Sweetness comes in pairs

Catching up - part four :: New Life. Renewed Love.

Parker Moses W. :: born 11.11.10 | 6:38 pm | 8 lbs 1 oz | 20 1/2 in
Welcomed with love, by mommy, daddy, and most of all by a loving big sister. :)

Finally a portfolio website for Elena Wilken Photographer!!

It's been in the works (concept stage and otherwise) on and off for a long time now.
But it will be live and fully functional, waiting for you to browse it before the end of next month! 
Can you tell I am excited? :)

I have a gift to overwhelm myself with small and larger projects, on top of my full time graphic designer position and being a mommy, a cook and a caring wife... All good things and all for good causes. But then things tend to take forever sometimes, because I get my hands too full. I'm learning that having and using "No" in my vocabulary more often than not, it is a healthy thing.

So, getting back to my portfolio website...
A couple of years ago I started talking about a collaboration with Portfoliositez, which came to fruition a few weeks ago, with the release of their latest template, Elena.
It was pretty cool to have the chance to really have an input in what I wanted for functionality for my own site. They did an awesome job on building this - the flash template is beyond customizable, if one can say that.
It will "dress up" for you however you choose.

Here are several screenshots off my psd files, but you can always go and check out the live samples they have up on the blog. While my site will be skinned differently I couldn't help sharing my joy and excitement ahead of time. So I will just have to post screen shots with the skin samples the site was designed, for now.

Best Buddies ...and why photographing children feels so rewarding to me

Cousins and best buddies - I think this describes well and would be a fair sum up their relationship.
When I say best buddies, think of all that comes with being really close to another toddler's heart - love, hugs, being excited to see each other and to play together, to kiss each other's bubus and than fight over toys :)

I've been wanting to take pictures of the two of them together for a while now. With the beautiful weather and gorgeous sunshine in Portland, the evening seemed perfect. So on a whim we got together on a beautiful field of daisies and lupus.
However, when you are a toddler who didn't get her nap, and it is already past your bed time (8 pm) you don't care how excited your parents are to have pictures of you taken, or how pretty the field and the light are, and the least of your worries is which direction you should be facing. The thing you want most is to be held. And go home :)

I was very disappointed that I didn't even get a chance to really get them in the field. They had their own agenda and I just had to play along. But as always, I came home to find some true gems in the batch of images. Moments of them being who they are, with the smiles, the laughter and the tears, glimpses of their care free childhood that flies by, oh so fast.

It is these moments that I capture that make my heart burst with contentment - the pure and naive moments and joy and sadness and everything in between in a child's life. Memories that last a life time and are worth the world when they grow up and fly out of the nest to find and make their own way in life.

I thought this would be...

... another 'trash the tutu' session with little miss Audrey. A very urban, decaying (beautiful, but decaying) setting, plenty of rain puddles and muddy paths. The perfect combination of elements, really, to make it easy for a 27 month old to 'trash' her tutu, planned or unplanned.
Well, it turns out I was wrong. If she didn't care much about it last time when I took her out in her tutu, she's growing into a very dainty and careful miss, who likes her tutu very much and wants to keep it in a good condition :) I promised I would make her another one sometime soon, and she seems very happy about it.

Paul's been wanting to take me to this junkyard for a long time know, and we finally went. I would've loved to be able to be there in the late hours of the afternoon and make good use of the sunset's soft, glowing light. It just so worked out with our schedules though, that all I could get that day was an hour at noon. Challenged my comfort zone and expanded it. 

... I love this dippy :)

...and here is my favorite image from our little shoot 

Have a lovely weekend, and thank you for stopping by! :)