i {heart} faces "Smirk"

This week's theme at i♥faces is "Smirk."

This ant provided a lot of enjoyment...

First Day

This week brought the first day of Kindergarten for my five year old!

He was excited, but it was old hat for him going to a private Kindergarten at the same place he went to preschool.

This week also brought the first time my three year old went to preschool!

He was so excited!

i {heart} faces "Vroom, Vroom"

This week's theme over at i♥faces is "Vroom, Vroom."

I love this picture for this theme and I love the extra "movement" my Lensbaby gave this shot.

To all my regular blog readers, I apologize profusely that you have just seen this picture. I should have paid better attention to the upcoming themes and saved this one. I even used the phrase "vroom, vrooming" in the last post with this picture! I just had to use it for this!

I ♥ The Coast - Landscape Photography

I just really love being at the coast. Oregon's beaches may not always be the warmest, and the water may be too freezing for any more than my toes to withstand, but I LOVE being at the beach. Really, no matter the weather, it's always beautiful.



For more pictures from the Oregon coast visit:
Laurie Marie Photography Cape Kiwanda Tide Pools
Laurie Marie Photography Coast Vacation
Laurie Marie Photography Newport Bridge

Lensbaby!

My new Lensbaby that I won for this arrived in the mail just in time to go to the dunes on a family vacation. It was a lot of fun to play with it and get the feeling of movement as I photographed my boys sitting on the quads "vroom, vrooming" away!



What a fun toy for a photographer!

Megan in Stadium Jumping

A little while ago I took these pictures of Megan in the stadium jumping phase of the Inavale horse trials. Megan is a pre-vet student, eats and breathes all things horse and has attended national and international Pony Club competitions, so it was fun to watch and photograph her in action.

Catching a landing like this just makes me think 'how in the world does a massive animal like a horse come down on such a tiny single leg?!'

And look how powerful a horse looks in take off!



Clearly she had no fun, right?

Thanks for a great show Megan!

i {heart} faces "Gotta Wear Shades"

They're celebrating shades over on i♥faces this week!

Avalyn and Mason

This is the beautiful Avalyn.

And this is her adorable little brother Mason.

Avalyn is my five year old Avery's best friend. He absolutely loves her! Avery and Avalyn, sounds good together right?

This is Avery and Avalyn back in May during a Mother's Day program at their preschool. Avery couldn't wait to give a print of this picture to Avalyn and he has his own copy on display. Too cute.

Shadows In The Window

The other night the last light on in the house was in our master bathroom and when I turned it off to go to bed this is what I saw. I think the play of light and shadow framing the window is lovely and I couldn't help but go get my camera!

Nature | Laurie Marie Photography

Two weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to take the pictures for a three day long youth conference. I had so much fun camping and taking pictures and video practically non-stop. Although now I have the daunting task of going through them all! The weather was gorgeous and occasionally I got to turn from the action to catch a quiet moment in nature.



You can't hide from me Mr. Dragonfly!




And because I love my beautifully green Oregon:

2010 Worldwide Photo Walk

I participated in this year's Worldwide Photo Walk with a night walk up in Portland last Saturday. I had such a blast! What a great opportunity to play with night photography! Here's a healthy selection of my pictures (yet only a small selection of what I took!)



We started in Pioneer Square




And met and saw lots of interesting people














As light trails go this is probably a failure since there's an obvious jump at the beginning (I'm not certain how that happened on my tripod...),
but I sort of liked how it worked out so that the bus' location is readable. It wouldn't have been without the jump.


Now I'm wondering if Saks always locates itself on 5th Avenue wherever they open?






The group finished up at Paddy's bar to look at their pictures. I decided rather than wait and look I wanted
to go take more pictures on the way back to the car, but first I had to get a picture of the drink wall.






My friend pointed out something funny about this.
Is this representative of the finacial burden one encurs when purchasing at this particular establishment?


And, because I'm a huge dork, I got up and down off the sidewalk over and over to get this self-portrait right - or close enough?

Chris + Taylor Wedding pt 2

Here is the rest of Chris and Taylor's wedding preview. Thank you so much for letting me capture this special day for you!



























Let me know what you think!