Sara Gray Photography Portland, Oregon

How do kids just know how to be photogenic? Maybe it’s the lack of self-consciousness that we all seem to paint on as we get older, or maybe it’s just a constant focus on having fun and being sweet; sugar and spice and yadda yadda yadda?

These kids are totally that way – I had trouble narrowing down the choices from this photo shoot (which was quite a long time ago – these are their Christmas photos from last year!) because they took so many great pictures. They are such good-natured kids, too – except for the pretend sword fight that Jason unleashed on Maddie with a big stick, but that was just hilarious.

I love the above photo so much – I use it in a lot of my marketing materials for family photography because I so love the expressions on their faces and how sweet they are together.

Amy, these cute kids’ mom, won my first e-mail newsletter contest this year so you’ll probably be seeing these kids again this year on the blog! If you want to win one of my contests, check back on the blog on the first of every month and sign up for the e-mail newsletter over on the right side of the blog. Thanks, Maddie and Jason, for coming out to play!

It’s been years since I’ve seen Carrie, but I remember laying next to her on the roof of a houseboat many moons ago staring up at the stars and wondering out loud. Things like, “who will I marry?”

You’re looking at the answer to Carrie’s question: Mark. It’s so fun to see an old friend, and especially because Carrie and Mark seem so very happy together – and part of that might be because they’ve just announced that they’ve got a baby on the way! Congratulations, you guys!

In super-cool indie mama fashion, Carrie put pink streaks in her hair. I love it – I was so pumped when I saw her from a distance. Pink hair on my blog? Yes, please.  To add to her radness, of course, she wore bright yellow shoes. She rocks.

Carrie told me Mark was nervous to be photographed, but he was like an old pro by the time we got to the end of our session. Really though, when the instructions are to look lovingly at your hot wife, how could he have not been awesome?

I seriously feel so lucky – I always end up with the greatest people to photograph. They’re fun, they’re happy and they’re in love. Sometimes I think I must be dreaming to have this kind of an awesome, fun job.

Thanks, Carrie and Mark, for coming to hang out. I can’t wait to see your family grow!

Many photographers do engagement sessions, and one big reason is that we want a chance to get to know our wedding couples. I want to be able to hang out with my couples, pull my camera out and see how they react. I learn so much about my clients at these sessions, and then on the wedding day, I’m more like an old friend than a hired professional.

One of the other cool things that comes out of these sessions, though, is the custom photo guest books that I’ve been making for some of my wedding couples. Instead of the really generic store-bought guest books you can buy with lines for people to sign, these are great high-quality photo books with lots of room for guests to write a nice message.

I just recently got Dan & Annie’s custom photo guest book back from the printer, and I’m so excited about it! I love the photos that they chose for their book, the black leather cover they chose (there are tons of custom options to choose from) and how well it all came together. Their guests should have lots of fun thumbing through them as they write nice messages to wish the newlyweds well. The custom photo guest books are included in my middle wedding photography package right now, which costs $2,400. They can also be purchased ala carte.

…or something like that. Jamie is my brother-in-law, and this past weekend we trekked up through the wheat fields to Pullman, Wash. (where Eric and I met) to WSU to see him graduate.

Can you tell he’s excited? He did a little frolicking in his cap and gown because, seriously, why wouldn’t you?

Jamie is really smart – he graduated with a degree in computational mathematics. Now he’s out to face the real world – seems like just a minute ago I was leaving WSU too.

I’m a girl with only sisters (and one brother-in-law, but he came along later), so marrying Eric gave me two new brothers and it’s been so fun being the sister in the bunch. Here’s the brothers all together – Eric’s on the right, Jamie in the middle and Danny on the left.

Congratulations Jamie! You’re one of the best brother-in-laws I have. Tied with Danny and Kail, of course.

Lilli and I met through, as my friend Erin would say, “my friend Craig.” She moved up to Portland from Eugene last year to pursue acting and costume designing for the theater, and if you ask me, she’s well on her way!

Lilli’s old headshots were getting a little stale for her, so she decided it was time for a change. Now she hands these out at her auditions.

We shot in the Pearl District, and after this shoot I told myself I needed to find some new locations to shoot in because I keep coming back to this cool metal wall. Be original, Sara!

I love Lilli’s classic glamorous look – and I’m sure it’s going to land her lots of parts soon in Portland theater. Be looking out for her in local productions, or if you don’t see her, you might see her costume design work!

If you’re interested in having your acting headshots taken with me, contact me and we’ll get you on the calendar! I also do headshots for other types of professionals. They’re quick, simple and painless – and good for business!

Dressed all alike, with their flirty long eyelashes on a residential street in North Portland, they got some stares. They even got a couple of honks. And right at the end of the shoot, a guy slammed on his brakes, rolled down the window and yelled, “Triple the pleasure!”

Can you blame him? You’re looking at Marianna and the Baby Vamps. They’re a fierce girl band who perform a mixture of 60s covers and their own original music. Go see them if you’re in Portland – they are such fun to watch.

Marianna, Kate and Angie had such a retro quality going on this day that I couldn’t help myself and I shot a lot of black and white. I like those the best from the shoot – they seem so classic.

Marianna and the Baby Vamps are performing tomorrow at Tony Starlight’s Supper Club and Lounge – check out their web site here and go see them!

Thanks, ladies! I had so much fun hanging out with you and I can’t wait to see you perform again soon!

Let’s go back to where we left off yesterday: super cute, athletic and sweet Kristi and Jason are getting married – yay! – and these are some of the photos I got during their engagement session last weekend. I seriously can’t wait for wedding season to start! Even though it’s going to be crazy, I get to work with the most amazing people with their weddings.

Kristi and Jason are really wonderful people – I met them for the first time just before this session and they are so chill that they just jumped right in and had fun. I already feel like I’m a part of “Team Kristi & Jason” and that’s awesome.

Check out their taste – they look like they’re right out of a J.Crew catalog in a few of these!

Remember how I said I can control the weather with my mind? Well, this was the point in the shoot where we decided it was time to get wet and we waited as a storm cloud approached. Check out that rain coming down in sheets!

Thank you so much, Kristi & Jason, for your great attitudes and your willingness to get wet! I hope you had a great trip to Oregon this time around and I can’t wait for the wedding!

I’m not going to lie: I think I controlled the weather on Saturday with my mind. It’s alright if you’re impressed. I was driving over the Coast Range on my way out to the Oregon Coast to meet with Kristi & Jason, one of my August wedding couples, and it was a complete deluge. Then, by sheer willpower, I got the sun to come out for about an hour so we could take some fun pictures. Then, when I wanted rain, I turned around and it was coming my way. Amazing.

So, now that we’ve established I can control the weather, check out this amazing couple! I had so much fun on the coast with Kristi and Jason on Saturday, and I can’t wait to photograph their wedding in August. They’re such a great-looking and fun couple, and they take such great pictures I seriously had trouble picking some favorites to put up on the blog.

Kristi and Jason run – in fact, Kristi told me that Jason is a triathlete – and so we did some fun photos with their running shoes on. They were having so much fun, it was great.

Here’s a funny story about Jason: when he smiles for the camera, it’s a good smile. But when I told Kristi to lean over and kiss him on the cheek, he totally lit up. That’s the smile of a man in love.

I have so many photos I want to share from this great engagement session that I’m going to post some more tomorrow – stay tuned!

I love meeting people that are sweet and nice and caring, but still have a real penchant for humor. Missy is one of those. She went to my high school, but graduated the year before I started. I saw her, though, in her various roles in the theater department and she was really amazing. Last year, at an alumni fundraising show, she was so very pregnant, and did a tongue-in-cheek reprise of the song “Somewhere that’s Green” from Little Shop of Horrors that brought the house down.

But Missy’s life really is pretty swell – no white picket fence, but she’s got a great husband, Brian, and little Caden came along shortly after that performance and sweetened the deal even more. He turned one a couple of months ago, and I was there to take some one-year-old photos for them.

It was a rainy late winter day, so we settled for an inside shoot which ended up working out great – they had this great red chair that I just fell in love with. Caden was so sweet perched up there – he made my day!

Thank you so much, Brian, Missy and Caden! You’re such a wonderful family and I can’t wait to see as little Caden grows up even more!

I’ve been doing some thinking, and I think that I love sharing pictures. I have had some particularly wonderful engagement sessions lately and since I posted Dan & Annie’s session, I have been wanting to post more, so I’m going to!

Annie and Dan recently ordered their photo guest book – I’ll show you what these are soon on the blog – and it was so fun to see which engagement photos they chose to put in the book. I love comparing my favorites with client favorites – but of course, at the end of the day, it’s client favorites that matter.

The photo below is an example of a photo that Dan and Annie love – and isn’t is great? I don’t mean, wow, I’m a great photographer – I mean that they are so genuine in it, and when I’m lucky enough to be the one with a camera in my hand when those moments happen, it’s like serendipity.

If I haven’t said it enough, I am so looking forward to Annie & Dan’s wedding in October. They are such a well-matched couple with great families and it’s going to be such a happy day.

This last photo was one of my favorites from the session – there’s a series of these black and white ones and I just love them. If I had been running my “favorite photo of the month” posts on the blog, this would have been March’s photo.

From now on, I’m going to allocate two posts to engagement sessions, because they’re just too fun! You can see another one coming up this week on Thursday and Friday – Kristi & Jason! Thanks, Dan & Annie, for being so cool and easy to photograph.