Portfolio

I've been denying that I'm actually a photographer, it's a title I don't really feel like I deserve since I know so many people better than me. But then again, there are tons of people better than me at the piano and yet, I'm still a pianist. I got my camera two years ago for my birthday with ambitions of having better photos of my children. I had no idea that I would love the thrill of catching a perfectly authentic smile or a tender moment with my children. I didn't know it would make me so happy that I could share photos with my friends and their kids that I happened to capture during our play date.  I'm always thirsting for more knowledge and wanting to improve my skills. I did not expect to crave beautiful locations and lighting. So, here I am, loving photography and sharing this growing skill with others.

I never thought I would have the skills to make this vision a reality....

...a vision I had in my head for a long time. The point is, I am a photographer, I even occasionally get paid for my photos, so I guess that makes me a professional.

So here are some of my photos. Some, I am really happy with the composition and others are just special to me for other reasons. Like this one....

I have it printed and sitting on my piano It was a beautiful memory of Miles on his tip toes reaching as high as he could to plunk out a few notes. His chubby baby hand...it all just makes me so happy.

Most of my photos are of my family, what can I say?  they are my favorite! (These photos are in no particular order, just how they ended up when I uploaded them.)

Thank you to Max for this one (and thanks to that gorgeous sky!)

Another one of my absolute favorites.

I have also had the privilege  of doing some family photos and I have enjoyed this more than I ever thought I would.

And more of my kids, and other family!

And there you have it! I'm constantly learning, Even among these pictures I can see growth from the few that were taken in the beginning to what I can do now, yet I still see a long path for me to follow to just get better. I'm excited to take my photography to the next level, come March as I participate in a Photo storytelling workshop in one of the most wonderful and deeply beautiful places in the world...Gyumri Armenia!

In the meantime, let me know if you need some family photos:) 

Snow days!

We woke up to Charlie exclaiming that there is snow outside! Oh boy he was excited. It was a Sunday and we just switched to having earlier church so we couldn't go out to play right away. As it turns out, in true Oregon fashion, church was canceled after the first hour. Max still had to stay after for a bit to do some clerk work so I played in the gym with the boys for awhile. Eventually we got home, but for some reason I had only slept for 2 hours the night before so we decided all to nap instead of playing in the snow. Then after Max and I woke up we had a visit from our home teacher (member from church) we saw that it was nearing 4 pm and starting to get dark so I immediately got Charlie ready and Max woke up Miles to go see snow for his very first time. (You never know how long this snow will last in Oregon so we had to play in it right away.) By the time we went out there was freezing rain coming down but we didn't let that dampen our fun. Charlie loved crunching through the snow and our beautiful attempt at a snowman. 

Throwing snow!

Then Miles was finally bundled up and ready to explore for his first time. He loved our little snowman too! (That's what he's pointing to in the photo)

He kept looking at his hands and saying "dirty"

Ok,..maybe I'm obsessed with his cute little face!

So, we don't have a sled. I know they aren't even expensive, but you would only get to use it for a day every other year around here. But we did have this old pool waiting for its spot in the garbage, and that worked as a sled. Classy, I know!

My favorite gentlemen!

More of the best faces!

We went to the driveway of the vacant house behind us, it is the steepest and scariest driveway around. And it turns out that it is great for pool sledding!

Do you see that incline behind them?

Miles wasn't as much as a fan.

We stayed out until the boys' hands were soaked through and it became dark. 

There was freezing rain all night but the next morning it was cleared enough that Max still had to go to work, Since there was still tons of snow (covered in an inch of ice) on the ground we went out to play in it a lot. It is certainly a lot of work to dress all of us in our snow gear by myself. 

We made some scientific observations with the magnifying glass. 

It was super slippery. It was funny to watch Miles walk. Most of the time he wanted to hold my hand and say "slippery" repeatedly. Although it sounded a lot like "sleepy, sleepy!"

But Charlie was in heaven. Breaking and shattering pieces of ice seems to be an excellent pass-time for a 4-year old boy. He would throw pieces of ice at trees, stomp on them, and hit them with a baseball bat. He could have been outside forever!

My poor small-headed child.

The snow and ice didn't even cover the grass completely but it was still enough to have fun.

Peach Tree

 Plum Tree

But this sweet face just kills me! He was being quite the charmer.

After some nap and quiet time we went out again to explore the "ice jungle" The bamboo became so heavy with ice that the branches were hanging over making a jungle in our yard. 

Then Miles pulled off the carrots from our little snowman and started munching on them.

There you have it, an Oregon snow day, we are happy to see that the snow and ice didn't last more than 2 days. And now Miles has been introduced to the snow, and he is a fan. And Charlie continues to be a fan. And if that is all the snow we get this year, we may need to take a little trip to Mt. Hood.