365 Project | Day 28 & 29 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

In preparation for our upcoming Hawaii vacation for my husband's 40th birthday {yes, I'm pretty excited!!}, we've been doing this Fat Flush liver/body cleansing diet.  It's like Atkins but healthier.  Way healthier, but brutal.  My daily caloric intake is down to 1200 {at most} and I can't eat any carbs, salt, processed foods, or dairy.  And no caffeine or alcohol.  Just shoot me already.

The first two days were brutal for me.  I LOVE coffee in the morning, carbs, salt, butter, more carbs, cheese, and a glass of wine at night after the kids go to bed.  So with the start of this cleansing diet, I started off with a nice headache, transitioned into the shakes, more headaches, and major fluctuations in my energy levels.  Oh, and did I mention the sugar/salt/carb cravings and constant feeling of hunger?!

Its been 5 days now and I feel like I'm over the hump.  My body has gotten used to the new diet of protein, vegetables, smoothies, lots of hard boiled eggs, and the daily flax seed oil/psyllium powder recommendation.  By the way, have you had psyllium powder before?  It is dis-gus-ting!!  I'm not craving carbs anymore {unless you count this weekend when we ordered fries for the kids and the smell drove me crazy}, the headaches and all other side effects are gone, and the food tastes better!  Oh, and its working.

So this was my uber-healthy dinner last night, Day 28.  Grilled hamburgers with sautéed onions and peppers in low-sodium broth and garlic, all on a lettuce bun.  My side for the evening was some brussels sprouts - also sautéed in the broth garlic mixture, tossed with flax seed oil and pepper.  It. was. delicious.  I'm sure I wouldn't have said that on day one!

This is today's photo - Seattle's sparkles this time of year believe it or not.

365 Project | Day 26 & 27 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Here's some more beautiful scenery right from my front yard.  The fog was so thick this morning and the light casting through was heavenly.

Day 26 - birds

Day 27 - heavenly fog

365 Project | Day 24 & 25 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Hello, all.  I hope you're enjoying these photos.  If you are, I have a great set for you today.

I've been racking my brain about a "New Beginnings" themed photo for January that I was going to submit to my photography group.  I was coming up with the usual standard ideas until I finished my lunch.  I started laughing at where the sprouts had landed!  So this is a little staged.  I moved my soup closer to frame out the photo and adjusted the "outside" sprouts a little.  It made me laugh.  I hope you enjoy it!

The second one was taken with the telephoto during one of our several downpours we had today.  I loved the drops overlaid by the one major ripple, plus the color.  Makes the rain look pretty! Which is a necessity when you live here.

365 Project | Day 22 & 23 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Welcome to a new week!  If your new week starts with Sunday, {mine doesn't - I feel like that's the end of the week} we had a great start.  Ell and Isaac's cousin spent the day with us.  They adore her just as she adores them.  You can feel the love.  They are so cute together!

What a glorious start it was for my first day of the week, Monday!  I got the kids off to school, the sun was shining, and the snow continued to melt.  It was the perfect day to get out the telephoto and play with pretty backlighting - my favorite!!  I hadn't used my telephoto in a while.  I love the results....I'll have to play with it some more :)  The bokeh is just amazing in this photo to me and makes me happy.

365 Project | Day 20 & 21 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Day 21 - 3 weeks done, 49 to go!

Here are the last two photos of our snowy Seattle week since its now 40 degrees and its all been slowly melting away.

Not much to report on these but I hope you love the punchy graphic minimal style of these :)  Now I'm off to go on a much deserved date night with the hubby.

Enjoy your weekend!

365 Project | Day 18 & 19 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

What a week!  As you've probably heard, we're snowed in here in Seattle.  By snowed in I mean we have 6-8 inches..... but the city is pretty much shut down. :)

The kids have been out of school all week and we've been taking advantage of it.  We've done lots of sledding, skiing, walking, playing, and building of snow forts, snow men, and snow couches.  I really had a hard time taking photos - mostly because I had my iPhone with me versus lugging around the big girl camera, but also because there were so many fun opportunities for photos and I had trouble deciding!

So the first, for yesterday's image, is of my major cross street in Wedgwood at dusk with hardly any traffic.  I went for a 1940s black and white style to add a bit of flair.  Very old school erie, don't you think?

The second, from today, is of my beautiful girl.

365 Project | Day 17 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

I'm tired.  Just like this guy.  He didn't go to preschool today since Seattle Schools were running 2 hours late.  I would have dropped him off at 11am just to go pick him up at 11:45!  The only productive thing I could have done would have been to go for a quick run but I'm not navigating the Seattle streets for an hour to do that.

For exercise today, I instead opted for some grunt work pulling the sleds with kids to a good sledding hill followed by 2 hours of actual sledding and all that comes with it {read: shuttling kids up and down the hill}.  I was sweating.  That counts, doesn't it?  At least my body thinks so.  That's one reason I'm tired.  So I'll keep it short tonight.  We have a big day of sledding ahead of us tomorrow if the snowstorm graces us with her presence!

Good night.

365 Project | Day 15 & 16 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

To feed off the last post, I have more stormy and snowy photos for you highlighting this crazy Seattle weather.  Another storm is supposed to blow in Wednesday and bring us up to 8 inches!  It may not seem like much to many of you, but 8 inches is a big deal around here.  We have {I've heard} two snow plows in the entire city; our mayor refuses to use salt on the roads; we have an insane amount of hills; and the majority of residents don't know how to drive in ice or snow.  So even though I grew up in Idaho where part of driver's ed was navigating through snow packed streets, I will not drive around here for fear of getting hit by someone else. :)

Besides the fact that I love good snow storms {or any storm, really}, the anticipation has quadrupled with the kid's excitement.  They are THRILLED to get snow, and of course a day off school.  We will most likely be sledding down some nearby deserted road for hours and then head in for some much-deserved hot chocolates.  But until the predicted storm comes {and the accompanying photos}, here are my pictures from the last two days.

The first is Isaac cleaning snow off the car while in our first snow storm.  I loved the simplicity of it mixed with the dense speckles of snowfall.  The second, from today, was taken while driving over the Ship Canal Bridge on I-5.  I've been wanting to take this photo for quite a while since we get a fantastic view of the Seattle skyline while on the interstate at least 500 feet above Lake Union.  Tim was driving by the way.  The dark clouds in the photo never turned into the predicted 1-3 inches of snow for us this evening, but it does look menacing and beautiful don't you think?

365 Project | Day 13 & 14 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

This project is turning out to be so much fun so far!  Yes, I'm only 2 weeks into it {50 to go!} but so far I've just been more motivated by it.  We'll see what happens mid-year :).  I've never seen myself as a strong writer, but a side effect of this project has been just sitting down, slowing down, reflecting and writing about my thoughts around the photo.  Simple, yet a good exercise for a non-writer like me.  I can see why people keep journals.

So here are two photos for you:  The first is yesterday's.  My son Isaac LOVES Bay Blades.  Have you heard of them?  What are they, you may ask?  The 21st century version of tops.  Yes, tops.  Simple, yet the manufacturer has increased the cool factor at least 100 times.  They're all over the place at Ella's elementary school.  We'll go play there after school and its not uncommon to see at least 4 clusters of 4-5 kids competing around a bay blade stadium they have their parents bring to school.  With 4-5 tops in these small stadiums, there's all kinds of contact going on so its quite fun to watch.

Isaac's always been into how things work - namely things that spin or articulate in some way - and he'll analyze it for a while.  So I stuck a bay blade in his stocking not knowing how much he'd really like it, and we're now having tournaments almost every day.  And this is how you start a competition - at least at View Ridge School in Seattle - "5,4,3,2,1.....let it drift!"  {That's at least what Isaac says.....I think its supposed to be "let it rip!" since you start it with a zip cord.}

So I got out the camera and played with the shutter speed at bit:

The second photo is today's.  We got snow in Seattle, and there's supposed to be more coming this long weekend!  Snow is always so fun here since it's more uncommon than areas more inland.  I grew up in Idaho so a snow storm was no big deal, but here it's something special!  So Isaac and I got outside to hang out and enjoy the downfall for a bit this afternoon.

365 Project | Day 12 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Isaac and I enjoyed our sunny afternoon today at the zoo with some friends.  We hadn't been there in a while, and, although much of the time was spent playing and eating, we did get around to seeing some of our favorite animals.

The cold weather must make Jaguar's lethargic and sleepy since I've never seen him stay still for longer than a minute {let alone take a nap right next to the glass}.  It was really difficult minimizing the glare in this photo but I still think its pretty good.  I used my 50mm lens - I know - silly not to take the telephoto but I don't like the cheap one I have.....

I couldn't decide between these photos today, so I'll post both.  These toucans were very active, in contrast to many animals we saw.  They must have been curious about the kids making funny noises since they also chose to perch themselves quite close to us.  I did shoot this through a wire fence.....can you see it?

Which photo do you like better?

365 Project | Day 11 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

I had a newborn photo shoot this morning {sneak peek to come soon} and the family was running a little late, so I decided to be in front of the camera for once.  I set up my light in front of this nice neutral backdrop I hadn't used in a while and snapped a few pics.  I had my trusty 50mm 1.4 lens on again, and no, I didn't have a remote.  I took it the old fashioned way - holding this Canon 5D Mk II with battery grip {can you say 4+ pounds!} out in front of me as far as I could without a) dropping the camera or b) dislocating my shoulder.

I have to say it was quite fun and eye-opening.  I felt dorky and had to warm up to the camera.  I looked at a few of the first photos and almost threw up in my mouth.  I'm not kidding.  The angle was terrible.  But, then it was fun just playing with looking a few different directions, angling the camera different ways, and moving my free hand around to {pretty much} keep it busy so I wouldn't feel as stupid.

It was a good exercise for me.  I would rather be safely tucked behind my camera while you, on the other side, are exposed :).  It was a good reminder to me of how you feel when I have you set up with the lights and big camera {all pointing at you} and then start taking your photos.  No matter what I say or how silly I am with your kids when we start the session, its nerve-racking.  You're trying to be cool about the whole situation {how is my hair, are the kids looking/behaving, is my husband even smiling?!?}, but really your probably not.  That's why my favorite photos, 99% of the time, are at the end of a shoot after we've had a ton of fun together.

So anyway, maybe I'll take a self portrait every few months or so to see how I change through this year, and I'd like to do a family self portrait.  Look for it sometime this Fall!

365 Project | Day 10 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Isaac and I were out enjoying the afternoon sunshine.  Unfortunately, after perusing around our front yard, I noticed how many deciduous plants we have.  Our front yard basically looks dead this time of year except for the grass, moss, and few other plants.

I decided to try taking some "macro" photos with my 50mm f1.4 lens and settled on one of our prettier plants this winter, lavender.  And a bonus was the beautiful backlighting with the winter sun much further South.

I loved how the sun flare and bokeh {blurry background} turned out in this photo:

365 Project | Day 9 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

I didn't feel too creative today, but I did exercise.  I just started running again after a 2-month hiatus and it feels so good to pound the pavement and get my heart pumping again!  I had my music with me - an iPod shuffle - and I LOVE it.  Running wouldn't be the same for me without music.  I used to have a much bigger clunky Nike apparatus that I would strap onto my arm and it would hold - maybe - 60 songs.  Times have changed!  I can't even feel the weight of this little shuffle, nor will I hear a repeat song thanks to the 1 GB hard drive.  Thank you Steve Jobs!

I'm reading his book, by the way.  Fascinating.  You should read it if you haven't yet.

So here's my shout out to running and the shuffle:

365 Project | Day 7 & 8 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

I thought I'd lump two photos together from the last two days since I didn't get around to it Saturday.  The first is from a photo shoot yesterday.  This 6-year-old boy was an absolute doll and his sweet side comes through in this photo with a very genuine expression.

This is today's photo {Sunday the 8th} - Ella had a neighbor friend over for a play date during our lazy Sunday afternoon.  They let their imaginations take over as they played - literally- in every square inch of our house!

365 Project | Day 6 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Hi!  Well, I did take this pic yesterday but didn't get it posted quite in time.  I captured this quiet moment between Isaac and Dad bonding over an iPad game.....

365 Project | Day 5 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

I love this little guy :)  This was taken on our couch with some unusual mid afternoon sun pouring through our front window.

365 Project | Day 4 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Saw a lot of this today in the neighborhood.  Makes me sad that Christmas break flies by so quickly.

365 Project | Day 3 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

I made my first lunch face for Isaac after preschool today.....another sign we're getting back into the routine here after the holidays.

365 Project | Day 2 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Vacation's Over - Back to reality.......

365 Project | Day 1 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of my new resolution, a 365 photo project!  I've heard of them and followed a few friends who did them, and now it's my turn.  My goal is to take a photo a day through 2012 - with my Cadillac of cameras, not the iPhone.  {Well, maybe not a Cadillac......its more like a Lexus.} It sounds daunting but at the same time, achievable.  I'm excited about having a new, fun goal to work towards besides your every day goals {or resolutions as you may have said these past few days} like eating better, exercising more or booking x number more customers per month, yada yada yada.

I'm hoping, besides how fun it's going to be, it'll help me see the world around me better and in turn, record the summation of my observations and thoughts through one photograph.  Or maybe, if I'm nearing the end of a super crazy nothing-went-right-today kind of day, I'll at least get a photograph of something {insert glass of red wine, bubble bath, and 2 advil here} with a little flair.  As a photographer with a touch of analytical nerd in me, I hope to see my exposures and compositions get better and use new and different techniques to bring focus to my subject.  I hope to further define my overall *style* by picking a subject and really thinking through how I want to portray that subject.  I want to SLOW DOWN, think about how I want the finished product to look, set up the shot, then press the shutter.  See, I'm getting all nerdy.  I'd like to spend at least 5-10 minutes a day on this.  Oh, and did I mention have FUN?!

I'll post a photo here every day as well as on my flickr site if you want to follow the project.

And since today is the 1st, below is the 1st photo {taken in Plain, WA this morning}: