Kaeleigh: thank you for showing up, for unapologetically owning your space, rejoicing in your physicality, for braving the wind and snow with me. Thank you for reminding me that approaching the water with openness and love means that the water won’t always behave as we want or expect, that the water before us reflects the water within us, and still, we enter.
It's wild to remember that I met Jennalyn a year and a half ago when we collaborated together to create her new album cover. We've stayed in contact since then, and when she asked if I could take her senior photos and play with smoke bombs, I knew we would craft some magical images. Jennalyn is incredibly creative and talented, and working with her is always fulfilling and whimsical. Thank you, my friend!
Months in the making, it was simply a blast to photograph these three hysterical, powerful women. Thank you, all three of you, for bringing yourselves in all of your spunk, passion, and love to these images. It was an honor to create them with you.
I've said it once, I'll say in again: I love capturing high school seniors. Summers are filled to the brim with the chaos of wedding season, so taking an evening to chat with and photograph the incredible young people I work with is a breath of fresh air. Tammy is a GEM of a young woman - she is confident, kind, humble, and as you can see, simply stunning. Thank you, my new friend, for trusting me when I directed you to become friends with the trees and frolic through the fields of Discovery Park. Cheers, lovely lady! I'm so thrilled for what life has in store for you. Thanks for making art with me!
Every time I work with high school seniors, I am humbled. It is a privilege to work with young adults and capture them in ways that they potentially have never seen themselves before. Having the opportunity to photograph young people at the cusp of a turning point in their lives is an honor and joy. Thank you, Clara, for running around in the glory of end-of-August light with me. Even in just the hour and a half of shooting together, I was struck by your kindness and steadiness, and I cannot wait to see where the next few years will take you! Cheers!
"To die is not a bad thing. Cells die every day. Paradoxically, it is how the body lives. Casings shed. Coverings fall away. New growth appears. It is how we stay vital. Likewise, ways of thinking die like cells, and we suffer greatly when we refuse to let what's growing underneath make its way as the new skin of our lives. It is the stubbornness with which we we refuse to let what's growing underneath come through that pains us. It is the fear that nothing is growing underneath that feeds our despair. It is the moment that we cease growing in any direction that is truly deadly...
...When resisting this process, we become a troubled guest, moaning like a human crow. We double the pain of living when we try to stop the emergence that all life goes through. Imagine if trees never shed their leaves, or if waves never turned over, or if clouds never dumped their rain and disappeared...
...I say this as much to remind myself as you: Little deaths prevent big deaths. What matters most is waiting its turn underneath all that is expending itself to prepare the way." - Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening: August 9th
I have only seen the sweet peas at Discovery Park bloom once before, but they are absolutely spectacular. When Kennedy and I spotted them glowing beneath the smoky sun that Seattle has been sweating beneath for the last week, I knew we were going to create some incredible images together. Thank you, Kennedy! You are so vibrant and beautiful, and it was a joy to frolic through the flowers with you. Cheers!
When I met Diana and Lukasz a few months ago, I immediately knew that the two of them would be a joy to work with and photograph. From the beginning, I sensed Diana's kindness and groundedness, her depth of soul and experience; Lukasz's silliness and observance and steadfastness; both of them intelligent and attentive and completely in love.
Engagement sessions are a funny thing; compared to weddings, where there is a calculated schedule and expected images to deliver, engagements are free form and whimsical. Sometimes posing and guidance is necessary, but sometimes, like with Diana and Lukasz, simply saying, "Pretend I'm not here," does the trick. We took the ferry from Downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island, trotted around the park where they got engaged, made friends with some flowers, laughed in golden hour, and basked in a windswept dusk back to the city. Below are images that represent a love that is intimate and full within itself, unafraid of outside eyes, willing and ready to exist and flourish with ferry wind in their faces and pink flooding the sky.
