In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

You can make lists, check off items.. phone calls and emails….    plan for A and B.. maybe C…….

but in the end.. when it starts… there is no map, no guide..

Some things have a will of their own.  The muse that moves me is a wild and wicked sprite.. but she never fails me.

This day was months in the planning..  right up until we began.. we had a plan.. but then it started.  I remember shoots like this like you might remember a beautiful dream, or a wild night out..   fragments of memories of moments .. sharp spiking inspiration, sudden shift in directions… pulled this way and that….striking this and reversing that…….   the ebb and flow of creative energy swirling in a vortex of nature and color and sounds as it binds itself to the whims and wilds of our human hearts, our creative spirit….

……and then its over…  and I think.. was that real?  did that really happen?  how did I get home? 

This is the first engagement shoot of the year.  This shoot marks the start of my wedding season.
I can’t wait.. but I will. 

Think not you can direct the course of love; for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Khalil Gibran

He’s a scientist, shes a chef….. They were travelers on their way home – each from separate destinations..  when they met on a Shuttle Express.  The driver had no direction..he was lost…  they showed him the way.   

They were married in Lincoln City Oregon on a beautiful Autumn day next to the water.

And now two make three.  Their new daughter –  Helena will get to be and do anything her heart desires.  This is just the smallest portion of their story. The story of a couple who became a family……. This is the family –  Nine days before Helena was born.

Can you feel the love?  seriously.. can you?  Because I think you can see it!

be well

When I was born I was so surprised I couldn’t talk for a year and a half.
-Gracie Allen 

I think we all forget how much we forget… about how much work it is getting used to being here.. and how surprising the environment change must be.

By the time Kane reached the studio.. he had been on the outside for 15 days.. 12 hours.  He already had 9 months of yoga instruction and had been in one wedding..  and thats just the stuff I know about.. and I’m just his photographer. 

When Kane arrived he was asleep.. a deep sleep.  I hoped he might just stay asleep for the first hour and we could get some nice baby sleeping shots..  But that didn’t happen.  You would not know it for looking at the images we captured.. but he was a little irritated by the whole flashing lights, waking him up – thing.  And he had every right.

He arrived deep in sleep……

.. as soon as we were done he returned to his seat and left as he came.  In a deep sleep.

“COOKIES!!! UMM-NUM-NUM-NUM-NUM!!!”
-Cookie Monster

It was last year right about this time…. I got off an airplane and drove straight to a golf course to meet Rylan and family.  It was his one year birthday shoot.  His dad Joe was raised on golf and so it was Rylan’s birthday party theme last year.  I mostly remember him trying to eat the golf balls.  :)

It was a year before that I met Joe, Nikki, Dallas and Rylan.  Rylan was a brand-spankin new model.. still had that new baby smell  :)  

I digress   –   I do that  :)

Rylan is now two. This year his birthday party theme will be…  you guessed it..  Cookie Monster.  And can I just say.. I think that’s awesome!  (Cookie Monster was always my favorite growing up watching Sesame Street..  I could always identify with him.. he makes no bones about who he is.. and he doesn’t mess around when it comes to eating cookies!)

This is his mom’s vision.  I love sharing in someone elses vision and having a hand in bringing it to life..  So without further delay.. Rylan and his sister Dallas, a blue paint splattered backdrop..  and …  COOKIES!!! UMM-NUM-NUM-NUM-NUM!!!…   

be well

Having a two-year-old is like having a blender that you don’t have the top for.  ~Jerry Seinfeld

That quote, albeit funny fits Pierce in some ways.. but not all.. but I am sure his folks would tell you he has his moments  

Pierce is in a constant state of wonder.  
He is on a expedition of discovery.  
His life is in motion and he is totally psyched about it!  

Let me set the stage; A sunny February Saturday morning. A train station full of your typical characters;  heroes, villains, travelers, conductors..  and all the typical sounds of people and trains. 

Enter Pierce:  As he discovered the station and its characters… i could see him changing peoples day for-the-better  - just by following his very nature… (constant curiosity and amazement).  With his parents (heroes) in his peripheral… he felt safe – so there was trust in travelers..trust enough to give them a look and a smile. Trust in exploring the big shiny metal machine (villain).  A monstrous towering machine taunting him with candy held in suspension behind glass.  He fought the beast, lost begrudgingly.. vowed to one day return and vanquish the foe with a mean and determined look.. then on to another quest.  i am sure if he could he would never forget that day.. but then again it was just another amazing day for Pierce. 

What an age.. what a wonderful age.  

My trip to New Jersey was coming to a close when I realized I had a good half-a-day of free time to fill.   A friend from the project I was on suggested Princeton.  It was only 45 miles away.  Armed with GPS –  I headed down the New Jersey Turnpike.. (or maybe it was the Garden State Highway..) Not important.. I think I mention it as I am from a land where the highways/freeways don’t have names, just numbers. 

My impression from my visit is that the town is 75% University,  15% shops.. and then old homes divided into apartments.  I guess you could say.. its a college town. 

Can you say Gothic?  The grounds felt as old as time. Everything seemed tower over me.  The on-campus dorms… made of old bricks.. really old.. no two the same…    Humongous ancient trees.  No leaves.  And one really odd statue of two men.. one on his knees. the other with a knife. I stared at it for some time.. but could not sort out its message.  It seemed ‘undone’

I write this post as my plane is about to begin its descent. From my window I see evergreens, my Cascades, my Olympics.. my beloved I-5.

I have many thoughts but little to say about my second day in DC.  In fact, I’ll be brief

I want to see DC in the Spring.. it’s on my list now.

The first several images are of the White House ( boring!)   Some shots from the Jefferson Memorial..    Then..  Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery  is something you must see to see.  I took a few images with my camera.. and a million with my eyes… and countless impressions on my heart.  Moving.  Seriously moving.

be well

Not an idealic day or time of year to visit DC.. but when opportunity knocks…..

I drove into this crazy city in the dark on dry streets.  I woke the next morning to a couple inches of snow.  The snow seemed to keep most of the tourists and local residence indoors for the early morning hours. I love to walk a city that’s still mostly asleep. 

I saw a sign on the side of a van near the Capitol Building today.. it said.. “One Life. Live it!”  Mighty powerful words.  So I am here in DC.. to see it with my own eyes – to capture images -  and make the experience part of my life.  I’m living it!

DC is a beautiful city even under gray sunless skies.  I love the oak and eucalyptus lined streets – It’s a very well planned layout. In a word: Grand.. like Rome is grand.. Immense with an over abundance of neo-classical buildings. Combined with the vast open spaces of the Mall and  the beauty of the war memorials  - The city is a monument to man and to the spirit of this country.  I am proud to be an American but this visit has not made me ‘more proud’ but instead I come away with a deeper sense of the price of things.  I am not as proud as I am grateful. 

I would love to see it in the Spring!

These are images from day one of two.  Featured are the war memorials.  

The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd …..the socks, the inspired name puns, the tattered fish nets, tatoos all wrapped in blurring colors, and fierce competition.  I love the spectacle and experience that is roller derby.  

This is MY rollerderby.  It was a gift to myself.  I made it up in my mind that I HAD to shoot it… I was overly busy as it was but I made myself make time for it.   I started shooting last year and went into it hoping that my lack of experience and understanding of the sport itself would help me come away with images that were unique.  Uniquely me. 

When I shoot roller derby… I try to shoot what I don’t see, catch something that I’m not trying to catch.. if that makes any sense.  I go directly in the opposite direction that seems to be “the way”.  I am just trying to capture something different in a sport that is well photographed.  

This is my 5th bout.  There are times when I feel I “shot it” – or that I am getting the same shots.. but when I go to develop, when I pull my children close, sort them out, study and then develop them..  I always see something new. 

I hope you see it that way too 

Years ago my Mom started a tradition of getting as much family as possible together sometime after Thanksgiving and before Christmas.. we dubbed it – ThanksMas.. clever. I know

This year was especially festive. Keira- now 3 – was the epitome of a Christmas kid.
Oh to be 3 at Christmas!… it’s a perfect storm of developing wonder – fueled by sugar, colors, bright twinkly lights…
Can you photograph ‘wonder’ ?

I wonder….

Merry ThanksMas!