Monthly Archives: May 2008

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Engaged: Meghan & Kevin

May 28, 2008 – 11:22 pm

Troopers. That’s what I comes to mind when I think of all of my wonderful wedding clients who powered through our engagement and getting to know you shoots this April! If I didn’t know better, I would say that it rained the whole month straight, extra hard when we’d have a shoot scheduled just because some cosmic force thought it would be funny to pour down on all of my clients and I!

Meghan and Kevin are another pair of troopers that I’ve got for clients. Their wedding is set for a {hopefully!} sunny warm afternoon in July, right before the 4th. I’m excited to see what Meghan is planning for us all- I do know that the look and feel will be slightly turn-of-the century, especially with the Skansonia Ferry for the venue. I love the old bar and shiney wood floors, plus the views of downtown are just gorgeous at night!

On the other hand, I think luck may have been on our side- had it been a nice sunny afternoon, we would surely have been spotted by one of Kevin’s students- we shot around the University of Washington where Kevin is a professor (and my old stomping grounds as well!)

By Laurel | Posted in engagements | Tagged , , , , | Comments (5)

Engaged: Megan & Ian

May 21, 2008 – 12:34 am

Ahhh yes, the joys of shooting during Seattle’s lovely spring weather.  The sideways rain, the whipping wind.  But we still had a great old time- it was all worth it by the end (and you’ll see why in a second!)

They have two dogs.  They’re both super talented doctors- she’s an OBGYN and he’s a pulmonary specialist.  They are coincidentally my neighbors (Go Ballard!).  So naturally, we romped around our stomping grounds, starting at Golden Gardens, then back up to Ballard for some pics around the ‘hood.

I love interesting wall patterns (what photographer doesn’t…)- a big shiny gold star to the first person (not named Ian or Megan) who can name where this wall is in the comments field!!!  You KNOW you know where it is if you’ve had a night out at the hip bars or shopped the boutiques!

Then we headed inside Conor Byrne for a couple of beers to warm up and dry out.  Actually, this particular favorite Ballard hangout is unusually special (other than open mic night on Sundays, of course! See everyone there next Sunday at 8, right?!?!): it was the site of their first date.  And then right across the street (hence our image of the street corner!) the Tractor Tavern was the site of their proposal-he was too excited to keep his plans to himself and blurted it out during a show (gotta love boys when they do stuff like that!)

Their wedding this summer is going to be so fun and laid back, yet naturally beautiful and elegant- the lovely and talented Michelle Engvall (of Married & More With Michelle) is planning some fun things for the party at the Golden Gardens Bathhouse (but of course! “Go Ballard,” remember?!), complete with an Irish pub band to keep us singing old Irish folk tunes!

By Laurel | Posted in engagements | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

Alaska, Part I

May 5, 2008 – 2:11 am

After waking up uber early (3:30 am!) to catch our morning flight, we had quite the adventure at the airport.  I’ll let Barbie tell you guys about our check-in (phew! almost a complete disaster!) but we had a fantastic flight (which was only 1/4 full because no one is crazy enough to fly to Ketchikan, Alaska THAT early…).

 

 

Welcome to Ketchikan, Alaska.  Population: 9,000.  Location: Southeast Alaska.  Travel time from Seattle: 2 hours by air.  Basically, it’s the only well-established city on the entire island of Revillagigedo.  

For years, ever since I met Barbie way back in photography school, we’ve been trying to find excuses for me to visit where she grew up.  So when Amy and Brad decided to have their wedding, and Barbie was asked to be a bridesmaid, it all fell into place!  Now, the wedding is a whole other blog post, so for now, I’ll just tell you guys about day number one.

Right in town there’s this old boardwalk called Creek Street with lots of little touristy shops and art museums and restaurants (we came one week before tourist season started.  EVERYTHING was closed, but once the cruise ships start coming, everything is repainted, restocked, and reopened).  There’s even a funny sign at the entrance stating: “Welcome to Historic Creek Street: Where fish and fisherman go up the creek to spawn!”

Dolly’s- the old town brothel….must have been where the fisherman were headed…

 

South of Ketchikan is Saxman, the Tlingit Indian village, which holds the world’s largest collection of totem poles.  See Abraham Lincoln (the tiny one way back there…)- legend has it that they carved him with such short legs because they saw a picture of him that was cropped from the mid-thighs up and thought that’s all their was!

Then we headed further South to Buggy’s Beach, where Nichols Pass meets Carol & George Inlet.  The view there was gorgeous.

We were having a great time, the weather was uncharacteristically clear and pleasant…

…when Barbie spotted some little tiny hermit crabs in a tide pool worthy of photographing.  ”Good thing I brought my macro lens, let me just reach around into my bag and get it…”

Then it happened.  The moment all photographers dread, cause, you see, salt water is corrosive and like The Plague on electronics.  The way we like to tell it is that a polar bear chased me and I slipped on a penguin’s tale and fell into the ocean, but we all know I’m not THAT lucky and there are no polar bears in Southeast Alaska.

So here’s what really happened:

one brand new Nikon D3 + slickery rocks and algae + teeney tiny tidepool + some words we won’t repeat here = a little blood + algae stained soaked pants + and a big frowny face 

These images are by the fantabulous Barbie Hull, who I can always count on to document my misfortunes after shaking the water out of $6000 worth of camera equipment for me while I just stand there with my mouth wide open in disbelief :)

Special props to my insurance company State Farm- they checked in with me every day for a week to make sure that everything was happening quickly with my claim, and that I could have a replacement camera overnighted so that I wouldn’t miss a beat once I got back home.  Now if the black bruises on my leg would just heal, it would be like it never happened…. except we’ve got the pictures to prove it.

Day One’s lesson: don’t try to photograph little tiny hermit crabs.

By Laurel | Posted in travel | Tagged , , | Comments (9)

Engaged: Erin & Josh

May 4, 2008 – 12:16 am

If it wasn’t for that one day mid-April where it broke something like 75, I would think that it was still the month of January.  I’ve never had so many sessions in a row where we got dumped on and blown over… it really tested our abilities to keep warm and entertained.  So thanks, my lovely client-friends, you’re all such troopers!

Erin and Josh were the first of all the sessions.  They love West Seattle, and love to collect beach glass.  In fact, they’ve got quite a collection at home.  So… off we went, walking out at Alki, looking for the elusive blue glass.  It rained, it gusted, the sun even peeked out for a split second, too bad it just wasn’t above OUR heads.  Despite the windy crazy weather, we still had a great time exploring and walking around!

 

Can you believe that Erin hasn’t seen Zoolander yet?? Don’t be surprised if you find it as an anonymous gift at your wedding ;)

 

 

Hopefully, come July at their wedding, we will have good “weather karma!!”  I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds- sounds like we have some fun ceremonies ahead of us! (that’s right… plural…)

By Laurel | Posted in engagements | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)