This is my dad.

I've had this image in my head for a long while and I finally made it a reality. I didn't watermark it on purpose because it would take away from every item in this picture. I created this for myself. For my children. For their children. To show them all what he is to me. What he loves. What he collects. What inspires him.

My dad. In his shed. "The" shed. It's THE shed, ya know? It contains relics that have made a larger impact on my psyche than I ever used to realize.

My dad is a bug collector. He has cigar boxes full of specimens he trapped, humanely euthanized (ask me sometime how you euthanize a bug), pinned in place, labeled with dates and who found them where. My name is in those boxes over and over. As are my brother's and sister's. And his own and my step-mom's. Even some from my grandparents. And others.

My dad is a procurer of vintage men's shirts. His daily uniform since I can remember has been one his "shirts" (I put it in quotes because they're his "shirts"), shorts and Converse All-Stars. Although lately, he's on a Jack Purcell kick. (Bad pun.)

My dad is a brilliant artist. He has illustration abilities I can only attempt to emulate. I am lucky to have inherited even just a sliver of this man's talent. He is the reason I do what I do. My biggest inspiration.

My dad is a Lego maniac. I'm sure it killed him when I was little that I was never that into Legos. He tried to get us to play with them. But they bored me to death. But my children, Lego-obssessed, never stop talking about Grampaw's Mini-Fig collection. Or his self-designed Lego scenes. Like the one he's been working on recently, the underwater volcano, complete with a vein of molten rock flowing up the center of the volcano and the Lego sea life that has found respite and sustenance upon and around the flourishing underwater ecosystem he built from scratch. Did I mention he did this with Legos?

My dad has always been my voice of reason. Even when the reason sucked. He's a no-nonsense truth-teller, even when the truth hurt. He picked me up when I fell. Taught me to ride a bike. Taught me to draw. Taught me to drive. Taught me to camp. Taught me to fish. Taught me about film and photography. Taught me about graphic design and art direction. Taught me to not give a crap about what people thought of me because I was different. Taught me to follow my artistic inspiration, no matter how weird others might have thought it was. He was there for me even when it was inconvenient for him. My list could go on and on.

I am always proud to show him off and to sing his praises because I am proud of him. Proud of who he is and who I am because of him. Happy Father's Day, Dad. Love you.

Service Highlight • Custom Wall Design

We are continually adding to the services we offer. Custom wall design is one of our newest services. If you have a wall in your home you'd like to dedicate some beautiful images of your family to, one fee covers your photo session, cost of the collection, delivery and installation in your home. You can even see the collection on the wall before you hang it with our virtual wall design service, which is also included in the fee. All you have to do is send us a picture of the wall you'd like to design (or we can come in and do it for you!), with a piece of 8.5"x11" paper taped to it for scaling purposes and we will provide you with a mock up of what your selected collection will look like. All of our framed prints and other types of wall collections are from our amazing lab, White House Custom Colour. The collection we are using as an example is our Classic Black & White Collection. It's a clean and simple, classic way to decorate a wall with beautiful high-key black and white portraits we took in-studio.

This is an image captured of a wall in my new office I'd like to see some sweet pictures of my kids on. I took the picture with my iPhone 5. Note the letter-size piece of paper. That is a key element in getting an accurate mockup of your collection. Your wall picture doesn't have to be fancy...it just needs to show the whole wall and some of the surrounding space. 

We never pass up an opportunity to rave about our lab, WHCC, and the products they offer. From traditional framed prints to metal prints to canvas float wraps and everything in between, we are proud to provide our clients with their products matched with our work to create beautiful custom decor to fit any aesthetic.

So remember that TPD Studios is your one-stop shop for decorating your home with portraits (we do fine art, too!). We shoot, design, frame, deliver and install!

And, of course, any opportunity I get to showcase my two favorite little people, I will take. :)

Mommy & Me • Kristen & Liam • Kelsey Creek Farm • Bellevue, WA

Happy June, everyone! It's my birthday month and I am so excited to see the sun keep coming out! Gotta love light! Speaking of sunshine, this pair is close to my heart and I have had the pleasure of getting to know 2-year old Liam since he was born. He is a very inquisitive, special little person who loves rocks, tractors and running. He is a tough customer when it comes to getting those perfect smiling portraits you have to walk away with at least one of but if you know me at all, you know I love a challenge! And when I go back through images of him, I always have a big smile on my face because he's just such a fun kid and there are always some great moments captured. Kristen, his mama, is pretty easy on the eyes, too, and how sweet are they together? If you're looking for a quick, easy and fun weekend activity, Mommy and Me shoots are where it's at!

Weymouth Family • Kelsey Creek Farm • Bellevue, WA

The Weymouths are perfect examples of return clients who have become friends and given me the honor of capturing some huge life moments. See that beautiful bride at the top of the blog? That is Randi, absolutely radiant on her wedding day. She and her husband, Matt, now have a beautiful two-year old daughter, who I have been lucky enough to get to know. She is a little ball of energy with lots of personality. She's big into running as fast as she can, usually in the opposite direction of her parents. She is also really good at smelling the daisies. She will soon be a big sister and I am so looking forward to spending time with this beautiful family again when they welcome their new little bundle into the world.

Blogging, New Space, New Commitment

Who is watching the marketing workshop with Sue Bryce on creativeLIVE?? I am, I am! Every time I watch her, I am hit hard with truths I need to face. In business and in life. I am making a commitment (along with my friend, Christiana Childers) to blog not once a week but *GULP* twice a week. Not only that but I am going to be surveying all of my past clients (as many as I can get a hold of at least) to see how I can improve my products and services. Yikes. My newsletter will be coming out soon so I will be including a link to my survey there. I may even give out vouchers just for filling it out! Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

On another note, my family and I just completed a big move into a new home and I am so excited about our new space. There is tons of natural light and gorgeous birch floors to work on. Can't wait to get more babies in here! Lots of change in the air around here and I am looking forward to what life will bring! Now I just have to figure out what else to blog this week...

Elisabeth A. • TPD Senior Delegate • Sammamish High School

I am so excited about my senior program this year. I have spent countless hours refining the what and the how. Here is the promo I created for my rep for her to share, as teens love to do with those iPhones and Androids! I really hope this thing goes viral!

I am equally excited that my studio team is coagulating so well. I truly feel blessed. I now have a photo assistant/studio manager, a hugely talented second photographer and a hair and makeup artist to die for. What more could a girl ask for??

Hello, world! I'm out from under my rock!

My goodness. Such time has been lost. I'm still trying to pick up the pieces. The beginning of March was met with some unexpected emergencies in the form of a severe reaction to peanuts suffered by my daughter the same day I was supposed to run a Charity Booth fundraiser. Luckily, a very gracious photographer happened to be at Pioneer Coffee, where the event was to be held and he ran the booth for me while I accompanied my little one to the ER. Funny how things unfold and just seem to work out in spite of life throwing nails in the street you are driving down.

The event went forward without a hitch and we even made the paper! You can see the resulting images here. Thanks to Cedric Duty for covering for me and Deanna at Pioneer for hosting and her continued support!

My daughter's reaction was very scary. And led me to disseminate  a message to parents of non-allergy sufferers to coach their children on the importance of not sharing treats with their friends in case of those allergies. Coincidentally, the funds raised at Charity Booth event will be used to launch a safety awareness program in the school district next year and while it is still in its infant stage, I'm hoping that this message will be able to be communicated along with the message of the use of helmets while doing sports, such as skiing, skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.

Her reaction also sent her immune system out of commission and she developed a pretty severe flu, which was then passed to my son, me and my husband. We are all just now starting to feel normal again. We are a healthy family and save the normal sniffles winter brings, we have never had the flu in our house. It really is debilitating! In turn, I had to bump a shoot with two beautiful newborn girls so I didn't put them at risk. It made the shoot that much sweeter when I was finally well enough to come and capture them! Here are few favorites. The knit headbands were lovingly created by my mom.

March is also the month of my daughter's birthday and so there was some planning going on in there, too, and the day before her birthday is our wedding anniversary so throw in trying to maintain an immaculate home due to having it on the market, this March was pretty insane. Somehow, we made it work. 

I found a sliver of time to do a quick birthday shoot with my daughter, the results of which turned out absolutely beautifully. I am so very excited to start shooting in this style with girls and women. Stay tuned for more information on my makeover experience and more styled shoots! Thanks to the countless hours of studying the work and concepts of the incomparable Sue Bryce, I am truly starting to understand all that goes into making a truly beautiful, genuine, connected portrait. I am so excited to bestow this gift upon my clients!

I must also extend a huge thanks to all of my clients, fans, supporters, friends and family members who voted for me in the Macaroni Kid Snoqualmie-Issaquah Family Choice Awards! We walked away with our very first award! Without your votes, I never would have taken the cake so thank you, thank you, thank you! If you are a parent in the Issaquah/Sno Valley area, you should sign up for Mac Kid! It is truly an invaluable resource for families! If you aren't local, go to the national Mac Kid site and find the newsletter nearest you and sign up!