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!

a hiatus?

but not really. mostly just posting this to remind myself that it's okay to not be shooting as much as I want, or drawing as much as I want. My partner and I are building a boat home for ourselves and that's a lot of work and energy and creative problem solving. By the end we will have a nest and refuge where we can make and love and make love and watch moon jellies float below us and say hello to our duck neighbors. itching to shoot skin in the wild once again, simultaneously knowing that it's okay and good that June has become the dedicated boat month.

three years ago a man walked onto my college campus with a gun and killed a student.

6/2/17

There is no shame in knowing and seeing yourself. There is no shame in facing yourself and loving the human the looks back. There is no shame in documenting your existence in the moments that you love yourself, or need to remind yourself that your physicality is powerful, or in vanity and the striving to feel whole. In fact, seeing yourself in brokenness and the reality of your situation can be incredibly grounding. Hard, terribly hard, but important. I would maybe argue that it's essential.

Let us not strive for purity; let us strive for liveliness and fullness and the gasp of air after a season of drowning. Let us celebrate one another instead of degrading each other for our accomplishments and successes. Let us not settle for molds of who we are expected to be. Take up space. Take selfies. Take, and give.

When you document your own existence, you remind others that they can too. There is no embarrassment in rejoicing in yourself. The fact that we have become conditioned to shame each other for using technology as a tool of self expression is proof of our fear of self love and the power of grace, rejuvenation. We have learned to settle. We have let boxes win, once again.

This morning I photographed a number of different adults in a corporate headshot session. The stress and tension that most of my clients exhibited in front of the camera struck me. It's the same fear I witness during family photos at weddings. Generations before ours have learned to fear having their photo taken, whereas we see cameras as a way to bear witness to ourselves. Of course, we are still saturated with images of "perfection" and impossible beauty standards, but I also believe that selfie culture is creating an undercurrent that promotes self love and deconstructs the tension that many people experience with images of themselves.

I think I have come to a place where I believe that selflessness begins with fully loving the self, and in loving the self, being willing and able to give up the self. When we realize our importance and worth, we simultaneously awaken to our insignificance. And we are moved.

Purity is empty. Purity is nonexistent in this life. To be pure is to not be marked by the tides of this life, and none of us can avoid the inevitable push and pull. Why do we teach our kin to strive for purity and not for self love? Why do we teach abstinence before we teach grace and tenderness and consent? What is actually our priority - control, or joy? For the expansion of human consciousness, or the restriction of the heart?

I am learning to love paradox. That I sit in my body and love my thighs that seem to get a little plumper every week as I age and ruffle my hair that is finding its curl again and watch my freckles appear once again in the early summer sun. But that I also exist in a chemical imbalance that causes me to tear the skin on my fingers and pull my eyelashes and eyebrows out when I'm stressed and pick at my toes until they bleed. 

I have visions of sunlight and refractions in salt water and womxn whose hair whips around their faces and eagle feathers brush their arms as they lift their hands towards a light they always knew existed. Womxn whose seal skins allow them to be in the sea and whose human bodies allow them to feel grass between their toes, these womxn who can exist in two places at once, womxn who are not forced to choose but can exist in their complicated, simple, duality. The legends of trees whispering to humanity, telling us to come home. I am learning to open. Trying to bloom, one petal at a time. Allowing dolphins to swim through my neurons and bluejays to make nests at my cuticles.  

Maybe I'm another dumb millennial. But I'm listening, and this is what I am beginning to hear.

Brittney and Taylor | Newport Beach Wedding 4/30/17

I have known Taylor since we were twelve years old, so you can imagine my joy when he told me that he was interested in booking me as him and Brittney's wedding photographer. In December, I met Brittney for the first time on a gloomy day in Laguna Beach, but immediately, I knew that working with the two of them would be full of goodness and light.

Brittney and Taylor were married on a glorious springtime Southern California day, the perfect, unusual balance of gentle seaside wind and bright, warm sunlight. We ran on the beach after their ceremony and reveled in their union and commitment together.

Thank you, my friends, for trusting me to document your beautiful day. Cheers!

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!

bean n bopper n bubbles n bread

She finished her midterms and we went to the sea and drank some bubbles and ate some bread and bundled up and told our stories. She kept her hands warm in my armpits and the sun came out enough to inspire us to take some photos. That's all. Enjoy, friend.

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)

Emma and David | Discovery Park Anniversary Shoot

Two sweet pups (humans in love), a Seattle sunshine surprise, and a celebration of their year of commitment. In the words of Emma, "David and I only have like eight photos together." So we decided to change that.

a KallieD birthday bash

Kallie is a woman of deep, fierce kindness. Last night, we celebrated her 25th trip around the sun with whiskey, nail painting, Big Little Lies, the best damn birthday cake I've ever had, and lots of belly laughs. 

These are people who know how to lift up their loved ones; it was an honor to bounce along in the festivities. We were all very full, and our eyes were dancing with light.