I totally missed blogging last week and here's why! I was surrounded by my wonderful family, having such a fun and busy time.

My sister and her husband came up to visit from out of state. Also visiting from another state, were my brother, his wife, and two of their kids. They joined my local, immediate family in exploring, eating lots of yummy food, and celebrating a birthday!

Along the way, I rounded everyone up for a photo. I was able to take photos of some of the smaller family groups before it started to rain and we headed out for a delicious cake, specially ordered from Tany's Bakery.

After our big family photo, one of my sisters gave us some very exciting news, which I had the privilage of documenting and helping them announce to the world yesterday! I'm so excired to be an auntie again!

Congrats!

It's always so incredibly cool to work with other artists and music is another art I am very fond of. I recently got to do a session with this cool dude who makes music in Portland.

I'll be honest with you. I love photography and I also really love music. It's been a desire of mine for a long time to take photos for musicians. I got to do this earlier last month, featured in my blog post Sunshine and Melodies, and again here.

​Pete's played shows in places like Holocene and The Big Legrowski, bringing energy to big crowds with his tech house mixes. He's got some nice, long mixes with a bit of disco thrown into them. They're great listinging, so I recommend you check him out on Mixcloud!

Here are some of my favorites from our session at Washington Park station. Enjoy!

Welcome home to this gorgeous, talented, hard working young lady! She's been putting in some long hours for a while and it's paid off by making her a homeowner! And what do you do when you accomplish something of exciting nature? You have a photo shoot, of course!

It seems to me that most other people around my age are struggling to find comfortable and secure living situations. Many have multiple roommates, or rent with family. It is such a blessing to know your family and friends are there to help when needed, but it is also so inspiring and encouraging to see a friend take a big step like this.

​I'm told it took a couple jobs, a bit of time, and determination. Honey, you have my applause and congratulations. And to anyone currently working towards their next home, living situation, or other goal in life, you got this!

I'm so honored to have documented this achievement!

It was such a treat to photograph this beauty while she serenaded me!

This talented young musician and I took an afternoon walk on what was possibly the last sunny day for a while. Her smile exudes joy and I honestly had so much fun. She even played some lovely tunes on her guitar. Thank you for the fantastic day!
​I guess I normally have more to say in a blog, but this smile speaks for itself.

The time of year has come for cozy sweaters, pumpkin and apple flavored beverages, and of course a trip to the pumpkin patch! Today I'm sharing a couple of my recommendations for fun, seasonal things to do in the Gresham area. 

This weekend, a couple friends and I visited Liepold Farms and it was a blast! We started the day off with breakfast at Sweet Betty's. Going out to breakfast is obviously not limited to this time of year, but my favorite seasonal drink of theirs is. The stylish little bistro on Main street is currently featuring a Spiked Caramel Apple Mimosa. It is everything that's good about fall and brunch. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a proper photo of the drink, as they were out of a key ingredient on the morning of our visit. With it only being the beginning of October, I'll definitely grab more opportunities that sweet and refreshing grown up treat.

After breakfast, we made our way over to Liepold Farms, which is just a short drive over to Boring, Oregon. Admission was very fairly priced and we found many enjoyable things, such as a variety of ciders, caramel apples and corn, hearty lunch and dinner items, photo ops, apple slingshots, a corn maze, hay rides, and lots of pumpkins.

It's a great place to spend a day with friends or family, and is even dog friendly. Here are a few photos to highlight the day.

I hope you have a lovely season and take advantage of the beautiful colors for some portraits!

Hey blog readers! I know it's been a while since my last post, but you're in for a real treat today. When I arrived at Wintler Park for this engagement session and these two brought up getting in the water, I honestly got so excited. I'm always excited to do things a little different, so this was very fun.

These two are so sweet, fun, and daring. Having spent time with them outside of this session, I'm aware of their fantastiv teamwork and encouragement through life. I wanted to show that in these photos, so it was absolutely perfect that they decided to take a little swim.

You might think the Columbia River would be cold and unbearable on a rainy September day, but it really was lovely and these two warmed my heart, as well as the scenery around them.

​As a part of my September Couples Session Sale, these two also got a nice discount on their portraits. If you like what you see and would like to book a session before the sale ends, please contact me!

In the end of March, I visited the farm of some cherished family members of mine who run Goldenwood Soap.

They use goats milk to create a variety of soaps, lotions, body sprays, and more. I use some of them myself and highly recommend them for the wonderful scents and healing effects they have on my sensative skin. To make these products, they would of course need to have goats on hand.

In breeding happy and healthy goats to make the best products, springtime brings kidding season. This is the season when all the new babies are born. People were welcomed to visit the seasonal farm store and love on the baby goats, which resulted in one of the best days ever.

Justine (pictured in images 24-27 and 29) Is like a mother to the goat kids and you really can tell that they adore her. Justine is the daughter of Kurt (pictured in image 35) and Judy (pictured in images 4 and 11). Together they run this business, caring for the goats and making so many lovely soap products.

I took most of these, but passed the camera to my husband so that I could get some cuddles in. He took some good shots of me geeking out over these adorable nuggets.

Feel free to check out goldenwoodsoap.com for products and info about this lovely business!

​Happy Mother's Day!

Last weekend, I was given the very fun honor of shooting senior portraits with this cool guy. We toyed with the idea of a few different locations, but ultimately fell in love with this one, as it reminded us of a castle.

This senior has put in the work and has so much contagious joy. I'd say he deserves a castle!

​To get this castle look, we visited Joseph Wood Hill Park on RockyButte. Built in the 1930's, this park does have a very classic look that reminds me of architecture found in the Columbia River Gorge. The high elevation also provide beautiful views of surrounding mountains.

There were definitely some laughs had. Enjoy highlights from this fun shoot!

I've got some really great friends who do some really great cosplay work.
This recent creation depicts the dark adventures of Sally Face.
Check these highlights from our shoot and be sure to check out these artists' instagram pages for more cool characters they've portrayed.

It's always a fun challenge to find a location that might fit a certain character, especially one that comes from a world different from our own. Comic books, cartoons, video games, etc. It makes it that much more fun to put the shoot together and get the models into character.

Check out more cosplays from these cool artists on instagram!

​@gutcoz , @ryouofheart , & @jellyjxck

About a week ago, I was feeling some strong urges to take self portraits and make composites. I've always loved composite imagery and surrealism. While studying photography at MHCC, I practiced both by making a series of portraits in which each subject was holding a frame. Through the magic of editing, I made each subject appear to be invisible, but only where the frame would cover them. This allowed viewers to see what was behind the person photographed, while also still seeing a part of them.

Naturally, I named the series, "What's Behind You?". I feel my artistic abilities have improved since that series, but I'm happily transparent and constantly working to further my skills. That being said, you're welcome to view the old series by clicking here.

This time around, I wanted to reuse my trusty old frame, but I wanted to do it one better. I took it a step further and rather than just making whatever was in the frame appear invisible, I decided to make it look as though someone were actually being transported through the frame, to Somewhere Else.

In a single afternoon, with additional modeling and assistance from my stunning friend Makenna(pictured 1st), we've created four images for your viewing pleasure. The series will officially be named "Somewhere Else", as it was inspired by my childhood longings to be swept away in some sort of magical adventure. I plan to continue the series with future instalments down the road, so keep an eye out!

​Enjoy!