Julie Harrell: Photographer

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I love Tennyson’s eloquent writings, and his words seem so fitting for the journey of baby Hope!  Hopes birth is the first birth I have photographed… interestingly enough, the first birth I ever saw was that of her littlest brother when I was 14 year old!  When Ashley found out she was pregnant, she asked if I would do all her photography.  While I couldn’t commit to the birth, I said I would try as hard as I could to be there, since I live over 2 hours away.  When I got the notice she was in labor, I grew sad since I thought there was no way for me to be down with her that day due to previous commitments.  Her sister, Mary, told me things were going slow, so she would keep me updated through out the day… on whatever miracle I might be able to re-arrange plans.

By evening that night, when I was finally able to drive down, Ashely was still in early labor.  It had been 12 hours with very little progression.  She was moved from the birth center to the hospital.  She was disappointed, but I was a little hopeful that I might have a chance of being there to photograph her birth.  When I finally showed up at 10pm, she was basically where she was when she was admitted.  Ashley had become accustomed to pregnancy not going according to plan.  Steven and Ashley tried for 6 years to conceive their first child, and finally after learning a little more as to why they could not conceive they opted to try IVF.

One of the eggs implanted, and Ashely was finally pregnant!  She definitely had her vision for the pregnancy and birth, but after so long of no progression her midwife (who also happened to be my mom’s midwife when my mom had my little brother) suggested moving to the hospital, another step that was not part of the plan.  After 36 hours, and almost no progression, the doctor finally said it was time for a Cesarian (definitely not part of her plan).  Her doctor was awesome, though, and let her keep trying to have the birth be as natural as possible for 36 hours.  I was super impressed at how quickly Ashley was able to be with baby Hope after the operation, and even though most of the labor was not the way they imagined it would be, seeing Hope on her mother’s chest, with her father overlooking fit perfectly into the plan of being together, being a family–finally!

Cheers,
jewels

About a week after Ashley found out she was pregnant, she asked me if I would be interested in photographing her maternity, birth, and newborn photos for her first baby. After 6 years of trying to get pregnant, She and her husband Brian Steven successfully conceived via IVF! (Steven has a brother named Brian, and the whole session I kept calling Steven by his brother’s name). I knew how important these photos would be for her, so of course I was honored she asked me, and excited to spend time with her. I’ve known Ashley a very long time. Her sister Mary and I were in the same grade and were the best of friends, but not in 1st grade cause she cheated at wallball during recess, but besides that brief disruption in our friendship their family and our family have always been close. Ashley, who is also an amazing dancer (she performed the young Clara for the Pacific Northwest Ballet), is super friendly and funny. She is so beautiful… and her hair… please don’t get me started, jealous is a mild way to describe how I feel about it! She and Steven compliment each other perfectly, he is so compassionate and in love with her. You would never guess they’ve been married 9 years, they act like they are newly weds! Its pretty cute and very refreshing to be around. I had a wonderful afternoon shooting Ashley and Steven at the Lairmont Manor in Fairhaven, then finishing off the session on the water looking out at the islands. The rain held off until the very end of our session as we reached our vehicles. I’m so excited to share these images… and pretty soon to also share their birth photos from the other night

Cheers,
jewels

Nicole and I took Amy on a wild adventure for her maternity shoot galavanting in both city and woods… well OK, Barkley Village and the little patch of trees across the street, but for Bellingham its subdued adventure. Amy is so beautiful pregnant, and enjoys her pregnancy quite a lot! The three of us photographer chit chatted about more mom things than our usual shop talk. And since my camera bodies were both in the shop at the time of our shoot, Nicole graciously agreed to bring a 2nd body along for me to use, but she forgot it so we shared a camera, alternating poses. I’m pretty sure these are my images from the day, but if they aren’t I know I’ll get a letter from her lawyer nice comment at the bottom of the post… Love you girls!

Cheers,
jewels

I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who specializes in newborn photography, but I do love each opportunity I get to photograph a brand new baby! If I had my own studio and my own babies were a little bit more self sufficient I think I could shoot babies for the rest of my days. There are a few times I feel genuinely blessed as a photographer, and being asked to shoot a brand new baby and a wedding are the two times I am humbly honored with every inquiry. Noah was a joy to nuggle, I could have held him all day. His big sister, grandparents and mom and dad won’t deny how perfect he is. Congratulations Glass family on the new addition! I’m excited for your growing family.

Cheers,
jewels

Justine’s baby shower is featured on Life and Baby! Thanks Evelyn for the lovely post! Check out her blog for all kinds of fun parities and raising young ones wisdom.

Cheers,
jewels

Looking through the images brought back great memories, and now Justine’s baby, Ava, is almost 1. What I find kinda neat is that even the name Justine chose for her daughter totally fit the theme of the shower!… so here is an old post, hope you enjoy it the same, even if it should have been posted a year ago.

OK, so I posted about a baby shower my friend Dee and I were planning, and I never shared the results. I did post photos on facebook, but after a few emails, I realized I should have still posted on the blog, since I did share the inspiration for it here!! Ooops! The shower was perfect. Justine, the mom-to-be flew out from Ohio, and since she had very little space in her suitcase home, we asked if people would consider bringing a gift card to any place they thought would be special. We attached these to what we called the “gift card tree.” This tree was composed of 4 feet of blossoming branches that we (aka our dear husbands) cut dow. It was beautiful!! We put silver glittered birds on the branches, and let guests attach their giftcards with mini paperclips. For drinks, a virgin Sangria, with sugar rimmed glasses. For eats, an Italian/Mediterranean spread (Justine’s family is from the beautiful island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples), and nest inspired cupcakes. For party favors, we sent guests home with homemade granola, and yes, we even played a couple games. Most of all we just enjoyed time with our wonderful friend!

Cheers,
jewels

One of Justine’s cousin’s twins… they were only a few days old!

Each water bottle and glass held a numbered silver bird for a prize drawing.

Dee, Justine, Jennie, and myself. I’ve been best friends with these girls since I was 13!! Dee and Justine have known each other since they were barely 2.

Dee and I made clippies for the baby. The frame was one I picked up at goodwill, painted a light grey, framed some cute paper, and attached ribbon on the outside as a home for the clippies. You can see a before photo of the frame in this post!

Homemade granola, I’ll blog the recipe sometime. It makes a huge batch, and kids love it.

The day before the shower, Justine and I headed out to do some maternity photos. Then we printed and framed a few for the shower.

Dee and me, after the shower. We totally planned to wear the same shirt, not really, but this wasn’t the first time we’ve coordinated for parties!

SURPRISE!! And not just for you, but for us too. We are waiting till birth to find out if we have a boy or girl. With both Madeline and Clara we found out the sex at 20 weeks, and I thought it would be fun to see if I actually could wait. I didn’t think it was possible, but when the ultra sound tech told me the times not to look at the screen, I turned my head and didn’t peek!! So in the mean time we’ll be thinking of boy and girl names (neither of which we can agree on) and readying ourselves for a lot of green and yellow I do, however, prefer greys, neutrals, and stripes.

Chris and I took both girls with us to the appointment and Clara was a little restless as usual. Towards the end of our session, Clara looked at the screen showing the whole baby’s profile and said “Ba Beh,” (Baby). I loved it, and I love looking forward to being a family of FIVE!! Holy cow, how did that happen? So forgive me if I don’t have fantasticly exciting news to share, but the baby is healthy and everything is where and how it should be. The due date is October 31 by the ultrasound today, and October 30 by my ultrasound at 11 weeks. I guess we’ll have to call this our little punkin. Or is that too cliche? However it does sound better than calling the baby “gourdy.” Let me know if you have a “great” name for our growing babe and, we promise you will know in approximately 20 weeks if punkin is a boy or girl!

Cheers,
jewels

These images are incredible to me. No, not because I was the person behind the lens, but because it shows this powerful idea of an expectant mother about to hold in her arms what she carries inside. The perfect transformation and renewing from the inside to the outside. I wish I could take credit for these poses, but I cannot. I was inspired by one of my favorite photographers, Carrie Sandoval. When I saw her do a before baby after baby photo series, I just had to give it a try. Stay tuned for more newborn photos of little miss Abbie in the next few days!

Cheers,
jewels

Monday night was a fun “Bellingham (and surrounding areas) Photographer’s meetup.” We hung out at the lake and enjoyed dinner with all our kids, spouses, and significant others! Afterwards I asked Aaron to snag a quick pic of my pregnant belly b/c I haven’t shared one yet! I’m HUGE. Another photographer is due soon with TWINS, and I am seriously about as big as she is. I guess with your 3rd child, there are no more muscles (or in my case flab) to hold things in! For compairason I’ll post photos of me pregnant at 17 and 23 weeks with with Clara and you can see the BIG difference! Anyways, here I am posing like I’m trying not to be a poser!

Cheers,
jewels

Me now, at 17 weeks. Maternity jeans, a joy really (not).

17 weeks from previous pregnancy, normal size jeans…

23 weeks from previous pregnancy, still wearing normal jeans, a size bigger….

I’m 15 weeks pregnant! I don’t have a photo of my belly yet, but I will get one up soon–as I am clearly showing. I have popped out faster than I thought I would–even with #3 Most of that is leftovers from the last pregnancy I do believe.

At first I had no clue I was pregnant. It started with a stomach flu. I was sick for 5 days with things that are TMI, and so my continued nausea that lingered for a couple weeks was clearly my recovering from a horrid stomach bug. A couple weeks later while spending the weekend with friends, we came home to learn that some of them ended up with a similar stomach flu. I spent the whole next day dead to the world on the couch, sleepy and ill. I somehow thought I had re-contracted this awful sickness and I was doomed for my hourly dates with mr. kohler. Since I had loads of work to finish by the following evening I told Chris I should take a pregnancy test. If it was negative I knew I’d be throwing up all night, and needed to accomplish all I could ASAP. BUT if it was positive, I figured I could curl up in bed and be the great procrastinator I’m known as and finish the work in the AM.

I opened up the opaque wrapper , visited mr. kohler, and was oddly surprised to see two pink lines on the test strip. My first thought, “Phew, I don’t have to work tonight.” My second thought, “Tell Chris!” And for the record, the second thought was almost a tie with the first thought, this was a close race people!

Yes, we were a bit skeptical not just because I had Chris buy the least expensive test on the market (because we all know if you pay more the test results increase in accuracy), but it was the HOW part that made me wonder. OK, so I know HOW how, but I was trying to pinpoint where things went array…. And it turns out one needs to use preventive measures even in the shower. I know, huh?

Looking back I had all the typical 1st trimester symptoms too, I just had found ways to justify their cause.

Frequent Urination: I was breastfeeding Clara still, and drinking lots. (Drinking lots of water)
Tender areas: I was in the process of weaning from breast feeding, I assumed this caused any tenderness (AND not to mention, Clara decided to use “them” as teethers… being bitten while breastfeeding SUCKS!!)
Fatigue: I was only sleeping broken sleep 4-6 hours a night, as Clara would still not sleep at night.
Headaches: Lack of sleep
Nausea: I had the stomach flu (some bug huh?!)
lack of appetite: stress (and residual flu side effects)
And the obvious being 4 weeks late, well I chalked that up to breastfeeding as well!

SO, there you have it–the beginning of baby #3. Things so far have been running perfectly, and I’m soooo excited to finally feel all those tiny fleeting flutters of that little doodle growing inside of me.

AND since I don’t have a photo of my incredible (not) 15 week body, here is an image from our first ultrasound at 11 weeks. I seriously can’t wait to meet him/her!

Cheers,
jewels