Travel

 by Terri

Sydney | {Stunning Senior}

Wow, I must say this is one of my favorite sessions, but I want to preface it with the fact that this is my niece, so I’ve had more freedom with her session and we have PLAYED a lot with our time together.  We started out in my studio a month ago, then the next day moved to the “graffiti garages” in Tacoma and the last stop (about a week ago) was in The Dalles, Oregon, where she lives and is a senior at The Dalles-Wahtonka High School this year.  So, there is a lot of variety in her photos, but that is a good way to describe Sydney. She is the youngest, her older sister is a junior in college, so Sydney is the last at home and is enjoying her senior year, having lots of fun with friends, working hard in her classes, taking some college courses, playing sports, involved in the ASB, and is a member of the 4H (won the top award for her goat at their county fair)…this girl is the whole package! She has goals for her future, ideas about what she wants out of life, plans for the next steps and yet, still realizes that she can balance all the parts of her life to make it work. Can you tell that I think pretty highly of her? Well, I do…and that is not to say that her older sister (Samantha) is not just as amazing, because she is…their parents have done an incredible job raising two beautiful and well adjusted girls who will both be very successful in whatever they do in life!

So, back to Sydney, she is beautiful, tall and graceful, athletic, very social, has a GREAT laugh and very kind and thoughtful…and so in having the privilege of taking her senior photos, I wanted to try and capture all aspects of who she is…hopefully, I have done just that. We had lots of fun, did lots of laughing and goofing around and in the end, I at least love her photos…and hope she does! So, without further ado…here are MANY photos of Syd…as we call her…enjoy!

Sydney has this idea to recreate a photo or something similar to one she saw of Lady Di…I don’t know about you, but I think she is way prettier!

I love Syd’s laugh…so contagious…what a beautiful smile to go with it!

Last shot of the day at the Tacoma graffiti garages…couldn’t resist this shot…good thing it was covered as it was raining….what’s new!

As you can see, we had fun and Syd is tall, so jumping is easy for her and she can get quite high…it was fun and there was lots of  laughter during our day in The Dalles!

This old house that Syd was sitting in the doorway of was a perfect setting for our photos…it just seemed to fit her…lots of character and so many stories within!

You can see, we had fun, being silly and showing that serious isn’t always the way to go…

Isn’t Sydney beautiful…what a delight to photograph, a natural beauty who is SO sweet and down to earth!

I love this photo and when I found this quote…it just seem to fit Sydney…and I couldn’t resist adding it to the photo…it all seemed to go together perfectly!

in Families / Seniors & Teens / Teens / Travel 2 comments
 by Terri

Visit to Tennessee

Last weekend my husband and I took a long weekend to visit good friends in Tennessee, Tullahoma to be exact! We’ve known them since we lived there, so probably for about 20 years. It’s been 15 years since we moved back to Washington, but we stay in touch, visit one another often and are always emailing (or facebooking!) one another…so we don’t let the distance affect our friendship. We always have a great time with them and this was no exception…the time always goes by too quickly and we hate to say goodbye, but we know that we’ll see each other again – hopefully, later this year!

If you’ve never been to Tennessee, you are missing out…it’s beautiful there and so different from Washington that it’s a real treat to see the countryside as we travel around there. On Saturday of our visit, we headed out for some tours of wineries after breakfast at Cracker Barrel (if you’ve never eaten at one, I do recommend it…especially the breakfasts!!). The weather was great, although we did have a few sprinkles during the day, but still warm and the sun quickly returned. At one point we were on a bit of an adventure…when the GPS took us on some roads that were probably not fit for a tourist! Granted, there had probably been some major damage from the flooding rains the previous month (and we did see parts where the road had washed out!)…but it was still narrow and at several points, a creek running alongside, actually crossed OVER the road. We were all laughing and just enjoying the day…and I believe that at one point I said something about “watch, we’ll come to a dead end or something.”  You probably guessed it…no “dead end” but a “ROAD CLOSED” sign appeared about 30-40 minutes of driving…all we could do was laugh! It didn’t dampen our spirits and we just turned around and found a new way to our destination…of course, I had to hand the camera to my husband while we were on this adventure (he was in the front seat), to show what we were seeing…it really was quite beautiful and we did pass by a few homes along the way…but it certainly wasn’t the “paved” roads we put in the GPS request for travel…oh well, we had a good time and have a great story now!

Here are some photos from our visit there…such a great time and look forward to seeing them all again!

Lunch (dinner in the south) at Miss Mary Bobo’s in Lynchburg…HIGHLY recommended…always a treat for us to enjoy some wonderful homestyle Southern food!

One of the very best pecan pies I’ve had…and the whipped cream on top had Jack Daniel’s Whiskey in it (the distillery is just down the street from here)

Our hostess for our meal…they are all so kind and friendly and add to the wonderful experience of a meal here.

Saturday morning…sun is bright and warming up fast!

This was alongside the road by one of the wineries…couldn’t resist!!

Just one of the many times the creek went across the road!

I love old barns and homesteads…this one was behind our friends’ son’s home…had to snap a few photos!

Our friends, Allen and Brenda, with their three beautiful grandchildren!

Alex is three and as a typical three year old…he’s on the go!

Carly is one and not quite walking, but crawls up a storm!!!

And, Abigail (as you’ve seen before!) is  3 1/2 months old…quite content on her papa’s lap!

LOVE the color of these hydrangea’s – they obviously bloom much earlier in the south than our area…too bad I couldn’t bring some home with me!

in Personal / Travel / Uncategorized 10 comments
 by Terri

Blast from the past…

While on our cruise last month, I spotted someone with something I consider an “antique” – a Polaroid camera! In this day and age of digital, I can’t remember the last time I had seen a Polaroid camera. It was quite a sight as they individual was strolling about the ship deck with this bulky looking thing…and taking photographs! Of course, I couldn’t resist taking his picture…and sharing with some of you who might not know about these ancient cameras!

In 1929, a man by the name of Edwin Land, started the process which eventually let to the Polaroid, or what was originally called “instant film.” It was nearly 20 years before the first instant camera went on sale to the public…for $95 which today would cost about $850. These quickly sold out, the idea was a huge hit and it was the beginning of Polaroid’s success. Many models were developed over the years and prices varied…until the mid 1990’s, when sales began to slide and sadly, in the last year, the company announced they would no longer produce the “instant film.” Thus, the end of a huge part of the history of photography…and although we can’t instantly have a print in our hand, with digital, we an instantly see our photos on the back of our cameras and it gives us that satisfaction of seeing what we captured! As the evolution of Polaroid developed over the years, I would imagine that some day my great (maybe great-great!) grandchildren will be chuckling at our excitement over the digital cameras we have today!

Although we can’t “print” instantly from our cameras…we can create the same look with software…thus satisfying our need for the “Polaroid” look! Here’s what I created from a photo I took of my granddaughter.

in Just Because / Personal / Travel 0 comments