Family session: Meg + Max

I've known Meg since we started working together at my current dayjob -- even though she's moved on to a different career path, and keeps a crazy pace taking care of her two young boys, we've somehow managed to stay in touch. She and her husband Max are some of the most interesting, down-to-earth people I've met in Seattle, and it was a privilege to take a few hours on a Saturday to document them + their sons in Ballard. Can't wait to see how the holiday cards turn out!

Outtakes: ISB headshots

Back in August, I did a marathon headshot session at the Institute for Systems Biology here in Seattle (which also happens to be my dayjob, four days a week). It was a hustle -- for me, at least -- as we had people booked in five minute increments for close to ninety minutes.

Thanks to a few no shows (and a few pros, who knew we had supermodels working among our ranks?!), I was able to deliver a fair amount of frames per person -- one of which was always this not-quite-centered shot, a little off-angle and full of personality. I doubt these images made the final cut on the client end, but they're definitely some of my favorites from the afternoon:

Thanks to Hsiao-Ching Chou for suggesting me when the job came up, and to Allison Kudla for her exemplary planning, coordination, and line-wrangling skills! 

Downtown Seattle elopement: Haley + Ben

I had the honor of shooting my friend Haley's elopement to her fiancee Ben earlier this month, with several hours and locations scheduled for us to visit before the courthouse proper. It was an absolutely perfect afternoon -- we started out with a first look at the garage adjacent to the Alexa (I set them up so that they'd have a few moments to themselves before the chaos of the day kicked in), went down to the Market for flowers, took a stroll to Le Pichet for a quick toast, and then Ubered over to City Hall for the ceremony before wrapping up with dinner at Cuoco. It was one of those days early in September when the haze was not only holding the temperature down, but also creating this weird filtered light that really lent itself to some great setups.

If I had to get some language around it, I guess I would call this a loosely curated, elopement slash day-of documentarian-esque shoot? and after having had the day that we did, I seriously want to do this like, every week for the rest of the foreseeable future. Weddings are always incredible and an absolute privilege to capture for clients, but when the client is also a buddy you've known for close to a decade who's got a killer sense of humor + the willingness to spend time trying out ideas -- well, it just works. Not only did we get amazing footage out of it, we had an absolute blast from start to finish -- with some help from cranky Uber drivers, the guy getting released from the courthouse (who lit up a cigarette and barked out a sarcastic 'good luck' as we walked up the steps), and like, five other hilarious strangers we met over the course of our travels. Layer in excited family members and adorable kids who created a vibe that was just so positive and so fun from the instant we arrived.

I wound up delivering a solid 200+ images -- here's a quick tour of how it all looked and felt: 

Haley's father's speech left me in tears and I floated home on a cloud at the end of the night, exhausted and thrilled, knowing that I'd done good work and so, so excited to get to the edits. Infinity hugs and congratulations to these two. And ps, Dear Universe: please send me more experiences like this!