I feel like all my blog posts usually center around how lucky I get on sessions with the weather. However, not only did we get lucky with the weather, we pretty much hit the jackpot on entertainment during this portrait session. I thought having two boys to ham it up in front of the camera would be enough. But, not 5 minutes into our first location, Portland Mounted Patrol came trotting down the street and stopped to say ‘hi’ to us. I think my kids were jealous when they saw some of the images! To make it even more interesting, one of the officers addresses me by my first name….”uh oh…what did I do?” Turns out we are high school classmates! What a great surprise! The boys had a blast and got a chance to pet the horses. So…we go about our merry way, proceed to our next location….and…there just parked on the side of the street was a FIRE ENGINE! I really didn’t plan any of this but was probably just as excited as the boys but for a different reason! Anyway, I had a blast and I think the boys did too! Enjoy your sneak peek Jen!

Meet our 4th Class of ’11 Senior Model Rep from Westview High School, Jem! While the highs didn’t reach near 70 degrees on the day of Jem’s model rep shoot, we were still able to duck outside for a few quick outdoor shots in between rain last week. Jem brought an awesome wardrobe full of color and texture. We had a blast! She’s got quite a great summer on the horizon, interning for Nike in Manila! A natural leader, she’s also got a load of awesome opportunities ahead of her and her senior year hasn’t even started yet! Enjoy your sneak peek!

Everybody told me when we had our daughter how fast she will grow and all the little idiosyncrasies of the trials and tribulations of parenthood  will seem minimal compared to how fast that little baby will grow into a beautiful girl.
I never really thought about it until recently when I realized what used to be our baby boy is now about to turn 4 years old. This post isn’t meant to embarrass Kendra, but to really highlight the fact that Kendra is one of the main reasons I started getting into senior portraits. I can’t believe that I started photographing her when she was still in middle school and she is now approaching the end of her junior year and embarking on her final year of high school! Wow! Time really does fly! There will be more pictures of Kendra and the rest of my model reps to come in the summer months but I can’t leave this post without expressing a huge thanks to you for being an awesome and willing subject. And to Jill and Kevin, of course, for allowing her to do this. At some point, we will do a photo montage of my test shoots with Kendra over the past several years.

Makeup by Jenna Fallon

We have been enjoying quite a mild winter here in Portland. Or, maybe it’s more ‘normal’ this year for us as compared to last year. However, there are times where rescheduling sessions due to rain becomes a drag.
Nan came to me back in January for her senior portraits and while we were able to schedule the studio portion of her session, we had some difficulties with mother nature with scheduling the outdoor portion of her
session. Fortunately, a date that we set 6 weeks in advance worked! It was a gorgeous day outside…albeit cold, but definitely great shooting weather!

Enjoy your sneak peek!

I’ve been really fortunate to have sessions scheduled right at the opportune time of rain breaks. So, when Kallie and her mom came in for her session last week, I was elated and RUSHING to get out the door to take advantage of the brief dry spell we had on that day. Based on her mom’s comments, I think it will be a surprise (and a special treat) to reveal portraits of Kallie with her hair down! While soccer is life for Kallie, she is absolutely beautiful when she lets go of the soccer girl hair and let’s it down for a little relaxing stroll around the Pearl. College bound on a soccer scholarship, there are many great things ahead of this soon to be 2010 graduate! Kallie, enjoy your sneak peek!

This post was supposed to be on the blog earlier this a.m. but for whatever reason, it got ‘hung up’ in the depths of ‘Draft’ mode and never made it to ‘Published’. At any rate, here we go. I was out to dinner with a family friend and her kids tonight and we were talking about the photo shoot I had today. The photo shoot that I ‘got lucky’ with and didn’t have to cancel because of the rain.I have to say, I have been pretty fortunate these past several weeks that, knock on wood, to date, I haven’t had to reschedule any shoots.

The day that I had the Hopson family shoot was no exception. I was worried the night before that it was going to rain. And as you may see in some of the photos, we ended up having sun. These girls were a blast to hang out with…and again, we went over time. I was just slightly jealous that the older daughter and her mom & dad was fortunate to be one of the many girls who got to see Miley Cyrus live in concert in PDX just a few weeks prior. (not really….but how cool for a little girl! My daughter would have been jealous if I told her!).

I had a blast with you guys. Enjoy your sneak peek!

Ok, it’s time for me to get this show back on the road. I have been out of town the past 2 weekends in a row. Caught a cold after the first weekend and pretty much spent the remainder of the week prior to going out of town the 2nd weekend, in bed trying to rest. Why? Because I was being lame and wanted to be fully rested for the Nike Women’s 1/2 Marathon that I ran in San Francisco this past weekend. I had a blast, as this was my first half marathon….and yes, I probably picked the worst course to have as my first but it was a blast. And I got to spend the weekend with one of my good photog friends, Amy Lynden.

With all that aside, I have left several clients waiting patiently for their sneak peeks. Brenna was one of my early referrals to be part of our Senior Model Rep program but timing wasn’t right and it didn’t work out. However, I was happy to have her come back, several months later for her senior session. While we only did half of her senior session, the outdoor piece. I was really happy that the weather turned out the way it did. We ended up spending just a tad bit extra time together and ended appropriately, just before a downpour of rain swept into Portland. Brenna’s mom was a blast to have along as well. I put her to work with the reflector and she had it mastered in no time! Brenna, can’t wait to have you back for the studio portion of your session. Enjoy your sneak peek!

Meet Laura & Stacey….owners of  Good Fortune Flowers - soon to be launched! Laura and Stacey found me through some of their internet searching and hired me to capture images for their future website. I had a blast photographing both the ‘bridal’ shoot as well as the little girls in our ‘mock’ birthday party. Everyone was so easy to photograph and the girls did well, despite the cold & cloudy day we had. And of course, the REAL subjects, the flower arrangements were absolutely GORGEOUS! Check ‘em out! Laura & Stacey — and models too….enjoy your sneak peek!

I’m starting to feel like the week I took off before Labor Day Weekend has put a slow drip on my blog posting capabilities. Either that or it’s because I’ve been busy and have barely had a chance to visit my beloved blog. But, whatever the excuse may be that I may make, I do have several shoots in the queue that need to make it to the blog. Beth was one of my willing volunteer subjects to help out with my desire to build out my sports portfolio (**coming soon**). She’s the rock’n senior swimmer from Sunset H.S. that I posted on the blog a few weeks back. After enduring my idiosyncrasies during that shoot, Beth opted to take me on again for her senior pictures! Yay! We had a ton of fun and I put mom to work too! Beth, I had a blast during our shoot. Enjoy your sneak peek!

Kayla is a senior at Beaverton H.S. and best friends with Anna, another senior that I photographed a few weeks ago. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was preparing in the spring for this year’s high school senior season. And, in a flash of time, summer is over and senior high school yearbook deadlines for submissions are coming upon us quickly. Although the weather still feels like summer, we are ‘officially’ in the fall season. Kayla’s session took place on one of our rare ‘rainy’ days that we’ve had in the past 6 weeks but fortunately, we missed the rain and actually had to shield ourselves from the sun for the remainder of the outdoor portion of her shoot! Enjoy the sun as much as you can in these fleeting days of our Indian summer. Kayla, I had a blast with you and your mom during your session! Enjoy your sneak peek!