Anyway, the birthday really couldn’t have been more perfect. We had the party at Tree to Tree Adventure Park. If you’ve never been there, you need to call them and make a reservation. Now. What are you waiting for? I’m serious. They even have a brand new zip line course opening soon and it looks amazing. We found out about T2T when they first opened about three years ago and went on their opening weekend when our friends Malynda & Ian were in town visiting. WE LOVED IT. When I found out how easy it would be to host the party there, I was thrilled! They provided a large finished barn with the most beautiful solid wood picnic baskets inside. This was so wonderful to have for the party because it gave us a nice area in the shade for us to eat the incredible food and cake – more on that later – and sit down in one spot together. All of the guests were able to run the obstacle course. One a few sat out because they were either watching the kids, mine included, or they were 7.5 months pregnant.

The food and cake were EXCEPTIONAL.

Eat Your Heart Out Catering provided the gourmet picnic lunches. They catered one of the weddings I photographed last year and their food and service never disappoint. If you’re planning a wedding in the Portland area, you need to first book me as your photographer, then contact Monica and Chloe to have them cater your wedding. Everyone loved the food. Loved. Be sure to scroll down through the entire post because I have photos toward the bottom. Be sure not to look on an empty stomach because they will make you hungry. Consider yourself warned.

The cake was made by Erin of Sugarhouse Cake. It surpassed my expectations, to say the least, and tasted as good as it looked. Of course I got lots of photos of the cake. Again, if you’re planning a wedding in the Portland area, you need to first book me as your photographer, then contact Erin to create your masterpiece of a cake.

Okay, on to the party pics, and in true Krissy fashion, further commentary throughout…

We had about 30 adults and 15 kids attend the party. So many great people who have been part of our lives were there to celebrate. Sadly, there were more friends and family who couldn’t attend, and boy did they miss out. The younger kids (those who were ~7 and under) weren’t tall enough to do the kids course but there was till plenty for them to do. There’s a great play structure, a sand box, a big field to chase each other on, and lots of paths to follow mom and dad around on while they’re up in the trees.

Some random pics…

My mom and Larry. I like to call him Llama Larry. It’s an endearing term, really, because they have 12 friendly and cute pet llamas. I never thought I’d be asking someone to bite my mom’s ear, but I did, and it was cute.

Mom and Larry taking my daughter back to the stable to change into shorts and a short sleeved shirt. It was the most beautiful day in the middle of May – clear with a high of 80. Pretty lucky considering typical Oregon spring weather.

My baby girl, the gymnist.

Crazy Grampa (yes, this is what my kids call him) and my super flexible niece.

Granny and my handsome nephew.

My soon-to-be-a-big-sister niece, who takes some of the most beautiful photos I have ever seen, even when she’s throwing sand.

Getting ready for the course. Keep in mind that for most of the photos below, everyone was 30-60 feet up in the air. Only because I’m zoomed in are you able to see them up close.

My awesome stepson, Nathanael. He was with us full time up until last June and we hadn’t seen him since. I flew him up for the party. I thought it would be a total shock for my husband but he said he had hoped I would do something like that and would have even been a bit disappointed if I hadn’t. It was so wonderful having him, even though it was only for the weekend. I didn’t tell my little ones that they’d be seeing their big brother and they almost didn’t recognize him, but wouldn’t leave him alone after only a short while.

Brett and Kim. The photo I got of Brett right before this shot was of him flipping the bird, hence the evil grin you see in the photo below. I chose to omit that one for my G rated audience.

Eric. Soccer buddy and long time family friend. It was great to see you!

Dave. Another long time friend. He left work to be at the party but still checked his phone while he was high up in the trees. Such a dedicated employee.

Blu & Melissa. Met them through our kids and a great family to be friends with. Love them.

Brother and sister-in-law. These photos crack me up. She’s happy and confident, he’s slightly terrified.

Our dear friends Malynda & Ian who flew up from Texas for the party. They may have been the only real surprise that Dominic didn’t predict. They were with us the first time we went to T2T three years ago and it was so much fun to have them visit again.

And there’s the birthday boy, acting like he’s gonna push his sister off a 50ft platform.

Shawn and Katie. Shawn was the only non-sibling in our wedding party. Great couple and long time friends. We need to have you over for dinner soon!

Dom’s sister. I’m not sure she knew the platform moves.

This is Weimin. We love Weimin. He was our boss when we met over a decade ago. He’s also my second shooter at weddings.

The kids’ course was incredible. I can’t wait until my daredevil daughter is tall enough because I know she would love it. They even get to zip.

Here’s Nathanael getting more courageous with each course level.

The birthday boy and his son. Same photo, left side zoomed in.

He may look super serious, but he was having a really good time. I promise.

This one is a cool shot. At first glance, you might only see the close up photo on the left. If you look a little closer, you’ll see that the photo on the right is the same shot, just at a shorter focal length. It gives you some perspective of how high up he was when he was standing on that wire. It makes my palms sweaty and my heart race just to think about it.

The food. Ugh. So unbelievably good. Eat Your Heart Out packaged up each lunch in its own bag. We had our choice of two sandwiches: grilled flatiron steak with tomatoes, arugula and Romesco (sweet red pepper and almond sauce) or baked pork loin with apple and pear chutney, Jarlsberg and mixed lettuces. They also included potato salad with watercress, scallions and blue cheese vinaigrette (this was the best potato salad I have ever had), spring panaznella with greens , English peas, grilled asparagus, radishes, croutons and green olives (this too was amazingly delish), and a cluster of grapes. Oh my god it was good.

They also did special lunches for the kids. The kids got to choose from either a gooey delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a BBQ chicken leg, plus veggie sticks, chips, and grapes. The kids loved having their own special picnic lunch and it was super easy letting them eat when they were hungry instead of making them wait for everyone to finish the course.

The cake. I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved the cake. I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like and Erin surpassed all of my expectations. It was soooo incredibly delicious too. The small black cake was a whiskey (Dominic’s favorite) soaked caramel chocolate with butter cream and black fondant. The tall green cake was three layers of lemon raspberry, with fresh raspberries of course, buttercream, and all the trees were made of chocolate. Even the little rocks were edible and delicious.

For the little zip line dude, I took Dominic’s face from last year’s Christmas card photo, put it on someone’s head to get the helmet to look right, then photoshop’d the head/helmet onto someone’s body who was riding down a zip line. Erin printed it and hung it from a wire from one cake to the other. It was perfect.

The cake pretty much had a constant audience within a foot’s length of 3-10 year olds. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Dom blew out the candles.

The stable T2T let us use was absolutely perfect for the party. We had some left over food so I walked around and shared with the guides because they are fabulous.

And here’s the super cute and extra happy birthday boy.

My favorite shot of the day. This one is getting printed BIG and is going on the wall.

And, last but certainly not least, a long overdue family photo (and proof that I was actually there since I was behind the camera the whole time). By this point we were all hot and sweaty and tired and coming down from a sugar high, but everyone enjoyed an exceptional day celebrating the husband, dad, brother, uncle, son, and friend who we all love. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read my blog, but just in case he does… Happy 40th Birthday, Dominic. I hope you enjoyed every minute of it!

And this is how they see me when we spend a beautiful day with Grandma (thanks for taking the photo, mom) celebrating Mother’s Day, enjoying a fabulous picnic lunch and a short hike at Silver Falls.

To every mom, grandma, and mom-to-be out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

Right around that same time I got an email from another emerging photographer whom I had gotten to know through posting constructive photo feedback on a very popular (we’re talking thousands and thousands of members) online photography forum where I taught myself how to use my camera and shoot (whew – that was a long sentence). Anyhoo, in that email she said, “I think you work with my brother-in-law.” Turns out, she’s married to Christie’s brother. Very small world.

Now that I’ve shared my interesting story for the day, I’ll get to the good stuff.

I was all set up to do a downtown mini session with this family for some updated photos. I was headed down to the Woodburn Tulip Festival that morning. I haven’t missed a Tulip Festival since I moved up here 11 years ago. I ran into Christie at the Tulip Festival last year (see? Small world again) so I knew their family appreciated how gorgeous it was. I suggested we do their photos down there instead. It was a pretty cold early spring so the tulips took their sweet time blooming. This Sunday was the first nice day in a long while. We planned on getting there about when they opened. As we parked, I started to panic.

It was bright. VERY VERY bright. Normally the first bright day of spring makes me feel warm and wonderful like a bear waking up from hibernation. But bright isn’t always so wonderful when you’re taking photos. When its bright you have to worry about proper exposure, blowing your highlights, which direction you are facing, dappled light, shadows, squinting, and so on and so forth. Agh! Now, I could have lugged out my big off camera flash set up, but realistically couldn’t use it because of the other thing that was making me panic – the crowds.

Tulip Festival when the color is in its prime and the weather is nice and warm is like Disneyland on a Saturday in July. Trying to get a shot without a gazillion people in the background is a near impossible feat.

That being said, I am extremely thrilled with the way the photos turned out. As internally panicked as I was, I knew they would turn out fantastic because I’ve worked incredibly hard to be good at what I do. Little known secret – I actually have at least one moment of panic during every session or wedding because I’m such a perfectionist, but my clients never know about the craziness going on in my head as I try to get the most perfect photos for them. All I see in the photos is a family who loves each other beyond compare, the sweetest kids, and some freaking awesome color that is reason #423 why I LOVE living here.

Yeah, yeah. If you follow any photography blogs, every photographer says they love their clients. But I do.

Maybe a little too much.

For instance, I love this family. After each of their sessions (we’ve had three, yes, three over the past year) I come home saying how much I love them and I want them to be my new best friends and I want to drive across town regularly so my kids can have play dates with their kids. Then I get a lecture about how I’m bordering on crazy because I can’t be really good friends with all of my clients and I need to remember this is a professional business arrangement and so on and so forth. But I really do love this family.

The sisters are much like me and my sisters – incredibly witty, fantastic sense of humor and unbelieveably photogenic. Their entertaining family dynamic is extremely similar to my own. Their kids are freaking adorable and full of personality, just like mine. And they keep paying me to take their photos over and over again. What’s not to love?!?

Kelly & Megan & family – I can’t wait to take more and more and more photos of you and your beautiful famly throughout the coming years. Think of all the possibilities – extended family get togethers, weddings, parties, winter, spring, summer, fall, parks, the city, the beach, the moutains… the possibilities are endless!

The three sessions were last summer with their mom and grandma, right before Christmas to celebrate Kelly’s husband coming home on leave and finally getting to spend time with his daughter, and this spring with their dad. Its crazy to see how much the kids grew in less than a year. An important reminder of how important it is to take lots and lots of photos of your kids. Tons of photos to share – enjoy!

Here is the link to the Style Me Pretty post.

And here’s a quick snapshot as proof.

Meet Caius.

Dreamy green eyes. Super cute smile. Fantastic personality. A wee bit shy. Athletic. Smart. And he’s fluent in French.

And because I’m anticipating aforementioned Facebook demographic to swoon, I will say no more and will get to the photos.

I give you – dreamy green eyes:

Super cute smile:

Fantastic personality:

A wee bit shy:

You get the idea…

Caius – I hope you enjoy every minute of what’s left of high school. These are certainly days that you will forever remember. May every year going forward be better than the one before! Congratulations!!!

For me, a perfect shot has to be technically perfect – nailed exposure, gorgeous light, follows the rule of thirds, creamy bokeh, beautiful composition. On this extremely rare occurrence, the photo is perfect as is, and needs no editing. This photo is exactly as I took it in camera with no adjustments.

But even more important than hitting all of the technical aspects, a perfect photo will stop you dead in your tracks and make you say “wow”. The second I got this shot, I knew it was perfect. I can’t figure out what, but there is something magical about this. Is it the innocence of seeing a beautiful two-year-old enjoy the wonder of a giant dandelion? Is it the connection you feel as if she’s looking right at you? Is it the feeling of calm and peace from her serene expression? I don’t know, maybe its just me. But I’ve looked at this photo a hundred times and it always makes me stop and stare.

Taken with my Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, expodisc custom white balance. ISO400 f/2.8 1/640 200mm focal length

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you should take advantage of this opportunity. Trust me. Its worth it.

Here’s the scoop:

Its super easy. You just pick a 20min time slot, pick either date that works for you, make sure you arrive a teeny bit early so that you’re ready to go the second your time starts, and we walk around a small area and I get oodles and oodles of photos that you’ll cherish forever of you laughing and loving each other. This is perfect for the husband who hates getting his photos taken because its quick and easy. This is perfect for any mom who deserves to have beautiful photos of her family and actually be in them and not the one always behind the camera. And this is the perfect way to celebrate spring and the start of the next six months of beautiful weather that this incredible area has to offer.

Need more convincing?

How about a few examples from last year’s mini sessions.

Shall I sweeten the deal even further?

Sure, why not? How about having each family that upgrades to the full collection choose their favorite photo from their mini session. Then, I’ll let people vote on their favorite. Which ever photo wins will be turned into a top-of-the-line (trust me, I’ve searched far and wide for the best labs for each of my products) 24×36 canvas delivered to the winning client’s home. Not too shabby, eh?

The mini sessions will completely book up, so please contact me as soon as you can to reserve your spot.

You know the type.

They are incredibly nice. I’m talking down-to-their-bones-for-real nice. Not nice to your face and not-so-nice-when-you-walk-away kind of nice. You meet this kind of person and your first reaction is “wow… I don’t think I’ve met too many people like them”. This type of person is immediately easy to get along with yet knows what they want. They smile because they’re happy. They are giving. You can’t think of any other way to describe them other than downright genuinely good.

Have you thought of someone you know who fits into this category?

Now think about this… Have you ever met an entire family, a reasonably big family at that, where everyone falls into this category? I’m talking about a set of parents who visibly care for each other and their kids. I’m talking about a group of kids who behave in a way you wish all adolescents would. I’m talking about an entire that is so amazing together that you know they will have such a full life of happy memories together.

If you haven’t met a family like this, let me introduce you to one. Enjoy!

Hope and Shane are awesome. I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it again – I love my wedding couples. These two are no exception. Wanna know one of the main things I love about them?

The almost kiss.

Ah, I love the almost kiss. Its that split second of passion before the lips touch. But what makes the almost kiss so incredible is that not every couple can remain in that almost kiss space. If you have a man and a woman who are truly and passionately in love with each other, they can remain frozen in time in that magical place. Satisfied and at peace knowing they are close to the one they love, but longing to be even closer. At that moment, its as if nothing else in the world matters.

I present to you the almost kiss:

I am inspired by all kinds of love stories. What I found most inspiring about Hope & Shane is that they’ve been together for what some may consider a pretty long time, yet its clear to see that the love and passion they share for one another rivals that of a couple who are still in that “la la” period of bliss at the beginning of the blossoming relationship. Add on top of that a level of trust, understanding and comfort that only comes with years of being together and what you have is, well, perfection. They’re just one of those couples you know will be happily together for the rest of their lives. As I look back through these photos, I see how much they make each other smile. One more key ingredient to lasting happiness.

Need further proof? Well here you go…

Want some more almost kiss? Here ya go.