Christiana Childers Photography Blog

I’m putting this out there….my dream.  World Wide Internet you should know my dream.  Here it goes -

I want to lead photography tours in Ireland.

There it is.  Out there.

I’ve actually been working on this for a while now.  But I’ve never posted anything about it so I’m hoping that by posting I’ll keep my motivation up, let people know and eventually give my dream life.  I’m going to add a category that is solely dedicated to Ireland and our time spent there as part of this process in getting this tour going.

I have always loved photography.  In my past life as an architect, I dreamed about changing careers to photography and admired those who had made it happen.  I tried to soak up photography knowledge from anywhere I could but it wasn’t until we moved to Ireland that photography changed from a hobby to something totally new.  It was a way to record, process and savor my life there.  It was a way to tell a story.

Now, I take what I learned about myself, about my camera into my new career as a photographer.  I think my shots aren’t just interesting photos but actually feel a little like you’re there.  A time capsule to be relived again and again.  That skill all came from my time with my camera in Ireland.

I want to take people to Ireland and not only show them my favorite spots and some good craic (Irish word for fun – sounds like crack) but also teach them to use their camera to tell a story.  Something that they can take with them that is more powerful than learning just how to take properly exposed shots.

That is my dream.

This post is about my friend H.  I’m a leader for Young Lives (Young Life for Teen Moms) so met her at the HS I volunteer at in the Day Care Center.  She was 17 and pregnant.  She is probably one of the sweetest girls you’ll meet.  She has a shy smile but smiles often.  She generously lets you into her life.  I’m truly a better person having known her the short time I have.  She planned to raise her baby but near the end of her pregnancy made the hard choice to let him be adopted by a family.  I can’t imagine getting to that point and then carrying through with the plan.  But she did.  I just wanted to do a quick post to honor her.  She put her baby’s needs in front of her own and it wasn’t easy.  It took lots of strength, courage and ultimately a strong mother’s love.

So proud of you, H!!

Can it really have been over two weeks since I’ve last posted?! Shame on me!  Ah well.  I guess that is just how it goes sometimes. I’ve been writing blogs in my head for the last couple weeks so I hope to have a lot posted soon!

So for today, I’ll leave you with some photos from our family outing on Sunday. This is my best kind of day – dinking around Seattle, people watching, being with my family and then finishing it off with ice cream at Molly Moon’s!  Oh Yeah!

We went to the Conservatory in Volunteer Park.  I’ve never done that before.  Super interesting.  I imagine it’d be great to do that on a really cold and rainy day because it’s like visiting a rain forest and desert -

I made a comment that the only thing that would take that day from good to great is going to a market… I love markets!  Flea markets, framers markets …whatever!  So we headed into Fremont to the Sunday market but you can’t go to Fremont without visiting the Troll -

G bought some glasses at the market so I snapped a shot of her with her new shades -

Umm..to cool for school!   No?

I don’t know why but I love taking photos of the backs of my girls heads.  There is a painting by Gerald Richter that I saw for the first time in my big “Art Book”.  I’d never heard of him before and I don’t know anything about his other paintings but this one is one of my favorite paintings in that whole giant book.  It stops me every time.  It’s his daughter and it’s titled “Betty”-

Here’s my “Betty” –

It was a good day…

See you back here soon!  xo  Christiana

B is for the bluest eyes in the whole world of life!B is also for buns!

Haha!  Are you looking at my bum? Are ya?

B is for Broncos!!

B is for Beautiful family -

B is for…oh!  I can’t thinking of a ‘B’ word for yummy cheeks! Just enjoy the rest from the session!!

This little cherry was so perfect I had to take a photo of it and share it with you all. 

Look at that little curly curl!  So sweet…and it’s of course from Yakima, my home town…

Before my sister reads this and starts to cry again because she couldn’t be there, this is for her – COLD.  It was really really cold.  OK, Muggs – earmuffs… but we had a really good time together.  Here are a few photos from the trip -

Our brilliant friends the Judys let us borrow their wicked cool old trailer.  The Beatties let us borrow their car to tow it in.  We do have the best friends, do we not?!  I loved having the trailer so much.  I could happily live in there….if I didn’t have such slovenly roommates! 

Does my daughter not have thee most impressive bedhead?

My parents have a 1960s VW camper van.  It’s really cool.  I wish I would have gotten some better photos of it.  You can see a bit of through the trees above.

I take offense to this bag of candy -

As I mentioned above, it was really cold.  Sadly, I did not venture to the beach much because of that.  It’s a bummer because I love the beach!  But the wind was blowing so hard.  It made really interesting sand patterns though!  I don’t know why this is but I can’t look at this image very long.  It gives me the heebies.  Anyone else with me?

And the requisite cousin shot…  I took a lot of photos of the kids and this one was the best.  Less than half of them are looking at the camera!  I guess they are at least mostly smiling…except my daughter

One last one of Blue who had the time of his young life!

Cute ‘er what?!

I’ve been over and over how to introduce this family to you.  My words don’t have the depth of meaning that I want them to carry as you look at these photos.  All I can say is that they are my favorites.  I can’t imagine my life, my day, without this family.  I do love them so.

Now a little back story on the actual session.  We stopped in Leavenworth on our way back home from a weekend in Chelan.  Whatever you might think about Leavenworth, if you bring with you someone from Switzerland…well, then…it turns embarrassing.  It might be fun and kitschy go and buy taffy and pretend to be in the Alps when you are with other Americans who understand that we tend to fabricate charm because we don’t have the years behind us to make charm on it’s own but to bring someone who lives by the actual Alps…you get my point, right?   Also the piped yodeling/accordion music made me want to step in front of a bus!  So C’s boyfriend is from Switzerland and was with us for the trip. I got some great photos of C and M while there.  Knowing the back story, this one is pretty funny, don’t you think? -

Here are a few more.  It was hard to pick just a few!

Aww!  You kill me, you two!

After the session we went to this amazing Mexican food place called South…in Leavenworth…next to the Australian shop…Anyone getting this?!  Anyway, this place was so yummy.  I’d even brave the yodeling to go back.  And they give the kids those little wax sticks to play with while you wait for you food.

My neighbor asked me to take pregnancy photos of her but the difference with this pregnancy shoot and the other ones I’ve done is that I usually get asked this for baby number one… this is baby five for K!  And boy do they make cute kids!  Here are a few of my favorites from the session –

I loved to see the Love between these two…

We are excited to meet you Baby Boy!!

We here in Seattle have officially entered summer….finally!!  On the 4th, I think I actually saw my breath.  It was that cold.  And yesterday was hovering around 90 (depending on who you asked).  We had over 30 degree jump in one week!  Crazy!

So, in celebration of Summer, here are a few shots I took of my girls and my youngest’s BFF -

“Mom, do you always have to be taking pictures?!”These photos just make me happy.  Or maybe it’s that I have the window open and fans blowing wildly.  Or maybe it’s because I’m still in my Pjs!   What ever it is – what’s not to LOVE about Summer?!

My daughter took my phone the other day and started taking some photos with the Hipstamatic App that I have on my iPhone.  I had to share a couple with you -

Cool, no?