Snohomish County

adam + rebecka 04.21.07

This cake topper is one of my favorites of all time!!! It ties for cuteness with Melodie Rivera's starfish topper!

Its been almost a year since the last time we shot a wedding in Snohomish county. Here are a few quick posts from Rebecka & Adam's country wedding at French Creek estates. Ray and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting with these two lovebirds, they were ALL about the photos!!! I just LOVE when we have both the willingness & time from couples to perform. Yay Becka & Adam!!

House Boat

Its Friday! I'm finally back at home after a very, very busy work week. I can't be the only one who's looking forward to the weekend, right?

Assisted on a cool gig with Alex Hayden, on a 2 day Houseboat project for This Old House magazine!!! The resident's identity will be kept under wraps for the homeowner's protection. The houseboat value is upward in the million(s), I guestimate the size about 1000 sqft.

No need to mow the lawn...my favorite part of the houseboat was the plexiglass hole in the floorboard. That yellow spot is actually a log, part of the floating foundation of the house.Its a neat 'glass bottom' view.

Mr. Important!

A Hasselblad film body with a digital Leaf back, it produces super huge file sizes perfect for magazines, large ads and billboards. Food & Prop Stylist Molly unpacks her props into the kitchen. I love observing how stylists turn the average house and into a masterpiece! National magazines demand perfection down to the smallest detail.
A little Pacific Northwest eye-candy.

Alex specializes in food, interiors, and product photography, he has a signature 'white wash' look. His work is clean, airy, fresh, and pretty. Feels like a breezy summer day. Don't know how else to explain it! Here you can see a screen shot of the interior photo from his computer screen.

He uses grids, levelers and all sorts of tools to ensure the lines for interiors, tangents and general aestetics are 100% correct. Setting up the shot takes a few hours. As a portrait photographer shooting fleeting moments, I WISH I had the time to set up shots. Would be a cinch! Life would be easy!

Remarkably, commercial photogs say they wouldn't want to do what I do: perform under fire. But I hear the same story from wedding photogs: they lack patience to set up and deal with magazines and Art Directors. Every so often there's a person who can manage both, but for the most part photographers are better off specializing in specific genre. Last snap of the day here's Alex using a spot metering for a sunset exposure of the house.

Assisting commercially + doing production + casting models is way satisfying in addition to shooting weddings. Anything that keeps me in close contact with the best photography professionals is invaluable! I love that Alex, Chris, Remy, and Greg don't view me as competition and openly share their experiences with me, good and bad. Not everyone agrees that I should be assisting in a different field than my specialty; some photogs think I need to hyper-focus on weddings. IMO by learning about others, you explore the evolution of your business model.

Bugs, Seniors, and Hail!

Updated Friday April 20th
What a crazy day! I'm totally buzzing from all the great picture-taking today, wow! See, that's when you KNOW you're in the right field, you get a good buzz from working hard. That might be a little twisted but I much prefer to work hard rather than stay and home and eat bon-bons all day. The day started out with a test drive. A VW New Beetle just might be the latest addition to April Greer Photography! Hooray for air conditioning and cruise control! A Scion Xb was a good choice, but lost out to the Bug in the 'luxury' category. Xb just felt too generic for its high price. A bug on the other hand, its cutie patootie and comes with a Turbo!Ray likes the bug, he gave me his typical beefcake shot. Don't let him fool you, he's just a big marshmellow.
leather seats! yay! Two jammin seniors about to make their mark on the world and wrap up high school posed for me after lunch.The weather played into our favor for most of the afternoon with a brief storm of hail. They came to me requesting 'different' photos as opposed to everyone else they know who uses xxx studio in Fife or xxx studio in Puyallup. CooL! I aim to please!

Heavy at Viriginia Tech

This blog is meant to be real, but not heavy. By now you've most likely heard about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Tears well up in my eyes with each new piece of information about the shooter, the families, the victims. Considering the circumstances, I couldn't 'not' say anything about it here.

News channels will cover the story from every angle and it doesn't make sense to repeat it in this post. I would just like to take a moment express that my heart goes out to the families, friends, students, faculty, task force and citizens attending and surrounding Virgina Tech.

The incident begs horrific questions about the state of mental health in young people and coping methods in today's world. And sadly, it causes our nation to become sensitive in exploring need for self-protection and urge a public's right-to-know.

I can't imagine what the families of the victims are going through dealing with a crime as selfish and senseless as this one. I deeply grieve with the hundreds of people involved in the incident and pray this is the end of public rampage upon innnocent people.

Oh-la-la

Sunday's e-sessions

1st session: meet Shannon + James

Some lip action

growllllll....

I love when people walk into my shots! I like this guy in the foreground, he adds an extra layer to the scene.

Crazy blue skies today!

Taking a wild guess here, but the fountain MIGHT be chilly.

Just before they hopped in the car to take off, I spotted a trippy little parking space. Love it!!

next couple: meet Jon + Natasha

They were a "supposedly" a little camera shy, but I'm holding a big W on my forehead: whatever!!! They were bursting with romance!

love these shots of them nuzzling together!! Jon is a total sweetheart and has intense blue eyes! Natasha is about as foxy as it gets. She's from Polish heritage, of course, the European genes!

smokin!!!

Lots of weddings coming soon! Stay tuned for more!

ein moment bitte

Headed out for some e-sessions downtown today, please check back later for updates!!! Thank heavens for decent weather, I'm elated! Happy happy joy joy Melodie & Bernie's kitche style e-session was last year, although, one of my all-time faves!