These are all taken in our small town.  I’m so thankful for the amazing weather we had!

To view and order prints from Anna’s full session, please click HERE to be taken to the gallery.

Anna is a runner, so she thought it would be fun to pair her Camelbak with her heels!  I love it.

I am off to Seattle for a couple days, but I will be back soon.

Thanks for a fun afternoon Anna!  And thanks for being a trooper when we got stuck in the mud .

With Joy,

Heather España

With Joy

Heather España

FACT: If you play banjo, I probably want to be your best friend.

I think the banjo-head picture is one of my most favorite images ever.FACT: Yarn-Tossing is fun.  More people should toss yarn.  It’s much easier than knitting, although Mary’s a whiz at that too! Happy Birthday, Mary!  Thanks so much for being patient enough to wait for the gorgeous weather we had, and for an amazing afternoon.  You are delightful!  I will let you know as soon as your full gallery is online.

With Joy,

Heather España

See?

Below Geek Info: This image is lit only by the glowing wall in the background, an up-light right in front of Tyler’s feet, and a Sunpak Readylite held off to the right by his brother [thanks man!].

Below: This is my favorite shot of the day!  I love it because embodies my philosophy of less is more.  It looks studio-lit to me, but it’s only using natural light.  The sun was actually off to the left, bouncing off a shiny sky scraper, reflecting back to Tyler’s face and also bouncing off the silver reflective door which diffused the light even further.  No reflectors, no studio lighting, nothing but sun+camera. To view+order prints from parts 1 and 2 of Tyler’s graduate session CLICK HERE.

With Joy,

Heather España

Happily, I got to return to Full of Life Farm to do Hayden’s graduate photos, and a mini session for the whole family [that will be coming later].  Hayden was so much fun to photograph.  She’s such a down-to-earth, honest and joyful person.  Here are a few of my favorites from her session. . .

Hayden, your full gallery will be up soon!  And Charlotte, the family pictures will be next .

With Joy,

Heather España

Here are a few of my favorites from the hour session we did. . .

Tyler plays guitar, but we didn’t have it for these photos.  I still feel like they have a total musician vibe though, don’t you agree?

My second favorite shot of the day. . .My favorite shot of the day! For Part 2, we went City.  I’ll show you that later.

Thanks for being a manly-chill model, Tyler, and for amusing me with the Beatles Jump.  Much appreciated.

With Joy,

Heather España

In the meantime, here is one I love.  Because it’s zany.

With Joy,

Heather España

She told me she’s not the most comfortable having her picture taken, but she totally rocked it.  We met up in Portland to wander around a bit and make pictures.  Here are some of my favorites that came out of our meander. . .

Anna, your full gallery will be up in a couple weeks!  I’ll keep you posted .

With Joy,

Heather España

I have one regret about the day: I wish we’d had more time! The light was gorgeous, and Hannah is a beautiful and down-to-earth woman. And yes, I am envious of her swimmer’s arms .

We started out around 3rd street in McMinnville, where we found a whole row of fiery autumn maples.

I was a little worried about the harsh contrast in the light here, but these ended up being some of my favorite shots.

I just love the tones here.

And here’s the purple wall! Hannah wore some fabulous red shoes, which I thought would be really fun to play with against the purple.

Yum!

Seriously. I think this is my favorite one.

After 3rd St. we headed out to Hannah’s family vineyard in Dundee, just as the sun was getting close to setting. With all the yellow foliage, it made for some tasty light.

I dig the earring.

Hannah is lucky to have grown up in such a gorgeous location!

Hannah, thanks so much! I’m so sorry we didn’t have more time, but I had a blast with you . To view the full gallery and order prints, you can CLICK HERE.

You know it’s going to be a good session when this photo [on the left] is the very first one on camera. We actually started her session at Newberg Friends Church — lots of memories there for her.

From the church, we wandered up and down the back alleys of downtown Newberg where she and I both grew up.

Shopping cart?! Jackpot!

Gabby, you are a ROCKSTAR. I will happily photograph you again anytime .

Look at this lovely lady! I’m going to totally date myself here and say I knew Adriana when she was just a wee little one . We hung out in downtown McMinnville [third street area] for a couple hours, looking for awesome backdrops and places I’d never shot before. But enough talk. Here are the pictures. . .

[Oh and a quick GEEK MOMENT, for those interested: all of these images were shot on my Canon 5D with a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens and post-processed in Photoshop CS3 with my custom recipes using Totally Rad Actions.]

I couldn’t resist the cloud shot.

And of course, a close-up of the adorable shoes. Adriana has excellent taste .

Love this mirrored door. . .

This whole entryway has to be one of my faves. The pale, washed-out blue makes it feel like it’s in a different country to me.

Love this shot.

We headed to a nearby park for some more nature-y pictures.

Thanks Adriana and Lolita! It was so good to see you again!

It’s a fun challenge to make each session different from the last. . .

Geek info: these first three images are lit only by 60 and 100 watt light-bulbs.

Geek info: Below image is lit by two Alien Bees strobes [one 1600 and one 800] using the modeling light.

I heart balloons . This one is lit, again, by only light-bulbs.

Thanks for a fun night!

We had a blast! These are a few favorites from Stacy’s Daytime session, and I will be blogging some faves from her Nighttime session later too.

We started out in the Alberta district, with this awesome mural at the Community Cycling Center. . .

A little Grunge-Rock effect for these images. . .

A little neutral fading, a-la Anthropologie. . .

Just for fun. . .

OK. THESE guys were awesome. It pays to ask “Hey, mind if I take some pictures in here?”

Thanks to Stacy’s mom Amy for suggesting this spot right here — love the colors!

Lots of fun places to shoot in the Pearl district. I love boldly colored accessories like Stacy’s here because I can hunt for settings that coordinate. . .

I have a thing for walls of meters.

These are – I THINK – without a doubt, my favorite shots of the day. . .

More coming soon!

My brother, while deeply involved with music and drama at our public High School, has been mostly home schooled and didn’t want a big to-do for his graduation. So we had a stellar mini ceremony here, and we each wrote something for him and read it out loud. I kept mine overly lighthearted so I wouldn’t cry because he would’ve HATED that .

To Benjamin
Well, mom and dad might be able to report otherwise, but I personally don’t remember ever NOT being excited for a brother. In fact, I remember being SO excited that I couldn’t concentrate properly on the videogame I was playing while mom was in labor. I think it was Mario Kart. I think Joel Tuning whooped me. I think I didn’t care, because his mom gave me the phone and I found out you were born.

At first, it was like having the world’s coolest doll. I picked out little outfits for you. I arranged a Beach set in the living-room of our decidedly non-beachy trailer, complete with an umbrella and sandbucket. I then proceeded to pose you in your little sailer-ish costume, as much as is possible with a floppy child with minimal motorskills, and take pictures. I was in Big Sister Heaven.

Then you discovered how to control your bladder, and pee at the exact moment I had you between diapers. A foreshadowing.

You were lying on the couch, beginning to enjoy your prepaired milky snack. I was kneeling beside you, probably speaking baby-talk. I don’t know what I said, but apparently your gigantic baby head translated it as offensive because you launched your nearly full bottle into my eye.

“Oh, what happened?!” People would say, “You didn’t get in a fight did you? Did you fall down?”

No, no. My, uh……..my little baby brother threw his bottle at me.

Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.

Little did I know the bottle-induced shiner would be tame in comparison to the elaborate booby-traps you would set for me to run into at later dates. Most of them invovling fairly heavy items which, unless carefully disabled, would ram me the head or some other valuable body-part. You claimed these traps were for “poachers.” I deduced early on that was just what you told mom and dad so they would think it was “cute.” I knew the truth.

And then, so very strangely and not too much later, we became friends. It’s amazing how much easier it is to like your sibblings when they stop trying to kill you.

I started telling everyone, “I have the BEST little brother EVER.”

I bought a tent which we set up in the yard for a summer, and started a tradition of Ridiculous Interpretive Dance to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at bedtime, and Custom Variations on Whole Wheat Toast every morning.

And there was the Lunch Tradition, which will always be a favorite.

Mom’s gone!!! Commence Lunch Tradition!!!

I’d make the Grilled Cheese Sandwiches WITH Dill Pickles inside. You’d get out the corn chips and salsa, pull the piano bench up to the couch for a table, and start a movie. Those were the lunches where a side of vegetables never happened, and we laughed our heads off at a wide variety of films, bellies full of delicious dairy and carbs and an overdose of Pace Picante’s Medium Salsa.

You got increasingly smarter and increasingly more talented. Thankfully I got increasingly older and more mature as this was happening, so I didn’t start to hate you. I only got more proud of you.

And I continue to be proud of you. And I will continue to watch musicals I generally despise because you’re in them. And I won’t lie — I am very grateful I won’t have to listen to the Newberg High School mixed choral ensemble anymore. But I would. They did have a way of making me enjoy your Show Choir’s performances all that much more.

I’m so excited you’re going to college, and that I’ll still be able to come see you perform. I am enormously happy you’ve found something you love and are passionate about, and can continue to study and grow in. I am grateful we’re still pals, and I hope you’ll make time every now and then for a Grilled Cheese Sandwich and a movie with your sis.

And I will continue to say I have the BEST little brother EVER.

Above: Grandpa videotaping the ceremony.

Above: Grandma’s hands.

Above: Mom holding up Benjamin’s Summer Reading List from when he was little. He read over 1,000 books that summer — those pages are two-sided!

Above: Ben’s idea . We forgot to hold the numbers so you could see them in ALL the shots. Whoops.

Above: a flashback from the session we did with all his college offer mailings.