Rachel and Randall's Wedding

In October, my family and I flew to Chicago to shoot a wedding of our dear, dear friends. My wife was a bridesmaid in the wedding and I was given the honor of taking pictures for this awesome couple. Randall and Rachel are great friends of ours from when we were living in Chicago - we had the privilege of watching their relationship unfold and (ahem) playing a pretty major role in their getting married. =)

The wedding took place at a mansion and retreat grounds called the Great Lakes Leadership Campus in Elburn, IL. It all took place outdoors and was a beautiful wedding.

Here are a few photos from the day.

We love you guys.

Danielle and Darin

Danielle and Darin are engaged to be married in January 2009. They'll be getting married in the San Francisco Bay area, but we were able to do an engagement session around the EcoTrust building here in Portland.

Congratulations, guys!

DelRae's Senior Photos

DelRae is a senior at Clackamas High School. She plays soccer there and is deciding on which college to attend - she may head to one in Wisconsin (where I am from!).

We shot these photos at McMenamins Edgefield on a nice, but a little brisk, fall day. We went over to Ruby's Spa for a few shots, which is a pretty cool place that many people may miss out on - there's a really fun pool that is tucked behind the spa, which made a great backdrop for a few of our photos.

Thanks, DelRae!

Fun at the Park

One of my favorite things to do is to explore nature alongside other families, with my camera in hand. Recently our family went to Dabny Park near our house; we played some Bocce ball and wandered around in the streams. It was a beautiful fall day and our friends' kids are little explorers so I had a great time documenting the fun they were having!

I truly think this is the most enjoyable way to capture kids' expressions at their best - by just letting them play and not having them care at all that someone with a camera is nearby.

Leah and Landon

Leah has lived with our family out here in Portland for the last month or so. She's from the Midwest but is out here for a graphic design internship. We were fortunate enough to be part of a fantastic surprise that her (at the time) boyfriend pulled off!

We kept it a secret from Leah that Landon would be visiting her for a weekend... and we were secretly hoping that he would come with a ring =) Well, he did! Saturday night after they had returned from being out, Leah announced to us that Landon had proposed... and we were so excited for them. So I asked if they wanted to shoot an engagement session the next day.

Here are a few images from the shoot:

Congratulations, guys!

Emily's Senior Photos

Emily's senior portrait session took place at the same time/location as Tanner's at Edgefield. They're students together at Portland Christian School. Emily came with creative and unique ideas and clothing changes that helped me to think outside of the box when we were posing and looking for shot locations. Thanks for a great session, guys!

Tanner's Senior Photos

Tanner is a student at Portland Christian School. He's a cool guy, and we had fun exploring McMenamins Edgefield together and finding some unique shot locations. This was my second senior portrait session at Edgefield. It was great weather and lighting and we had fun interspersing his friend Emily's senior pictures in with his - you can view her photos in this post.