Julie Harrell: Photographer

I am happy to share these images with you, mostly because Jack is photogenic and adorable, but also because in sharing these images, it means I’m done with the edit. In the process of editing Jack’s session, I reformatted my memory card before all the images were loaded, meaning I had to spend a few days with recovery software hoping to recover the missing files (it worked). And after I had completed a thorough edit of every image, I went to choose my favorites to blog and realized that I had only exported and edited small web sized images. Meaning I had to start at square one for the re-edit. Next I had moved all the photos to an external harddrive, and when I went to match up the images and their corresponding file names so I could actually start the re-edit, they turned all of Jack’s 1 year old photos into his two year old photos, meaning I had to do some creative shuffling to fix the issue. So after I successfully re-named and re-found images, successfully did my base edit, my computer decided it needed some apple care time, and 9 days later I picked it up with a new screen. Luckily for me, Lindsay, Jack’s mom, was super understanding through the whole process, for which I am so grateful. From now on I am making sure all my ducks are in their collumns, and to cross all my X’s and dot all my J’s… or something like that! As for Jack, he’s as cute as ever, and let me tell you this boy is a chatterbox. I’ve never met a 2 year old boy with his comprehension of language, he had me laughing! He’s such a big boy now, and I am so glad I’ve been able to capture some of his milestones, you can see his newborn photos here and his 1 year old photos here.

Cheers,
jewels

It was an absolute joy to photograph the almost 2 year old son of my dear friend. Neens has been one of my best friends since we were barely teenagers. Doing life together is an enjoyable journey, and just the fact the we both have kids now is crazy, since it seems that yesterday we were kids ourselves. We met up in our old hometown for a day to hang out and for portraits. Usually Chris and I and the girls will travel down to Portland to visit, or they will gallivant up to Bellingham, but this time we met in the middle. Jude was a perfect subject, full of assurance and cuteness. Just don’t get me started on his posing… seriously, all the charming poses were his own!! We were all dying with the funny faces and contortions, so much so that I kept forgetting to shoot as I was snickering. I just adore this little guy (and his family). And many thanks to his grandparents for having our family over for good food and good company that day!

Cheers,
jewels

Of little Clara Joyce. I put off too long taking her “official” two year old portraits. Getting her face on film continues to be difficult for me. She is always moving, and adamantly defiant. If I say run, she’ll stand, if I ask to see her eyes, she’ll turn away. If I don’t say anything, she’ll book it to my camera bag like a seagull with a kaiser roll looking for treats. Despite my inadequacies with working with toddlers, I’m content with what I was able to capture. The location, an empty lot on the edge of a busy highway, inveigled me to shoot there 2 years ago. Each spring I would envision a beautiful photoshoot under this unassuming tree standing in the center of the lot. The lot is nothing special, I don’t think most people would even notice it Except during a small window each Spring, the leaves whimsically emerge pink, before they quickly resume the typical tree regime in green. There was even a little woodpecker’s nest in the top branches (at least Chris said the bird was a woodpecker). I don’t know my birds, but she was beautiful and red breasted, and she kept feeding her chirping young while I was working with my young, and the little peeps and squeals from those little hatchlings creating a mood even more enchanting. I played around with different processing for these images. The soft tone fit the mood of the photos. Most of the images of Clara were of her eyes looking down or away, and her back towards me. The ones here are the rare gems peppered throughout her defiant poses She’s had a case of PCS (photographer’s child syndrome) since the day she was born… but I still find that attitude adorable…I think.

Cheers,
jewels

Aven has blue eyes. Ok, you might think… so do a lot of kids… but what is really special about Aven’s super light baby blue eyes is that both her parents have brown eyes!! I have dear friends who both have really blue eyes and ended up with a brown eyed daughter, which is rare; but to have two brown eyed parents end up with a blue eyed beauty, now that is just remarkable!! Aven was a happy perfect 1 year old, and a joy to photograph. I did quickly learn the name of their dog, Eleanor, who wanted to play at the park instead of join in the photo shoot Reminds me of a girl I know, coughclaracough. I did, however, manage to get a few snaps of both dogs looking, bonus points!! Enjoy the pics… once again I couldn’t narrow down which ones to share, so I am posting too many–story of a photographer’s life!

Cheers,
jewels

I love one year olds also because they usually aren’t super mobile yet… I’m never let down for a super scrumptious smile, and they are still so innocent and sweet. Yes, sometimes it is hard to get that token smile, but there are so many other interesting and enjoyable expressions in between. Jeremiah didn’t miss a beat on the cuteness cue. He can very easily be put into the more active category, but gosh he had me laughing… and I had him climbing cement stairs. I thought he’d be up for the challenge. And even though I’ve seen him a few times through out his first year after photographing him as a newborn (photos here), I was shocked at how “bigboy” he’d become. It was a wonderful shoot with Jeremiah and his brother Gideon and mom and dad

Cheers,
jewels

I love waking up with this precious girl. She is growing so big, so strong, so healthy, and has finally been able to venture out in public. Her little lungs are mostly healed, but she still can’t be around sickies or in large groups. I haven’t minded staying inside hibernating all winter though, she is an easy and generally happy baby, the kind of snuggly baby that makes you want 100 more!! I say that very very figuratively!! Thanks to my friend Val for the super sweet sheepy hat, she does custom orders via her Etsy shop here.

Cheers,
jewels

I have been such a bad “mommy” photographer lately. I keep my camera tucked away, and often forget to photograph the most special little ones in my life!! My new years resolution is to photograph our daily life more, and blog about it. I have to say I love my girls (and maybe will soon get to love a little boy?) so much, and really want to capture each moment of their lives. I have got to be better about it. You know the saying, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes?” Well if I’m going to be a “cobbler” my kids better have nicer shoes Ha ha.

We spent a weekend at my parents celebrating my sister’s 27th birthday (and Tracy, I had a 5 year old and was pregnant at 27, just putting it out there). I made Tracy an Apple pie for her birthday. This time I used a little bit of cornmeal in the crust, sooooo delicious! I’ll share a pic or two of the pie, and even the recipe sometime soon as well. The pie was easy to photograph, but Clara on the other hand was not. She really is a pill to capture in a photo. It took myself, my mom, my dad, Chris, Tracy and my brother in law Brandon all working together so I could snap a few decent frames of this 18 month old (adorable) stinker! So now finally I can share some updated photos of my baby. She only has a couple more weeks (days?) of the title “baby”, so I’ve been using it liberally with her. I overheard Madeline tell her, “Pretty soon you aren’t going to be the baby anymore, and won’t get all the attention.” I think this will be a day for Madeline to celebrate; maybe with more Apple pie?

Cheers,
jewels

OUTAKES: There will be tears, its the Clara way.

And of course the apple pie

The past 3 years the Fuller’s photos have been taken with all the traditional fall colors. This year we decided to mix things up a bit. I think I want my family photos taken in the same location. I cannot get over how much the children have grown or how much of a little model the oldest Aly is! She had all the right poses Dee, great job on the outfits, and I love the girl’s hair clippies And yes, there are a TON of images, but I am having too hard of a time narrowing down favorites yet again, so thanks for letting me post them all

Cheers,
jewels

Meet the Rush family… I so wish I had a last name like that. Think of all the possibilities to be pun-ny. But better than their last name is their adorable family. When looking at the photos the other day, a friend commented, “Its too bad their girls don’t have the most beautiful eyes you’ve ever seen or anything!” Yup, they are definitely heart breakers in the making. Thanks for a great evening shooting around town Brian and Shannon!

Cheers,
jewels

When I met Nina, and her sister Andrea (I did Andrea’s family photos here), I was 15 or 16 years old. The three of us would hike together, sing together (they can sing, I can’t), road trip together, go to church events together… we were all fast friends, and it was just one of those close relationships you felt would last a lifetime. As young girls we would talk about going to college together, living in the same neighborhood, growing our children together, vacations as the children grew older…you get the idea. We’ve finished our school (at separate universities though we all applied at the same one), and we have taken part in each other’s weddings, and shared the joys of new life, and sorrows of lives not lived. After 15 years of friendship, I’d say we’re on the right track of lifelong.

Nina and Matthew had their first baby, a sweet little boy Jude, last year. A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at their newly purchased first home to celebrate Jude’s first birthday and to do some “1 Year Old” and relaxed family portraits. Besides the fact that Jude was a natural in front of the camera, and he had the best “made in Oregon” onesie on (yup, I think he was made there), I could not stop photographing his amazing eyes. Nina has these naturally turquoise blue eyes, and Jude was handed down the equally stunning eyes gene. You’ll see!! So on our journey of lifelong, I hope we still get to do those vacations once the kids are older

Cheers,
jewels