Last week I was thinking about self-love and body positivity and how many different definitions/ideas are out there about these terms. I know that I hear them all over the place, and, as a boudoir photographer, I use them a lot myself. So, I just wanted to take a minute to tell you all about *my* definition and philosophy around these terms … this will likely just be a complete brain dump... so keep that in mind. lol But, do read (or at least scroll) to the end and check out my FIRST EVER OUTDOOR BOUDOIR SESSION! (I’m pretty pumped about it… if you can’t tell. LOL)

One of my favorite things ever is when a guy is into his photo session. Something that I see a lot is the female partner schedules a family session, engagement session, couples session, etc. and the dude is just kind of along for the ride… I think that you can tell by these photos that Kelby was totally into it… and even took the lead sometimes!

Before I left town in August, I had a client book me for her own vacation experience. She came up to Vancouver to visit her sister-in-law and they booked boudoir sessions as a fun, “girls day out” activity. It was a blast!

After four weeks of adventures (river play, rock climbing, horseback riding and goat milking, trampoline jumping, park exploring, deer spotting, and so much more), yesterday we made the LONG drive home. It was very bitter sweet to pack up our (INCREDIBLY) dirty van and drive away from our little house for the last time. I’m sad again just writing this, honestly. It was an absolutely amazing adventure that I’m SO glad that we were able to experience. We made some memories and DELICIOUS lemonade out of these shitty COVID lemons that we were handed. I hoping that this trip is how my kids remember 2020.

Several of these images show one fierce, bad-ass woman… but really, there was SO much laughter going on! It was a great way to spend an afternoon. =) Every time that I wanted a genuine smile, I just had to ask her to “think about that thing that your husband did…” It brought the magic… and I was happy NOT knowing what she was thinking about! ;)

Last year I had the honor of documenting Kaiden’s birth story. I’ve photographed his mama several times and was very excited when she asked me to be at the hospital with her to photograph her son’s birth. You can read all about how bad-ass this woman was (is!) and I was absolutely pumped to work with them again and get to see this little guy a full year later! (I seriously can’t believe that it’s already been over a year!)

Last year Kim booked me to photograph her birth at Portland Providence Medical Center. Not only was I looking forward to documenting another birth story with another family, but my daughter was born at Providence and I was excited to return and reminisce! This would be Kim’s fourth child, and she already knew he’d be delivered via cesarean section. This would be another first for me, but I was totally up for the challenge and new experience!

And then… well… you all know what happened.

I get requests all the time for location suggestions for photos. I definitely have some beautiful places where I love to photograph my clients, but you don’t need a gorgeous park, open field, or other amazing venue to get beautiful images. I’ve done sessions on street corners, parking garages, next to porta-potties, and in moving box filled houses… you don’t need perfection, you just need you and a photographer with a creative eye!

In celebration of my 10 years wedding anniversary, I asked people to submit their own proposal stories. I loved reading through these, and hope you all do, too!

After hanging out in the master bedroom, we moved across the hall to Elliot’s nursery. As you can tell by the decor, this family has an affinity for a certain film enterprise… With this beautiful Star Wars nursery, I’m actually a little surprised that they didn’t name their little one Leia! I’m looking forward to seeing their Halloween costumes over the years… =)

I walked away from Brittney’s studio thinking about how I had doubted myself, how good I felt, and how I couldn’t wait to see how everything turned out. When I sat down with Brittney to look at all the pictures I wanted to cry. I looked BEAUTIFUL. All of the things I had worried about showing up in the pictures I didn’t even see. My body looked strong, I looked fierce. Every picture I saw made me appreciate myself more. I wanted to cry looking at them, why couldn’t I just trust myself? This was an experience I will never forget and something I will always look back on (especially when I’m doubting myself).

I’ve said this SO MANY TIMES before, but having boudoir photos taken is such an AMAZING experience! And something that I think every woman should do! Here are just a few of the “Why’s” for you to consider…

As I was sitting on my couch reading, I came across this passage… and it hit me… hard. I HAD to stop and document it. And then immediately posted it on my social media because it was just… so much… “Yes”.

I feel like you all are going to learn a LOT about me while we’re all quarantined. lol Without new sessions and material to share, and I’m going back to my list of “oh I should I write about that someday!” blog post ideas. ;) One of which is how I got started in photography…

Even though I wasn’t there, I still KNOW that the day was magical and emotional. I know that there were tears, big ol’ smiles, and lots of hugs. I know that there was hand holding and gentle touches. I know that Dad kissed Mom, and Mom had a brave smile on her face. I know that Dad stood back in awe as he watched his partner bring his child into the world. I know that he was feeling so many emotions as he met the small, helpless little person that his wife had been nurturing, protecting, and physically experiencing (mostly alone) for the last 9 months.

As a “non-essential” business, I can work “remotely”… and what’s more “remote” than photographing you via webcam?? Not only is this a fun experience for both of us, but it’s an iconic way to document what life in 2020 was like for us.

Today, my daughter turns 8 years old.

I really have no idea how that happened. I look at photos from her three, four, five years ago and I can REMEMBER that day. I can remember the conversations and the funny things that she said. I can’t quite believe that it didn’t happen yesterday.