Leanne, Mike, and Mila || West Seattle Family Photo Session

I met Leanne and Mila at a brewery on a lovely late spring evening, playing with a friend's puppy and enjoying the beginning whispers of summer. Little did either of us know that we would connect and I would end up taking Mila's six month photos and documenting their darling family! Thank you, Mike and Leanne, for trusting me to capture your adorable young lady!

Déjà; morning glory.

I met Déjà on Facebook. When we decided to see each other in person on a mid-May morning, I had no expectations for what our time would be like except that she needed new portraits. I didn't know that we would throw our heads back in laughter together and discuss self love and hold each other in excitement and joy. More and more I see proof of photography and the capturing of the self as a form of therapy. The moment of seeing one's self as sacred, with morning light illuminating the soul as it emits through skin and bone, is holy. Déjà and I talked about the importance of documenting our physical existence, affirming our physical existence. And we sat in the grass amongst the evergreens, glory and goodness seeming to hold us gently.

She is perseverance in the face of indescribable hardship. Her story is powerful. Her voice is soft and sturdy. Her existence is art.

My new friend, welcome to Seattle. It is so wonderful to have your body and spirit inhabit this city. We will make together. I cannot wait to see what our hands and hearts create.

Frishy, Matt, and Georgy || Japanese Garden Family Shoot

I first met Frishy and Matt two years ago in Tacoma, just months after they were married. We wandered around the outdoor Glass Museum and took their much needed "engagement photos" - we had a lovely time all together, and since then, have stayed in contact from afar. They recently had their beautiful baby girl, Georgy, and asked me to photograph them and their new addition to their family!

The flowers in the garden welcomed us with pink and yellow, and on a day predicted to storm, the sun burst through. Excited to continue documenting this wonderful family as time goes by! Thank you again for trusting me to photograph you and your beloved little one!

Down the Coast, Through the Desert: Part One

It's been five days since we left Seattle for the green hills of Northern California, headed south for the families and the soul tribe and the sunshine (and the wedding I'm shooting on Sunday, but that's really just the monetary reasoning for this trip; we've needed an exhale). 

We have sat with brews in hand in the Portland dusk, pranced with the mountains, discussed philosophy with many creatures, awoken to the California springtime sun grazing the tips of hillsides around our tent. We have painted one another and breathed and sat by the fire in reverence. We have continued to learn that self love begins with realizing that you don't have to apologize for existing. We have affirmed one another in our bodies, reminding each other there is no shame in the physical space we inhabit. We have held one another in gratitude and grace.

I am thankful for Butch and Laurie, Shannon and her husband, my dear Elise, and all the other souls who we have encountered and helped us along on this lovely journey we seem to have embarked upon.

(photos of me and Elise by my beloved Austin and Elise)

cracking colors (body paint experiment #1)

"We still might feed the dark thing in us

that grows away from the light

until against all sense

we mysteriously flower

in the other direction."

- Mark Nepo

body paints by yours truly

Annie and I sat in a small clearing amongst wildflowers, tall as we were. We listened to James Vincent Mcmorrow as I let my brush dance across her breasts. The flowers gave their input and inspiration, and together, we created.

zoe, & moon signs

I don't remember the first time I met Zoe; actually, now that I think about it, we might have been playing King's Cup at the boys' old house, sipping Rolling Rock on the floor. There was a day in winter of 2015 that fog rolled into Seattle in a way that fog typically doesn't behave in this city. On that day, Zoe, a few friends, and I marveled at the otherworldly nature of the sunset, playing with dogs as light filtered through the misty air. I don't know Zoe very well, but I know that in the last three years of moving in and out of each other's lives, she has remained a beacon, however brief our interactions. I had the joy of photographing Zoe for my series on womxn in their spaces, and during the couple hours we spent together that afternoon, she gave me a glass of wine, taught me about my moon sign, and burned incense. It was all very lovely - it was blooming.

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Rachel & JD | Peter Pan Inspired Discovery Park Engagement

These images were taken in April of 2015 - it's about time I blogged them.

Rachel and JD are dear to me. I didn't know them when we met in the Discovery Park south parking lot, but immediately I knew that we would remain connected outside of a photographer-client relationship. I didn't know that a little under year later I would fly to Malibu to photograph their wedding on a cool winter morning. I didn't know that their engagement photos, filled with proof of their deep and whimsical love for one another, would become some of my favorite photos I've ever taken.

I am thankful for Rachel and JD and their vision for these photographs that I had the honor of capturing. Even though they are now two years old, I feel hope looking at these images. They feel like childhood, and the embodiment of love we imagine when we are children. These photos are play and the exhale of awe when you realize, we made it.

There’s a place, a garden for the young
To laugh and dance in safety among
The shimmering light in the garden of peace

Josh Garrels, Morning Light

madeline, reconnection, -

On a midweek morning in December, Maddie called me. I hadn't seen her for three years, but she happened to be in Hollywood, and I was in my Orange County beach town for the holidays. She asked if I was free that day to create together. I told her to come; she said she would brush her teeth, get in the car, and be at my house in an hour and a half. My dog, who never hesitates to assume that visitors are not welcome, met Maddie with a wagging tail and excitement. We ate cheese and crackers and caught up from the last three years. And we made some of my favorite photographs I've ever captured.

These images are the result of our day of rejoicing and reconnecting.

I have a dear friend
who writes about orgasm as blooming.
I don’t know why, but I’ve been mulling over
anatomy and crimson this morning,
considering flaps and folds and the full flora
of the Feminine.
.
The other day while we
sat at the kitchen table,
scooping brie and pesto onto cracked wheat,
walls that have heard all of my
childhood secrets
nodded as she cocked her head and said,
“If you ask the Universe to reveal,
It will.”
.
So I’ve been asking.
And to my surprise,
faces of women, 
hens, vixens, lionesses,
female otters who frolic in seaweed patches,
appear behind my eyelids.
I don’t know what it means,
these embodiments of tenderness and ferocity
unveiling themselves from the thicket
but as they reach towards me,
I take their hands, and together, we
step out onto the tundra.
and, as though awakening,
the ice begins to thaw.
.
I massaged my dog’s paws last night
and she lay her muzzle on my knee
I realized that nobody is exempt
from the deep knowing of touch, body.
and I wrapped my arms around her neck
and buried my face into her winter coat.