Malia's Shoot!

So, Malia is one of my clients who has hit the JWP trifecta; I do shoots at three types of locations, client's home, my studio, on location "out in the field". Malia, a professional belly dancer, has experienced all three over the past couple years, and all three have totally different styles. Shoots at your home typically are casual and have soft, natural light. Shoots on location are the most unique and "fly by the seat of your pants" shoots because you never know what great new spot I'm going to find, or when a cloud is going to pass by shining a rad beam of light right on you (Thanks Mother Nature!!) My Studio shoots are simple, pure, but with the most controlled light. I like shoots in all places for all different reasons. Check these studio shots we did!! Oh and when her website goes live with all her new pics, you'll be one of the firsts to find out!!
Oh yeah and then sometimes, we're having so much fun we don't want to stop. So I had to go pick up my daughter from preschool and just brought her back to the studio and we kept shooting!!

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged...by photog Jen. If you haven't seen this going around...once you've been tagged you have to write 10 random, odd, unknown tidbits, habits, or goals about yourself. And the end, you tag others - listing their names and why you chose them. You can't tag the person who tagged you! Since you can't tag me back, let me know when you've posted your 10 oddities so I can read your answers!

1. I raced BMX bikes from age 11 to 17, getting to miss school to travel to national competitions.

2. I always park at the same area of the grocery store parking lot, but I don't do that at any other kind of store.

3. I used be a self-employed medical transcriptionist. I love words and spelling words.Hepatosplenomegaly! Spondylolisthesis! Ptosis (silent "p")! I love using "bad" words as the spice of adult conversation, but since I'm a mom, I have learned to use a lot of "holy cow" "criminy sakes" and my personal favorite, "For the love of all that's good and holy."

4. I just started to wear dangly earrings so as to give the impression that I am more dressed up and polished than I actually am.

5. My office smells like cookies thanks to my "cookie crunch" flavored candles.

6. I have met more photographers in the last 12 months than I've ever known in my life, thanks to attending workshops by David Jay, Me Ra Koh, and Liana Lehman.

7. My son's middle name is Wolfgang. I'm all about being crazy with the middle name but safe with the first name (Drew).

8. After doing lots of research, I elected to have homebirths with both of my kids by the midwifery phenomenon known as Nancy Spencer.

9. I'm low maintenance (remember, wearing dangly earrings is my idea of "dressing up"! lol

10. Despite common sense and statistics, my husband and I were married when we were 21 and are months away from our 10-year anniversary, and still totally dig each other! I can't believe we're old enough for this kind of an anniversary. I still think I'm 19 and still overuse words like "totally", "awesome", "rad" and the ultimate compliment, "bitchin'".

Parents and bellies and two year olds- Oh My!!

So last week I had the pleasure of another pregnancy shoot! Mom's belly was the highlight of the shoot, but two-year-old big-sister-to-be Ashlynn was definitely the Star of the Show! There were several memorable moments during this shoot...but one of my favorites was when Ashlynn plopped down with a red velvet pillow next to her mom while I was shooting. Too cute!! Two-year-olds can be very interactive, as most of you probably know, so we all remained REALLY flexible as plans for the next 30 seconds changed in an instant! The years my kids were 2-years-old is a blur to me. I'm always reminded why that is when a client brings their 2-year-old in! Kudos to all of you parents out there who put your heart, souls, and nerves into nurturing and loving your 2-year-olds!!! :)

Anybody can leave comments now!

I was checking out the functions on here and just changed some settings that'll let anybody comment. It wasn't set like that before, it was set on something like "only left-handed, Ford Focus drivers born on a full-moon can comment". lol

Alyssa!

Wild horses couldn't hold me back from posting this shot of Alyssa and her parents that I took just yesterday. Mere hours ago, really! Alyssa turned 2 last week and I can hardly believe I've been photographing her since she was in her mom's tummy...but this is my new favorite shot, for sure.

The Workshop!

I want to thank my friend Dinea for contacting Photographer/Entrepreneur Liana Lehman out of Atlanta to make time in her schedule to fly up to Seattle to put on one of her business bootcamp workshops! With a class of just seven, it was really personal and fun. And we needed all the fun we could get because the majority of the long first day we were crunching numbers.


IT STARTED WITH A BANG!


You could say that again. I totally crunched my driver's side back door a block away from the workshop. It was snowy and my whole family stayed home, so I was a little nervous for the 45 minute drive. I went slow and did great. Until, that is, I came to realize that the workshop location, a beautiful 1909 mansion in Madrona, was two steep and icy streets down the hill. Hmmm. I took my time and picked a good block to drive down, it didn't look very steep, but nevertheless I started sliding and bumped just like a bumper car into a parked car. A nice parked car. A new parked car. I left a big long note and continued on to the workshop, trying to just RELEASE and resolve the status of my car door in 5 minutes. I was pretty successful, but it helped to have the workshop material to think about!

Okay so we took a few pics. Here's Tracy Lee of Sixeightythree Photo out of St. Louis


And Dinea

And I didn't get a shot of Alison from Horizon Photo, but I love her and can't wait to drive down and visit her!

But I DID get a great shot of Erin and Bill

I just really like Bill & Erin. So here's my favorites of them