Sweet as Sugar

One of my favorite photos to date that I have ever taken. Sweetie baby Elliott is 6 months old. What a joy he is. Always happy... until I took away the spoon... haha.

Been a while

Things have been sooooooooo busy here I haven't had time to update, so I will take a minute now.
The studio is closed this week and next due to an unfortunate incident involving a washing machine and a carpet. We are replacing the padding this week and will probably wait a while to replace the actual carpet.
Since we had everything moved out of the room already, we went ahead and painted the projection area on Sunday. We have had the paint for a while but never had time to move the furniture out to paint, so I guess we killed two birds with one stone. I hate that expression- it is so violent! Who would want to kill birds with rocks anyway? That's awful!!

ANYWAY- we are also finishing up the redecorating of the studio bathroom- which is exciting because it has been so HORRIBLE for so long. We painted and got new flooring in the entry a couple months ago and the intention has always been to do the bathroom the same, with beautiful, warm, Tuscan colors. My wonderful husband also installed my new pedastal sink in there- and we finally found a mirror that works. Bless his heart- he wrestled with that sink for quite a while. Apparently pedastal sinks are pretty hard to install- but he's a champ and he did it and it's beautiful.

In other news- I was very disappointed to get a UPS return note in my PO Box the other day and I was 99% sure it was for my new Cupcake Courier. But I wasn't sure, so I called the # on my paypal receipt and the owner of the company, Jennifer Gunn, answered and was so nice and helpful and apologetic, though I'm not sure why, it was just a misunderstanding, stuff happens. I was very impressed that she answered her own phone and was eager to fix the problem and get me a new one shipped right away. Anyway- I can't wait to get it, I got a pink one. For those who don't know- a Cupcake Courier is a big tray that stacks 3 dozen cupcakes (or one big cake) without messing any of them up! The PERFECT way to get cupcakes to school or another function easily! After my first attempt at bringing two dozen cupcakes to school a couple weeks ago for my first grader's birthday- I knew I couldn't manage this three times a year (3 kids) plus school carnivals and whatever else- so I HAD to have one and it was my Mother's Day gift to myself. (Well, one of them, anyway- ha).

Anyway- if you have kids, or if you ever have any reason to transport cupcakes, muffins, or a big cake- check out the Cupcake Courier. www.cupcakecourier.com I will post again after I get it. I'll be using it for Relay for Life in 2 weeks if it gets here in time.

IN RELAY NEWS-
I am only $275 away from reaching my goal of $1250. I also have an uncle who REALLY wants to see me cut my hair off- which I will do if I reach my goal. Not all of it- cutting off 10" for Locks of Love. It will be to about my shoulders still. I'm not thrilled about it but a promise is a promise... I will get a cute style before my trip to LA 2 weeks later.

I have so much I am looking forward to right now!!
Saturday May 19- Relay for Life fundraiser Garage Sale in Monroe
Sunday May 20- Council Fire for Kayla's Campfire group at Camp Killoqua
Memorial Weekend- Grants Pass (hopefully- have a mom being induced that Friday if she doesn't go sooner)
June 2-3- RELAY FOR LIFE!
June 14-17- Los Angeles
July 4-17- West Virginia
August 18- Mackenna turns 4 and possible family camping in North Bend

What a fun summer!

"Famouser even than Cap'n Kangaroo..."

OK, maybe not so much... ok, so that's a gross exaggeration- but it is really wierd to have people I have never met say they have "heard" of me. Don't get me wrong, it's not wierd in an awful "I think I have a stalker" way- it's wierd in a kinda surreal, but neat, "I hope my bank balance fattens up soon" kind of way. haha.
I used to get mad at the photographers I knew who would complain about being so busy. I was like- "oh wah, what a problem to have" but now that I am also so busy, I am going a little bit crazy and my children feel neglected (although I think that's just a guilt trip my oldest has learned) and my husband is annoyed that I can't even sit and watch a movie on the couch with him without working- but I have no choice, people want their photographs!

Maybe someday- when I really AM rich and famous- like Annie Liebovitz or Anne Geddes (hm maybe my mother should have named me Anne?) I will be able to hire someone to do all the computer work for me. In the meantime... I'll be here... on my laptop... 18 hours a day.

Old friends, new experiences

Friendships are quite interesting. Everyone has all different kinds of friendships. Of course there are the regular kinds where you someone, have plenty in common, talk frequently. Everyone should have at least a few of these. But then there are other kinds. Some friendships you have maintained over the years simply because you have always had them and it would be too wierd to not have them anymore- even though you have nothing in common and probably wouldn't choose them to be your friend today. And then there are the friends who you used to be really close with but now are lucky to get an email that's not a forwarded joke. And then there are the other friends who you could go years and years without seeing or hearing from, completely lose touch, and then one day you get a call or an email out of the blue and suddenly you're talking for hours and you would never believe that more than ten years had passed since you last spoke.

This last kind of friend is what I'm writing about today.

When I was 12 I met Amber at a family function. Her grandma was good friends with my aunt- they attended the same church. The following summer I started going to my aunt's church, and Amber and I started hanging out more. For about 4 years we were really good friends, until she turned 18 and her job kept her working on Sundays so I rarely saw her after that. A year later I moved away and we lost touch. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when through a mutual friend Amber figured out my married name and found me on myspace and emailed me. Now a mom of a precocious 3 year old and 8 months pregnant with her second daughter, Amber came up to the studio yesterday and we had the best time. Total freedom to do whatever we wanted, we came up with some pretty nice stuff. :) I'll share a few (only because she shared them first!)

Thanks Amber! Can't wait to meet the baby!!

Painting Time

Today I am painting my studio entry hallway. I also plan on painting my studio bathroom and the office/projection area of the studio itself but... all in good time. I am very excited about the new "look" we're getting though- it's going to be an italian themed entry. Tuscan colors. Yellow textured walls and dark marble tile with new accent fixtures as well. We figured, since chances are good we are going to be here for a while and not moving at least this year- we might as well do our best to make it more inviting. I'm pretty excited to get it done... I will post before and after's after I'm finished! :)

God Speed, Little Man

I received sad news this morning. One of my NILMDTS babies- Kaleb- passed away sometime during the night last night. I was supposed to go to their house tonight to do a family session and his one month photos. Unfortunately we didn't get that chance.
I am so glad I was able to meet him when he was born and get some photos of him then.

Kaleb was a true fighter. When he was a few minutes old they told his parents he didn't have the will to fight. I think he heard them and said "Oh yeah!? Watch me!!" Kaleb began to fight as soon as he met his big sister and brother. He fought for 30 days.

Sweet Dreams, Kaleb.

Belated Valentine's Day

OK so I'm late in posting these but I wanted to share them anyway. These are my kids' valentine cards we made for their friends at school and for our family. Hope everyone had a good V-day!

Evening Magazine

On Monday, Feb 19th, TV show Evening Magazine (click to see video) in Seattle did a segment featuring me and the work I am doing for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. They also featured two very special families I have had the honor of working with, Erin and Waldo, and Angie and Waldez. I actually blogged about Erin and Waldo, and their beautiful little boy Tyler- last year. I was quite honored (and plenty nervous) to be a part of the story- but we were all absolutely thrilled at how well done it was. I sincerely want to thank Erin for contacting King 5 about our story, she did a wonderful job telling how it has helped her to heal! And thank you Angie for allowing the news crew to be there for our session with little Faith Marie, I know that was hard, not knowing what the outcome of the day would be, you are a rockstar and I love you! And a HUGE thanks to Kim Griffis for her wonderful reporting- you were great to work with and I was SO impressed with the story! And one last HUGE thanks to cameraman Tom (sorry I don't remember your last name!) for your expert skill in making me look like a halfway decent looking person! haha. Seriously- there is a reason I usually stay behind the camera and Tom deserves an EMMY for the miracle he pulled off making me look good!

The response I have received from this story has been wonderful. From families who "wished they'd only known", to photographers interested in joining. The word is out now, and hopefully someone who might need our services in the future will find out about it now, when they wouldn't have before. What a blessed organization to be a part of!

RELAY FOR LIFE 2007!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!?

I can hardly believe it's time for Relay For Life AGAIN! Didn't we just do this? Well our team Walk For Sam (name change is pending to something cooler) is busy forming and back at it full speed, getting ready for the relay June 2nd in Monroe! We have SO MUCH to do and only 4 1/2 months in which to get it all ready! Can we? Who knows. But it's going to be a fun ride!

Visit my Relay For Life website and donate $5 or $10 (or more if you want!) in honor of someone you love. Help us beat this beast called cancer.

A couple recent favorites

I have been doing quite a few more maternities lately, and here are a couple of my favorites! I will try to post more later (although based on my blogging history, how often is debatable).

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.