John + Lori : Coos Bay Wedding Photographer

As Lori and I sat chatting at a local coffee shop about all things wedding, the good, the bad and all the in between I could tell she was in love with John and that this wedding and all of the work she is and will be putting into their big day is just a little taste of how much effort she will put into the marriage. Then when I met John and saw how he made Lori laugh and light up I really knew they were a great match. Funny how God can put people together and it just works. I feel like that about my husband often. How did God know just exactly who I needed to grow me, comfort me, lead me and care for me? He is God. He knows everything about me and he knew exactly who could walk this life with me and make the most of it with me. And he knew Lori and John were just right for each other too! I can't wait to shoot your wedding, Lori and John!

Emalie has to smile... I mean her face just works like that! When I asked her to make that "Blue Steele" face she started laughing half way through and said "It feels so strange to not smile!". It was amazing! And her smile never ever got forced. She is sincere. She is so sweet and she is the smiliest girl I've ever met! What a great quality! I'm sure all of her friends know her for that amazing smile and I'm sure she will never have trouble making new friends either as she embarks on her last year in high school and prepares to begin a new chapter of life. As we strolled through mucky sand, tall grass and drift wood we chatted about how Emalie's school experience had be thus far. She mentioned that she was dancing a lot, tap, jaz, you name it. Then she broke her ankle while running and couldn't continue dancing. Emalie didn't take that as a reason not to smile though! During her time away from dancing she found other things that she realized she was missing out on because dance had been it for her. Now she is an avid runner and she is a Mr. Bulldog girl, helping raise money for premature babies. She does loads of other things and keeps herself busy but well rounded. She was pretty inspiring to me. I have missed taking lots of professional photos and doing all of the fun things a photographer gets to do. Emalie made me think about how many things I've been privileged to watch my children do and had I been out snapping I may have missed out! Thanks Emalie for a GREAT evening, wonderful chats and for inspiring me to be more smiley :) Enjoy this last year!

Okay, okay, I take it back. Emalie is total model material!! She nailed the serious face a couple of times during the shoot!!

This last one was our final shot of the night and I think it's so cute... you can see her fighting back the smile!! She's so BEAUTIFUL!

Set Apart

This has got to be the highlight of my year for the past two years. This shoot is always such a huge creative investment but it is always so, so fun to have subjects who have a vision but will also let me shoot out my vision. Set Apart is a Christian ROCK band and while Christian and Rock often seem contradictory these guys get it. Perfectly. They worship while head banging and air guitar-ing!! Being raised on the heavy metal, hair band, rock out stuff myself, I get a kick out of carpooling with these guys to different shot locations while they totally rock out in the car. It's like a little jolt of energy between shooting. 

I usually have quite the laundry list of odd and hard to understand posing for these guys with an equally odd list of places to go! Last year we landed in a parking garage, deserted bank parking lot, and a car wash where they hid behind concrete walls and stood in weird places... but I love the photos we got! This year I didn't have so many ideas and I was concerned! I hit a road block. I had two specific photos in mind but both could be done anywhere and really didn't need anything special. The other thing about these two specific shots was that I wasn't entirely sure they'd work out. One involved shooting at a really, really low shutter speed and the other I would need to be on a really high spot but there were no high spots around the locations I was thinking of shooting at. Long story short, God stepped in and helped me with both problems and delivered some AMAZING light! ;)  One of the band members husbands got us a helicopter landing pad to shoot on just a night before the shoot which fit perfectly with my "shoot from up high" ideas and the lead singer, Shalendra just brought a ladder for me. Then while we were driving to the second stop that Shal had picked out we turned a corner and there were these giant airplane hangers/warehouse buildings that I had seen and loved but had totally forgotten!! Low and behold that's where Shal was taking us and it had the perfect spot to set up a tripod for the slow shutter shots. Oh it was wonderful and I think I was dancing at one point because I had successfully caught the shot I envisioned which doesn't happen all that often! So thanks to the band for helping get me over that creative road block and for a great evening with beautiful light and very willing subjects!!

My slow shutter shot - the band members are walking in front of Shal who is sitting as still as he can on the wall ;) 

My ladder shot - thank to Bryce for getting me the landing pad and for holding my ladder while I shot!!

Zan & Desi

SO MUCH FUN! That's what this session was. Desi and Zan are such an amazing, hardworking couple. They are kind and gentle with one another and so sweet to watch. Zan, I could tell, was a bit nervous but when I told him to kiss his beautiful future wife I could tell he'd be okay with all the picture taking as long as he could do that. Desi has been planning for this engagement session for a while... I got her hooked on pintrest! She came with loads of totally unique ideas, beautiful accessories and that truck!! Oh that truck! I'm so, so thankful that I get to shoot Desi and Zan's wedding this September and can't wait to see all of the amazing ideas that they come up with for the big day!

Urban Baby Bonnets

 These hats are the cutest things ever!!! I am in love with Collette's style and design on these adorable little bonnets, so much so that I asked her to let me take some photos of them! Luckily she was game for my experimentation and let me try two of her hats on my little creatures. I am loving taking on these little projects! I just finished assisting the amazing Pat Boemer on a shoot for Adidas at Bandon Dunes, Oregon's most famous golf course. It was an amazing learning opportunity as Pat is a seasoned photographer, well coursed in lighting and all things photographic. I was in total ah at his ability to judge lighting within a stop of perfect exposure without even looking through the lens! While I'm no Pat Boemer, it was a great experience to assist him and learn from a pro and I got my first taste of product photography. Urban Baby Bonnets have been super fun to play with and shoot, just in my own time as I come up with an idea. It's definitely helping my creative back log since having my little Willow almost six months ago!