H.S. Senior Photo Season

This is Katie. Isn't she beautiful? She's this season's h.s. senior photo rep for Bethany F. Photography.

I found this amazing new location that I thought would be perfect for h.s. seniors, so we drove over there yesterday and spent a couple hours doing a photo shoot. Katie is so easy to work with and her natural beauty shines through in these photos. (click on photos to see enlarged version)

If you know of any h.s. juniors who haven't found a photographer for their 2008 senior photos, please send them my way. Info is on my website, www.bethanyf.com, and printing/album pricing will be coming soon!

Happy Birthday Callum!

Today was Callum's 1st birthday! Callum is one of Jude's good friends.

Annie planned a special party and turned the weekly "mom's group" day into a birthday celebration for all of the recent 1st birthdays: Callum, Kaylie, Johanna and Jude. She served these amazing pumpkin cupcakes with whipped cream topping that we all enjoyed!

Thanks for a fun party, Annie! You're the best!

Meet Noah, Our Cat (pictured below)

We have two very sweet kitties, Noah and Abby. We adopted them from a local pet shop when they were just a couple weeks old, and now they are our big cats that sometimes do very annoying things. But we adore them to pieces!

Our boy cat, Noah, loves attention and people contact. He has quite the personality too. When company come over and they make themselves comfortable on our couch, Noah does the same, only around their neck. He has a hair fetish too and while draping himself across our guest's shoulders he also tends to lick their hair. It's pretty embarrassing at times (depending on the guest... surprisingly, some people love his lovies!)

A couple nights ago, as we were doing Jude's bedtime routine, Noah appeared and put himself right at the center of whatever we were doing. Taking a bath? Well, I'll lay right where I know you usually dry off the kid. Giving him a bottle? I'll snuggle up where I know you usually rock and sing to him while giving him a bottle. Every time we turned around, there was Noah ready to be doted on.

Our poor, starved-for-attention Kittie got lots of our affections while hanging out on the couch with us after Jude went to bed. The End.

The Tropical NW :)

Josh planted a few more hydrangeas around our place today and they look beautiful. We had hoped to put in our "urban garden" today, but ran out time, so it will be put on next weekend's to-do list.

Here's a shot of a large leaf from a plant in our shade garden that I snapped this morning.

Evening walks...

I've had a great time working on photos tonight!
I tried some new things layering text on top of "background-type-photos" or rather "stock photos" that I took while on a walk this evening with Josh and Jude. We went down the street to look at some new homes being built and along the way I took photos of all the beautiful flowers in people's side yards. Here are a few to share. Oh, and one of us on our walk... :)

(Click on photos to see enlarged version)

Hey Jude

I love rich color photographs! Here's a shot of Jude on a rug in the kitchen. I love the way the colors worked together.

The rest of these were great in color too, but I loved them in black and white.

Hey Jude, you're cute.

Beachy

Josh, Jude and I "unplugged" and got away to the beach this weekend!

We had a great time enjoying the ocean views, listening to music, walking on the beach with Jude (he and daddy chased a seagull), soaking in the hot tub, eating lots of good food, and relaxing on the love seat in front of the fireplace.... ahhhh.

Here are a few snapshots from our family walk along the beach.

Quite a week...

Tonight I went to the Portland Photographer's Group Meeting that I've just recently got involved with, thanks to my friend Missy (a photographer who will be moving to the Portland area this summer). It was held at a photo album manufacturer and I got to see a lot of great albums for weddings, h.s. seniors, babies, etc. I don't offer albums in my business because I like to keep things simple, and I love giving clients a CD of all their proofs, so they don't have to "buy prints". That way they can enjoy all of their photos for the years to come. The one problem, though, is that most clients never get around to printing their photos... hmmm... so I'm open to ideas and will possibly look into a happy-medium solution this coming summer/fall...

I'm gearing up to photograph a h.s. senior photo rep or two in the coming weeks to help promote h.s. senior photo sessions for this fall. If you know a good student at a Portland, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Tualatin school that would be interested in getting a complimentary photo session this month, then hand out their favorite photo and my info to 50 classmates and then receive kickbacks in the form of ca$h for referrals I receive from them, send them my way! My contact info is on my website: www.bethanyf.com.

Jude has been fighting a terrible flu virus all week long and will have to go to the doctor again tomorrow. He's hardly eaten any food since Saturday night, so I'm concerned, naturally. Say a little prayer for him. Due to the extra cuddling and lovies my little one has needed this week, I haven't had an opportunity to get out there and snap any photos! Maybe all of this extra stored up creativity will explode out of me into the form of some new pictures this weekend!

Here are two tulip photos from last week. Our backyard tulips aged beautifully.