Some News!

Well, I turned 30 yesterday and had a great day! Sunday night I got to go out for dessert with my dearest girlfriends to celebrate. That was really fun and special! I'm so thankful for these ladies in my life!! I've been truly blessed by their friendship over the years and I look forward to the years to come!

Then yesterday, on my actual birthday, Josh took the day off and we celebrated as a family. We took the kids to see Toy Story 3, which I cried at like a baby! There was something about the boy in the movie going from Jude's age, to being 17 and going off to college that kept making me cry. :)

After the movie we came home for naps and then in the evening time we got a babysitter and Josh & I went out to dinner. It was great to have someone cook for me! Then we got to go to the hospital to visit my close friend who just had a baby!! Oh, holding her beautiful baby in my arms was soooo much fun! There's nothing like a precious newborn! And it's extra special that her sweet baby and I now share the same birthday!

Then we stopped at Whole Foods to grab a few g-free desserts on the way home. We watched a little TIVO while eating our treats and then I was asleep about 5 seconds after that. :)

Unfortunately I had to get up really early this morning. But it was for a good reason, because it's a day I've been waiting for. I had a doctor's appointment. After my great appointment today I feel like I can finally share some news! Josh, Jude, Selah and I are VERY excited to announce that we will be welcoming a sweet baby Fegles to the world come January 2011! :) We are already in love with this little baby! Jude and Selah "kind of" know what's going on, but not fully yet.

I think I would definitely sum up the past 12 weeks of my life as "survival". In fact, surviving this trimester has felt like one of the greatest accomplishments of my life! :) lol. I'm not totally out of the woods yet, but basically, the daily exhaustion and sickness have brought me to tears many times in the last 3 months.

Forgive me if I've dropped the ball on emails and phone calls! Honestly, they've looked like the impossible some days. :) I've put any ounce of energy I've had toward cooking and feeding the family and feel like I've dropped balls everywhere else. Thankfully I should be getting my energy back any day now and be feeling my best for this summer season of shooting, which is wonderful!! :)

As far as my shooting schedule is concerned, I'm pretty much booked through September already. I have a few spots left open for h.s. senior sessions. I will start a waiting list for anyone that wants to get in between July-September due to cancellations. Otherwise, contact me and I'll put you on the October schedule! We had a beautiful October last year, so I'm hoping for the same this year!

Thanks for letting me share my exciting news!
:) Bethany

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of you amazing men out there who give so much to your families!

I'm so thankful for my dad, who set the standard so high, that I was able to spot the treasure of a man Josh was when I met him. Thank you Dad, for always being an example of a godly man to me, who is giving and gracious, patient, full of wisdom, who prays for me daily and always reminds me and reassures me of the worth God put in me. I love you Dad!

And to my beloved Joshua! You have blown me away with the father you are! So attentive and loving to our children, always caring for the heart of them, and teaching them with a patience and kindness that makes me love you more. Thank you for serving your family tirelessly and for getting up before all of us each day to go to work, only to come home ready to play with the kids and help with the house. You give so much of yourself for us; we are truly blessed! We couldn't love you more! xo
(This little camera phone snap shot captures the dad Josh is so well!) :)

Fellow Photographers!

Hey Fellow Photographers!

My sweet friend Jane Johnson just launched her new branding site! She's currently designing my new logo (which I can't wait to see!) and I think so many of you will fall in love with her designs!

Check her out now! Click on the link below to go to her new site!

http://www.janejohnsondesign.com/

:) Bethany

The Cook Family: Portland Family Photographer

Dustin and Sheri are good friends of ours. I love getting to see their boys Isaac & Evan. They're really sweet little guys and Evan gives me the BEST smiles!! I always just want to eat him up. :) We met up for some family photos and to document Evan who just celebrated his 1st birthday!

He didn't seem too excited by my camera, though. There were lots of noises at the park, and this crazy lady with a camera jumping up and down... at least Isaac thought I was worth a laugh. :)

Here's their adorable family!









Someone loves his monkey...

...and his Mama.

I followed Isaac around for a bit too...







This picture makes me start singing that old song, "Ponderous" by 2nu (Chelsi, are you with me?!) :)

Happy 1st Birthday Evan! You're one cute bear!

(Quick photo info for those interested... I shot these mostly around ISO 320 because it was overcast when we started out, and I was photographing children that love to move! I wanted to ensure a fast shutter speed, which I did. I really probably could've dropped my ISO lower, but I played it safe. :) I shot mostly around f/2.5-f/2.8... again wanting to give myself a little grace with fast movers. I love shooting around f/2 or f/2.2, but with moving kids at this age sometimes it's nice to have a tad bit more depth of field. Shot with my 5d Mark II and 50mm f/1.2L lens.)

Another blog...

Since going gluten-free I've been wanting to start a blog that's super simple, sharing the little things we're learning along the way. (And that way this blog can remain about photography!) :)

I don't claim to know a ton about gluten-free living, but I'm learning more and more things everyday, and if something I learn could help someone else, then that makes me really happy! So far my blog is mostly just simple recipes, some food tips, what we buy, and our brief back story. I'd love comments from any of you who have helpful knowledge or tips to share with us all.

So, I feel a bit vulnerable sharing this new blog, because it feels like an even more raw view into our lives, even if it may not to you the reader, but it's who we are, glorious food allergies and all! :)

http://g-freejourney.blogspot.com/

:) Bethany

This and That...

It was nice getting a dose of sunshine yesterday! This past week it was funny to see how Facebook posts were all about the rain, rain, rain... then yesterday there was this explosion of Facebook posts about what everyone got OUT and did! :) It sounded like a lot of people enjoyed the Rose Festival downtown! I thought that sounded like so much fun. We talked about going to the starlight parade, but we were just too tired. Ah, we Oregonians will soak up every second of sun we can get!

We went strawberry picking yesterday, on that gloriously sunny day, and it was a lot of fun. I tend to be late on strawberries every year, and hardly get any picked, so this year I was determined to be ahead! We showed up for Smith Berry Barn's opening day and got 17 lbs. Hopefully I'll pick another 15-20 lbs. this next week.

Yesterday we also worked on organizing and cleaning out our garage. I listed some items on Craigslist before we went berry picking, to get them out of our garage. It wasn't until today that I realized I'd done something wrong when listing those items, and none of them actually listed! Dote! So today I relisted everything (couch, tv, tv stand, bar stools...) and they all sold in less than 4 hours. Go Craigslist!

Gluten-free living is going well. Josh & Jude are definitely our super gluten intolerant family members. Selah still has yet to be tested. I've had my low moments of thinking I'd die if I didn't eat bread soon being on their diet, but we thankfully found an amazing gluten-free bread at Whole Food's last week that we're in love with. Udi's bread is the best! We've been enjoying turkey sandwiches with lettuce and goat cheese, tuna fish sandwiches, toast, almond butter & jelly sandwiches... I nearly cried when I first ate that bread. I had been missing bread that tasted like, bread, for so long! :)

On the same topic, Josh's hands have been healing up quite nicely! It's just amazing to watch. Like I've shared before he's had a severe hand rash for the past two years. Each doctor he saw told him it was sever eczema and prescribed steroids to help with it. The steroid cream will thin your skin, so you can only use it for short periods of time. Anyway, 2 months off of gluten and Josh's hands are NORMAL hands again! It's crazy to see. I so badly wish I had some "before" photos, since the difference is so dramatic. I'd love to be able to show everyone! We're really thankful for the difference! No more constant lotioning or running his hands under scalding hot water for relief... Hooray! :)

Jude is still doing great too. He's had a couple instances where he's eaten some gluten in something we were unaware of. Like if something we ate was possibly processed on the same machines as something with gluten. This week we ate some Kettle brand corn chips, thinking they were fine based on the ingredients and packaging, but Josh and Jude had a reaction. We researched them today and discovered they are not gluten-free! Grrr. Our bad. When Jude eats a little bit of gluten like that it's pretty obvious. He ends up really cranky, frustrated, hard to communicate with and he wakes up a few times in the middle of the night crying. I feel so badly for him when it happens. We're just getting more and more careful every day with what food we buy and make. Josh's reactions to gluten are that his hands begin to itch and the skin gets "tight". He also gets really tired and just wants to sleep. So we do our best to avoid any trace amounts at all costs.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the fabulous day of sunshine yesterday! I'm looking forward to some up and coming photo shoots. Every shoot I've had in the past few weeks have all rescheduled for better weather. And I don't blame them! :)

I'll end my "this & that" post with this picture of Selah that I thought was so funny from a moment yesterday. It's not the greatest photo, but it captures the memory, which is all that matters. So, Selah LOVES animals. Her dream is to hold a bird! At the berry field they had goats, bunnies and chickens. Well, Selah was sooo excited to see the animals. She asked repeatedly to be able to go into the chicken pen, and into the chicken's house and in to hold the bunnies. At this moment, (the above photo) she was down at the chicken's level practically screaming at the chickens saying, "Chicken, come here! I want to pet you!" I could not help but laugh. She was serious! And you can totally see it in her face and grip on the fence. :) One of these days we'll have to find a friend who has a pet bird, so that we can arrange to make Selah's dreams come true by letting her hold it. :) I love that sweet girl.

Something NEW for Photographers!

I'm so excited to announce this!

I have been receiving so many sweet emails from photographers just starting out, people looking to get into the photography business, or people just desiring to get better at taking photos, who have asked me if we can get together, shadow me on a shoot, and talk about editing and business. I always have these great aspirations to plan a shooting day for a group of photographers and we can all meet up at a coffee shop and just talk for hours until we lose our voices and then go shoot pictures together. :) But I can't ever seem to squeeze in one more day away. So I've come up with something new for Bethany F Photography!
I'm calling it Shoot. Shadow. Share.
I've just added a tab to my main website with all the info. Go to www.bethanyf.com and click on "Shoot. Shadow. Share" in the bottom right hand corner. Or you can click HERE to get to the website too.

What is it?
It's one-on-one time where you can ask me anything you want about photography, shooting, editing, business, etc. plus shadow me on a photo shoot, and watch me edit those photos. During the 6 hour Shoot. Shadow. Share. time we can talk in length about anything you wish, such as...

• how do I choose locations and specific settings for shooting
• how do I pose clients
• how do I choose lighting and times of day to shoot
• how do I use my camera
• how do I get sharp eyes on my subjects
• how do I interact with clients
• how do I edit my images
• how do I run my business, etc!

You'll also shadow me on a 1 hour photo shoot (with clients who have given the ok ahead of time), and we'll download and edit the photos together from that shoot (your images and mine) and talk through the editing process. We'll also grab a meal together, and we can talk straight through that meal to fully use that time. It's very laid back, which is my style. The cost is $1,500.

There's also a MINI Shoot. Shadow. Share. that is called "The Tag Along". It's getting together 30 minutes before a photo shoot to meet up at a coffee shop and I'll buy us coffees to go. We'll then ride together and talk on the way to a photo shoot. Then you'll shadow me on a 1 hour photo shoot. We'll talk as we ride back for 30 minutes. It's 2 hours total, and you can feel free to ask me as much as you can in that time! I'm an open book!
Cost: $500

Visit my website for more info or shoot me an email! I'm already looking forward to hanging out!
:) Bethany