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.

One of Us

It recently occurred to me that I had not posted a blog about any of the many wonderful weddings I’ve done this year.  What a tragedy!  Incredibly bizarre, as well, since weddings are one of my absolute favorite things to photograph.  So, here I am with my first wedding of the year in January.

First things first, I LOVED this couple, Mitch and Morgan.  They were super in love, super cute, super excited to be getting married and I loved it all superbly.  I had such a good time when I first met them for coffee to talk about their wedding, it was like meeting up with old friends.  I always enjoy this time because I get to talk with the couple or bride all about the little details and what they mean to them.  This particular couple was planning the wedding that I would want.  Yes, I’m already married, but I would get married to my husband every year if I could afford it and if he would let me just to have a new dress and new details.

They got married at Bethany Vineyards  http://www.bethanyvineyards.com/, which is now one of my favorite places to photograph.  It’s gorgeous there and Walt, the owner and Morgan’s uncle, is incredibly fun and hospitable.  It was such a beautiful wedding and everyone was so moved by Mitch and Morgan, that even I was crying.  It was perfect.  This particular wedding was a wonderful example of why I love what I do, it is such an honor to be a part of one of the most important days in one’s life.  I really feel humbled to have the opportunity to share that with my brides and grooms and to get to see things from such a unique and intimate perspective.  With couples and families like these, I always end up feeling like part of the family, what a tremendous blessing.

Say Cheese!

As the summer draws to a close, well kind of, no sense in rushing these things, I thought it was time to let you all know that at the end of the year I will be raising my prices for portrait sessions.  Sometimes it’s just time.  So, here’s the deal, if you book a session before the end of the year, you can still pay a minimal $75 for a sitting fee for one hour.  Your session must be scheduled by the end of December for that rate to apply.  At the beginning of January I will raise the price to $100 for the same service.  I don’t include packages with your portrait session, everything is ala carte.  I do this because it is highly important to me that you not pay for things you don’t want.  You know how it is when you go to places and the package includes an 8×10 and you don’t want an 8×10, you want more wallets.  I know you’ve been there, so have I, so I make it easy and you can choose anything your little heart desires.  Plus, I offer really cool things like coffee table books, prints on canvas, metallic prints and all kinds of other fun and fantastical things.  Print prices start at $5 for a 4×6, so you don’t have to worry about things being unreasonable.  You also get a web gallery with a password that you can share with all your friends and family.  Besides, in the end, you really have  a lot of fun, I come to your house or your favorite park or the place of your first kiss, wherever you feel comfortable.  The beach?  No problem.  The mountains?  Bring it on.  I can’t ski, but I would love to photograph you and your family skiing or playing in the snow.  Or the sand, or wearing your Christmas sweaters, or with your dogs, or on your new boat.  Whatever suits your fancy.  The best pictures happen when you feel the most comfortable, that’s my philosophy.  So, now is the time to finally do some family bonding or schedule your child’s senior pictures or finally get good pictures of the two of you or maybe, ladies, a sexy picture for your husband for Christmas.  Just make sure you contact me soon so we can get your session scheduled before the year runs out and the prices go up.  To schedule a session, you can either e-mail me at aprilwilliamsphotography@yahoo.com or give me a call at 360-513-1227 or text me at the same number.  Any and all will work.  I can’t wait to photograph all your lovely and smiling faces.

All At Sea

At the beginning of every year, my husband and I make resolutions.  Some work out, some don’t, but every year we try to do something new.  Something we haven’t done or accomplished before.  This year, I decided I wanted to really learn how to sail, quite possibly skipper, that means to captain, the boat by the end of the year.  I wasn’t quite sure how I would accomplish this, but I know I wanted to.

We had been sailing before. Vince used to race when he lived in Alaska and I knew he liked it.  I had never been, and a few years ago, decided I wanted to try it out.  I discovered a site, www.sailpdx.com, and found skippers looking for crew.  So, we hooked up with a skipper and went out a few times.

I was in love.  It’s beautiful out on the river in a sailboat.  The sun is warm on your skin and when the sails are perfectly trimmed, full of wind, there’s not a care in the world.  It’s fantastic.  By the end you are always hungry because you’ve been out a while and the smell of Beaches and McMennamins taunt you.   It’s summer perfection.  I was hooked.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go out often because our schedules competed with that captain and we lost our spots as crew.

Having not gone out at all last summer, I was determined, so I e-mailed the Oregon Women’s Sailing Association to find out how to take one of their classes.  And I waited…for a long time.

In the meantime, we discovered that an acquaintance at church owned a Catalina 22 and was interested in crew.  So, we jumped at the chance to go out with him.  He informed us that he participated in the races every Thursday and, if we were interested, we could be his crew for the races.  How lucky are we!

It turns out that Dan used to be a sailing instructor and he told us that he would teach us to sail the boat by ourselves.  So, every Thursday night we go out and race.  It has been wonderful even if we have only had two days in both the spring and summer seasons that were actually sunny.  The good news is I’m learning, slowly, but surely.  I still have no idea when it’s a good time to tack or jibe, but I know the difference and I can keep the tack under 20 seconds, which is a good thing.

All that to say, it’s absolute bliss out there.  It’s exciting and there’s never a dull moment.  Plus, I don’t know if my husband ever looks more handsome than when we are out on the boat.  I love it everything about sailing, so I thought I should share a few pictures, maybe you will get the bug too.