Christiana Childers Photography Blog

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?!

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?!

We had our home group over for dinner this weekend again.  It really is one of my favorite things to do.  We had such a great time that the neighbors up and down the block commented on it the following day.  Now that is a party! My cheeks still hurt from laughing.  We had a tacofest.  Here are some photos from the night -

Ben has been working hard to get our wall of windows and doors finished for the party.  I love how it turned out!

I made Whoopie Pies for dessert!  I’ve never made them before and will definitely be making them again.  The ones with Oatmeal have a Bacon-Maple filling.  Yum!  I’m not kidding!  You can find the recipe here.

But the yummiest dish of the night…these cheeks here -

Doesn’t the wall look so pretty?!My friend Dawn grabbed my little camera and took some great shots of the night.  I made a collage of them -

Oh!  They are going to kill me for posting that!  So long world!

I love Summer.  I really really do.  So all the rain gets to me after a while.  It’s about now that I daydream of going to Hawaii, Mexico, Palm Springs…you get the picture.  But alas, it is not in the cards this year.  The next best thing, I’ve found, is to go through my photos from the previous summer.  It actually works!  It reminds me that it’ll be warm again – even HOT!  Yes!  So here are a few that made me feel warm.  Hope they make you feel that way as well – Have faith, my friend.    It will be warm again!

I apologize for my lack of posts lately.  I’ve been working on a bunch of cool projects!  More on them soon!!

Oh!  And one more thing – one of my favorite things to do is to talk books!  Mamabloo has her top ten list up and then people are adding to the list in the comments.  So fun to see what people’s faves are!

I feel a twinge of sadness as I say goodbye to summer like you do when you say goodbye to a good friend who you loved to have visit but didn’t get anything done while she was here.  So now we are back to the schedule of school which means that I get to go back to walking in the morning!  Yeah!  Lora and I go on a walk most mornings that, up until a few days ago, was laced with beautiful juicy blackberries.  Hmm, blackberry pie!

We also celebrated G’s birthday and I had to share this one with you because I thought it was a great idea and it was a big success!  Ben came up with this one, actually.  He suggested that we have all the girls over for breakfast on the morning of G’s birthday.  We gave prizes for the best bedhead.  Which is perfect for G because G regularly has THE most impressive bedhead you’ve ever seen.  Hands down, bar none.  I’ve started a photo collection dedicated to the record of her bedhead.  Here’s a recent one.

The girls really got into it and had a big time.  

They also decimated 3 pounds of bacon!

And last but not least!  We are now the proud owners of a new puppy!  We are over the moon with him.  His name is Blue.

Can you get over the cuteness!

Happy Fall!

These girls also came out with me on what we are calling “The Freezing Cold Snowy Spring Break Session” so I told them we would do a quick shoot this summer so they could show off their cute outfits and tans so here are some shots from their session this weekend.

Her sister said of the below photo that it was fierce!  I totally agree!

Don’t they have the best big brown eyes?!  Fun session girls!  K, you left an outfit in my car.  I’ll drop it by soon!

I had my second family reunion of the summer last week at Port Townsend, WA.  I love Port Townsend!  It is such a great spot for a big group.  There is something for everyone.  My kids love the beach – finding crabs, collecting shells etc and being with their cousins…I love being with my cousins (theme to my life), doing something artsy/crafty and taking photos, of course.  Ben likes hanging out with the guys, golfing and smoking cigars.  We all get to do what we want!  Here is a small sampling from our few days together at the beach -

I’ve known C since she was 5.  I can’t believe she is a Senior now!  We went out during Spring Break to get some Senior photos and it was snowing so I told her we’d go out in the summer sun to get a few more.  She’s a morning person so we got up at the crack to get that warm buttery sun. It was so worth it!

And for fun…

Don’t you love her dress? She bought it and took it apart to make it the way she liked it.  It reminds me of “Pretty in Pink”.  Remember that movie?  I loved that part when she took apart a dress to make her prom dress the way she wanted it.

Thanks C!  You’re beautiful.

Lora told me about an idea she had for a post before we left for vacation to Texas. The idea was basically the title of this post – How do you use photos to document an event/experience such as a vacation.  I’m just going to take a piece of our vacation to show you how I go about it.  (P.S.  Johnson Family – too many to make a post out of but don’t worry, they’re coming!)

First – I take a ton of photos.  I have my camera with me at all times.  Seriously.  And I never stop shooting.  When you start getting into the habit of doing this it is impossible to stop.  For me, when I’m having a great time, this is my way of freezing that feeling or moment for me to savor again later.

Second – Never waste good light.  Photography is so much about controlling light.  Sometimes the fun moments and memories don’t happen in beautiful light so you have to roll with it. But as soon as the light gets that buttery pre-evening glow, my camera is out no matter what is going on.

Third – Look for details.  I usually find some fun details that help me freeze in time whatever I’m experiencing.  These are close up shots usually at a wide open aperture (2.8 is what I have been using).  These shots usually end up being my favorites!

Break for back story on this post’s shots – We’ve had so much fun catching up with old friends that we havent seen for so long. Since kids and then moving to Ireland, we just haven’t been coming to TX for nearly a decade!  If I wrote about all the different experiences/people this post would be way too long so I’m going to pick our visit with Greg and Lalise who have ….hmmmm….what do you call it?  Vacation home? No.  Although that is essentially how they use it.  Studio is a little closer.  Maybe a combo of the two.  They bought an old Coke-a-Cola bottling company/warehouse and have remodeled (that isn’t even a good word to describe what they’ve done) into a super cool space.  Good thing I have pictures because my words aren’t helping me here…..

The above photo is taken from the courtyard looking into the studio.  These shots are taken just after the sun has set so there is a bit of color still in the sky but the interior seems to kind of glow with light.  (Also my favorite time of night to drive around and look at houses for the same reason – interiors just look so appealing to me!) The below shot is looking from the studio into the courtyard type area.

This is the guest quarters!  How cool is that?!

They have a horse trough on what used to be the loading dock that they use for a pool.

Greg and Sadie – super sweet dog….we think Greg is sweet too…

R stole Greg’s hat -

Here is an example of a detail shot.  Love the colors in this one.

Now I can’t stop daydreaming about converted garages and Airstreams…

My husband was singing that particular Christmas song to be funny as we pulled into our driveway from our weekend in the San Juan Islands.  But Summer to me IS the most wonderful time of the year.  I just love being outside and not being cold and wet.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend.

Does that say Summer or what!

Check out this view!

Don’t you just want to climb in and sit by the fire?!  Hi Ed and Alice!

The perfect roasted marshmellows…

And the S’mores -

Ah, Summer.  What’s not to love?