kids

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work? oh, yeah.

Image | Posted on by alanatphotography

I am such a liar.
I said I was going to do another blog post back…well…whenever that was…I don’t feel like looking.

Anyway, I’ve been spending so much of my time on the Women: Raw. Honest. Loved. Project that I keep forgetting about the actual work I do for pay. (Which can be a problem, if you forget about making money for too long…yikes.) In any case, I do still do other shoots! I do!

This one was a bit ago, but I realize I’m so behind on sharing things that I’m here to do that now.
Meet the Deruyter family…I did Melissa’s maternity photos back before their little guy, Dane, was born…including a couple of those first. (Also did nudes of Melissa back while in art school still…not sharing those here, but, she’s been a great client…who now has moved across the country, unfortunately.)

In any case, no more talking. Here are photos.

(okay, just a few more words…the 55+ version of the project is taking place on Sunday!!! WOOOOOOP!!!! Look for the blog post about that, hopefully to come next week! alright, for reals now…back to business…)082512_0160082512_0312

deruyter8 deruyter5deruyter13 deruyter15deruyter12 deruyter7 deruyter11 deruyter10 deruyter1 deruyter4deruyter2 deruyter14

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say what?!

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First of all, HELLO!
Second of all, that title has nothing to do with anything I’m about to say.  I just had nothin.

Anyway.
I know.  I’m a total slacker.
This blog stuff is difficult.
I’m no blogger.  I’m a photographer with a blog…who obviously often forgets about said blog.
Well, I’m back.  Sorta.

What I’m here to tell you is that there is something super awesome that is going to be happening soon.
And that is…

The 55+ version of the Women: Raw. Honest. Loved. Project!!!!  
I cannot even tell you how EXCITED I am about this one.  If ever there was a time to pay attention, it will be when this version of the project is released.  Seriously…there are some incredible women about to pour their hearts out for you and you’re going to want to hear what they have to say.
Trust me.

It will be taking place at the end of June, so, be looking around that time for that particular blog entry.  You won’t be sorry.

In other photobloggin news, I will try to get my nonsense together and actually do a legitimate photo-blog entry of a recent shoot.  I have a lot to catch up on here.  The project has sorta become my baby, but I don’t want to forget about the other awesome people that I have been fortunate enough to photograph lately!  So, look for that.  I want to say it will come tomorrow…yeah…that’s what I want to say.  We shall see.  My now TWO-YEAR-old (wherehasthetimegone) sometimes has a different idea.

I will also be photographing a bit at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure tomorrow in Seattle…SUPER excited about that, and will be SUPER excited to share those photos with you at a later date, I’m sure.

For now, I leave you with a few pictures of that adorable two-year-old I was talking about…who likes to climb on my back while I’m working…
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kid and i

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calm down. she’s not really drinking that beer.

Image | Posted on by alanatphotography

yeah, i missed my sunday blog action again.  these weekends have been busy.  way.
trust me that you will not want to miss the photos to come from the shoot that took up yesterday’s sunday.  JUST TRUST ME.  i did a shoot for http://www.camp666.com/, and it is so ridiculous and hilarious, it needs to be seen.  i just won’t be sharing the photos until camp666 uses them for their intended and super mysterious purpose.  🙂  stay tuned…

on that note, that shoot reminded me of the family shoot that i did for my own super funny brother…which took place before i ever started blogging, so, i shall share those with you for now…

be aware, however, that there will be a whole lotta shooting taking place in the next couple of weeks, which means a whole lotta sharing i will also be doing.  i have a family shoot, and two couples shoots that will be taking place, after another shoot i’m superduper excited about coming up next weekend…i’m flying to LA to do a maternity shoot with my best friend in the universe, miss peni rae and her fiance, danny.  CANNOT. WAIT.  they are two of my favorite people in the whole world…and two of the most hilarious individuals i know, as well.  amazing things shall happen.  besides the fact that i will be leaving rainy washington and enjoying some SUN again for a few days!  woohooooooo!!!!  there is a small chance that i will also get to meet with one of my photography “idols” and will interview her for this here blog.  🙂  fingers crossed our appointment works out.  if you haven’t totally admired her work already, you should do that here… http://christinechangphoto.com/.  you’re welcome.

okay…onto those photos…(fyi, no children were harmed in the making of these photos.  and no child ingested alcohol.  promise.) prepare yourself for my super adorable nephew and nieces.  🙂

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ohhhhhh, to be a kid again.

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here are some more photos from my fall frolicking with the adorable baylee and ryker.  the first few can be found here: https://alanatphotography.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/fall-frolicking-feelgood-phat-fotos/

i have been taking care of business and editing photos all day today (and drinking some beer with baylee and ryker’s mom and dad.  yay!), to the point that my eyeballs sort of hurt.  so, between that and the fact that i am lacking many words at this moment (and we’ve got a dexter tivo’d and waiting for us), i shall cut my speech short…hopefully, i can make up for it in photos.  because i need my eyeballs to last.

on a quick note, i’ll be back sooner than later this week, as i had another super rad shoot with a super rad family yesterday that i’d LOVE to share with you!  until then, enjoy more of these adorable guys…

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fall. frolicking. feelgood. phat fotos.

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current mood: on the way to relaxing.  listening to the sound of my son screaming upstairs from what must be him getting his teeth brushed by dad.  traumatic stuff, you know.  also listening to the amazing talent that is regina spektor.

today kinda fried my brain a bit, i think, which may be obvious. for the record, i never write “phat”.  nor do i write “fotos”, for that matter.  i just got carried away.  phorgive me.  ha.  haha.
see?

{if any of you are over 55 and haven’t heard the term “phat” before, 1) count your blessings, and, 2) it means “cool”.  or it did.  as one urban dictionary definition points out:
“‘It has kind of phased out and is mostly used by wannabes, lowerclassmen in high school, or middle schoolers. It is now considered a slang faux pas. I wouldn’t use it if I was you.”
14 year old: “That’s phat man.”
22 year old: “Um, dude, that word got old in the late ’90s'”
yep.  there’s some education for you today, in any case.}

moving on…
I SHOT A COUPLE OF KIDS YESTERDAY!  in the most awesome usage of the word, of course.
my dear friend, jen, and i have had this shoot (starring her children) in the plans for the last couple of months, i do believe.  somehow, about a month and a half ago, she used her super-smart-mom senses and picked the only dry day in probably the next 5 months of rain here to do this.  it was GORGEOUS.  a bit chilly, but gorgeous.
we met at fort steilacoom park, in lakewood, wa.  about 10 different high schools’ track teams, families, and cheerleaders met there, too.  who knew?  we definitely didn’t.  it did provide some amusement as they would erupt in cheering mid-shoot.  i just told the kids that the cheering was for them.  which, as animated as the kids were, it should have been for them.
anyway, beautiful day.  beautiful, HILARIOUS kids.  baylee is six (going on 13, as jen points out), and ryker is 2…together, they provide some serious entertainment.  you’ll see that in the photos.
(let me just say, as a side note, that i have a special fondness for these guys because they remind me so much of my own little family.  granted, my daughter is 12, but she was JUST like baylee at that age…and jen parents very much the way that i do, which i would like to think is the coolest, best kind of parenting ever.  yeah.  just nod.)
jen also has a pretty hilarious blog about her hilarious children that can be found here:  http://projectmomlife.com/
check it out.  do it.  she writes every night, and she writes well.
so, yeah, here are some of the photos so far.  i am keeping the others under wraps at the moment, so that jen and justin can see them before anyone else.  maybe i will share more later…for now, here are some smiles for you…

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wine. the family. not the beverage.

Image | Posted on by alanatphotography

guess what day it iiiiiiiiiiis…
that’s right. sunday blogday.
i’ve decided that i can blog to my heart’s content any day of the week i want, or NOT blog, but i must blog on sunday.  why sunday?  hellifiknow.  i guess i just started this on a sunday.  consistency.  i lack it in so many things, may as well have it in this.

anyway, yesterday was fun.  i had a family shoot with the wine family.  you know how i love to have fun on my shoots?  so do these guys.  my kind of people.  🙂  they have had the more “traditional” type of family shots done each year in the past, but were looking forward to getting out of the box a little bit and having some fun…so, that we did.  it became a “no rules day” for little ava, which ended up meaning that she could go jumping into lake sammamish with her clothes on and have a naked car ride home.  think she’s gonna remember that?  i think so.  🙂

so, i’ll share a few shots here…not too many, for the sake of not spoiling the rest of the images for the wine family and friends…after they have seen the rest, i shall share more with you.

i’m also posting a “review” of sorts that mona (mrs. wine) posted on my facebook page before we had even done their family photo shoot.  it makes my heart smile.  she’s a super awesome lady and i appreciate every word she said.  (also, she sent me home with snacks after the shoot.  yeah, snacks.  how sweet is that??)

review…

“From me, your customer: Why you are going to raise your prices and we are going to love you anyway.

One shot. It took one shot, one photo of my beautiful daughter, to steer me to alana t photography. And it was unexpected. We have been using the same photographer for our candid and natural family photos since my daughter was born. They are terrific photos. I have been happy with them. Have referred folks to this photographer. We also have sat for the obligatory studio photos and they were just ok, but we did them.Then I took my daughter to her friend’s birthday party that alana t. was shooting. In one shot, one camera click, she captured my daughter. Her joy for life, her spirit, her love of fun and her inner happiness. One shot.

I actually have paid more for ok studio photos, and more for the more natural and artistic photos that I have loved. But, they have never come close to “That shot”.Before I looked at the rest of the sample photos on the site, I had booked our families’ annual photo shoot with alana t. photography. I could just tell.My daughter and her spirit and our love for her is priceless. If alana t. photography can capture some of that spirit and love, to me, there is no other choice.”
so. nice.
and then the pressure was on for their family photos…  🙂

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good intentions and happy accidents. (part 2)

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i’m still sick. blogging in some pj pants and a hoodie.
but, let’s move on…

numero sette…

as you saw in part 1 of this blog (or maybe you didn’t see), all of those photos happened while i was in school.  well, i then became surprisingly and happily pregnant with my son and took off a little over a year from shooting to just focus on mommy-ing.  this photo shoot here brought me back.  meet swamp lady.  a shoot that was a brainchild of my super talented friend, rhi, of rhivolver (you can find her brilliance here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RhiVolver/238295929552781). anyway, rhi came up with the smart idea of getting a few of us ladies back into shooting by creating a very small women-of-tacoma photography group.  i must thank her for this, because it really brought me back and brought me back strong!  i’m absolutely LOVING shooting again. (thank you, rhi!)
anyhow, we got down and swampy dirty with our lovely model here.  there were creatures greeting our legs beneath the surface that we wouldn’t be able to identify if we tried.  we all felt like we were going to be stuck in the swampy muck at different points while shooting, but we persisted, and i’m glad we did.  it was hilarious, super fun, and somehow empowering.
the technical stuffs: canon rebel xsi, 24-70mm, ƒ2.8, 1/400, ISO 100. 
p.s. are any of you familiar with “The Lady of Shalott” painting?  i remember it on the wall of my dad’s house when i was a child, and when i was editing this photo, it reminded me of that.  just a personal side note.

moving on…

ahhhhhh, maternity photos.  i’ve always dreaded taking maternity photos because i’m not into taking cheesy, super-posed photos.  i do realize that that is what some people want…i just prefer the more photojournalistic/editorial style.
anyway, this is mara and greg.  they were having a baby.  (i say “were”, because they just had their son, balen, a few days ago!  i cannot wait to meet him!!!)  they were awesome and willing to go with my vision of maternity photos and make it about them and how happy they were to soon be welcoming their son.  of course the belly would be in the photos!  it just doesn’t have to be allllll about the belly, you know?  so, we went to places that they like to go together and hang out, and we took some photos of them…being them.  my favorite.
i love this shot because she really looks like she just came to the realization, “WHAT?! WE’RE HAVING A BABY??” and greg is just like, “really..?” mara is always full of expressions and i love this woman for it.  she is suuuuuper easy to photograph.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 50mm, ƒ2.5, 1/320, ISO 6400 (yeah, super high ISO, we got a late start and were chaaaaaasing the sun. thank you, 7D, for still making this possible.)

numero nove…

same shoot, obviously.  i felt it was super important to shoot at Husky Stadium, where these guys met, fell in love, and continue to enjoy rooting for their team.  i love the story this photo tells, as greg is telling little balen where he met his mama.  this really captures who these guys are…awesome, fun-loving, hilarious people.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 24-70mm ƒ2.8, 1/500, ƒ2.8, ISO 2500.

next…

haha. animals.  i had the pleasure of shooting the copeland family, complete with their adorable dog, darby.  this shot just was priceless.  i love that you can see the spray, complete with their expressions in the background.  mallery’s shock, tony’s amusement, and little owen’s awesome smirk.  yeah, i just love all of that.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 50mm ƒ1.4, 1/4000, ƒ1.4, ISO 400.

and on…
this photo will go down in history as a top favorite of mine.  maybe you recognize my brother now, from my last post.  this is his family…complete with my niece and nephew, my new sister-in-law, and my new niece, maya.  we did some standard family photos (by standard, i mean photojournalistic style, at a “park” sort of place…), and then we executed my ridiculous and hilarious brother’s vision of doing some pretty white-trashed-out photos.  i don’t think i need to say much more than that.
but, i love all of this…and i think that maya’s expression really takes it over the top.  the radio flyer doesn’t hurt, either.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 24-70mm ƒ2.8, 1/60, ƒ2.8, ISO 100. 

numbers twelve and thirteenaΩ…

kids.  the carefree spirit of kids.  these two photos are favorites of mine merely because i love that carefree spirit.  these were taken at a birthday party for a pretty adorable little two year old (more photos can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151156208956392.484404.344986076391&type=3).
the technical stuffs: (1st photo) canon 7D, 50mm ƒ1.4, 1/4000, ƒ2.5, ISO 100.  (2nd photo) canon 7D, 24-70mm ƒ2.8, 1/2000, ƒ2.8, ISO 100.  the composition of both of these contributes to why i like them as much as i do, as well.  some photos need SPACE…these are those kinds of photos, in my opinion.

last (but not least) three…

man, i loved this shoot.  the idea for this had been bobbing about in my head for the previous two years, ever since i saw a “trash the dress” shoot for the first time.  (if you are not familiar with the “trash the dress” concept, it is basically when you finally realize that your wedding dress is just going to hang in your closet for the rest of your marriage doing nothing, so, why not do something awesome with it and take it out in style??  therefore, women “trash” their dress…usually in a beach/lake/creek setting, all pretty and dainty-like.) i thought, if you’re going to actually “trash” the dress, why don’t we REALLY trash it?  make it pretty, yet edgy…why not on a pig farm?
for two years i thought about this, with no idea where to shoot it, until i remembered that my cousin and her generous husband own pigs near mt. adams.  after they so kindly agreed to help me out, everything came into play.  this model has never modeled before (i know, unbelievable) – she just lives in the area and was awesome enough to help us out.  she didn’t have to trash her own dress…i was gifted this dress to use (thank you, again, nanette!), which fit jaecee, our model, perfectly.  i did her makeup, we ratted out her hair, and we began shooting – in some swampy reeds, on a 4-wheeler, in some rain, running down a dusty road, laying in the middle of another road, chillin with some pigs, and sittin on top of a truck. (these can all be found on my facebook page as well.)

as far as these photos, specifically…

the top one is one of the first photos of the shoot.  i didn’t want a “model” look to the shoot so much…i wanted it to look like a girl who sorta got left behind on the side of the road for these shots.  thus, the super casual pose and the gun propped behind her – not her posing and holding the gun all model-style.  the setting was also super important to me.  i LOVE that blue wall as a backdrop. when we originally arrived, there was a camper trailer stationed in front of the wall. i almost didn’t say anything about it, but then decided that i would regret not having that backdrop, so, i asked. shane was kindly willing, moved it, and..voila! ask and you shall receive.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 24-70mm ƒ2.8, 1/640, ƒ2.8, ISO 100.

the second photo i love because of all of the texture, the positioning of her arms, everything…
i feel like this one has more of an editorial feel to it.  if i’m going to do a shoot with a model, as opposed to a family shoot, or portrait of someone, i’d like it to tell a story.  i feel like this shoot might have accomplished that.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 24-70mm ƒ2.8, 1/125, ƒ2.8, ISO 100. 

the third photo…do you even need to ask me this?  when do you see emotion conveyed BY A PIG?  the pig actually took a step back here when jaecee scolded him for getting way up in her business.  🙂  so awesome.
the technical stuffs: canon 7D, 24-70mm ƒ2.8, 1/80, ƒ2.8, ISO 100.

okay.  that is all of my favorites so far.  between this and part 1, there are 16 photos.  maybe there should be less.  maybe there should be more.  i dunno.

bottom line: i love the photos i take to tell a story.  i love emotion.  this is why i love these in particular.

thank you for reading. ❤
’til next time… (which i think will be sooner than later, this week.  there are some questions i have and some things i need to say…)

OH.  P.S. THESE WERE ALL NATURAL LIGHT.  duh.