The McFarlanes | Seattle Family Photographer

If any of these faces look familiar it's because this was my 4th session with them! First I photographed Mary's family, then Katie's family, then Molly's wedding. After this extended family shoot I shot another session for 4 year old Eloise. I met the McFarlanes through my sister - she grew up going to church and youth group with them. They are a group of kind, fun, and good people. Jeff and Laurie sure have a lot to be proud of between their 4 wonderful children and 4 beautiful grandchildren. I always joke with them that they make me want 4 kids ;) But then my desire to sleep kicks in and I decide I'm happy with just my two. haha. We thought we might have to move the session indoors because of the ominous weather, but it held out and everyone had fun at Edmonds Beach. At the end of the session they skipped (threw?!) rocks, played, and the kids, well, did what kids do when they are forced to skip naps ;)

Beth & Kevin's Seattle Engagement Session

Beth and Kevin have a really awesome engagement story but I think I'm going to wait to share that for their wedding blog post this summer ;) These two are "my people" - they love BBQ, the Seahawks, and having fun. Their wedding will take place at the family lake house in August and I know that we are going to have an amazing time and make amazing pictures. For their engagement session, Beth and Kevin said that they just love being around Lake Union. We met at the Center for Wooden Boats where we got busted trying to take a quick pic without a life vest, then we moved on to Gas Works Park. It was the most mild, beautiful December day and also a Sunday which meant Seahawks football. I wore my Richard Sherman jersey under my coat and then the conversation came up about Kevin wearing his jersey for a few pics at the end of the session. Beth was for it, but concerned because she had forgotten to bring any Seahawks gear. She and I are about the same size so I insisted that she literally take the shirt off of my back! We went into the bathroom, traded tops, and boom! Fun Seahawks photos to close out their session :)

The Huffington Post...wants ME?!

A few weeks ago I got an email from The Huffington Post asking if I would be interested in being one of their contributing bloggers. They had checked out my site (yes, this little one) and thought I might be able to contribute. Me? The girl who has no formal writing training? Who has never considered herself a writer? Blog for THE HUFFINGTON POST?! I didn't give them an answer right away, instead I started to brainstorm what exactly I would post about. They gave me full reign to wring on whatever I wanted so starting from somewhere so vague was a challenge. I decided to start simple since one of their tokens of advice was not too wordy and lots of photos. Well, isn't that what I'm best at? I'm guilty of writing too much - my emails are usually too long, my texts go into too much detail, and I'm horrible at sticking to word counts. I forced myself to keep it short and sweet so that my message could be simple. Low and behold, once the article (I use that word lightly, since when is an "article" two paragraphs long?) was published on HuffPost Weddings, they also shared it on the MAIN FREAKING FRONT PAGE OF THE HUFFINGTON POST. My little blurb about laughing and true beauty on a your wedding day was next to real, important, international news. I have a byline. I have a cute black and white headshot. They shared my article on Facebook where they have 4.7 million followers. Seriously. Pinch me. Can you tell that I'm just a little bit excited and so very honored? :)

Here it is!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bre-thurston/how-to-be-beautiful-on-yo_b_6437632.html