A Job Well Done

I think it’s pretty clear by now that I love weddings and everything associated with them.  In the end, what I love best is the couple and all their little nuances and moments and the things that make them them.  It’s my job to showcase that.  If I accomplish that, I’ve done my job.

But almost even better than new weddings are old weddings, well, not really old weddings, but remakes.  They are like old wine and good jeans, always better with time.  These are the real tearjerkers for me.  To see that people have made it 10, 15, 20 years or more is so awesome and truly inspiring to me.  That’s a big deal these days.  And every year that I am married to my husband I get more and more excited about those anniversaries.

I always tell brides and grooms that I love being married and I think that comes through in my photographs.  I become absolutely captivated by how much love people can have for each other.  It’s truly awesome.  I also tell them that marriage doesn’t have to suck, that there are therapists for that, and believe me that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Marriage is work, but the good kind.  Vow renewals are like college graduations.  A celebration for a job well done and a knowledge of what you’ve accomplished.  That’s so fantastic.  That being said, here are some photos of a job well done, a couple who put in the hard work and have reaped the benefits.  Kudos to you, Jim and Natalie, I can’t wait until your 50th!

Where the Party’s At

Forget New Year’s, this wedding was the party of the century.   There was something for everyone.  Do you fancy a snow cone?  Check.  How about a hoppin’ party with a DJ who’s got it?  Check.  Fantastic food brought to you by one of Portland’s best food carts?  Check.  A truck full of beer on tap?  Yes, literally a refrigerated truck full of beer on tap.  Check.  Maybe your picture taken in a photo booth with your girls from high school?  Check.  Gelato cart anyone?  Check.  Or maybe you’ve always wanted to be part of a flash mob?  Check.

I’m telling you, this was a cool party!  Oh, did I forget people in love?  Check.  It was such an honor to photograph my friends Jeanette and Derek’s wedding and when they told me that it was going to be a big deal they weren’t kidding.  Thank you, guys, for allowing me to be a part of your day and please, please, please invite Vince and I to your next party!

Perfectly Portland

I’ve been a little busy the last few months…or a lot busy.  Believe me when I say I am NOT complaining!  Thank goodness for busy.  It really does keep me out of trouble.  I’ve been in what I have dubbed the “wedding tunnel”, which is exactly how it sounds, very wedding focused.  Yea, because I love, love, love weddings!  The only bummer about this wedding busy-ness is that I don’t get to blog about how much fun I’m having because I don’t have time.  Today, I had a little time, so here I am.

I did this perfect little June wedding on a perfect Friday morning with a perfectly in love couple in a perfect little garden.  Perfect.  It was a small little ceremony with close friends and family in the Shakespeare Garden at the Rose Garden (not the Quarter where the Blazers play).  I don’t know if you’ve ever been to that garden, but it’s so beautiful and serene, truly the perfect place for a wedding.  Heidi and Phil, the bride and groom, were just so in love and excited to be blending their families and making it all official.  And what lucky ducks, Portland Parks and Recreation had picked their wedding to shoot as part of their new promo for their new website.  So, not only was I there, but they got a free professional video thrown in, because they had picked the perfect day to get married.  Everything went off without a hitch and we got some wonderful photos.  The best part of the day?  They rode their tandem bike all the way to Elephants Delicatessen on NW 22nd for their wedding brunch with me following behind with my camera!  Yes, I was driving and photographing at the same time.  Kids, you should not try this at home.  Seriously, though, how could I resist?!  Perfectly Portland.

A Few of my Favorite Things

I have been dying to blog about this portrait session, but I have been in the throes of wedding season and just have had my head focused on weddings, weddings, weddings.  Which, by the way, I love and don’t blog enough about I’ve realized.  They really are one of my favorite things to photograph.  I think partly because, really, my favorite thing to photograph is women and, for the most part, that’s my best chance to do it.  I don’t have any friends who say, ‘you know, I haven’t had my pictures taken in a while, I should get pictures of myself’.  Doesn’t happen.  But it should.  Usually the last time most women I know have had their picture taken is their senior pictures, which is far too long ago.  So, this portrait session afforded me many of my favorite luxuries, women, check, a new cool place, check, people who would do what ever crazy thing I would ask, check, people with some cool ideas themselves, check.  Now, before anyone gets confused, this is a senior portrait session, but probably my favorite one ever!  I just love what came of it.  I even got to travel for this.  One of my dearest friends, Shonda, flippantly asked if I would be interested in coming up to Edmonton, Canada to photograph her beautiful and fantastically photogenic stepdaughter, Veronica.  I, very unflippantly ( I know, not a real word), said absolutely, yes.  So, there I was in Edmonton with Shonda and our other friend, Sarah, photographing Veronica and her friend, Sam.  We had SO much fun being silly and girly and laughing about the fact that Veronica and Sam were getting their pictures taken in the girl’s locker room when we had originally planned all these other places.  When I saw that locker room, though, I just couldn’t resist.  What good fortune!  Beautiful women and some of the best pictures I’ve ever taken, check.

Cool by Association

I am not the cool one in my family, cute, sometimes funny, but not the cool one.  The cool one is my brother.  I’m not saying this in a jealous way, I’m saying this in a “yeah, I’m with the band” kind of way and in this case, that statement is completely true.  Part of what makes my brother cool is that he actually is in a band, a really cool one.  And he’s the lead singer.  And is a natural lady killer, has been all his life.  My husband would even tell you that.  Part of what makes him cool, he doesn’t care about that.  He only cares that you hear his music and, let me tell you what, he is a shameless, and I mean shameless, self promoter.  The good news is when you hear his music you don’t have to make something up to make him go away, it’s actually really good.  And I’m not just saying that because I’m his sister, really I’m not.  So, when he invited Vince (that’s my husband) and I to drop by the warehouse where he was filming his first video I was stoked.

Unfortunately, we had to miss the part where the aerial acrobats were being filmed.  Bummer.  But it was so cool to see my brother and the band in action with a real live film crew.  Now, this film crew is big time, they recently just did a video for Katy Perry, I know, cool, huh?  I was having the time of my life shooting pictures of all this!  My little photographer’s dream has always been to emulate my favorite photographer, William Claxton, who mostly shot jazz musicians, so for me this was heaven!

I couldn’t wait to get home and work on the pictures, of course I had to wait a little while because deadlines are deadlines, but last night I finally got to work on them and just had to blog about it right away.  They turned out so cool!  Almost as cool as Andrew (that’s my brother).  I know I might be tooting my own horn, or maybe Andrew’s, but I think you might agree.  If you’d like to check out my brother’s band, Far Cry, you can hear their music at http://farcrymusic.com/.  The video should be up on their site in the next month or so.  So, hat’s off to my really cool little brother, you’ll see, he’s cool.

Spring Installment 2

While I know that it’s the middle of June, and I don’t think technically spring anymore, I had just a few more things to say about spring.

First, I already miss it.

Second, there’s a field I pass on my way to church every Sunday that, in the spring, takes my breath away.  There are two places in the world that when I pass by them in my car, I drive much slower and I have nicknamed them my “moment of zen”.  They are both so perfect, so other-worldly that I absolutely must stare.  I can’t help myself.  This field in the spring is one of them.  In fact, this year when I passed by with my husband, he was driving, I took in such a sharp breath and gave out a little yelp that I scared my husband and almost caused him to get in an accident.  It’s that beautiful!  I’ve told myself every year that I was going to go and ask the owner of that field if I could photograph, someone, anyone in it, but for whatever reason, I never got around to it.  Well, this year I was determined and two days later I was on the doorstep of the owner of that wonderful field asking if I could have just a moment in it.  Apparently, I wasn’t the first to ask because all I said was, “Hi, I am desperately in love with your field and I’m a photographer…” and she responded, “Sure, go ahead.”  Woohoo!  So, the next day, I was there in my moment of zen photographing my mother-in-law, some of my best friends, and the owner’s daughter (we decided to do a little trade, the use of her field for some pictures).  What came out are currently some of my favorite pictures right now and I just had to share!

Go Get ‘Em Boys

Earlier this year amongst all the rain, I desperately needed just two hours of rain-free shooting.  The thing is, I had a portrait session I needed to get perfect.  The Dillon boys, Jake and Brian, were getting ready to present themselves to the worlds of acting and modeling and I needed to get it right.  You can’t just show up to casting directors and model scouts with mediocre pictures.  Believe me when I say they will tear you apart.   You may have gone your whole life believing that cute little mole by your mouth was endearing until facing those sharks.  It is called a beauty mark after all.  Suddenly your endearing mole is unsightly and, “have you ever considered getting that thing removed?”  Well, no, you think, no one has ever called it ‘that thing’ and, well, maybe it’s not as cute as I once thought.  Why didn’t my friends tell me it was such a problem?!  I’m telling you, these boys needed to look good!  So, just in time, in dramatic fashion, I was blessed with two hours of rain-free shooting.  Of course, the minute we all got into our cars it began to rain, but I think the boys look pretty good, beauty? mark free and all, don’t you?  Go get ‘em boys!

Spring Installment 1 (hopefully there will be a 2nd)

Today, I was planning to blog about something completely different.

I think I’ve fallen head over heels in love with spring.  It’s shockingly beautiful when you really look at it.  This picture of pink trees is the view I get when I turn left onto Mill Plain from my house.  Something so completely mundane matched with something so absolutely stunning.  I can’t get over it.

I think of a million things…

My friend, Jenna, who just died of colon cancer and how it is fitting for her to die in spring.  I’d never asked her if it was her favorite season, but I’m sure it was.  She would love these pictures.

The way God makes all things new and how he likes to brag about it by giving us spring.

The way He is making me new right now and how I don’t really like it, it’s hard work to change in your 30′s.  It’s also hard work for flowers and trees to burst forth into blossom.  I hope I look as beautiful as they do when it’s all said and done.

The way spring smells, I love it.  Fresh and earthy.  Lilacs and grass and dirt.

How fantastically blessed I am to live in the PNW.  Most of these pictures come from things I see on my run.  The mundane meets the magnificent.

Beauty from ashes, life from death, spring from winter.

“I wonder how many things I’ve held without feeling them at all, how many sunsets I’ve seen without seeing.  I wonder when I stopped believing in magic:  the things that escape logic, delighting the part of us all that still wants to be shown there are other worlds, other places, other ways that we are not privy to, or owners of.  I am watching life…burst into… Technicolor, right in front of me, and I am sending love notes to the God who made it so.”

A Girl’s Best Friend

Okay, so maybe that’s misleading, this isn’t particularly about diamonds, but it is about jewelry.  Also, misleading because we all know we wouldn’t give up our real best friends for all things sparkly, but jewelry really is so wonderful!  That being said, I sometimes work with one of my favorite clients, Diana Acuesta, a jewelry designer who continually amazes me with all the beautiful and whimsical things she comes up with.  I am always so excited when I see her name pop up on my caller ID and I hear her saying on the other end, “April, I have some more jewelry for you to shoot…”.  Oh, it’s just so wonderful because I then get to drive over to her house and see all of the fantastical things she has just made and is unveiling to the world.  Oh, yeah, and I often get to come home with a few new baubles that I just couldn’t resist.  I LOVE it!  It really makes for a wonderful day.  So, recently I got the call to photograph her new spring line, in a word, gorgeous.  As always.  She told me she wanted things to look earthy and natural, so I went all around scouting out all things organic and spring-y to photograph the jewelry and really make it pop.  Of course, my favorite part about photographing the jewelry is photographing the jewelry on models.  We always have so much fun and there’s always something to make us giggle, like this time it was freezing and the poor dears had to wear these little gauzy tops.  What you can’t see is the bright orange rainboots they had to wear because it was so muddy in the field we were at.  Anyway, I just couldn’t resist showing you all some of my favorites.   If you absolutely can’t live without, you can find Diana’s jewelry at Lily Atelier in Camas, WA or online at www.somethingsilver.com.  Go ahead drool.

A Whole New World

There is something about a newborn that brings a sense of awe.  They are just so amazing…and so are the moms that just had them.  I have never had a baby myself, but I love the opportunity to enjoy my friend’s.  I do love being an auntie and watching all the little peanuts in my life grow and discover the world.  It’s so, well, awesome.  Because of that, I just had to share these pictures of a little boy born earlier this year.  Truly amazing.