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Rachael + Brandon :: Together

Saturday, October 24, 2009 Posted in Friends

Even though Rachael and Brandon have known each other since high school, it wasn’t until just a couple of years ago that they decided just how deep their feelings really were. As often happens, Rachael & Brandon’s first date left them breathless and with hearts fluttering - but not for the ‘typical’ reasons - turns out they spent that memorable evening chasing each other around in a serious game of laser tag

For a while, life kept them at a distance - Rachael lived in Portland and Brandon was stationed at Fort Lewis. But over the next several months this highly active romance continued - they were married last March, just a few short months before Brandon was deployed to Afghanistan.

We had the good fortune of getting to know Rachael earlier this year - in her role as ‘marketing & events whiz’ for South Sound Wedding & Event Magazine. With her upbeat personality and sincere nature she’s not only great at her job, but just plain fun to be around. When we heard that she was out of the office to make the most of Brandon’s short visit home from the Middle East, we invited the two of them to meet us in downtown Tacoma - so that we could help them to create some keepsake images of this time together.

There is no denying the love these two share - take a look at this video Bill created from our shoot and you’ll see what I mean :

click the full screen button - lower right - it looks much better!

And these are a few of our fav’s from the day:
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As we were walking across the bridge, some tourists asked Brandon if he would use their camera to snap a shot of the three of them - then they offered to return the favor for us

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Today is sure to be a rough one for both of them - Brandon shipped out this morning for 9 more months overseas. Rachael and Brandon - thank you for sharing some of your precious moments together with us - we are honored by the privilege. Our thoughts and prayers are with both of you - for comfort while you’re separated, for safety and a happy reunion, and in thanks and appreciation for the sacrifices you both make as a military family, to safeguard our country and the abundance of freedom we all share.

Tags: happy couple, inspiration, Lifestyle Portraits, Rachel & Brandon, romance, Tacoma, US Army, Video

by Erin

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Andy & Jenn :: a reunion

Sunday, August 30, 2009 Posted in Friends, Uncategorized

We became friends with Andy and Jenn during their fun couples’ session last spring. A true story of star-crossed love… even though fate - and the US Army - had placed both of them in Italy for several months, they hadn’t managed to meet each other….so fate stepped up the game and brought them face to face on the same bus as they both arrived at Fort Lewis, WA.

This shot is from that springtime session - such great sports - Mother Nature hurled a full-on squall at us that day, but Andy & Jenn were undaunted 050209_andy_jenn

Fast forward to last week - thanks to the awesomeness that is Facebook we’ve been able to keep in touch with them, even while Jenn was deployed to Iraq….sooooo - we were pumped when Andy let us have some sneaky fun by ‘hiding out’ at SeaTac last week to capture their happy reunion when Jenn returned for R&R …. so cute…we were supposed to meet Andy at 12:15 - this pic was taken as he was admitting that he was so excited to see Jenn, he’d arrived at the airport hours earlier

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…that Andy is so smooth - he managed to sweet talk the counter agent into giving us passes so we could be waiting at the gate when Jenn got off the plane.

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Have I told you how much I LOVE what we get to do for work - so lucky to get to be there to create a visual record of such meaningful moments in our friends/clients lives!

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Bill put this little vid together with the pics we got of their reunion - and Andy & Jenn - be sure to check out the credits at the end - he chose the music esp for you ;-D

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Shhhh…don’t tell anyone, but we heard a rumor that plans are in the works to make their powerful connection ‘official’ at some point in the future Cheers to that - and to both of you, Andy & Jenn - and thanks for letting us play storytellers of your romance!

Erin & Bill

Tags: couple, engagement, fun stuff, happy couple, homecoming, inspiration, Iraq, love, Olympia, reunion, romance, SeaTac, US Army, Video

by Erin

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Sunset :: Grassy beach and great colors

Friday, August 21, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized

A few nights ago I went down to the beach at sunset armed with a tripod and a camera bag - I was rewarded with some beautiful colors in the sky.

Enjoy.

by Bill

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Mason County Rodeo - 2009

Saturday, August 1, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized

What’s more fun than having a beer and watching some bull riding? How about jumping in the arena and taking pictures?

For the last 3 years I’ve been shooting the Mason County Rodeo and licensing pictures to them for their website and print advertising.

Here’s a slideshow with a video introduction by your’s truly:

A few images

Bull tossing - the newest rodeo event.

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Thanks once again to Julie Gray and the Mason County Rodeo board and court for inviting me and publishing our images -

Wanna see more? or buy a print? click here for the whole gallery

~Bill

by Bill

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Mountain Biking in Whistler BC

Sunday, July 26, 2009 Posted in Friends, Nature

My friend Colin Michael invited me to come to Whistler, BC for 3 days of downhill mountain biking. What a blast!

Here’s me at the top, the bikes we rented are Specialized Demo 8 downhill bikes - what an amazing machine. I don’t think I’ll ever buy one, they cost over $5k and would be a bear to ride uphill, but nothing could be better for the big jumps and drops at Whistler.

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Here’s an iPhone video of Colin hitting the practice jumps, I wish we had video of some of the real jumps and drops, but it’s hard to get - other than these practice jumps you’re not allowed to ride or hike back up a trail to do something over - it’s too dangerous for you and the other riders coming through.

Here’s a couple pictures we took with my real camera - (I’m lifting them straight off Colin’s blog). It was a little crazy riding with a several pound and several thousand dollar camera flopping around - and it got so muddy I had to clean every crevice of it with a toothbrush when I got home…. But it was worth it.

Colin riding up the Gondola - it was a lot warmer and drier way to get to the top than taking the chairlift.

Me taking a drop at the bottom of the run. Colin then had to follow me with the camera - he was a little worried about breaking it - or landing on it and breaking ribs..

On some of these jumps I think he was getting 6 or 7 feet of air - I was a little more conservative, but not much…. yeehaw!!

Body armour - very important - the crash that broke Colin’s kneepad would have been a huge injury without the pad.

I can’t thank Colin enough for inviting me - that was a blast!

~Bill

Tags: BC, Fun, Mountain Biking, Video, Whistler

by Bill

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iPhone video post - Riding the stairs @ St Ed’s

Friday, July 3, 2009 Posted in Friends, Uncategorized

The new iphone is amazing - so much faster than the old one! And with the new video feature and youtube intergration it’s going to be easy to make little videos and post them. Like this one that Jeff Cook took of me riding my bike down the stairs at St Edwards State Park in Kenmore, WA - we were there for a day of mountain biking and beer tasting - fun fun!

by Bill

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A lot less hair

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Posted in Family

It was time for a change - a hairstyle change that is.

Erin took a couple pictures of me today after I got back from the L Hair Studio (thanks Cheryl!).

by Bill

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Dave and Shawnia’s wedding at the Bozarth Mansion in Spokane

Monday, May 11, 2009 Posted in Friends

Normally we post weddings on the mOde wedding blog - but this wasn’t a normal wedding for us, not at all…. Instead of photographing, I was the best man. (yup, I gave a speech and everything…)

Dave and I have been friends for way more years than I can count on my fingers - and I’m so dang happy that he and Shawnia found each other - they fit like peanut butter and jelly.

Erin and I drove over to Spokane on Friday morning, the day before the wedding - she jumped right in and helped Shanwnia and the other girls out with the flower preparations while I did my best man duties (ie, hanging out with Dave).

We had a casual and fun rehearsal in the back yard -

Hey - that’s me!

After the rehearsal we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar.

We sat with Gabe and Boone, friends and excellent photographers.

The morning of the wedding Shawnia headed to the salon - Dave, Erin, Gabe and I headed to breakfast - it was good - in fact we ate SO good all weekend!

Dave ate his breakfast so fast I couldn’t get a picture of it…

Dave dressing his brother Jeff (lol)

Having the traditional ‘guy’s toast’ - Dave chose Mike’s Hard Lime for the occasion.

Erin and I were busy enjoying ourselves all day instead of taking pictures - so lets skip right to the end of the night… They were picked up by a super cool old car - doesn’t it look like it belongs there??

Here they are coming out - a beautiful end to a beautiful day!

Sunday morning we all met at the Davenport Hotel for the most amazing Sunday Brunch I’ve ever seen! Great choice.

I had to include this next picture - don’t ask why - I just did.

OK - this was why - haha!

Erin took this shot of me signing the marriage license - it’s official!

I hope you guys are having the most amazing time in the Cook Islands!!!

If you want to see more pictures of the day head on over to Gabe & Boone’s slideshow here.

Tags: Best Man, Dave and Shawnia, Spokane, Wedding

by Bill

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Spring flowers

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Posted in Nature

This is a beautiful time of year in Olympia! We have SO many trees in bloom - Just for fun I went out in the yard for a few minutes this morning and took a few pictures of the blossoms - they don’t last long!

Enjoy! And if you’d like any of these to use as your computer wallpaper - just drop me a note and I’ll send it to you.