Black and White

This week's photo challenge theme at iheartfaces.com is "scenic black-and-white."  This picture was taken at a nearby park I love to go to.  It's especially nice for photos when the dandelions are allowed to grow - kids love to pick them.
To see more beautiful scenic black-and-white photos, visit iheartfaces.com. 

Paper

Paper

This week at iheartfaces.com the challenge theme is "paper."  My submission is this moment from a 4-year-old's birthday party.

There are some really beautiful entries this week - check them out!

Silhouette

The early morning sun created long shadows, as well as silhouetting the college student here, who was walking on his way to class.  I don't often shoot silhouettes when doing family portraits, but working at a newspaper was a great excuse to look for graphic images, and to try different things.  I enjoy portraiture, but the variety of assignments I had as a photojournalist could be challenging.  And it always felt good to get a nice picture, that could run on the front page without a story, just because it looked interesting.

Check out iheartfaces.com to see more images on the silhouette theme.

Fall Faves

This week at iheartfaces.com the challenge is "Fall."  This has always been my favorite season, and a great time for taking photos.  This year I'm afraid I've missed the best of the color in my area, (whenever I had time to take pictures, it was raining) so I'm sharing a few of my favorite fall portraits from previous seasons...

and also a few spooky spiderwebs.  These were all taken one morning when I noticed that the spiders had been very busy the night before.   

More images on the Fall theme can be seen at iheartfaces.com.

Pretty in Pink

I love taking pictures of kids just being kids. This one is of my daughter and some of the kids in her class during a program they were performing.  She is in her own little world at this moment, and very into her pretty pink flowery dress. 
The theme for the photo challenge at iheartfaces.com this week is "pink," in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  There are always a lot of great photos posted for their challenges.  As a photographer, it's great to see the variety of techniques and just all the beautiful images. 

Smirk

"Smirk" Photo Challenge
One of my sweeties, handing me flowers and looking like a little rascal.  I had a hard time choosing this photo.  There is another one, shot a moment before or after this one, where the look on his face is very tender, despite the smirk. It's amazing how quickly facial expressions can change, and what a difference it can make in a photo.  The other one's on my wall, but I like them both - they each show a facet of his mischievous, sweet personality. 

There are many great images on this theme to check out at iheartfaces.com.

Purple

A girl in a purple jacket... a simple picture of a great smile.

Babies

Babies.... so soft, sweet, innocent... so adorable!  There are lots of beautiful baby pictures to see at iheartfaces.com this week - check them out!

Play

A carefree, sunny day, running with wings.

I've been posting images for a little while now as entries for the iheartfaces.com "weekly challenge."  My photography business has been quiet lately, so it's been nice to go back and look at some favorite images.  There are many beautiful images being posted there, with this week's theme being "Play."  It's definitely worth checking out.

Yellow #2

Dandelion Boy

Nothing beats a lazy summer day and a field of dandelions...

Yellow

A favorite of mine, from a couple of years ago.  The kids had fun picking buttercups and dandelions.

The theme at iheartfaces this week is "yellow" - there are lots of beautiful images to see.  Check them out!

Flowers

Flowers

Kids seem to love dandelions.  I love them too!  The bright cheerful yellow, and the very fun puffball of seeds they turn into. 

This week's challenge at iheartfaces.com is 'faces and flowers' - there are lots of great entries to check out. 

Celebrating Moms

"Celebrating Moms" with a mom and daughter portrait

There were other pictures with more smiling faces from this shoot, but I chose this one because of the expression on the mom's face.  She looks so content and happy with her big girl all snuggled in on her.

To see more images on this theme, check out other entries at iheartfaces.com.

Dramatic B&W

Another week, another challenge.  This week, it's "Dramatic B&W."  This one is part of a collage of photos of our daughter as a baby.  She has the greatest eyelashes :) 

There are lots of great black-and-white photos to see at iheartfaces.com. 

Angles

"Angles"

A quiet moment, after muching running and dancing. I love capturing them on those rare occasions when they occur. 

There are a lot of beautiful images taken from interesting perspectives this week at iheartfaces.com.

Bundled Up

Bundled Up

This week at iheartfaces.com, the theme is "Bundled Up." Here's one of my little sweeties.  We had a lot of snow that winter, and she and her brother had a ball playing in it.

This winter, on the other hand, has been more like spring.  Lots of sun, no snow at all.  I don't mean to complain, but I do miss it.  A couple of days with some good snowman-building type snow would be enough to satisfy. 

Check out iheartfaces.com to see lots more "Bundled Up" photos.

Jump for Joy

Are they jumping for joy?  They were definitely having a great time.  This is an image I shot when I was working at my first job out of college, for a little black-and-white weekly newspaper.  Besides covering assignments, I was always on the lookout for anyone out doing anything that might make a cool picture.  This was both exciting and stressful.  Some days I just couldn't find anything.  So when I saw these kids on their trampoline, I was thrilled.  After asking their mom if it was okay to take their picture, I hung out while the kids did their thing.  It's one of my favorite images from my 'newspaper years.'    

There are many great photos on this theme at iheartfaces.com - check them out!

Hilarious Outtakes

This week the challenge is "Hilarious Outtakes."  Kids often have great facial expressions that can change moment to moment.  These two kids were good friends and (despite the look on his face) had a great time together during the session. 

And then there are my own two little hams.  Sometimes they make funny faces without even trying.  Sometimes they like to 'perform' for the camera.  I find that if they have a designated time to be goofy in front of the camera, that can help get more natural smiles when 'goofy time' is over. 

There are lots of fun photos to check out this week at iheartfaces.com.

"Hands-On Fun" Photo Challenge

"Hands-On"

This is my entry for the iheartfaces.com photo challenge this week.  This is one of my favorite images from a family portrait session.  He looks just a little worried, but he's in good, loving hands.   

When I first heard the theme for this week's challenge, I didn't think I'd come up with much.  It was surprising how many worthy images I did find - some nearly forgotten about.  I'll be posting some of my other choices soon.  Check out the other great images at iheartfaces.com

Favorite Places

Places I Love

A photo challenge at iheartfaces.com has me thinking about my favorite places. I thought of some of the amazing places we've travelled to - Italy, and Peru - and some of the beautiful places we've seen while hiking and camping. But really, my favorite place is here, this community where we live in the Pacific Northwest.

We are blessed to live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country. There is also a commitment to public spaces that you don't always find. There are some wonderful parks all around the region.

One of our favorites is about a mile away from home. It is on Lake Sammamish, and has lots of open space to run around in, as well as a playground and a beach. One beautiful day in May, I persuaded my husband to leave work early and we headed to the park. In the summer it is a really busy place. But on this gorgeous spring day, it wasn't very crowded. The kids enjoyed the playground for a while, but they seemed to have the most fun picking dandelions and buttercups.

This was a couple of years ago now.  I'm really thankful to have these photos to help remember that day - just an ordinary day, really, sharing a few hours together as a family.