Our Just-In-Time Seattle Wedding

When Brenda and Aaron first inquired about our services for their May 2 wedding, we had already decided that Laura, in the ninth month of pregnancy, wouldn't be in any condition to tackle the shoot. We figured that 17 days before our boy Caleb's due date was a safe enough buffer to allow Scott to shoot the wedding solo. Close call as Caleb was born the next day!

But on May 2, such concerns were far from my mind. I'm so used to shooting with Laura, handling a wedding solo was a change of pace but not a completely foreign experience, as I have shot a good half-dozen weddings without Laura's help over the years. It was nice that both the ceremony and reception were held at familiar venues: the beautiful, historic Blessed Sacrament Parish and the fabulous art deco Lake Union Cafe.

My day started shortly before Brenda and Aaron's "first look" — a loosely structured moment where the bride and groom lay eyes on each other for the first time in full wedding regalia, usually right before we start the portrait session. First looks are so easy to set up, and they usually result in better photos than when the first look takes place as the bride walks down the aisle. See for yourself:



What weird weather we had that day! Check out the beautiful blue sky we enjoyed at the start of the portrait session, featuring the wedding party ...

... and then we had time for only a handful of portraits of the bride and groom ...


... before the skies opened up and it rained for the rest of the day! Brenda had wisely rented cute umbrellas from Bella Umbrella but they only bought us a few more minutes before the downpour forced us inside anyway. Those minutes were well-spent, though! (By the way, we also own a really cute white Bella that we bring to rainy-day weddings. It's been a big help!)


The ceremony was beautiful, and long enough to enable me to capture all sorts of different angles. Here are a few favorites:




Then it was off to LUC for the reception. These first dance photos really show off the ornate cut-glass chandeliers suspended over the dance floor.





Congrats to Brenda and Aaron!

Caleb at 6 Weeks

Six weeks after our little boy Caleb was born, we had fun with his first real photo shoot. Laura posted some of these shots on her Facebook page a few days ago, and judging from the comments she received, the photo above is nearly everyone's fav. A few more of our favorites are below. Big sister Bailey co-stars in the last shot.

Weekend at Point Defiance: Part II

Here are favorite photos from Scott's second engagement portrait of that May weekend. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the previous post below first!) The stars of this shoot are Cynthia and Mike, who are getting married this summer at McCormick Woods in Port Orchard.

Weekend at Point Defiance: Part I

Last month, mere days after our first child was born, Scott shot engagement portrait sessions at Point Defiance Park on two consecutive days. Given that he used the same sections of the park for both sessions, you might expect a lot of redundancy between the two sessions. Think again! There's something about our photography style that ensures that every Wallflower client's photos look different than the others.

I think that more than anything else, it's a result of our approach to posing. Some photographers really fine-tune their poses: tilt your head another inch this way, rotate your body a few degrees that way, and so on. They must have this image of the perfect pose in their heads that they work to achieve. We prefer to request poses in less-specific terms, believing that our subjects will then put themselves into positions that feel natural to themselves. We've found that by doing so, our clients look more natural in the photos — and, as a result, their photos look different than what we've done before. Plus, it's more fun that way!

Here are a handful of favorites from Scott's first shoot of that weekend, featuring Julie and Mike, who currently live in Arizona but are getting married this summer at Thornewood Castle.

Our Favorite Place in the World

We've been spending a lot of time in Point Defiance Park lately! Followers of the Wallflower blog have seen a lot of photos taken at Pt. D. in recent postings. Time for a change-of-pace posting!

Having grown up in Oregon (Scott) and Colorado/Northern California (Laura), our idea of natural beauty is more mountains and forests than tropical beaches. So it's no surprise that after our wedding in September 2002, we chose to honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies instead of Cancun. It was an amazing trip and we've always wanted to return, but the summer season is short there, and because we're always so busy during the summers, we were never able to schedule a second visit.

Then, last year, the perfect opportunity presented itself: we were hired to photograph a wedding in Banff, a small tourist town in the center of the Canadian Rockies! The wedding itself was cancelled, but by that point we were already committed to the trip. We had a wonderful time, and we got amazing photos — which we had to ignore for months while we took care of our wedding and portrait clients.

Recently, we've found time to identify the cream of the crop. Several highlights are below, but these are only appetizers — our favorite 33 images from the trip make up a must-see new gallery on the Fine Art division of our website. Enter the Landscapes section, click Canadian Rockies and enjoy!

Moraine Lake, featured on the back of the Canadian $20 bill.

Peyto Lake, graced by a rainbow from a hailstorm.

Foul-weather photography at Lake Louise.

"God light" over Bow Lake, sepia-toned.

Stairway to Heaven at the Pt. D. Pagoda

Regular followers of the Wallflower blog will remember the engagement portrait session we did with Mindy and Sean and their two cute Chihuahuas in Point Defiance back in February. Well, their knot is now tied!

Mindy and Sean held their wedding and reception at the Japanese Pagoda in Point Defiance, where we've shot more weddings than any other venue. They set up their ceremony in the same unique way that our close friends Hannah and Mike pioneered a few years back. Instead of holding their ceremony on the adjacent lawn as most people do, they swapped rings and vows at the bottom of the grand staircase facing the lower gardens. A row of chairs at the bottom provided MVP seating, while the majority of guests simply stood on the stairs. It's such an easy setup, and it provides a much nicer backdrop than the lawn does. See for yourself:







This arrangement makes it really easy for us to get a photo of all attendees. This kind of shot can really only be accomplished easily when everyone is stacked on stairs or risers, or when we can shoot down from a balcony.


After a quick portrait session in the lower gardens ...



... we headed indoors for the reception, where a quartet dropped by to sing a few hits a cappella.



The lovely cake was from Celebrity Cake Studio, Tacoma's finest, and the custom cake topper was made by The Younique Boutique based on photos of the bride and groom.




Congrats again to Mindy and Sean!

A Beautiful Family Grows By One More

Scott recently made a trip out to Puyallup to shoot a maternity/family session with a new client family who clearly appreciates the value in professional family portraits — the walls of Nicole and Jeff's beautifully decorated house are a tribute to their ever-growing family (you can see one wall's display above). With baby number three due in mid-May, it was time for a fresh set of photos, and we were happy to help.

This shoot was a great example of how a Wallflower session can be so very diverse. Here we have a mix of maternity and family portraits that combine the 4½ subjects in all sorts of different combinations, with different poses both candid and camera-aware, and different backdrops all within the family home.

Here's a pair of Nicole and Jeff on the couch:


And here's a triptych of Nicole with her two adorable kids:

Gotta give Dad some love, too!

A fun way to end the portrait session for the kids — with a little swing time!

And then to wrap up the session, a few pure maternity shots. All this variety (and more) in only one hour!





Nicole explained that their previous photos were taken by two different photographers who have since both moved out of the area. That's certainly something we see often, photographers coming and going year to year. Well, Wallflower isn't going anywhere, so hopefully Nicole and family has found a long-term solution to their photo needs! Best of luck with your third child — we hope to meet him or her soon!