After a couple of reschedules due to terrible weather (not just rainy day weather–we do live in Seattle after all–but freezing, windy, torrential weather), we landed on this gorgeous day! Typically with bright sunny days, we shoot early in the morning or later in the evening to get that nice soft light instead of harsh, contrasty light. However, with how fickle the weather has been this winter (turning from gorgeous to crummy in the blink of an eye), I didn’t want to take any chances and chose slightly later in the morning to do the shoot. Since this isn’t optimal shooting conditions, think harsh shadows and squinty eyes, I decided to start the shoot in the controlled light of the shade. Aside from this being a great location to shoot light wise, it was also quiet and away from the masses flooding the sunshine-filled park.  I also knew that once the 3 year old saw the giant hill to climb, any chance at a controlled family photo would be out the door. So we played (by played, I mean chased a 3 year old around a park

P.S. How could I not comment on the Zoolander “blue steel” pose by the little one? Want to achieve this in your session? Just give the little one a mouth full of delicious treats!

I had to share this adorable family’s photos from when I was back home in Spokane.  I know the holidays can be crazy with all the shopping, cooking, traveling, eating, drinking, eating, a little more drinking, and a ton more eating, but it’s such a great time to do photos because everyone is around! I have such fond memories of being home with my family for the holidays, so it’s icing on the cake to be home making new ones, all the while being able to capture those same memories for someone else. Enjoy!

I’ve had the pleasure of working with this family for many of their recent life events, so I couldn’t wait to add the 6 month mark in this little doll’s life to the list. I mean just look at how gorgeous she is (and her parents for that matter

As they say, patience is a virtue…especially when you work with kids. (Ok, I may have added that last part, but that doesn’t make it any less true.)  I know you can’t tell by the photos, but when I arrived for this photo session, this little guy wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. There were no smiles or glances at the camera. He just continually turned to mom and dad with that “can we please go home?” look of panic in his eye. So, what did we do? We just hung out for a little while. We walked around, and mom and dad played some silly face/sound making games until suddenly everything was right with the world, and he couldn’t stop smiling. Victory!

I had the pleasure of photographing this adorable 3-week-old just before the holidays…what a great gift for mom and dad! She is simply stunning, and for being so young, she was sooo alert! No sleepy baby photos this time around. We tried it all–feeding, rocking, cuddling in mom’s arms. She wanted nothing to do with any of them. Oh well, we didn’t need this little sweetheart asleep to be cute. It took all I had to stop myself from kissing those cheeks and rubbing that adorable buddha belly…I know you want to

I have been dying to get this gorgeous family in front of my camera, and it FINALLY happened..whoo hoo!  I mean just look at them. BEAUTIFUL.  Our shoot started in the warmth of their home to capture “the Christmas card photo,” and then we ventured outside to play in the cold and show off some cute new coats.  While running around the neighborhood was fine and dandy, we thought the girls might really love to go and ride the carousel downtown. Of course we were right, and to top it off, auntie and cousin even showed up to join in the festivities. There was only one small melt down amongst the chaos of downtown, and that was only due to the unavailability of a pink carousel pony.  A quick shuffling around by mom and dad, and viola!, a pink pony was found and all was right with the world. It was a magical Christmas evening. Happy holidays!

This couple has been married for a few years, and aside from their wedding photos, they don’t have any professional photos to show for it. This is where mom stepped in. After a few requests, they gave in to her wishes and got in front of my camera. They both claimed that they weren’t photogenic and hate having their photos taken (haven’t heard those before

I had the pleasure of meeting and working this family last fall. The images created were at a park with a nature feel to them, so this time around we decided to go the opposite direction. The boys are a bit older (and extremely well behaved) and running around the streets of downtown seemed like a plausible idea. As always in this city, we had been battling crummy  weather, so we didn’t get a bright sun shiny day, but at least it wasn’t pouring rain on us! It was another great photo adventure with them. I look forward to watching these adorable boys grow up.  Enjoy!

This beautiful family not only wanted family photos for the holidays but also to commemorate their time in western Washington. They are moving away at the beginning of the year so they thought family photos surrounded by the natural beauty of our area would be a great reminder of their time spent here. I couldn’t agree more

Don’t I work with the most adorable kids and families? This little cutie was definitely not a fan of sitting still too long, but sing a song, and she would stop for a moment and smile ear to ear. That’s right. I got my “Itsy Bitsy Spider” on and she gave me those adorable grins. Mom and dad were also key in the singing department when they weren’t in the photos, but when they were, I didn’t want those weird frozen mid-word expressions so it was all me