Sara Gray Photography Portland, Oregon

I’ve decided that to wrap up every month on the blog, I’m going to share with you my favorite photo from all month. It’ll be a photo I’ve taken in the last month and I’ll share a little bit about why I love it and why I think it’s my style.

After this shoot, I was talking to Jen (in the photo) and her husband Jason – you’ll recognize them from a post on the blog last week – about what I want my photography to be. Some people are all about the scenery and the artistic aspects of it, and others are about effects and post-processing. I appreciate all that, but to me it’s all about emotion.

I want to capture people who are in love, want to show them what real laughter looks like, faces scrunched up in glee. That’s one of the reasons why I adore photographing weddings so much – where can you find more emotion than that?

I love this one because it’s Jen and Ruthie – it’s a geniune moment between a girl and her dog, and it’s love and companionship and silliness and all of that. It’s what makes me love my job, and it’s what makes the world go around.

For you photography nerds out there, this shot was taken with my Canon 50D and my 50mm f/1.4 lens – taken at f/3.5, 1/200th of a second and ISO 100.

Megan has talent. That’s just all there is to it. She had lots of talent when we were back in high school, she has lots of talent now. She’s fun, she’s got a great smile, and she was basically a dream to photograph.

You’ll notice the adorable puppy above, which was just complete serendipity. We were shooting in the lobby of the downtown Ace Hotel, when a couple with a new puppy walked in and sat next to Megan. They were taking him out to “socialize him,” so they were totally eager to have Megan hold him.

Expressions like this are the reason I love photographing girls like Megan. How fun is she?

Thanks so much, Megan, for coming out to play! You’re the best.

Emily is my sister, and also happens to be a huge supporter of my photography. One of the ways she always supports me is to pose for me when I’m looking for someone to photograph.

She’s a really good sport, and she also happens to be a local real estate broker. Check her out if you’re looking for some information on buying or selling a house – she’s really knowledgeable and there are some great deals out there!

Emily also has a knack for putting together cute outfits – that’s why it’s nice to live with her, so that I can “go shopping” in her closet whenever I’m lacking cuteness. Isn’t her outfit in these photos so cute?

My advice to aspiring photographers is this: talk to your parents, see if you can arrange a cute and willing sister. It’s done wonders for my photography career. As always, thanks Em!

Just ask Rachel and Jeff, the parents of this adorable group of kids. If anyone has the secret, it’s them – Riley, Cole and Travis are the best-behaved, mellowest and most flexible kids I’ve ever met.

I grew up going to youth group, and Jeff and Rachel were leaders in my youth group when I was in high school. Then they had Riley, and she was just always around, going on youth retreats and being handed from high school kid to high school kid. Rachel told me she thinks this is why her kids are so flexible.

I’ve got a suspicion that it’s got a little something to do with their great parents, too – what a great family to work with.

Thanks Jeff, Rachel and kids for being such great, beautiful models and for spending some time with me and my camera!

James and Audra and I went to high school together, and last year when we all reconnected, they were still together. Not only together, but they had brought into the world the adorable Wynter, who is just the sweetest. I met up with all three of them earlier in the year and we had lots of fun in the Pearl District shooting some photos.

Seriously, how sweet are they together? It’s so obvious when you’re with James, Audra and Wynter: she makes their world go around. And can you blame them?

Like a lot of the little ones I photograph, Wynter wasn’t quite sure what to think of me and my camera at first, and Audra told me she wasn’t sure that Wynter would want to be a photo subject at all! But she only took a few minutes and then turned on the charm. So sweet.

Thank you so much, James, Audra and Wynter! I can’t wait to photograph you all again someday!

My friend Megan’s dog is so cute. My friend Megan is cute too, of course – which means the combination of the two of them is heartbreakingly adorable.

My childhood pet was a cocker spaniel named Chelsea, so I was pretty smitten with Joey. Joey, however, was smitten with Megan. “We’re very close,” she told me, and gave him a little puppy kiss.

Megan is one of the cool drama kids from my high school who has managed to stay a drama kid – she works for Portland Center Stage, which makes her the envy of lots of people we know who are trying to make it as actors.

I’m a little jealous of Megan – she works for a theater, she lives in Northwest, which I’m slowly working my way toward, and she has a dog, which I’ve been mulling over for awhile now. Oh, to be young and hip and live in the city…

Thanks for coming to play, Megan and Joey!

I meet lots of cool high school kids because I take senior portraits, and I love seeing how different and unique they all are. Last week, I met up with Marshall, who is a senior at Jesuit, for his senior portraits. Marshall and his mom Nancy are so nice! I also love how comfortable Marshall is in his own skin – I think it’s rare at that age, and he’s going to love going to Gonzaga for college next year.

Taking pictures of girls is fun, but one of the things I love about doing portrait sessions with boys is that they’ll try things – like scaling a light post to get up onto this newspaper box so that the street sign could be in the shot.

Look at this guy – what ease! I so loved getting to know him as he, Nancy and I traipsed around the Pearl District. This is still one of my favorite spots to shoot, I can’t get enough of this as a background!

As I process photos, I spend quite a bit of time staring at people’s faces, and I decided as I went through Marshall’s that he looks like a cross between my husband, Eric and my friend Jeff from high school. Hmmm…

Thank you, Marshall and Nancy, for hanging out with me! I know there are great things on the horizon for you, Marshall – keep up the good work!

Every time I head out with my camera, I become a better photographer.  I learn a little something new about my camera, about interacting with people and making them feel comfortable or about being the best photographer I can and capturing happiness and emotion through my lens.

When I got home on Saturday evening from my shoot at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Ore., I was pumped. I knew I had tried new things, come up with beautiful images that Jen & Jason would adore and had become better at what I do.

I am so lucky to know such beautiful and nice people. Jen and Jason and I have known each other for years, and it was so nice to reconnect with them on what felt like the first “official” day of spring. The sun was out, the tulips were in bloom and love was in the air. Of course, to put everything way over the top, they brought along their sweet dog Ruthie. She pretty much stole the show, which is tough to do with a couple as good-looking as them!

Shout-out to Jason, who’s just about to graduate – that guy is going to be one serious force to be reckoned with. And Jen is no lightweight herself – you should see the amazing notecards she designed for Eric and I as a wedding present. They’re an effortlessly cool, yet kind and caring couple that I was seriously so psyched to photograph.

Thank you, Jason, Jen and Ruthie for coming out to play! You guys are amazing, and last weekend you made me a better photographer.

When I was little, I had an older sister (still have her, too). She was enough older that a lot of her friends babysat for my younger sister and I. Diane and her sister Julie watched us quite a few times when we were little. Isn’t it funny how all these years later I found myself photographing Diane and Julie’s children?

It’s so interesting for me to look at these photos – sure, I’m posting them now, but I took them way back at the beginning of the year, just after Christmas, when I was getting my feet wet with family photography. I so appreciate this wonderful family and their patience with me! Check out this great family – Elaine is the matriarch, and one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met. Look how her brood of three kids has grown!

These are the grandkids – Megan, Alex and Ellie. They were all so sweet and such great sports when we got together on this foggy, biting cold day back in January. I don’t think Megan was very happy with me!

I love these moments in a family shoot that you catch between “posed” shots – so sweet! Thank you SOOOO much, Elaine, Julie & Michael, Diane & Steve, Tom, Megan, Alex & Ellie, for your patience with me and for being so sweet together!

If you’re interested in family pictures, like this family was, but aren’t quite sure when or don’t have an occasion to mark with family photos, it might help you to know that every year in the month or so before the holidays, I run a big discount on family portraits so you can use them on your annual cards! I’ve got a few surprises bubbling for that promotion this year and I’m already looking forward to it, so stay tuned on the blog and  you can learn more about that come October.

Last time I saw Brian and Jenni, they were just Brian and Jenni. But that was years ago, and in the meantime they’ve been busy making some extremely cute Brian-Jenni hybrids named Chance and Paxton. What sweet boys!

I met up with Brian, Jenni, Chance and Paxton about a month ago at the McMenamins’ Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, which is a favorite spot of mine to shoot. I have a wedding there on the 4th of July this year, and I’m so excited! The grounds are really beautiful and we had fun during this shoot, even though it rained a little.

Three-year-olds can be tough for photographers, and so I offer this tip, which Jenni and Brian came up with on the fly: Just grab that kid by the ankle so he can’t run away!

I’m happy to know such a sweet and nice-looking family and had lots of fun reconnecting with them. I’ve also become a pretty addicted reader of Jenni’s blog (and Brian’s blog too!) She keeps it full of recent pictures of her sweet little boys.

Thanks Brian, Jenni, Chance and Paxton, for coming out to play!