Ashley + Jim | Engagement Session | Bainbridge Island, WA

Ashley and I go way back. She and I have known each other since elementary school and our parents lived a quarter mile away. I always think of taking the bus together and playing around the neighborhood after school. Oh goodness, does that feel like so long ago!  We had lost touch over the years and was so excited when she messaged me out of the blue telling me about her amazing fiancé and how she wanted to take some engagement pictures at their house on Bainbridge Island. It was so fun to meet her fiancé Jim and catch up on the last, oh decade or so of life. 

Ashley and Jim are a wonderful match and it was so much fun to document their love and relationship. Congratulations you guys! I can't wait for your wedding in July!

Annika & Daniel | Maternity Session | Portland, OR

Aren't these two so cute? Annika and Daniel are such kind and beautiful people inside and out. I've known Annika for about a year now and she is so lovely and encouraging. We did a portrait session on Sauvie Island last year.  She's become a dear friend since then and I was thrilled when she told me they were expecting their second child and I couldn't wait to document this season of life and expectation for them. We were able to squeeze in a maternity session on one of our first beautiful and warm Portland days this winter at the always stunning Hoyt Arboretum. You'd think it was summertime from all the sunshine in these pictures! 

Enjoy these pictures of Annika and Daniel and their baby to be :) Congratulations you guys!

Danielle + Stephen | Wedding | The Colony | Portland, OR

So, after a long absence from blogging, I am finally back at it and determined to catch up on posting weddings and shoots from the second half of last year, ha! Here we go!

Danielle and Stephen are the perfectly cool and laid back and just plain awesome people to start with. They held their ceremony and reception at The Colony in St. Johns and it was so 'them' I kept thinking that to myself and out loud throughout their wedding day. It was full of vintage and modern and handmade beauty. I could go on about all the awesome details but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :) I had so much fun shooting their wedding day between beautiful weather at Cathedral Park, a super fun bridal party and the joy and happiness of everyone involved. It was a dream. Congratulations Danielle and Stephen! (happy seven months!).

2014: So much beauty and so much gratitude

Is it crazy that it is 2015 now or what? Time is flying. I am so behind on blog posts from 2014 so keep your eyes peeled for a bunch of posts soon! 

This past week with time off for the holidays and a little time at home free of travel I've had a lot of time to reflect on this past year. I actually laughed a bit when Facebook posted "Shannon's year" a highlight of my posts from the year and it was a collection a lot like the one I'm about to post below. It was a collection of pictures that I had taken of friends, couples, pups, baby bumps, and tiny fingers and toes. My year was filled with your year and memories and I loved it. I love being able to freeze beautiful moments of time for people to look back on and remember. There is so much joy in the remembering. 

““A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered.” ”

— C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

I am so absolutely grateful for all the people that trusted me to document some of their most important moments. It's been an incredible year full of so much beauty  and wonder and I'm so stinkin' grateful. It fills me up!

Speaking of gratitude, one of my goals for this next year is to focus on gratitude. I find myself sliding down a slippery slope when my perspective shifts away from gratitude and towards comparison and self-criticism and other negative spaces. It's no good and I want to keep myself in the healthy lens of gratitude this year. Even in the darkest of moments, there is always always always something to be grateful for.

So thank you friends for journeying with me this year and encouraging me. You give me so much to be grateful for. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't wait to see what 2015 holds.

Here are some of my favorite images from 2014. Enjoy!

With love,

Shannon

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”

— Melody Beattie

If you've made it this far, thank you for reliving this amazing year of photography with me. Happy New Year to you friends, cheers to another amazing year, 2015 is going to be good. I just know it. 

Dan and Mel Wedding, Howell Territorial Park, Sauvie Island

I've been looking forward to this wedding for a long time. I did an engagement session for Dan and Mel back in the winter and just knew how fun their wedding day would be. Also, our friend Karyn was the officiant so you know the ceremony was lovely and meaningful and full of beautifully crafted and true words.

These two got married at Howell Territorial Park on Sauvie Island just outside of Portland, OR. It was the most beautiful day. It was romantic and rugged and fun. There were orchards, and lawn games and quilts on the ground, Rainier beer, and lace and dahlias and a super fun community of family and friends to celebrate. Dan and Mel are such a complement to each other and I loved being there to witness and capture their wedding day. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.