seattle engagement photographer | stephen & elisabeth.

This couple. Creative, talented, smart -- they just go together. When I first met them, I knew that I really wanted to be a part of their wedding festivities. Not just because Stephen is a talented designer and Elisabeth is creative and her wedding ideas are so incredibly unique, and also not because the wedding is in Leavenworth (albeit a huge plus), but because of the way they are together. You can just tell that they get along so well and there is a genuine affection for each other. Seeing them pull out their laptops and passionately talk about their wedding plans and ideas was just so wonderful and made me feel like I was right along there with them making the big plans. Elisabeth told me she wanted to have their engagement photos taken with the cherry blossoms. So on a quiet day in March, we took a stroll through the beautiful Washington Arboretum and I got to capture their love. 

personal | uw cherry blossoms.

Last week the I visited my alma mater to see the iconic cherry blossoms in the Quad. They seemed to be at their peak and there were tons of people out viewing and taking photos. As I was leaving it started pouring rain so I feel like I was pretty lucky to see them when I did. Happy spring everyone!

seattle engagement photographer | happy spring!

Spring has officially sprung here in the Northwest. Our beloved cherry blossoms are blooming and it's time to go out and play! I had the pleasure of photographing Stephen and Elisabeth in the Arboretum a few days ago. The scenery was blissful. So here we go, let's welcome spring with love.

birthday camping trip.

The spring weather has fully kicked in here with pleasant temperatures and afternoon rainstorms. It seems so pretty but the summer activities haven't fully developed quite yet. Teton Park road is open but most of the campsites are not, and trails are mostly snow-covered. Not to mention they are closing my beloved "lunch break hike" up High School Butte because it's privately owned and the family wants to revegitate it. Sad! Anyway, my birthday rolled around a few days ago and I was trying to think of something fun to do that didn't involve meeting up with a bunch of friends at a bar. Most of my friends are out of town for off-season right now, so doing something simple with David sounded like the perfect option. I called around to the National Forest offices and Teton Park office and found it difficult to find any campsites that were open. Settling for the semi-boring and $20/night Gros Ventre Campground off of the road to Kelly seemed like what we should do. We drove out there, noticing a stash of RVs parked along the river. Ugh. With some bad weather rolling through, we decided to check out the road up Shadow Mountain and see if it really was "snowed in." When we reached the base we laughed as we watched a car trying to navigate through a heard of bison (they were EVERYWHERE!) to get to its driveway. The base of the mountain had three open campsites which all stared the Tetons straight in the face. There was a closed sign for the road up the mountain, but what we were looking at seemed perfect! The rain stopped and the sun peeked through the abundance of fluffy clouds. We enjoyed an amazing dinner of salmon pesto pasta (made on our camp stove) and dessert -- mocha tres leches cake -- which David made from scratch. (I'm so impressed!) It was such a beautiful evening and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else to celebrate my birthday.

gaper day 2012

It's back! The annual celebration of neon, eighties, mullets, scrunchies, and one-piece ski outfits. For those who don't know what a "gaper" is, see last year's post. It was a bit cloudy this year, so for once I was thankful to be wearing a horribly ventilated jumpsuit. We spent the day cruising the slushy mountain and showing off our sweet moves. Enjoy the photos!

thinking dinosaur.

riding the gondola.

gapers on thunder bumps.

halina.

kelly, halina & me.

halina, tyler & kelly jumping for joy!

halina, normally a snowboarder, tries to figure out her skis.

here's my boyfriend. i'm so proud!

halina loses her ski.

david practicing his jump turns.

david spread eagles off of a jump on croaky point.

tyler's sweet outfit.

david continues to show off.

tyler, normally a skier. the snowboard doesn't phase him.

olivia, the mountain princess.

gapers at the top of the gondola.

david and the stash park.

big moves off of the platform.

i finally get to show off my skills.

fun with sparklers.