I have not seen Miss Abby since she was a newborn and wow, has she changed in six months! We had a great morning shoot here at CityPlace and Abby happily showed off her sitting and belly flashing skills for us. She is an easy, mellow baby and I can’t wait to see her for our next session~
I was so happy when my inspiring friend and acclaimed artist, Nina Surel, brought her kids to the studio for a shoot. Here are a few of my initial favorites of these three cuties. Check out some of Nina’s work on her website….several of my clients are collectors of her beautiful mixed media collages and as of this week, I am as well!
Three month old Asher has the cutest crib….I had to get a shot of him in there watching his mobile go around. He is the second baby I know who was actually delivered by his own (MD) daddy….how cool is that?
This family is the cutest! Big sister, Nikki (who is only 2 herself) was so excited to take photos when I arrived, she was literally jumping for joy. Little Luke was super mellow and the two of them did great together! Beautiful mama Annette is the inventor of the buggy guard, a very smart stroller locking device for moms and babies out on the town. Check out the buggy guards here~
We planned to officially re-open the studio on September 1st but came back a little sooner because there were too many sessions going on the calendar to wait much longer! You may remember handsome Maverick from his last two shoots…today we took his one year old portraits at his house. Take a peek on his wall to see one of his galleries. I have a feeling three more from this session will be going on the bottom level…
(Off-topic: I think these must be the tiniest True Religion jeans I have ever seen. Mav is quite the fashion horse!)
With a heavy heart I make my last post of our summer vacation…you would think six weeks would be enough, but sometimes too much of a good thing just makes you wanting more. So, while I have a super full fall schedule coming up, I will be dreaming of summer 2010 and wondering where life may lead us…any ideas?
(whale watching from the boat)
The White Pass Yukon Railroad is an amazing steam train that began during the gold rush days and takes a steep route through the mountains with views of glaciers, waterfalls, gorges, and a number of historic sights and I think we were even in Canada for a few minutes. The boys had a blast riding the rails!
Creeks and rivers run through every small town we visit and they are brimming with salmon coming home to spawn. These salmon are the most determined creatures too…in places with only inches of water, they make their way upstream over rocks and up rapids to get where they must go. When you look into any stream, you will see thousands these fish packed in tight. Who ever knew there were so many salmon…
Finally, the boys spotted this “deadliest catch” cage contraption. Not sure how they know about this stuff but it made them super happy to pose with it!
Juneau is an adorable town with a gondola that takes you up to it’s Mount Roberts for a great view. Down below, we walked around, saw working fisherman unloading the boats, and bought miniature totem poles that the boys had been begging for since we arrived. I am sure they will be making an appearance at Show and Tell very soon…
We have learned so much about the early days here in Alaska, during the gold rush just over 100 years ago. This town, Skagway, has a population of 1,000 now but in during the 1890’s, over 200,000 gold seekers lived here. We decided to try our hand at panning for gold beside the Skagway river. It takes a while to learn all the motions, but after some serious dunking, swirling, dumping, and hoping, we did weigh in with about $20 worth of gold flakes in the combined effort. Not the greatest investment today!
Almost as fun as panning, was trying out our genuine Alaskan slingshots beside the river and enjoying some homemade root beer while listening to the river race by.
My connection here is slow and expensive with each blog adding up to about $30…and I will not miss that at all! I do want to post more images of the dogs though, because it was such an amazing day. If you ever come all the way to Alaska, if NOTHING else, you must race some real sled dogs. Not partaking in this activity would be like going to Florida and not seeing the beach. Am I driving my point home, lol?
Ted and Ethan mushed one team of dogs and Cal and I raced another, hence I have a lot more images of Cal (though Ethan has video!) At one point, I was riding on the sleigh with our guide behind me and Cal mushing from the back sled, and my poor little guy fell off. Nobody even noticed at first, but when we finally turned around, he was running full speed on the glacier to catch up…with the hugest smile I have ever seen. The dogs stopped, Cal hopped back on and we were off again!
Later that night, I went to hear Libby Riddles speak about her journey to become the first woman Iditarod winner. I cannot imagine enduring a winter here, let alone a race across subzero Alaska and to hear the stories of current locals and about the pioneers who came here for the Gold Rush, just gives me a whole new appreciation for human strength and determination.
Oh, and the helicopter ride was pretty awesome too. I could get used to traveling that way~
