Author Archives: Nicole

Back To Nature – Portland, OR, Family Photographer

I feel like this photoshoot was a lifetime ago, when it was really only last month. The Christmas and New Year holidays seemed to have put me in some sort of time vortex where a week feels like a year.

Way back in December, I ventured out on one very cold, but very sunny, Portland day to meet up with a wonderful family to take some photos in one of their favourite places. One of the best things about the city I live in is the number of wonderful parks right in the middle of the city and inner suburbs. The park we visited for this shoot was new to me and I will definitely be going back for a visit with my family – although I may wait until the weather is a little warmer.

Another first for me was the opportunity to photograph a family with older children. It was challenging in the beginning, but once we all warmed up they had a great time running through the forest and having leaf races in the creek.

Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

I guess we know who won the leaf race.

Charity, Moose Heads and Homemade Pizza – P365

I had a working date with the girls on Monday night. A group of my very talented women friends are organizing the 2010 Iron Bartender benefit to support a local charitable organization called the Children’s Relief Nursery. We’re all mothers, so the organization’s mission to prevent abuse and neglect for at risk children is something we all support wholeheartedly.

We’re also a group of working mothers so we enjoy the monthly opportunity to get together and talk and… ok… have a drink or two. But I promise – we are extremely efficient. We have to be. The event is in about three weeks. Eeeck!

If you’re in the Portland area then I encourage you to buy a ticket. Besides feeling good about the support you are giving to this wonderful organization, you will also have the opportunity to eat great food, sample a few cocktails and have a lot of fun in the process. We’ll also be crowning the 2010 Iron Bartender from a group of Portland’s most talented drink mixers.

So what does this have to do with Moose Heads? I saw this hanging on the wall in the bar where we had the meeting last night. Isn’t he beautiful? The perfect subject for day number 4 of my P365 project.

Day number 5 has nothing to do with moose heads or charity.

Kei and I are on a quest to live a little healthier and try to save money. Enter the homemade pizza. Thomas and I made it together tonight – his side without vegetables of course. Disclaimer: I didn’t make the dough myself. I’m far too lazy for that.

A Surprise Snowy Day in Portland

Just before the end of the year, Portland decided to surprise us with a 24 hour snowstorm. Thankfully I was working from home and didn’t have to suffer through the horrible traffic that resulted – some people were on the road for hours.

Instead we were able to enjoy the short burst of frigid cold. Well, for a few minutes anyway. Friends stopped by and we had plans to walk to the park but the snow storm picked up quickly and we made it two blocks before we decided that it would be a terrible idea. I was able to see Samuel enjoy his first real snowfall and have fun for a few hours with the kids. The snow had all melted within a couple of days and that’s just fine with me.

Here are a few images I captured. You can see the early ones where it looked like a few snowflakes would be a novelty. By the time the snow stopped at around 7pm and I stepped outside to grab some photos in the moonlight, we had been blessed with about 4 inches of the white stuff.

The Beginning of P365 2010

3 days in and going strong. I am going to try and publish my P365 photos each week. It got to be too much when I tried to post them each day last year, so we’ll see how this goes.

Note: Apparently I am drawn to the photos that tell a story rather than the best photo of each day. It’s just the way I roll.

Appropriate that this is one of my first images of the year. It was some whiny combination of “Mummy” and “Uuuuuuup”. I have to say that I prefer this neediness over the Daddy obsession of a couple of months ago. Doesn’t make it easier to listen to all day though.

A new year means trying out a new local coffee shop. This one has adorable miss-matched dishes, good food, a children’s playroom AND free Wifi. I think we’ll be visiting again.

Bowling today at Thomas’ request. It’s funning how the 10 pin bowling experience remains the same regardless of where you are in the world. The same shoes in the same patterns and colours, same dingy faded “carpet”, same musty, stale smell and the same desire to liberally apply Purell as soon as you leave… Good thing we all had a great time. The most enjoyable part was waiting for Thomas’ ball to slo-o-owly travel down the lane, bouncing off bumpers along the way. In terms of the time it takes to play a game, we definitely got our money’s worth.

A Few Favourites from 2009

I prepared a post on Thursday night (yes, New Years Eve – what else did you think I’d be doing?). It included a whole bunch of favorite photos from the year and I had it prepped to post on Friday morning… or at least I thought I did. Seems the post has vanished into thin air. So I’ll try again and this will post a couple of days after the new year and will lose the poignancy of all the other “happy 2010” blog posts, but I can live with it if you can.

Here are just a few of my favorite family photos from 2oo9.

Looking forward to 2010 with more experiences, memories and, of course, more photos.

Bye Bye 2009

Kei and I are seeing in the new year with a glass of wine, a DVD and a child who refuses to go to sleep. How’s your party?

I am not a big fan of resolutions. I prefer achievable goals and here are a few that I am aiming for in 2010:

  • Project 365 – embarking on my photo a day project again. I gave it up early in 2009 and I really miss it.
  • Learning more about my camera and overcoming my fear of using flash. Suggestions for courses or workshops in the Portland/Seattle area are welcome.
  • Building my photography business while also continuing to evolve my day job into something that supports my creativity. I love the way Lyrebird Images is taking off and I hope it grows even more in 2009.
  • Getting my US Citizenship. Of course I’ll still be an Aussie. I’m just trying to add one more passport to our complicated travel experience.
  • Finish painting the inside of our house – 18 months after we finished the renovation.

There are others of course but they would fall under the title of resolution so I’m scared to put them in print.

2009 was good to us but I am looking forward to 2010. For now though, as Samuel would say, “Bye Bye 2009”.

Scenes from Christmas

OK – we’re coming up on a week after Christmas and I think there’s something illegal about Christmas posts after January 1st, so I am going to post a few photographic highlights to officially bring an end to the season.

Decorating the tree.

And the house.

Relaxing on a sunny (but cold) Christmas eve.

Leaving cookies out for Santa – with a little message.

And of course the fun of opening the goodies and playing with some new toys on Christmas day. Our house is now overrun by dinosaurs.

Other highlights not captured in photographs:

  • Packages from Japan, Australia and Ohio that arrived just in time to much excitement. Great mail day.
  • Catching up with the cousins in Ohio via webcam
  • Taking some time to say hi to the Grandparents in Australia on their boxing day.
  • Sunshine streaming in through the windows to naturally light the tree ornaments.
  • A yummy dinner of prime rib with green beans, mashed potato and carrots – even Thomas and Samuel ate their veggies, although Kei was not feeling well so it ended up being dinner for three. (Kei enjoyed it later).

All in all a wonderfully relaxing family Christmas day. Now, excuse me while I search for some dinosaur storage solutions.

Letting it go…almost

Christmas is over for another year, but I am so far behind in posting photos that the christmas-themed posts will likely continue this week. I will try and post one per day so I can begin the new year refreshed and free of twinkly lights and creepy little elves that watch your every move.

One of my goals for this year to was to do at least one family thing each week that would help get us into the Christmas spirit. These ranged from simple things like watching a holiday movie (can’t wait until Thomas is old enough to appreciate Elf) and decorating the tree to larger family outings like our ride on The Polar Express and, in this instance, a visit to The Grotto for the annual Christmas Festival of Lights.

Thankfully the Portland winter has been kind to us so far this year and we were able to browse the grounds in relative comfort… well except for the crowds of people who shared the experience with us.

Nevertheless it was a fun family Christmas outing and I got my fill of pretty lights for the year – and, of course, many photos of the pretty lights.

Happy The Elf

Meet Happy.

He’s the Ishida family Elf who acts as spy for Santa in the weeks before Christmas. It takes the whole Santa/being nice conspiracy to a new level… and I LOVE it. 🙂 Thomas was sad to discover on Christmas morning that Happy had gone back to the North Pole and will not be visiting again until next year, but those are the Elf rules. You can read more about Happy and his elf friends here.