cheryl muhr & her gorgeous family • seattle family session

i cant believe i am just now blogging these beauties! back in august 08 i traveled to seattle to be the guest teacher for cheryl’s workshop. i had a wonderful time and made several new friends. on my last day, just before hopping on the plane home, i drove around with cheryl and todd and the girls looking for fun places to stop and take photos.

we started just outside of the hotel. out my hotel window, i saw a line of taxi’s sitting and waiting. always sitting and waiting. so we went there first. FUNNY thing happened. the first cab driver we asked permission to borrow his cab for a second got super suspicious and asked me what the pictures were for. who the people were. etc etc. he was just about to say yes when he said “NO! I AM SORRY! I CANNOT DO THIS!” and shuffled us away. we were like “okaaaaaaaay?” luckily with about eight cabs the chances were still good, so we walked up to the next cab in line. he kindly invited their family in and even had some ideas of his own-like to have little averi poking her head out the window.

i love this series of three-baby on the loose!

it was back in the car after this and back on the hunt. we found a great old firestation (shot above) and as i was shooting them in front of the garage a fire-fighter came out to talk to us. we heard all about his sister who was coming with her children and he was like “oh, you should photograph them on a rig!” (so helpful!) and he opened the doors so we could go inside.

back to the car when…AH! stop right there!

the weather was getting worse, so we decided to hop on the freeway and get closer to the airport, hoping for some dryer locations. just before we did that though, i changed my mind when i saw this place. time to get wet people! out we go!

okay now, really, onto the freeway. where it looked hopeless. i was worried the rain wasnt going to clear. worried i wouldnt find a location. worried i was going to totally let her down….when suddenly….STOP! PULL IN HERE! YES! RIGHT HERE! (by the way, a great way to include a toddler or baby who doesnt want to be included is to back off, but place them in the frame still, while focusing on someone else.)

i wanted to get as many of cheryl with her girls as i could. LOVE LOVE LOVE this momma shot. momma and her ducklings…

and a new building at the same location-i was really hoping the number 16 would have some significance to them, but other than me begging them to go ahead and have 14 more children so we could come back to this spot…they came up blank.

a few more favorites

cheryl and her family are so warm and so real and it was wonderful spending the weekend with them.

xo