Melissa’s Blog

Jaime and Ryan at home on Lake Erie Friday, July 30, 2010

I’m in Windsor, Ontario right now, gearing up for a full weekend of shooting.  Tomorrow I get to photograph Jaime and Ryan’s wedding - and if you can believe it, they actually found some time for me the day before their wedding!  I took a drive out to their place in Harrow this morning to go over some wedding plans and do a quick lifestyle session.  I hadn’t met Ryan yet - so this was a great opportunity for us to hang out, chat, giggle (them), snort (me) and get super excited about tomorrow!

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Sometimes you’ve just got to roll with it Thursday, July 29, 2010

When you open yourself up and let go of expectations…life can take you on a wild ride.  This past week I found myself on a spontaneous road trip through Washington state.  It took a couple days to get the camera going, so I don’t have anything from day one and two…but here is a little collection from the rest of the trip.

This photo was taken in the magic forest.  One of the most beautiful places I have ever camped in my life.  I saw this tree and found myself tempted to take the trite photo up the trunk, at the sky. Unable to press the shutter, I sat there looking around for something different.  I noticed the light on my arms, and immediately thought of sticking my face in the shot. When I looked at the back of the screen, my first reaction was to delete it because I was out of focus…but for some reason I couldn’t.  I kept staring at it, trying convincing myself it was garbage….but yeah, in the end I decided it was cool. 

Spent a day in Seattle. 

The fish market was a zoo.  The only thing I really saw was the back of Steve’s head.

Had plans to go over to the San Juan lslands on the Saturday, but after hearing about the 2 hour wait, we decided to go exploring.  Steve found us a park on the beach, and to our photographic delight, there was this old abandoned dock down the beach.  Perfect place to hide from the afternoon sun.

Steve showing off.

Keeping ourselves amused.

Named him George.

Filed some adoption paperwork and took him with us. 

Cama Beach State Park. Trying to decide where to spend the night.  No campsites anywhere…then we realized we didn’t see any “no overnight parking” signs in the lot….

So, we found a lovely place to lay our heads. 

The magic forest.  Free camping up a secret road outside of Mt. Rainier National Park.  What a jem.

I can’t help take these pictures.  Those of you that know me well, know I have a love affair with my tent.  The Marmot Swallow.  Best all around camping/backpacking tent out there.  I’m sure by now I must have a good 20 or 30 of these…stay tuned for my “swallow series”

Mt. Rainier, Washington.  The “I saw it” shot. 

We were hiking along this trail and Steve saw a bear.  He screamed, threw me to the ground and I managed to get this shot as he was running away.  Turned out it was just a marmot. Some guy…

Found ourselves a beauty little park and lake to escape the 97 degree weather.  Moses Lake, WA.

What’s a summer afternoon without some frisbee golf???

Last shot of the trip.  We had put the gear away after leaving the park, but couldn’t help but pull over for a few more while the sun set.