birthday photos

We went to Mikayla's second birthday party and because I knew that there would be many photos taken, I thought I'd take only natural light photos. Even though they are not sharply focused--I took them handheld without a tripod (too much work to use one)--I still like the mood of the photos.

the twins

I was going through all my cds to pull together some photos for my sister in law of her twin boys. They are so cute! Whenever we visit I try to take some photos of them. Here are photos of them from the last two years.
















Just like with other young kids, it's hard to get the two of them together and both looking at the camera! I think I've only had one or two turn out of them together! And you have to be fast because they are active. As you can tell, I really like the close ups.

kids at the wedding

The kids were so cute at my niece's wedding! Here are a few of the candids I took of all the young kids.

my niece's wedding

My niece was married a couple of weeks ago. The room where the wedding was held had a lot of ambient light (fluorescent, though) so I didn't have to use a flash much. I like natural light so much more than flash (maybe that's because I'm still learning how to use flash effectively). Again, as I've said so many times, I like taking photos of the details. Here are some of my favorite photos from this event.

Valentine's Day Wedding Reception

My friend Shawna, a very talented and creative decorator, transformed the cultural hall of our church into an elegant setting for her son's Valentine's Day wedding reception (the wedding was a couple of weeks ago in Arizona). Aaron and Carla (the newlyweds) chose cream, silver and green as their colors for the evening's decor. Here are some photos of the evening. An inventive touch was the Advice Tree. Guests hung their filled-out advice cards on a light-strewn tree.A kids table (complete with candy!), Italian sodas and plenty of delicious food complemented the gathering of family and friends.

cousins

These photos of were also taken during the holidays, but I'm just posting them now. In Oregon in winter, you can't count on there being enough natural light available, so you have to use flash. I was trying out my new radio slaves on my flash units. Nice to have the flash off-camera. We also used my club chair to pose the group. I liked using it better than the stools I usually use. This gave it a more casual look--which is more my style. It's been several years (at least 6) since we took a group photo of these cousins. I'll have to scan the first pics and post them! They have all changed so much!