Julie Harrell: Photographer

I met Lisa at MOPS, but I felt a special connection with her after we were both in the hospital together with our newborns, well almost in the same hospital. 3 weeks after Juliet was born, Lisa gave birth to Sophie… but there were complications, and after spending her first 8 minutes without oxygen, Sophie was airlifted from St. Josephs to Children’s Hospital in Seattle. This was the the same time of day same day that Juliet was being transported from Children’s to St. Joseph’s here in town. Over a year later, we both are completely blessed to have two healthy little girls without any known issues. So when Lisa asked me to do their family photos, I couldn’t wait, and not just because they are a great looking family, but because I felt I had a connection from shared experiences. Aaron and Lisa, with their daughters Addy and Sophie, are that family that you wish you had grown up with since you were a kid, and would be friends with till death, and that your kids would all marry each other, you know what I mean! They are warm, open, friendly and so fun to photograph!

Cheers,
jewels

I was going to start this post by making you look at all the photos, and see if you could guess the location for the St. Hilare Family session… but I put it in the title, so you win! I was very honest when I said I’ve re-fallen in love with Western Washington University‘s Campus. I think each session has a completely unique look each time I visit. The nice thing about having the session on Campus was that the place holds meaning for the St.Hilaires. Andrew’s dad was the registrar while Andrew was growing up. We did the shoot on the steps of Old Main, and Andrew told me stories of when he was a boy how they would go sledding down the big hill… that was before the landscapers came in and made it impossible to do these days. I originally met Lindsay and Andrew early on in my shooting career when I did their engagement photos. Depending on how long you have known me or read my blog, I will remind you that they were the ones with the pet chicken (yes, you read correctly)! Lindsay, I totally forgot to ask if you still have Dymphna.. do you? Now they’ve added two sweet boys to the mix, one very recently. Lindsay just had Peter Julian 4 weeks before our session. For being outside in the late fall he couldn’t have been sweeter. I was also excited to meet their oldest son John (2 1/2 years old) and he was of course a boy bursting with levels of energy I dream about! John was set and ready for adventure and playtime, and he could smile for candy corn like no body’s business. I’m 100% pro-bribery on photo day if you didn’t know… Andrew and Lindsay, your growing family is so beautiful, I’m so glad we could fit in photos during your visit to the Ham!

Cheers,
jewels

Luke, Bonnie and Hudson met me at my current favorite location, Western Washington University’s Campus, for their family session. Bonnie and I met at MOPS last year and I have adored her fun loving personality and amazing smile. She smiles at everything, I’m pretty sure she smiles when she is sad and upset too… That’s a guess, she can let me know if there are times she’s not smiling Hudson, who is a year and a half is active and adorable. Playing/shooting him made me realize how great boys are, I am so used to girls, he’s a hoot! Thanks Kaemingk Fam for a wonderful fall session. I adore your photos, I hope you do too!

Cheers,
jewels

I said before I have found new excitement for shooting sessions at Western Washington University. Maybe its nostalgia of being back on campus, but the lighting is always perfect, and the landscaping and buildings are inspiring! Luckily there are enough trees changing leaves at different times in the fall season to accomodate “fall color” sessions during the majority of the Autumn months. The last time I shot the Miller family, it was snowing, so this time they wanted fall leaves. Even though we did the session early in the fall season, I found a fantastic nook with leaves and fall color. Next Miller session I think we will need the beach with palm trees… in Cabo… It was super easy to capture the laid back, fun loving nature of the Millers. After knowing them for almost 12 years now it makes the interactions very comfortable. Jaden only stuck his tongue out at me 27 cough cough 3 Times. It is a privilege to capture their beautiful faces once again! Enjoy Miller Fam!

Cheers,
jewels

I am so excited to share these photos of the Fullers this year. Mostly because this time we added some other special people to the photos. We had Deb and Danny (Grandparents) and Hope and Noah (Dee’s sister and nephew) along for a full family shoot at Paradise on Mt. Rainier. Deb and Dan are regulars at the same lodge, and have been coming here with their family since the girls, Hope and Dee, were little. This was a very special location for family portraits. Even more special as the location, was the relationships. This family reflect a similar beauty as the setting around us. They are joined together with so much love and appreciation for one another. A day spent with this family will rejuvenate your soul! Our family was blessed to spend a weekend up at Paradise with you guys! I hope you enjoy your photos as much as I do. They bring back wonderful memories for our family just looking at them! And as my mantra goes, I have too many photos posted in this post. Of course I’m in love with too many to narrow down, I think all the images tell a fun story!

Cheers,
jewels

When I first started shooting sessions, I use to use WWU all the time as my default session setting. There are a million little nooks and I can find decent lighting just about anywhere around campus most times of the day. I took a couple year hiatus from shooting on campus, though recently re-ignited my love for shooting there. I needed a very good location to shoot Lacey, Caleb and Callie. Caleb is a talented photographer himself, but he works for a local film company, Hand Cranked Films, as a director and on his own produces movies. We saw one of his films at the independent theater, the Pickford, in town last year. His most recent movie was in line to go to the Sundance Film Festival… All that said, I was a little nervous since this family knows good lighting, creative composition, and every technical detail Lacey made Caleb promise not to say anything about lighting while I was shooting! Once the butterflies settled, I was able to capture some amazing (at least I think so) images of this beautiful family. I hope you all enjoy them too!

Cheers,
jewels

So I am totally playing the same game of blog catchup, and have a few posts to come in the next days… but I’m excited to finally share photos of this beautiful family! I first photographed the Denton family when their first daughter, Riley, turned one. Now they have two daughters, and Sonja is in the “one year old” chair. When I first saw Sonja I thought I was looking at Riley how I remembered her! And it was difficult through out the session not to call Sonja “Riley.” I’ll throw in a photo of Riley from when she was one, next to Sonya at one. They could be twins. Both girls are beautiful and happy, and the camera loves them! Spending a warm fall evening at Boulevard Park at sunset with the Tyler and Elizabeth, and those gorgeous girls, made for a wonderful night. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do!

Cheers,
Jewels

And here is a side by side of Riley and Sonja

Double Take

So that old roll of film I shot with the other week was actually filled with images, and somehow I double exposed the thing :/ bummer! I was kind of surprised to see this image though! Juliet is in the background, and Clara is on the right. Both girls, age wise, are only a couple months apart in age! No, I didn’t do this on purpose, yes I actually like the image. I’ll put a couple other double exposures on here, only because sometimes its fun to see them, even if they aren’t photo magic!

Cheers,
jewels

Clara on the right, Juliet on the left… both close to the same age!

And a couple other random double exposures… This next one shows Madeline and Juliet

Juliet is 8 months old now, but I took these at the tail end of her 6th month. The little session lasted all of 10 minutes. Chris tried to keep Clara from running into the 5 lane highway, and I did my best to keep Juliet from falling backwards while shooting with a couple of cameras. I shot a roll of film for fun. I had no clue how it would turn out, the roll is at least 8 years old. I just miss shooting with film, and wanted to do something creative that night. Unfortunately 10 minute mini sessions on the side of the road with 2 little babies does not help my creative juices flow. Instead I only increased my heart rate and anxiety. At least I have some great portraits of Juliet as she continues to grow strong and healthy.

Cheers,
jewels

Last year I did maternity and newborn photos for Kristin. You may remember this photo of her “pre baby Abbie” and “post baby Abbie.” It is still one of my favorites to date. This year we combined Abbie’s 1 year old photos with a family photo session including the grandparents and her Brother and Sister-in-Law’s family. There’s something about those special moments shared between grandparents and grandchildren that are wonderfully captivating to capture on film. I don’t happen upon those moments too often. Usually its at a wedding or with our own families… so I’m in love with each frame of Abbie, Emma, and Busi with Kristin’s parents. Kristin’s dad, Mr. Whitlock as we know him, is also Madeline’s PE teacher, and he was also nominated “Teacher of the Year” this past school year. Madeline was pretty excited that her mom got to photograph Mr. Whitlock. And as for miss Abbie, I’m once again amazed at how much a baby changes in one year (her newborn photos are here), I can’t get over her red hair. I’d do anything for hair like that Thanks for the fun songs and dances Whitlocks and Blakelys!

Cheers,
jewels

Emma was a little sad about something, but she was still so cute, I couldn’t help but capture some of those sweet tears!