Halloween Party at the Hayward House!

My wife Lea loves to throw parties for the kids. She's been planning for weeks to entertain a group of girls and really outdid herself with fun games, great prizes and tasty treats!

FYI, I'm flying to Reno early AM for a shoot so no blog post tomorrow...sorry. I'll be back Monday night though, hopefully with something really interesting

Lea had been practicing all week to perfect the Barbie Doll Halloween cake. She nailed it!
Worms were freezing in ice cubes waiting to be plunked in Lea's famous punch.
Spider Web Pizza for dinner
Mummy Wrap Race
The mummy wrap game was fun but the clean up game was even more fun!
Digging through a pot filled with guts, ears, eyeballs and brains for a prize was an icky endeavor.
When one of the girls announced that she was almost sure the pot was full of spaghetti and not guts I decided to experiment and see if she was right.
These squishy, sticky eyes were the prizes found in the brain and guts pot. They were a big hit!
When I saw the kids trying to eat their owl eye cupcakes by using their hands I made an immediate correction to the party foul :)

Friday's Photo

Male Lion in the Serengeti giving a nice pose. Shot with a Canon 1D Mark III and a Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS lens.

Christmas Cards

This photo demonstrates why "pooper scooper" laws are important to follow. Notice the younger sister pointing and laughing in the background :)






It's that time of year! Christmas is closer than you think! Today we headed to the Seattle Arboretum for some Christmas card portraits of some very entertaining, seriously funny and photogenic kids. The Autumn colors were amazing down there!

Tembo

This was the elephant I photographed coming out of the wall of dense fog in the jungle on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater. It's very exciting to know I was close enough to shoot this with my wide angle 16-35mm lens!

More from Africa

I just opened Lightroom to look for a photo and my African uploads popped up automatically. For fun I scanned through a handful of the thousands of pics I have yet to edit and this one grabbed my attention.

I'm going to try to edit a couple each week to add to the blog for fun.

I remember spotting this kid in a small,town. Believe it or not, this village was considered to be one of the nicer areas I saw people living.

Sophie at the beach

While her Mom was working on her buns of steel at the gym and her sister was stuffing her brain with multiplication tables, spelling tests and the names of cute boys in her class, Sophie and I found ourselves with some free time this afternoon.

We watched one of our favorite movies Ratatouille together while I edited some photo's and were simultaneously hit with a strong case of cabin fever. I had her put on her brightest sweater, we raided Savannah's hat collection, loaded up the car seat and made the 5 mile drive to the beach.

For whatever reason we hadn't been there in a couple of years and we were both thrilled to find a new playground had been built. It was a gray, drizzly day out which was great for us because it meant hardly anyone was there and the light was soft and even for photo's. I took advantage of my daughters beauty and enthusiasm to grab a few shots for my stock portfolio, we played on the swings, threw some rocks, grabbed a bite to eat and it ended up being a great Daddy/Daughter day.

On Display

For the next several months I am proud to announce that I have around 35 images from my Wildlife Photography Web site www.MHWildlife.com on display throughout the Alderwood Mall. The Alderwood Mall is one of the biggest and busiest malls in the Seattle area so I am very excited for the exposure.

Kara

I've mentioned my friend Randy Kepple in this blog several times. For the past couple of years we have talked about getting together to shoot. For one reason or another we've never been able to do it until now.

His daughter Kara is a senior in high school this year. She wanted her Dad to do her Senior Portraits and she has such a tight schedule it had to be this past Sunday or else it could potentially have been months before they would have been able to do it again. It just happened to work out that I had free time Sunday so I invited myself along to hold reflectors, snap a few photo's and hang out.

Since Randy made the drive up from Portland I figured his tail was probably pretty numb anyway so I recommended we make the hour + drive to Sedro Woolley, WA to shoot at the abandoned mental hospital/dairy farm/slaughterhouse. I know it sounds creepy and the fact that when we arrived, a blood and guts horror movie was being filmed at the same site complete with brains splattered on a blue lit wall, fake blood everywhere, guns and more didn't necessarily help with the first impression. We had good spots scoped out in Everett so my reputation was on the line by recommending this place :) The truth is, it's a great place to shoot with a very diverse range of locations from dark and grungy with peeling paint and broken brick to tall grass with charming barns.

Kara has clearly spent her entire life in front of her Dad's camera's and even after an unfortunate mishap when she was two that involved a stool, a Hasselblad and gravity she was very comfortable in front of the camera and made an excellent model. It was a great pleasure to watch Randy at work. He is an expert at finding light in any scenario and the light was absolutely beautiful. The apple did not fall far from the tree with Kara as their sense of humor was contagious. It was a great deal of fun as well as educational and I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in the day. Here are a few pics I grabbed.


It was a great treat to watch Randy at work.
You would not believe the size of the spider she had to shoo away for this pose.



Too much fun!
Heading back on our hike we stopped for one last photo.

Andrea and Reid are married!

Friday night on one of the most beautiful days I can recall in recent history, Andrea and Reid were married at one of my favorite venues to photograph a wedding... Newcastle Golf Club. Their event was organized by a stellar coordinator Jenny Harding whom I would recommend to anyone planning a wedding with absolute confidence. The entire wedding day was flawless!

I arrived early to get some detail shots before Andrea got ready. Just to check in I found Andrea upstairs getting her makeup put on. I think she would agree with me when I say she was a little nervous though she was keeping her cool. Years ago, Andrea and her brother Ryan worked with me at McGrath's in Vancouver. We ran into each other at Alex and Trina's wedding last year and they booked me. Even back when she was a teenager working at the FishHouse, Andrea had it going on. She has always struck me as an intelligent, hard working, kind woman with a huge heart. She found her match in Reid has he seems to share the exact same qualities. Her brother Ryan was the same way, hard working, witty, and an all around good guy. Having met their parents tonight I see why. Both families were so much fun to hang around with!

They hired a killer band as well! Maurice the Fish seriously rocked it! I love getting in the middle of the dance floor and shooting wide angle right smack in the middle of all the energy. There was no shortage of energy tonight, let me tell you!

The ceremony took place outside while the sun was setting and it simply couldn't have been more perfect. Here are some photo's from the day...


Getting makeup on.

An awkward moment I stumbled upon before the ceremony ;)






Stunning view, stunning dress, stunning bouquet, stunning bride!
This little flower girl was just too darn cute not to add to the blog.
What a stunning image on these candy bars! :)


Talk about a beautiful sunset.


I love the out of focus shapes of Andrea, Reid and her Father while praying in the background.


What a view!
1st Dance
Andrea and her Dad had some serious moves on the dance floor.
Maurice the Fish...a seriously cool band!
The newlyweds are sent off in style!