Not a baby anymore...

In just three weeks my little girl will be a first grader. Her front teeth are loose and soon she will have that big gappy grin, which will all too shortly be replaced by big chicklet teeth. She will no longer be on the bottom of the totem pole. Over this next school year my sweet little daughter will change- from little girl... to big kid. The changes that occur between Kindergarten and 2nd grade are too many to even describe. And as much as I hope I will enjoy every stage each of my children go through, it makes me sad to think of the changes that are coming this year.

Yesterday we went to the park to play, and I decided I wanted to take a few photographs of the kids while they were playing. I am attaching one of my favorites of my soon to be first-grader. At least through photography I am able to capture and freeze moments like this, so in a small way I really CAN keep her six years old forever.

Wow time flies!

I cannot believe it is AUGUST already!! I guess with school getting out I've been busier with the kids. That will be my excuse as to why I haven't updated this in a while. :)

Anyway- I've had the pleasure of photographing some absolutely adorable babies this summer and thought I'd start sharing a few of my favorites. I don't have the time to pick my favorites all at once, so I'll just add a couple every few days, each time I log on.

Here is sweet baby Talia- who is an unbelievable doll. I have so much fun photographing her.





















If I turn into a slacker and forget to update again for a while, send me a yell at jen@jennifereagan.com and tell me to hurry up and update already!

Relay For Life

Everett Relay for Life is coming soon! Anybody who donates to our team before June 3, will receive 100% of their donation in portrait print credit!

*Donations to RFL must not be made anonymously if you wish to receive credit for the donation.

A funeral.

Today I went to a funeral. I was late getting there, but I got there. Anyway- I won't go into details about just how sad it was, of course it was terribly sad, it was a funeral. I will tell a funny thing that happened though. After the service, we went to the graveside and we were given candles in dixie cups to light. We had to use our candles to light the person's next to us and so on. Well it was windy and I was having the hardest time lighting the girl's candle next to me. So I tilted my cup waaay up to block the wind, but then the flame was going right towards the side of my cup. So I said "My cup is going to catch on- FIIIIRE!!" and that instant I see a huge (seemed huge anyway) flash of fire. Only it wasn't my cup... it was my HAIR. The wind blew my hair into the candle and lit me right up. So I'm standing there at this graveside banging on my hair, the girl next to me whomping me in the chest and neck to put out my hair- and then I started laughing. Not like, "disturbing the peace" laughing- but still laughing. I suppose looking back I should have been scared- but it all happened so fast and then it was over and when it was over it was just FUNNY! So anyway- the hair punching girl and I are laughing at a funeral, and look over just in time to see someone take a photo of me laughing my singed head off. Nice, huh??
Anyway- that's pretty much it- just a funny thing that happened to me today and I felt like sharing.

In case you're wondering- no you can't really tell about the burned hair, unless you know exactly where it is and pull it out from the rest of the hair. I can't even find it that easily most of the time. I suppose things could have gone a lot worse than they did and I could have easily gotten hurt today- but I didn't, thankfully, and now I just have a funny story about a funeral.

Roller coaster of life...

Whew- what a ride the last few days have been. A lot of ups and downs for sure. On the up side, I have gotten not one but TWO stores to agree to display my work- and they are very upscale children's clothing stores so that is a great thing for me. It will be good for me to be able to send people to see my work in other places besides just my website or my studio. I'm meeting with one of the stores tomorrow and the other I will be calling again tomorrow to set up a meeting. What else is going on- my mailer will be going out next week and I should be getting my first batch of babies in the new studio, so that will be great. OH- AND- we (myself and a few other photographers) are going to be going on Northwest Afternoon in a couple weeks for a public service announcement for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. We were kind of hoping for a little more than 15 seconds- because how can you really squish what we're doing into 15 seconds- but- it's better than nothing.

Now to the down side- I sent emails about NILMDTS to every news channel in the Puget Sound and besides the NWA PSA guy- the only response I got at all was a "thanks but not right now" from KIRO- because they've already run similar stories about another individual who does a similar type of work. OK- but that's an INDIVIDUAL- we are an entire GROUP of over 400 photographers (and growing every day just about). It just torks me that nobody else seems to get that there is a sense of urgency here- that all the while we're sitting around waiting for those calls, babies are dying and their parents are getting no more than a blurry polaroid- all because they have no idea we are here. I will be taking some brochures to a few hospitals around here and mailing them to a couple others a bit farther away. I'm not trying to be BUSY with these jobs- but I at least want it to be AVAILABLE.

I met with Tyler's parents today, to show them their photos before making the final slideshow for his funeral. It was so nice to see them again, and as difficult as these jobs are- seeing them looking at their little son's photographs and hearing again how glad she was that I could be there- it really just touches my heart so deeply that unless you have been there you couldn't possibly have a clue what I'm talking about. It's awesome, though, I can tell you that.

Anyway, well- we're almost finished with the studio. All we have left to do is move one of the backdrop poles to a different wall (long, stupid story) and put up some shelving in this closet area in the hall to have some better prop storage as right now it's all lined up along the sides of the room and that just isn't going to work. But- it's almost ready. I anticipate finishing it tomorrow night- hopefully...

Not just a job

Once in a while we're all faced with trials that challenge us, and the way we handle it can ultimately affect our entire life. Yesterday was one of those challenges for me. Yesterday, I met Tyler.

I first spoke with Tyler's mom a little over a month ago. She was pregnant, and due in April. Her baby had a genetic condition called Trisomy 18- and wasn't expected to live long after birth, if he made it through delivery. We were going to have a maternity session soon- my plan was to finish the work on the studio this weekend and call her probably this coming Monday. I got a call around lunchtime Thursday that let me know there was a new plan. Almost two months early, Tyler would be coming soon. After the mad rush to find childcare for the kids, I made my way down to Overlake Hospital a little after 4pm Thursday. Almost 12 hours later, I had the privilege of being in the delivery room as baby Tyler was quietly welcomed into, and left, this world. Being able to photograph the last few hours of her pregnancy, and capturing photographs of sweet tiny Tyler, knowing that these are the only memories they will ever be able to hold onto and look back on of their precious little son- what a huge responsibility. One I was honored to take on. The families were so incredibly welcoming and kind and appreciative, thanking me so many times for sticking it out all night with them- but what they didn't realize was that I was the one who felt honored that they let me be a part of such a personal, private moment. Baby Tyler reminded me yet again why it is I am a photographer. It's not about being a "job" for me. It's about creating memories.

As I left the hospital Friday morning, I had a renewed appreciation for what I was going home to, and- crying most of the way, I wanted my kids. Instead of being annoyed that my son was awake when I got home, I gave him a big hug and just felt glad that I could. Suddenly, the toys on the floor, or the sound of giggling an hour past bedtime- don't seem like such a big deal anymore.

A new Blog

So I have started a blog for the studio. I run a photography studio in Everett, WA. I specialize in babies and young children, but also do occasional maternity and older kids, teens, seniors, families, etc. We are going to hopefully be finishing up the work on the studio this weekend so I can move back to indoor portraits like I did in CA, instead of what I've been doing which is solely location work for the past few months. I'm pretty excited about it, because it's difficult planning location sessions in an area where it rains for more than a MONTH without stopping. Plus, I can't wait to have all my lights set up again and feel like I'm finally back doing the part of the job I LOVE.

Anyway- this blog is going to be mainly another outlet for me, but I will probably post images from time to time (if I can figure out how) and maybe once in a while highlight something I'm doing, whether for an event or an organization or a special family. My next post I might do that.

At the moment, it is 3am and my three young children will be jumping on my head in approximately four hours and twenty minutes so I am going to end this for the evening.