Seattle Portrait Session, Mercer Island!

I was hoping the weather would hold out and I'd get another sunny Seattle day for my shoot with Robynne this past weekend. But alas, it was fickle and uncooperative... and rainy. Thankfully Robynne has an absolutely beautiful home that provided all the gorgeous light that we needed for the shoot. And it was safe from the rain, hooray!

Here are a few preview shots from our afternoon session. We also got to sneak in a few of Robynne with her absolutely fantastic and gorgeous kids. Aren't they the cutest?! (ps. we even got a few shots of their cute little dog. Adorable!).

Fun Seattle Headshot Session!

I spent a few incredible hours this past Sunday laughing, drinking coffee and having some picture fun with the crazy beautiful and hilarious Kinsey L. She braved the cold Seattle weather and was the perfect partner for going on a photo adventure around Georgetown and it's wild ways. Side note: this little Seattle gem is full of personality and chicness. It's Brooklyn meets Seattle. Record stores and exposed brick buildings and funky coffee shops all within a few blocks of each other. Yes please.


So I don't know how it keeps happening that the most incredible clients keep coming my way, but I never want it to end. Ever. I don't think I could have wished for a better client than Kinsey. As soon as we met for the shoot, she was ready to go. On her A-game. And the pictures show it! She's also an absolute natural, this girl knows how to work a camera! She was giving me top model in a serious way! Loved it!


Beautiful? Check. Spunky? Mmhmm. Hilarious? Duh. World, meet Kinsey. This girl is just ooooozing with talent and bursting with life. I mean, you can just tell she's going places. Look at her! Ugh, I'm gushing.

updates and pretty things!

Woohoo 2011! It's almost February, how are we all doing with those resolutions?? Stay strong, friends. One of my resolutions was to find a way to be creative every.single.day. Easier said than done lately. I often had days where I wasn't motivated to do anything creative at all, opting to avoid my computer and camera and any other creative vehicles. Not sure why, but I needed to shake that asap! With that said, may I present...

http://sliceof365.blogspot.com/

Once upon a time I did a 365 blog with a good friend in NY and it was awesome. It had been just about a year and half since that project ended and I was in need of another. So I started up a new 365 project with another great friend and here it is! We're halfway through January and I already feel it working. I'm back to my old self, constantly taking pictures and anxious to pick my favorites from the day for blogging. I'd love love love if you all bookmarked and kept up with our 365 adventures! Promise it's a good time!

So that is my big news. I have a few potential shoots on the horizon which I'm incredibly excited for and a few other fantastic projects that could potentially become where I focus my creative energy. I'll keep you all posted as best I can on those things. Until then... some pictures for you to enjoy. :)

ps. you can keep up with all my "on the go" snaps here... another bookmark!

Seattle in the Winter

Some recent shots of this beautiful town in December. Hope you are all staying warm and cozy wherever you are this winter!

Also - stay tuned because I have some pretty exciting news I'll be announcing in the next few days. Get excited!

a rainy seattle night

Alright kids, so the rain has finally started coming down here in Seattle. I say finally because, well, we haven't seen much rain since we moved here in September. For. Real. Hardly any rain. Tricky Seattleites want us all to think it rains here so we won't move. But i'm on to you, Seattle!


Anywho - the rain is here now and a quick look on weather.com tells me that it will be here for a quite a bit. I've got my rainboots ready and waiting!

smiling at the sun

I've been trying to take some pictures of the spectacular sunrise/sunsets that we've been seeing in Seattle these past few days, but it has been challenging to be in the right place at the right time. Also every time I see one, I always opt to smile contently and breathe deeply rather than reach for my camera. And when I do take a picture, I'm always unsatisfied with them because they don't quite do justice to the beauty of these moments. Phew, that was a lot! You can see why there's been a delay in showing you these :)

I'm also beginning to believe that that whole "it rains all the time" thing people tell you about Seattle is a total lie and trick to keep people from overcrowding this gorgeous town. We've seen 95% sunshine and 5% clouds in the past months. I have been completely spoiled by all these sunny days!

Okay, well despite my not being 100% satisfied with these shots, I thought I'd share anyway so you could see a bit of what I see. Enjoy and happy December!

be not ashamed.

Honest moment, internet. Bear with me. I used to be embarrassed by my passion for photography. Embarrassed that all I wanted to do all day was walk around with a camera switching lenses, adjusting settings, finding delicious, perfect natural light and taking pictures. Photography didn't (and still doesn't) feel like work and I felt like I should be doing something that felt like work. (Please don't ask me where I got such a silly idea.)

I went to a private elementary school and High School, a private college, got a BA from a great university, I'm fairly book smart and I'm skilled at a lot of things. For a time I wanted to be an attorney, an FBI agent, a forensic anthropologist and even a meteorologist. Those weren't just the crazy dreams of a 7 year old girl whose parents always told her she could do everything and anything she wanted. Those were things I was interested in, passionate about and excited about. Except.... they weren't (aren't) photography. Sure - getting a Law Degree is prestigious and all kinds of awesome, but have you seen the new Nikon prime that just came out?? See - that's my point. Whenever my brain goes to one place, somehow it always finds its way back to photography.

I read once that you don't decide to do crazy things like quit a great job in New York City and move to the other side of the country because you want to. You do them because you have to. (Just like I had to go to NYC for college. My entire being was screaming that that was the place I needed to be!) You go because the creative spirits and guides in your head that were once just soft whispers are now asking, no, demanding that you stop delaying what is surely the inevitable and just start doing what you love already. How many of us are in jobs we don't love, in cities we don't love, surrounded by people who aren't supportive or maybe family that wants to dictate our futures for their own peace of mind? I think perhaps too many.

Eventually I got to a place where I had to make a decision. Ignore my passion to do other worthy things that I was good at but not in love with? Or just leap and hope that a net would appear? I decided to leap.

Sure I don't have any gigs right now, and I'm not a perfect photographer. I don't know if I'll ever be. And I'm okay with that. But I still leapt. I swan dived right into my goals and dreams hoping that they will be enough. And I made a decision to not be ashamed of my dreams.  I won't make fun of yours if you won't make fun of mine, okay?

and your photo treat for the day. I took another trip into downtown with my camera last week. This time a little before sunrise. The clouds were absolutely gorgeous! This is one of my favorites. :)

 

Seattle, Seattle

I'm hereby declaring Seattle the city so nice, I'm going to name it twice. Join me or not, but I like it here! (cue sigh of relief.)

I know, I know (there I go saying things twice again) - I've only been here 3 weeks, certainly not enough time to truly understand a city - but in those weeks I've done quite a bit of exploring. Serena and I have hit many of the major tourist things...

Pike Place Market - check.
Space Needle - check.
Downtown Seattle - check.
Central library - check.
Chinatown - check.
Seattle traffic - check.

Thus far we've been amazed by the calm beauty of this place and how nice everyone is (though I did just come from New York so really, everyone is Mr. Rogers to me right now). Not to mention the nature here is shockingly beautiful. From our apartment we have an amazing view of a huuuuge snow topped mountain. There's another, different, mountain clear on the other side of us as well - at some point we plan on finding out what those mountains are, but for now we just like to look at announce to the other that we can still see it and that that huge mountain is still there, right outside our balcony. The view from my last apartment was the wall of the building next to me so I'll take the snow topped mountain thankyouverymuch.

There is of course much more exploring to do - but we're keeping our pace slow and steady in terms of adventures. I think I'm still a little overwhelmed by that 5 day drive believe it or not. Our biggest undertaking this week was carrying a couch upstairs and into our living room by ourselves. My arms are still sore. And when we're not moving or buying furniture we're applying for jobs and baking. It's a rough life kids here in Seattle, Seattle.

Here are some shots from our most recent adventure through Pike Place Market, my favorite seattle photo adventure thus far!

Roadtrip: Day 5

SEATTLE!!!!!

Can it be that we've finally arrived? These two little birds have landed and we are sooooooooo happy to not be in a moving vehicle for a change! Also you can all take a nice deep exhale and let go of all that worry you had for us! We've arrived, we're safe, we're tired and we're happy!

We're now officially in Pacific time, though my body is definitely still on EST. We were greeted by my very wonderful friend Kira who is letting us stay with her. Even though we're nice and comfy in Kira's cute apartment, Serena and I are both really pushing to find an apartment ASAP. I can't wait to be able to unpack the car, unpack my clothes, unpack my life!

About our day.... Missoula, MT (where we were last night) was a really cute and wonderful town. We drove briefly through "main street" and both agreed that we wish we had more time to explore the downtown area. I didn't think any town in Montana would appeal to me in any way, but this little place was really wonderful. If for some reason I find my way back to Montana, I would like to stay here for a few days. From MT, we went through a little blip of the northern part of Idaho and then before we knew it, Washington state! It was really bizarre to be in "traffic" again after miles and miles of nothing, but Spokane, WA gave us our first preview of city in a few days. It was both refreshing and a bit of a shock to our systems. We stopped for gas somewhere between the drive from Spokane to Seattle and found a store that had fresh fruits for sale. The peaches and pears looked amazing so we grabbed a little box of those. I had one in the car, delicious! I hope this is a nice preview of the kind of fresh food we have to look forward to in Washington.

And then about 2 hours later, we were in Seattle. It feels so amazing to be here after having thought about being here for months and months. It's quite bizarre but we're both grateful to be safe and sound.

Thank you all for following us through this journey and for taking this journey with us! I hope enjoyed getting a peek into what life has been like on the road for the past 5 days. I hope you all get a chance to see the country the way we did this week. It was at times monotonous and without any signs of life, but it was always peaceful, breathtaking and majestic and something worth seeing.

Here are the last pictures from our journey. In the future, I'll be posting pictures from my explorations around Seattle and from all my latest shoots!