San Francisco in Black and White

These photos are a bit more "fine art" than my usual photographs, however, I can't help but love them in black and white! These images were taken just as we entered San Francisco, on my very first trip to California. It has taken me a while to post them, but I think they were worth the wait. :) Enjoy!

Just out of curiosity, who would be interested in having prints like these in their home? The more landscape photos I take, the more I think, "Wow, this would be so pretty on my wall!" I'm considering selling prints of these and other photos from my portfolio.

Comment below to tell me if you think I should!

Pacific Coast Highway

I have exciting news!!!!  I quit my day job!

It has been a long time coming. I loved my part time job working at a local Portland print shoppe, but with the new year blazing onward it soon became clear that I was meant not to print other people's photos, but to photograph and print my own.

So what am I doing now you ask?! Working, silly! And working from home to be exact! I've been working on my business and reevaluating my pricing, editing a lot, and most importantly--photographing. It is wonderful and freeing, and also a little bit scary! But I am so excited for what 2014 will bring and all of the beautiful images just waiting to be photographed!

Speaking of beautiful photographs...I just realized that I never posted our San Francisco trip pictures (from almost 6 months ago)!

So without further ado, here are just a few of the highlights from our road trip to San Francisco to celebrate our 1st Wedding Anniversary:

In all honesty...this only covers about 2 1/2 days of our 8 day trip, haha. I didn't even get to all our city shots! If you've never had the chance to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway...it should definitely be added to your bucket list! Best. Trip. Ever!!

More city shots to come! So, stay tuned for more images! 

P.S. What are your favorite trip locations? Or places you've yet to go, but have on your bucket list to visit? Comment below to let me know where you'd love to go!

Happy Travels everyone!

Happy (Belated) Holidays!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

The holiday season is known for being a busy time of year, but this year has has seemed extra busy!! There was Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and New Year's. Family came to town, I shot a friend's wedding just 3 days after Christmas, and then that friend's brother had a baby (the same day as the wedding!), which I then took newborn photos of! (Whew!) And in the midst of all these, I took some holiday photos too! (I also may or may not have an exciting side project I'm working on too! ;D but more on that later...)

Needless to say...because of all this, my blogging has grown a bit behind! But it's a new year and now I have LOTS of material to blog! ;) 

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday with family and friends. Here are a few photos from our Christmas this year.

For Christmas dinner we had Shabu-Shabu, also known as hot-pot, where you have boiling soup placed in the middle of the table and gradually add in all sorts of yummy vegetables and meats to cook together in the broth. So delish!!

I got Joe a knife set for our kitchen in the hopes that we will cook together more in the new year, and he bought me my own calligraphy set (in the background of photo-right) to fulfill my life-goal of learning calligraphy! (It's SO cool!!!). 

But I think the true highlight of present-opening was watching our little bro, Lukas, try to open his present from us. Each year we attempt to trick each other with a gift. This one looked big from the outside....but only because Joe tirelessly wrapped it nearly 100 times in newspaper layers. What started off as a beautifully wrapped, relatively large gift, quickly turned into a living room full of shredded paper to reveal a multi-tool pocket knife within.

I'm pretty sure his effort was worth it though. Lukas spent the rest of the evening trying to locate the 30+ tools inside it and figure out what they all did. :)

Well, merry (belated) Christmas everybody!! And I wish you all a happy and productive New Year! I have so many goals and exciting plans for 2014, but with so many projects going on at one time, it hasn't fully hit me yet that 2014 is actually here! Perhaps my new year will start in February. ;)

Pinkd Jewelry

I was like a kid in a candy store! I opened up the bag and all I could see was an assortment of glittering gems and marbled looking stones. I didn't know where to begin! There were just so many choices! And so many pretty things to photograph!!

A couple blog posts ago I talked about one of my awesome 2014 high school seniors, Stephanie, who also happens to be a super talented jewelry artist too! Before her senior photo session, while she was getting her hair and makeup professionally done by my other talented friend Kirstie Wight, I thought it would be fun to photograph some of Stephanie's hand-made creations. I asked if that would be ok and she said, "Sure! It's all over there in that bag!" I didn't really know what to expect but, when I opened what was inside I was floored with how unique and beautiful her jewelry was! Her work truly speaks for itself. Each piece is so professionally crafted you would have no idea that the woman behind it all is only 17 years old! Just looking at her work, you can tell how much thought and care she puts into selecting the stones and jewels she uses for each piece. Each set is truly a work of art.

Below is just a taste of the jewelry she creates. But don't just stop there! Check out even more of her jewelry here, in her online shop!