So I came back a little earlier than I’d planned to the blog to wish everyone a happy new year! I’m so excited for what the new year is going to bring for Sara Gray Photography, and I wanted to share some of those plans here so you can all look forward to it with me. (Here’s Eric and I in our Christmas photo this year).

More quality, less quantity: I’ve been blogging five days a week here on the blog since April 2009, and after having a few conversations with readers, I’ve decided that I’m going to cut back my posting in favor of more in-depth, high-quality posts. In 2010, I’ll be posting twice a week, which will give more of you the chance to see my work for longer before it’s buried under other posts. Those two weekly posts will be longer, featuring more photos and more details about the great people in them. If you’ve got things you’d like to see on the blog, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Weddings, weddings, weddings: I’ve set as a goal for Sara Gray Photography to photograph 25 weddings in 2010. I’ve already got a few on my calendar, but not all of them! How can you help me reach that goal? Tell your friends who are getting engaged (70% of engaged couples make it official over the holidays, so you probably have a few engaged friends now!) and if they book, you get a fun referral gift from me.

So you want to be a model?: I’m revamping my senior rep program this year, and I’ll be announcing that in late March on the blog. If you’ve got friends who are high school juniors (or you’re a high school junior), let them know about the blog and the program so that they can save money on senior photos, plus be able to earn cool free stuff by recommending their friends and classmates.

2009 was a great year, and I’ll be sharing next week on the blog about the wedding ideas that inspired me over the last year. But I’m also looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

Today, Eric and I are in Spokane with his family to spend some time and celebrate Christmas together. Because I have lots of family time to spend in the next few days and over the holiday, I’ll be taking a two-week break from the blog. So go, enjoy some family time of your own and check back on January 4 to start the new year with Sara Gray Photography!

Merry Christmas!

This is my friend Erika. Usually, she lives far, far away in a fairy-tale land called Denmark. But every once in awhile she ends up here, and last week I got to spend her birthday with her having a sleepover complete with a My Little Pony birthday cake.

The next morning we went on a walk in freezing cold Tacoma, where her sister lives. That’s when I snapped these.

This year, Erika and I spent both our birthdays together. And Eric’s birthday, too. Not bad for living on two separate continents. Happy birthday, friend!

That’s right, today is Eric’s birthday. Hooray! However, Eric’s not a huge fan of being photographed, so in the interest of keeping him happy in the days leading up to his birthday, I spared him. You’ll just have to look at some old pictures of my sweetie today.

This is the oldest picture I could come up with — this is just briefly after I first met Eric, in college. I take no credit for these photos, by the way.

This is us during the first semester we went out, which has now been about seven years ago. Crazy!

And for the sake of currency, the most recent photo of us taken. Happy birthday, Eric! I hope it’s the best one yet.

Baking is probably my number one hobby these days. For Thanksgiving yesterday, I made an apple pie, a pumpkin pie and a birthday cake for my aunt Ceil. I don’t have photos of those creations, but I did want to take this lazy post-Thanksgiving day to share a recipe for homemade butter croissants, which are one of my favorite things. Enjoy!

Taken from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
.25 cup sugar
1 tablespoon rapid-rise yeast
1.5 teaspoons salt
1.25 cups warm whole milk (110 degrees)

Butter square:
3 sticks unsalted butter, chilled
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

I large egg, lightly beaten, for brushing

1. For the dough: Combine 2.75 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the milk and mix until the dough comes together, about two minutes.

2. Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and knead the dough until it forms a sticky ball and becomes elastic, about 8 minutes. If after 5 minutes the dough appears overly sticky and doesn’t come together, add the remaining .25 cup of flour, one tablespoon at a time. Scrape the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, about one hour.

3. For the butter square: Lay three sticks of butter side by side on a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and cover with a second sheet of parchment paper. Gently pound the butter with a rolling pin until the butter is softened and the flour is completely incoporated, then roll it into an eight-inch square. Wrap the butter square in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, about one hour.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and roll into an 11-inch square. Place the chilled butter square diagonally in the center of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough up over the butter square so that the corners meet in the middle and pinch the dough seams to seal.

5. Using a rolling pin, gently tap the dough, starting from the center and working outward, until the square becomes larger and the butter begins to soften. Gently roll the dough into a 14-inch square, dusting with extra flour as needed. Fold the dough into thirds to form a rectangle, and then fold the rectangle in thirds to create a square. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

6. Repeat step 5 and let dough rest in the refrigerator for another two hours.

7. For the croissants: Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the chilled dough into a 20-inch square on a lightly-floured surface. Cut the dough in half down the middle.

8. Cut each piece of dough into three small rectangles and cut each small rectangle on the diagonal into two triangles (you’ll have 12 triangles).Gently stretch each triangle of dough to lengthen and even out the sides.

9. Gently roll up the dough, from the wide end to the top, gently stretching as you go. Lay the croissants on the prepared baking sheets, the pointed end facing down, and bend the ends of each croissant inward to form a crescent shape. Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and let rise slowly in the refrigerator, 10 to 16 hours.

10. Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle racks and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the croissants with egg and bake until golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking. Transfer the croissants to a wire rack and cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I have a great community of photographers that I’m a part of and it’s great to have people to always bounce ideas off of, share with and get honest feedback from. Below, some of my buddies: Maalaea, Missy, Katie, Bunn, Bethany, Lorna and Jen.

A couple of weeks ago, a few of my photographer lady friends and I headed off to the beach, where after a summer of really hard work, we got to play around and shoot just for fun. Below is Mel from Melanie Jade Photography.

A few of our own even brought their wedding duds and we got to have them model for us — fun!

I’ll be posting some photos from Maalaea’s session and Kelly’s session on the blog in the next week or so — stay tuned for beachy fun.

Isn’t it weird watching someone grow up? I don’t have kids, so my best example of this is my nephew, Forrest. I was literally there the day he was born (it was a Tuesday, and my parents let me miss school back in the fifth grade) and now he’s 14 and it’s amazing.

Forrest just finished his first water polo season at Hillsboro High School, and so a few weeks ago, I went back to the world of photographing high school sports (which is what I used to do for a small community newspaper in rural Washington state) to commemorate the season. Turns out, even though Forrest is just a freshman, he is really awesome at water polo. Of course, I’m not biased at all.

It has been really fun to watch him grow throughout the season and I can’t wait to watch his games in different sports throughout the next year and then again in the pool for his sophomore season. Of course, I used to play water polo, so there’s another place where I’m totally unbiased.

Yes, that’s right — Forrest scoring a goal. He’s a lefty who shoots with both hands, and in this game, he shot and scored twice — once with each hand. To say the least, I’m a proud aunt.

I don’t know how many of you love your neighborhoods. I mean, like, love it enough to write a love letter to it on your blog. But I really do love my neighborhood that much.

Eric and I moved to Hillsdale in the spring, and here’s what I love about it: it’s tiny, and even people who live in Portland sometimes don’t know where it is. We have the best farmer’s market ever (these photos are from last weekend’s array of fall produce) and it’s open year-round, which is pretty amazing. We can walk everywhere, Baker & Spice is my favorite place on earth (and also the best bakery in Portland, hands down) and everyone seems to be a retired librarian, driving Volvos from the late 1970s and smiling at each other on the sidewalk.

Every Sunday, we go to the Farmer’s Market. Eric hasn’t missed a week, even though I’ve had to miss a few because of weddings this summer. We usually have a bagel sandwich from Tastebud, which is also phenomenal. Eric usually gets the lox, but I’m a fan of the seasonal — first it was peach during the summer, now pumpkin or pear (above). Delicious.

Do you love your neighborhood?

Yes, my friends, it was two years ago today that I tied the knot myself. It was an unseasonably warm October Saturday and a great day to be with family and friends and celebrate our relationship and the things to come in our life together. Here’s us on our wedding day two years ago: (Photo by the talented Kevin Meyers)

I can hardly believe it’s been two years since we got married, but when I think about it, a lot has happened in that time. We’ve each lost a grandparent, we moved to Argentina and back, went through a career change, made lots of new friends, learned to really cook, started doing the dishes like real adults and still have managed not to break down and get a puppy. And we were both a little chubbier back then, too.

These photos were taken a few weeks ago by my dear friend Missy Cochran in honor of our anniversary — don’t we look different?

When Eric and I were dating, and people would ask us how long we’d been together, we’d say, for example, “Three years.” Then the other one of us would say, “Longest three years of my life!”

Truth is, though, the last seven years with him have been the very best years of my life. Happy anniversary, Eric! I love you!

Copenhagen has become one of our favorite spots — that might be because it’s awesome, and also might be because some of our dearest friends, Erika and Morten, live there. About a week ago, we got home from a nine-day trip to Copenhagen and it was lots of fun. Here are some photos from along the way.

Erika and Morten live in a great little town called Lyngby, about 20 minutes from Copenhagen by train.

Above is a Danish traditional lunch, smorrebrød, which was served in a unique way with breaded, fried herring.

One thing we really appreciated was how much time we got to spend outside the city this trip — we paddled and walked and even rode horses one day while we were there.

This is Vilde and Alma — they are sisters and Morten’s sister Louise is their mom.

What a great trip! I love Scandinavia so much and it was such a nice visit. Thanks Erika and Morten, as usual, for a really nice time.

Note: If you’re in Scandinavia and looking for a wedding photographer, give me a shout-out! I travel worldwide and really love it when I get a chance to do an international wedding.