I had the privilege of photographing the Red Dress Fashion Show for AIDS awareness at OSU this week! I had a great time documenting the evening and it was awesome to have a reserved seat at the end of the runway! The guest speaker was very moving, and the designers did a fabulous job with all the red dresses!
Here are a few of my favorite shots from the night!
If you were a model or a designer, or you just want to see the rest of the photos from the event, you can check them out here.
Last weekend, my friends Audrey and Kaci invited me and our other friend Michelle on a ski trip to Sunriver with all of OHSU! We had a blast skiing at Mt. Bachelor, hot tubbing, dancing at the Sunriver Resort and reading books in front of the big fireplace in our condo. The weather was perfect and sunny the whole weekend, and I could not have been happier. Of course, I brought my camera along to do a quick little shoot while we were there – it was too gorgeous not to! We took these photos along the Sun River behind the resort, as well as off highway 26 in the high desert between Mt. Hood and Warm Springs. I even hopped into a few shots at the very end!
Today I adventured out to the Columbia River Gorge with six gorgeous girls in a minivan. They’ve been best friends for years and years but now they all go to different colleges! This was a fun way to document all of them together (I shot with them last year too – while they were still in high school).
We had a blast shooting along the river and by Multnomah Falls, despite the wind and mist and cold. At least it wasn’t rainy!
My best friend Audrey was born in the wrong decade. She really should be living in the 40s. Or the 20s. Or even the 50s. She’s got one of those classic faces and figures that fits vintage clothing perfectly. I envy this, haha.
I haven’t done a real photoshoot with her in almost a year, so today we got together and made it happen.
Enjoy.
2011 was a great year. The end.
Just kidding, you know I have to say more than that! This year was incredible! I did a lot of different things, went a lot of places, and had a lot of fun.
Also, I love my life. Just thought I’d throw that in there.
So here it is, a little synopsis for you. 2011, in review.
The year began with a wedding in Salem on New Years Day.
I went to Disney World in Florida for the first time ever a few days later. I saw my best friend run a half-marathon one day and a full marathon the next day.
At the end of the month I second-shot another wedding with my friend Peter Chee in Portland.
In the first week of March I drove to Hood River to shoot a wedding right on the Colombia.
In March I went to my beach house in Jenner, California with my boyfriend Wil for Spring Break. We almost died driving back up I5 in the snow on the way home.
I shot two back-to-back weddings over Memorial Day weekend in May in Portland.
I painted 191 different bird species (every species I have ever seen) and held a gallery show during the 1st week of June. This somehow made me pass my honors thesis, haha.
I graduated from college. It felt strange. To celebrate I bought two new lenses. A Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II and a Canon 50mm f1.2 L.
I moved back to Portland. Shot 2 more weddings.
Then took a trip to Seattle with Wil. Saw my first Mariners game.
Flew to Boise, Idaho a week later to shoot my first destination wedding.
Came home for another week, then went to Boston for the 4th of July.
On the 5th, my birthday, I flew to Berlin, Germany for the first time.
Visited Tubingen in South Germany a few days later.
Then flew to the UK for the first time and stayed a few days in London. I saw my first Banksy painting. (But it took some searching to find it).
Came home in mid July, shot at wedding two days later in Newport.
Then one in Portland
Another in Dundee.
One in Canby.
One in Tigard and Hillsboro.
And one in Corvallis.
After all that, I got really sick of my long hair, so I cut it all off.
Then went back to California to see my family. Went to the Monteray Bay Aquarium for the first time, and saw wild otters in the ocean as well.
Got back from California, shot another wedding in Portland.
And realized my car was totally broken. So I bought a new one.
2 hours after I bought it, I drove it to shoot a wedding in Amity.
Went beach camping for the first time the following weekend. But it wasn’t very fun and I didn’t take any pictures.
Shot a wedding in Hillsboro.
And then shot a small backyard wedding in Tualatin a week later.
Took a break from weddings for a few weeks while I shot tons of high school seniors.
Then second-shot a wedding in Portland with my friend Blake in mid-October.
Two weeks later I drove up to Chehalis, Washington for the day to shoot a wedding over Halloween weekend.
Once it was November I didn’t do much of anything except catch up on all the photos I still hadn’t finished editing. And hang out in Corvallis with Wil, who I never get to see.
I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family. Did a fun shoot with my sisters while they were home.
Then went down to Eugene with Wil to visit them on their birthday on the 4th. We did not discuss about the atrocity that was the civil war.
I hung out in Corvallis for a while, then shot two back-to-back weddings over the 17th and 18th. One in Colton.
And another in Jefferson.
I spent Christmas at home with Wil and family, and it was lovely.
I spent 2011 in a total of three countries and six states. I photographed 22 weddings and 54 seniors.
I re-made my website 3 times (including yesterday – go see for yourself).
But I loved every second of it.
Running this business full time has been a big gamble since June, but so far it has been 100% awesome. How often do people get to graduate from college and just keep working for themselves? I am soooo lucky.
I love my clients, my family and my friends SO much for supporting me and putting up with my incessant chatter about beautiful light, lenses and Lightroom. Thank you everyone for being there for me. And for pushing me when I need it. I’ve learned so much over the past 12 months.
2012 is already looking amazing. I’ve got two weddings in California so far, one in Montana, several around Oregon, and I’ll be spending five weeks with my family in Turkey and Greece during June and July. Can’t wait to see where else this year will take me!
Happy New Year everyone!
Jessica is an old friend who I only get to see about once a year (twice if I’m really lucky). We met in 6th grade and have been friends ever since. We originally both wanted to be doctors, but I kind of changed my mind… haha. She didn’t. She’s currently in med school at Northwestern. In case you didn’t get that, Jessica is amazing. Brilliant girl. Totally hilarious too. I hope we stay friends forever, cheesy as it sounds.
We drove to forest park, a cemetery, and an abandoned house to shoot these random portraits. It was a whimsical shoot – just aimlessly driving around northwest Portland while catching up and chasing the last rays of sun. Why not? Life is short.
Gaby is one of my boyfriend Wil Crowe’s coworkers. She’s Puerto Rican and has a beautiful, dark, exotic look and personality that has always made me reallllly want to photograph her. We went on a double date a few weeks ago (our boyfriends are old high school pals) which unfortunately ended with the boys playing Madden while we sat around doing nothing. That is, until I realized it was the perfect opportunity to do a midnight test shoot with a gorgeous girl and a tilt shift lens that I borrowed from my good friend Pete Stone. The pictures have some scary undertones, but if you know Gaby at all, it kind of suits her. Afterwards, I asked her if she might be interested in doing a shoot during the daytime when we had more light to work with, and she responded with: “I don’t really like the daytime.” Hahaha. Well then. In that case, I think she’ll really like these, eerie as they might be.
I did this fun, winter themed fashion shoot with Jessica and Sam earlier this week at Sam’s apartment in downtown Portland!
I’m a list person. I’m constantly drowning in sticky notes. One of the things that has been on my “long term to-do list” for awhile now is to do some test shoots with off-camera lighting since it’s something I don’t use all that often during weddings or portrait shoots. What can I say? I love me some natural light. I go gaga for it. I’m always on the hunt for it – that perfect evening glow that I love oh so much. The idea of making my own light almost seems like cheating somehow. But it’s also wonderfully fun. And it’s always good to mix things up from time to time. So lately, I have been.
My good friend Peter Chee (who works for Powers Studio) met with me at the West End Theatre to help me orchestrate the shoot. Joe and Erica both drove up from Corvallis to model for us. They are good friends of mine who I have shot before and I knew they’d be perfect (and patient with me) for this sort of thing.
We started off with some basic headshots and portraits, playing around with the lights in a studio environment.
And then we moved upstairs to do some more storytelling. Admittedly this next set was by a ton of bay windows so we didn’t use need to use the lights for those… (the light was gorgeous as it was!) but for all the rest of the photos we did.
Thank you Joe, Erica and Peter for working with me!
Grace is a senior at Newport High School! She drove all the way up to Portland on Monday to shoot her senior pictures with me, and we had a blast! We went to the Holcomb Railroad Trestle which is out in the Rock Creek/Hillsboro area. The winter sunlight was just gorgeous and we had a great time. Thanks for working with me Grace!
