A Father's Day Gift

I may be biased but the gift of family pictures is one of the best gifts you can give.  The receiver of the gift is always grateful and it is a gift that becomes more valuable with the passing of time.
I was excited to photograph this family for the first time as a Father's Day gift.  It was a sunny day, but these kids did so great finding a few shady spots to capture them in all their cuteness.
They were full of hugs and kisses for their mom, dad and dogs.  I loved capturing all the love they had to share.

 

I first met these twins when I photographed their pre-school.  This was the first time I was getting more than 5 minutes with them. And this time, I got to capture them blanketing their mom with hugs and love.  Looking through these makes me want to do the same with my boys.  I am grateful for her investing her time and money in me to give her images that I hope will remain with her forever and for reminding me that this time with my boys is fleeting and I need to do the same with them.  Andrea, I hope you love these...your boys are great!

Since my oldest son was in preschool, I have offered my services to his school.  This year marked my 7th year and I received the nicest email from one mom.  She shared her excitement that I was going to be doing school pictures again because her youngest was now there and she would have a picture to add to the wall next to her other boys' pictures.  She made my day by sharing her excitement with me.  A few months later, she sent me an email with a picture of her wall with the 3 portraits side by side.  Her wall was complete.  I am not sure I will ever forget receiving her email.  Although it was brief, her gratitude was vast and I was so thankful for her sharing the closure of her wall portrait project.
So, this summer, I was excited when she emailed hoping to set up a sitting for her family.  A gift from her mother-in-law.  I couldn't wait to give her images of her whole family to add to the individual images of her boys.  Given her thoughtful emails, I knew how much she must appreciate the gift of family portraits she would be receiving.
I loved photographing this family.  I do have a small bias towards boys, given I have two of my own.  I couldn't wrap my mind around having more than two, but after photographing the youngest in this family, it sure made me a tad envious because he had such a special spark to him.  The youngest always gets a little underdocumented, so I am oversharing pictures of him with this post and I think you will see how amazing his little personality is.  His brothers were great as well and so patient and cooperative with him.  I loved meeting their grandparents.  I hope they will cherish the gift they gave to their family as much as I know their son and daughter-in-law will.

From Singapore to the Sculpture Park

Before they move to Singapore a handful of years ago, I was lucky to have this family for neighbors.  I was honored to receive their email asking me to photograph their family during their summer visit to Seattle.  We met at the Sculpture Park and enjoyed wandering throughout the grounds.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I love photographing boys.  But it often is accompanied by uneasy, frustrated parents.  These boys were giving their parents a run for their money because their silliness was at the forefront.  I am never worried that I won't be able to capture great pictures...it is about "reading between the lines" of silliness that the personalities lie and rarely does it stay hidden.  In fact, I am sharing two images that are almost the same, except the son is laughing and not looking at the camera.  I actually like this image more than the one where they are both looking at the camera.  There is something about it w/ his mom that I really like.
I was excited to share all the pictures with their parents.  I always hope there is a little bit of surprise how many images they love compared to what they had been expecting.  I hope this great family will love these pictures for the beauty of their hometown and their family!
  

I was excited to have the opportunity to photograph this family before they relocated to Maine.  Rain was in the forecast, but looking at these images you will see that we hit the perfect window before the clouds opened up.  They were such a full of life, easy going family that I felt fortunate to cross paths with before their move.
Keeping up with the energy of two boys is something I love about my job.  Like many parents, these two were a bit exacerbated by their sons' behavior.  But I reassured them that their unrestrained energy made my job more fun because it allows me to capture them spontaneously, when their true spirits shine. There are always moments when they are quiet and introspective that follow and it is fun to surprise the unsuspecting parents with images they were sure could not be captured.