Wow! I love making portraits!!! Erin has been growing like a weed! (Or time flies?) I loved having fun together on this shoot!!
I love a people who aren't afraid to be unique, and Erin is that! from her cropped curly hair to her choice to do Running Start and spend more time with her band... the Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. They are playing Saturday (May 4th) at the Issaquah Library at 8:30pm, if you're free! Part of Art Walk :) We started out at Molly Moon Ice Cream...
because the words of the prophets are written on the parlor wall...
Oh wait! We started out at the library... a library-ish place... for our self-described book nerd :)
And moved outside with a whole stack of Erin's own books that have been favorites of hers, only her well-worn books. This portrait might be my favorite... but there are so many more I love :)
A couple hours before this shoot, Caarin (mom!) and I enjoyed watching experts at work: Blake on hair, and Dari on make up, at Gene Juarez Salon in Redmond. I love Erin's choices for clothes, her plaid flannel & ripped jeans are so classic northwest, we could drop her in any decade of the last 4. Love the (also classic) checkerboard Vans, and the Mouse Rat T-shirt made a big impression on a select few people I know! Apparently ya gotta be in the know... I had to look up the "band" up after the 5th or 6th "rad" "love it" "yeah!!!" :)
Yeah, I like Erin's T-shirts :) - - at some point, I may get photos of E with her band, for now, some beats in the park :) Check out the booots! Love!
I was repeatedly stunned at how pretty Erin is during this shoot -
maybe because I lived next door when she was born!
Maybe because we have been enjoying the same church for the last twelve YEARS and I haven't quite realized that she's nearly an adult already - maybe because when I see her smiling and greeting people at the door, or flopped on the couch in our church Cafè with her phone, it's different than
when she looks directly into my lens with no smile (or hair) to hide behind :)
Erin spoke to our whole church at her confirmation ceremony a few years ago, and she spoke with such sincerity and vulnerability, I was so touched. I loved getting to know her a little bit more on her senior shoot :) I've taken Erin's portrait in the past, along with her sister & brother, and all I really knew about her back then was that she was the one most willing to help me out!! Hahaaa! Everyone out there, your family photos go a lot faster when you humor the photographer! Aw, it wasn't that bad, not at all, but Erin did corral her siblings and pull them closer-than-is-comfortable-for-anyone-uh-personal-space!-because-that's-what-looks-best-in-your-photo-for-your-Mom!!
This day, actually hanging out for the afternoon, I discovered that Erin loves the same books I love! Officially my girls' books, but I read them avidly too. My kids and I have been on so many adventures together, even when we read them separately, we still have the same memories in our heads, ready conversations on our lips :)
So fun that Erin performs with her band of the Kaleidoscope School of Music :) I get to say it again - the Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs :)
I love this one, it was when Erin was deciding what to do next - but I like this just how it is:
I am just so excited to see where the Lord our God takes this girl!
I like her a lot :)
Her irresistibly beautiful smile!!!!
We'll end with a little prayer, and a slideshow :)
God, thank you for Erin. Fill her always with the safe knowledge of how wide, how high and how deep your love is for her, the glorious & unique creation of yours that is her :) Thank you Lord, Amen.