Dave Matthews Band at The Gorge

This past weekend it was time for Jason and my annual trip to The Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA to see the Dave Matthews Band. You don’t need to know either one of us very long to know we are huge fans of the band. We’ve made it a point to travel all over the nation seeing concerts, planned our honeymoon around a performance of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Radio City Music Hall (New York City) and have spent more money and time seeing this band than just about anything else! I personally have seen over 80 concerts while Jason has seen over 70. Needless to say… we love this band!

Our concert-going-days have slowed since the introduction of The Mabster in our lives, so less time/money means less travel/concerts, but when we do get out, we have an incredible time. This year, we were only able to make it to one night of the three night stand, but what a night we had! On Sunday (which for those of you who don’t know is ALWAYS the best night at the Gorge), we packed up the car with beer and BBQ supplies and headed out to meet up with two of my best friends from college, Cody and Christy. We all decided to drive over together; I made beef kabobs, homemade salsa and lots of chocolate chip cookies, loaded the cooler with (a lot) of beer, and off we went. Cody packed his tailgate BBQ and we set up for an awesome evening.

Before starting out, Jason kept Mabster happy by teaching her a few of his old ‘frat-boy’ tricks. She thought Daddy was hilarious!

After dropping Mabster off with Grandma and Grandpa, we met up with Cody and Christy and drove the 2.5 hours to the Gorge. Once we all arrived at The Gorge, we just sat back, relaxed and had a few drinks.

Christy is also really interested in photography, so after a while, we grabbed our cameras and headed out around the parking lot to find all the interesting little things you can only find at a DMB concert. I was facinated by all the painted cars.

I found this sign pretty funny. The Gorge makes a big deal about people not bring outside alcohol into the parking lot or the venue. Of course, 95% of the people ignore this rule, and the best way around it is to pour your favorite beverage into a non-descriptive cup. The beverage enforcers came around to our tailgate, didn’t find any bottles, and then left us alone. Not more than 3 minutes later, a couple of people (with this sign) came around to collect and recycle our beer bottles. Pretty funny if you ask me!

It was in the news about 2 weeks ago, but the saxaphone player, LeRoi Moore, died from injuries he sustained in a ATV accident back June. I wasn’t really sure about going to a concert after one of my favorite band members died, but a lot of people had some really nice tributes to the man.

Lastly, just a one more of our friends – they are just the most awesome couple!

Oh… and I’m of the school of thought that every husband should have a kick-@$$ picture of his wife on his desk/locker/space at work. So I made sure to get one of Christy to send to Cody later!

I’d post some pictures from inside the concert… however, I couldn’t take my camera into the venue. So sad… as my 4th row seats really afforded us some great photo opportunities!

It’s Time for Football!

If you know me well then you know me to be a HUGE UW Husky Football fan! After graduating from the UW and then working at the athletic department for 4 years after graduation, I have a special fondness for this time of the year. Last week I was up on campus and I was driving into the stadium when I heard my favorite signal of football season… the marching band drummers practicing! Just hearing the cadences playing and echoing throughout the empty stadium gave me goosebumps and reminded me how much I love football, the Huskies, and my school!

So… UW Football opens this Saturday against Oregon (boo Ducks!!!!). I can’t wait to start watching it on TV again! Go Dawgs!

2009 Senior Pictures – Olympia

I had the coolest session on Tuesday out on Harstene Island here in Olympia. I met with Ron who loves his dirt bike and his 4×4 truck; which made for some pretty awesome pictures! Unfortunately (or fortunately… I don’t know since these turned out so freaking cool!), it rained the entire evening. I was one wet photographer at the end of the session, but it so didn’t matter since I had so much fun.

Ron was no exception to the “Do I really have to have Senior Pictures Mom?” rule. For most 18-year old guys, this is the LAST priority on their list! However, he was very sweet and played along. Plus, at the end, I think he didn’t mind it so much either!

Here area few to share….

A Lacey, WA Family Portrait Session

I mentioned about a week ago that my equipment decided to take a swim in Long Lake here in Lacey. Luckily everything turned out just fine and the equipment still works perfectly (thanks to my wonderful husband and his attention to detail in fixing it!!). But what I failed to mention was the wonderful family I got to take pictures of that particular day. The Holbrocks are a beautiful family with the sweetest two little girls and a beautiful mom and dad. Aren’t they killer!?

They provided me with some wonderful and oh, so sweet, moments to share here on my blog.

Thank you Dustin and Georgene for inviting me into your home. It was a lovely day and your pictures just scream with the warmth, depth and beauty of your love for one another and your precious girls!

And last by not least… here is the shot where my light stand went into the water. But for the shot…. I kinda think it was worth it! Look how sweet of a moment this was?!?

Rain Drops on Roses

Last Friday and Saturday I shot the wedding of Heather and Bill. They got married on the luckiest day of the year, 8.8.08, with a small family ceremony. The following day, they had a large ceremony with all their friends and family followed by a beautiful backyard reception. But Heather and Bill got another dose of good luck on Saturday as right before the ceremony the clouds opened up and it started to pour. We all dashed (and pulled all our photography equipment quickly) out of the rain and under cover just hoping that the rain would be done by the time of the ceremony… and it was! But it left everything with this beautiful coating of rain drops sparkling in the sun. Just magical… just like Heather and Bill!!

As the song says… Rain drops on roses… just a few of my favorite things…

We’ve been hard at work all week on their album… but here are a few of the details of the day (portraits to follow in another post).

The stunning and beautiful bride, Heather:

Getting ready…

The gorgeous details…

The Ceremony…

The First Dance…

Heather & Bill: Thank you for the time I spent with the two of you and your families! It was such a special time for me! Enjoy your Costa Rican honeymoon!

Fruit of Labor

As I mentioned a long time ago, we planted our first vegetable this past spring. Jason has never been so happy; putting around the garden and making sure everything is growing properly. And boy is it ever taken off. We are drowning in 15 pound zucchini’s, snap peas, lettuce and tomatoes. The upcoming weeks ought to have a bounty of corn, sunflower seeds, pumpkins, bell peppers, potatoes!

The other night the light was hitting the sunflowers ‘just’ right and I had to snap a few shots. These are all straight out of camera with no retouching what so ever!

My flash set up took a swim today!

Equipment failure sucks. And it REALL sucks watching your entire lighting set up get caught in a gust of wind and slowly fall into a lake!!

But I had the wonderful pleasure of seeing all my money practically drown to the bottom of Long Lake today while out doing a family session. As I was shooting from the dock a gust of wind caught my umbrella and, in slow motion, I watched my light stand take a swim, my flash unit and pocket wizard attached.

I was a lucky woman today though… I brought my soaking wet electronics home and Jason went to work. He carefully took everything apart, blew the water out with compressed air, and then allowed everything to dry. About 4 hours later, he decided to see if everything worked, and low and behold, the flash and pocket wizard started flashing! It looks like I (barely) survived this particular equipment mishap. Let’s not have it happen again!

Tina & Brian – Wedding on Cooper Point

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Tina and Brian at a private home out on Cooper Point in Olympia. The day was fabulous with beautiful detailing, wonderfully happy families, and a lovely couple! The home and grounds overlooked the beautiful water and we had an amazing sunset to play with that evening. Tina and Brian are just so in love and they had just a wonderful day! Enjoy these little sneak previews!

The Details

The Ceremony

The Bride & Groom

The Reception

I feel like a 14-year old teenage girl right now!

I’ve been stuck in bed now for pushing 2 weeks now. Most of the time too sick to care about anything else…. except these stupid books! I am officially hooked on the Twilight Series of books. Written specifically for 14-year old teenage girls, it’s pretty much the story of love blooming between an ordinary 17-year old girl and the 90-year old vampire she meets in high school. In later books, the story delves deeper into the love triangle she ensnares herself in when a young werewolf catches her eye and she must make a decision between mythical creatures.

Do you get the sarcasm I have???

I may sound sarcastic… but I started reading Twilight, the first of the series, last Tuesday after a bunch of photographer friends where all talking about it. I saw it on sale at Target and though “What the heck… good light summer reading.”

Next morning, at 8 am and after staying up until 1:00 am reading, I ran out to Target to get the second book, New Moon.

That afternoon, I was at my hair appointment, realized I would finish the second book that night, so I stopped next door at Barnes and Noble so I could pick up book #3, Eclipse, before going home. Oh oh oh… but I had to, you guessed it, pre-order book #4, Breaking Dawn which, lucky for me, comes out at midnight tomorrow!!

So three books, three days. Obsessive yes, but not totally unheard of (especially if you know how much I love to read and how quickly I devour books). However, since I had nothing better to do when I got really really sick over the weekend, I started back again with book #1 and just finished reading #3 for the second time. Now I’ve read the entire series, twice, in one week.

It’s sick!!

But the sickness gets worse (and we’re not talking Tonsillitis here anymore)….
The movie comes out in December!!
I feel like a 14-year old girl right now, giddy with excitement and butterflies!!

Still Recovering…

The illness got worse…. to say the least!
Sunday marked the second ER visit over the weekend when my airway started to close due to the infection I had raging throughout my body. However, a quick thinking doctor injected me with some antibiotics that evening, and finally, my recovery started.

Since then, I’ve seen my regular doctor (again) and a specialist, Ear Nose & Throat doctor, who both informed me that the worst of the illness is over, recovery has begun and I’m not needing surgery! YAY!! However, if I have another flare up, I will most likely have to go in and get my tonsils out. Yuck…. doctor’s have told me that while it’s not a big surgery for little kids, for adults, it’s on the scale of having your appendix out. Neither sound good…. so let’s just hope that they stay right where they are currently placed!

Thanks to all my family and friends who have sent their warm get well wishes. And a huge thank you to both my mother and my husband, both who have sacrificed so much over the last 12 days to help nurse me back into health! It has made me truly appreciate my usual good health so much more!