her little girl to do anything I wanted by promising her a pez from Mr. Panda. :)

Here is April and her little girl, it was nice to capture the moment between the two of them.


we let her little girl draw on April. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be doing that one again. She was a little young to understand "pretend" drawing and was doing her best to try to fill mommy's belly button with lipstick. :)


one of April and her husband.


They were a great family to work with, really easy going and easy to pose. I can't wait to finish up the rest of their pictures for them!

Becky's Maternity Shoot

Becky was kind enough to come over and let me pose her for some maternity shots for my website. She was a really cute model, and great with direction. I had some fun changing up different backgrounds, trying to see what worked and what didn't work (mental note - green background is really hard to work with and difficult to keep unwrinkled).

I also learned how to put a watermark on my pictures, yay! Hopefully she will enjoy her pictures as much as I enjoyed shooting them for her.

she was kind enough to let me draw on her


the quintessential "hands forming the heart" belly shot


me trying to look at it more creatively


and one of my favorite shots of her