Earlier this week, I had the chance to do something really fun. I’m a wedding photographer, but it’s so fun to be able to work on something new that stretches me as an artist and lets me try things I only dream about. I got to shoot FASHION. Like, with real beautiful models and gorgeous clothes and crazy shadowy light. It was a total blast. Here are just a couple of photos so you can see what fun I had.

Be looking out for the whole collection when Portland’s own WeMa Designs introduces their fall line!

If you have been reading my blog for awhile now, you know I’m a huge fan of GemKitty. Their design-your-own process is perfect for everyday, but lends itself particularly well to bridesmaid gifts since you can personalize each piece of handcrafted jewelry. And any day now, they’ll be launching design-your-own earrings! I recently got together with the masterminds behind GemKitty to help them with some new photos of their beautiful stuff.

This is Cecilia. She’s stunning and an up-and-coming Portland model. I loved photographing her!

This model is my sister, Emily. She loves earrings and wears them like crazy, so she was so excited to be a model for this shoot!

There are so many great varieties of earrings that’ll be available through GemKitty once they launch.

Thanks, gals, for being so fun to photograph! Now get over to GemKitty and get yourself a necklace or some new earrings!

Every once in awhile, I get the opportunity to work on a cool project with a brand or product line. Recently, I paired up with SameUnderneath, a really cool eco-conscious clothing brand based in Portland, to photograph their spring line.

I thought I’d share a few of the photos here — aren’t the clothes awesome? Not to mention we had a beautiful afternoon and some seriously good-looking models to make this shoot really fun.

I just got the above sweater. It’s amazing.

I love all the earth tones throughout the collection — very Portland.

Thanks to the gang at SameUnderneath and my pal Noel for lining the shoot up — I had a ton of fun!

I wanted to share some extras from Rachel and Neal’s engagement session, which was sort of train-themed and came out super cute. Below is the video from their session.

Rachel and Neal from Sara Gray on Vimeo.

Rachel and Neal also ordered a guest book that’s bright green — it’s sitting on my desk right now and I want to show it to the world, it’s so cute. Here’s the design.

Two years ago, when I got married, Eric and I thought of an idea for a creative guest book solution, and we made our own book featuring our engagement photos, so people could sign it like a yearbook. Now it’s one of our most favorite heirlooms from the wedding, with everyone’s kind thoughts written among photos of us together.

When I started my business, I wanted my clients to have that same favorite collection from their wedding, so I’ve offered photo guest books from the beginning. This year, though, I’m having my books printed by KISS, my fabulous album company, and they are amazing linen books with beautiful photo paper and lots of space for guests to sign throughout.

Since I blogged Erica and Nick’s engagement session on Monday, I wanted to show off their guest book design here — enjoy!

That might have been a bit of a lyric stretch, but I got a kick out of it. I’m so excited to share with you some photos that I recently shot for GemKitty — where you can design your own necklace. It’s such a fun site, and I love being able to watch their business grow.

We had loads of fun doing this shoot, running around in the South Waterfront with two amazing models (Maalaea and Stephanie) and a whole ton of necklaces.

Above, Maalaea is wearing “The Dash” — a GemKitty classic design. You can go make your own with whatever material you want.

I love including the Portland Streetcar in shoots — it’s such a local touch!

The team at GemKitty are so good at pairing multiple necklaces together in a way that looks cool.

Stephanie is a total yogi — so we went for it here. I love how part of her personality shines through.

Thanks to Arwa & Todd from GemKitty and Stephanie and Maalaea for making this such a fun day!

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.