Invitation

A while back I photographed a friend of mine Rene and his partner Joshua. Recently, Rene and Joshua decided to take a big step in their relationship, and in July they will hold a commitment ceremony. Upon deciding to hold the ceremony, they asked me if I could duplicate a photo invitation that they saw online using a photo from their session.  I didn't copy the one they liked exactly, but I made one similar to it with a  few small changes. Here is my final draft below. Oh, if you've visited my blog before, you may have noticed a change at the top. I have a snazzy new logo designed by my awesome cousin Nic!

Old Pic, New Edit

About a year or so ago, I took some portraits for a real estate agent who was in need of a better head shot. At the time, I did some editing to his photos, but I just couldn't get him to not look tired. Since I never could get the photos to look close to how I wanted them, I never added any of them to my official portfolio. I recently discovered a few new ways to soften skin and make eyes pop. I decided to play around and try them out on this photo. I'm not sure if I like how these particular techniques look on a man, but it's always fun to try new things.

Floral Dreams- Wedding in the Pearl

I hate to admit it, but the month of February has been kind of slow work-wise. I had to postpone one portrait session and delay my son's eighth birthday portrait due to illness (and a lovely chapped nose, his not mine). My first job for February (and probably my only job this month) was for Floral Dreams. Floral Dreams did the floral arrangements for a wedding in the Pearl District at the American Institute of Architects. I had the opportunity to go on-sight and photograph the arrangements at the venue (as opposed to our alternative background of fleece in the Floral Dreams workspace). Here are a few of the arrangements from Saturday's wedding.

Floral Dreams-Bridal Show

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Portland Bridal Show as part of my on-going photography work with Floral Dreams. Floral Dreams had a booth at the event showcasing many amazing floral arrangements. Several of Floral Dreams' arrangements were featured during the bridal fashion show. I photographed both the fashion show and each arrangement (mostly bouquets). Here are a few from the fashion show and of my favorite bouquets.

Yes, that's a mini pineapple in there!

Those are real roses.

The Year of Awesome

New year, new post. Okay, I know that we are five days into 2011, but considering that we still have 360 days left in the year I think the word new still applies.

I haven't posted in a few weeks, mostly because I haven't had any photo shoots or jobs. I spent the last few weeks working on a few print orders. I also spent the rest of the time with my family just hanging out at home enjoying a little down time. Even though just hanging out at home may seem a little boring to some, I was more than happy to get a little break. (My days are usually divided between my part time job, working on this small business or shuttling my kids around to various activities).

Having some down time gave me the opportunity to reflect on 2010 and to dream about 2011. I had a pretty great year in 2010. In 2010, my husband and I paid off our student loans and successfully lobbied for and got an IEP for my daughter's dysgraphia and dyslexia. I saw my little sister get married to an old friend of mine, and my husband and I finally went on our dream vacation to Paris, France and Italy. I also stepped outside of my comfort zone and started this blog and a SmugMug page to "put myself out there" and show off some of my photography work. Although there are probably quite a few more wonderful things that happened in 2010, the above mentioned are definitely the highlights.

I hope that 2011 will allow me to continue to grow my small business and meet new people. I have high hopes for the year. I have actually dubbed it "The Year of Awesome" at home because I truly hope to have a great year both personally and professionally. I hope everyone reading this has an awesome year as well. Happy New Year!

Langenwalter

 The other night I had the opportunity to photograph the Langenwalter family. Read that third word again, night. I photographed them at night in their home. Please keep in mind, I prefer to shoot in natural light (which I didn't have since, again, it was night time) and I don't have any studio lights. What's a person to do with such lighting issues? I took out my bounce flash and dusted off those "college newspaper photographer" bounce flash skills. Here are a few photos from their session.

Black & White (The Paper Mama Challenge)

I cannot remember the last time I competed in anything. High School? College maybe? I don't know.

When I saw this photo challenge on The Paper Mama, I thought "Hey, why not? I have black and white photos of my kids". And so, I am entering this photo in this week's Black & White photo challenge. This is a photo of my son and daughter (and niece) on vacation at Yellowstone. They were waiting for Old Faithful and getting more antsy by the minute, when suddenly they stopped and got quiet. My son put his arm around my daughter and then my niece followed; it was such a nice moment I had to capture it. I'm glad I did because it was such a fleeting moment (which quickly returned to squirming and complaining).