Pre RIP Mooshi

I'm a cat lady and Mooshi has been my cat for 10 years, ever since he was a very unattractive kitten--he had to grow into his eyes if you know what I mean.

Turns out Mooshi (aka Mooper, Super Mooper, MoBerto, Wicker F*cker Upper, MooMoo, MoMan) has cancer. We're leaving for Ghana, for 2 weeks, on Tuesday, and this complicates things. See, his prognosis is not good.

Me to the Vet ,"Like six months, right?"

Vet to Me, "I'd call that a long shot".

So I'm now preparing for our trip, getting ready for Xander's 3rd birthday, finishing up all of my work, and now trying to spend some quality time with Mooshi, which isn't really very easy since he can't walk very well and he appears to be in pain.

We had to put Mooshi's brother, Sushi, to sleep in Boston, before Xander was born. We took him to the vet for what we thought was a slight illness and walked out with an empty cat carrier. That was traumatic, for everyone. I hated the fact that his last hour was one of stress as they poked and prodded him to find out why he couldn't breathe. I wish we had taken him home and had the vet come to us but we were in shock and put him down then. I know we did the right thing but I can't help kicking myself for not making his last few minutes calm and peaceful. I feel like I never really had a chance to say goodbye to him because the process was so sudden.

So, with Mooshi, I've decided to call in a vet who specializes in home visits. I want MoMan to be peaceful and calm with me by his side.

I took these photos of Mooshi on Tuesday, before I got the call from the vet regarding his biopsy.

Oh dear, I'm puddling up.

Nicole & Graig's Wedding

I've done a good job of keeping my photog calendar filled with a variety of photographic genres and gigs so I never get pigeon holed or typecast as a photographer shooting only in one genre. This keeps me fresh and having fun, always. Case in point: I had the opportunity to photograph Nicole and Graig on Thursday, August 6th. Molly, my friend, assistant, and former bride asked me to capture their day and it was quite the unique experience.

First, I had never met either Nicole or Graig and when I did, they looked smashing. Being in black tie and a wedding dress makes a great first impression. ;)

Second, I didn't actually photograph their ceremony. Only Mormons are allowed inside The Temple, so I had to wait outside. I thought this might pose a challenge because the ceremony sets the mood for the event and gets everyone on the same page. Thankfully everything worked out, no doubt in part because Nicole and Graig were so chillax that it made doing a quick read on how to best photograph them a breeze.

Lastly, the temple is an amazing location! The fountains and gardens are spectacular--capturing love birds being love birds in a fab setting is always a pleasure!

And with that very long winded preamble, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Nicole and Graig!

The Other Side of the Tracks--Seattle Child Photography

I'm a big fan of shooting in SoDo and specifically around the train tracks. This usually works out well, so well in fact that a couple of times I've been invited on the trains--Thanks super cool train engineers!

Well a couple of weeks back, prior to the Drew and Xander at the beach post below, I asked Sarah and Drew to come down to the tracks with me and Xander. The goddess of railroad peace was not watching over me that day. Within two-minutes of playing pretend Hobo, a office kill-joy called me out for trespassing. He told me he didn't care if I got hit but that the kids shouldn't die. Uhm... okay. I guess he thought we were irresponsible nannies or Mothers looking to tie our kidlets to the tracks.

Hey Mr. BNSF Office Man--you'll never be as cool as a train conductor! Nuh nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuhhhhhhh....

Playdate + Photo Documentation

I'm getting older while my child is getting stronger, faster, and sassier. Having Xander home with me on Thursday and Friday means I must cultivate my inner super mom and venture out into the world. This becomes challenging when the sass, scream and tantrum factor is high which is precisely why the I've finally embraced (come to terms?) with the thing mothers all over the world do to keep themselves from drinking at breakfast, The Playdate.

For me, Playdates were the gateway to cul-de-sacs and minivans. An endless series of questions and talk about Jane's poop schedule and the consistency of Johnnies naps and my desire to talk about nothing of the sort, keep me out of the 'dating' scene. This is where my old pal from the 7th grade comes in. Enter, Sarah and her daughter Drew.

Here are some snaps from the day.

What Would Superman Do?

Times are suckity economically, and when you combine said suckity-ness with the 'slow' time in the photog business, it spells only one thing. Serious-meltdown-OMG! What am I doing wrong--I need to reinvent myself! I need a look, a vibe, a persona, the ridiculousness is ridiculous. In times like this, I hover over my laptop hitting 'send/receive' in a very OCD fashion (Me: The cable must be out again, otherwise I'd be downloading copious amounts of client inquiries, right ?!) and check my google analytics graphs, pie charts and bounce rate like I actually understand them. So when times get tough, the tough start investigating all the gobs of benjamins they could drop to make more money. It takes money to make money, right?

Well here I am, at this very free, blogspot blog, wishing I had a super snazzy and expensive 'couture' blog designed by fabulous people, much younger than myself, and able to pull off fashions I refer to as 'Forest Gump in his running across America phase' or 'Pat Benatar and Napoleon Dynamite are BFFs'.

I go through this crisis around this time every year and I'm hoping this year will be like years past, as in, 'this will be over soon, once the sun hits, biz will pick up' but there are two potential problems with my 'The Sun Will Come out Tomorrow' hopes. 1. The economy 2. The economy.

Meanwhile, I work on a few clients' files as well as my own personal work and I just wait... oh and get ready for a shoot tomorrow at the studio.

Spring has Sprung!

Gams with and without Jams

If The Shoe Fits

Rosa, Carla and Adam

This past Saturday, I got a chance to photograph the Saultwards (C. Saulter
+ A. Edwards=Saultwards) at a part in West Seattle. Everytime I do a family session I wish I did more of them (shameless pandering for business).
Anyway, they are quite the lovely family so with that... I present The Saultwards.