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November 26th 2022, surrounded by their 5 children and their families Doan and Mai celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary by renewing their vows. After hundreds o f weddings, how special to be a part of this anniversary. As everyone sat down for dinner a slideshow of their life together played. Watching everyone giggle, laugh and talk over old memories it dawned on me exactly how special this occasion was. Paired down because of Covid this celebration was small but no one but Doan & Mai were there on the Wedding Day. These people that surrounded them now were direct results of the love and commitment they made to each other and now they celebrate. It was just so profound and beautiful. I will never forget being a fly on the wall durning this celebration, forever honored.
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Wyle & Ra are a Yoga power couple. Hosting session and retreats all over Oregon. We did a lifestyle session in the dead of winter. What a way to warm up! It was a pleasure to capture both the passion and love. Really don't they go hand in hand. How wonderful to share it all with your partner.
  So let me get this straight, a campsite wedding where all dogs are welcome. Yes please! Kris & Aloe were married on June 3rd 2023 surrounded by their love ones and their pups. Looking back at these photos I love the expressions on the guest faces, especially durning the ceremony. Kris & Aloe's love and their love for Kris & Aloe was written all over their faces. If you are putting together a bridal party, make sure to add the people who will smile, laugh, cry and cheer you on on your special day. I remember when asking if they wanted to do more "sweetheart" photos Kris & Aloe said, "nah, not really. We really only did this wedding to celebrate with our family, please just take photos of them enjoying the campsite". And enjoined they did. Each group at the wedding had their own secluded campsite and at the wedding field there was cornhole, an art station, great food, live music and a bar made specially for the wedding. What a special day, I wont forget this one.
Commonly mistaken as my last name, hygge (hue-guh) is actually a very important Danish Design Philosophy. (a little like feng-shui but goes a bit further beyond design into a more all-encompassing life philosophy)
The Oxford language dictionary defines Hygge as "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)." Merriam-webster.com explains hygge, "About mid-20th century, the Danish word hygge (pronounced something like \HEW-guh\) began appearing in English writing, as a noun and adjective, to refer to cozy and comfortable surroundings that invoke an inner sense of contentment or well-being.” I named my business after this Danish design and lifestyle philosophy because I use this philosophy in all aspects of my work. I want my photographs to embody a sense of warmth, intimacy, charm & contentment. Even though a photojournalistic approach my objective is to capture those sweet hygge filled moments. Even in my editing and post-processing I use a classic, minimalistic and timeless approach which adds to the timeless aspects of hygge. I hope you see that in my photographs. I also hope you feel that in my presence if I am ever to have the pleasure to photograph you. Of course I have my off days and ‘real world’ struggles but this philosophy has been a guiding principle in my life. Its how I approach not only my photography but also in everything I do. Its the way I organize and decorate my home, approach conversations, and how I choose who to let into my life. Without oversharing, I have struggled with intense anxiety for most of my life. That sense of contentment hygge speaks to is what I see as an ultimate life goal! The ultimate cure for my anxiety! Here’s a link to some of my favorite books about Hygge! Gallery Go Go. Such a magical space. Old dress store turned into an art space. Sadly closing end of August 2023, this space showed an amazing proof of concept showing the world what could be. Art has such a special way of doing that So honored to have been a part of this beautiful space.
Art by Stay Tuft
What a beautiful bunch of people. Kaidee and Jesse were married on 6.18.2022 at a family home surrounded by love and smiles. It was such a pleasure to be welcomed into this intimate celebration and be able to capture these moments from this special day. Perhaps my favorite part, while everyone was getting ready Kaidee's daughter, dressed and ready in her flower girl dress holding her basket, stopped me in the living room and asked for some posed photos of her for her mom. My heart just melted. She was just the sweetest and those posed photos are some of my favorites. This one is a big one! Enjoy :)
In between the spring drizzles we got a break in the rain and shot these photos up at Mt. Tabor Park, Portland Oregon. Thanks to all that early spring rain we got that neon green sprouting up, especially in that moss. This awesome couple gets married in September, stay tuned!
 Two beaches, One red dress and a lot of 'sparkle in the eyes' kind of love this was a fun engagement session. Caitlin danced around and made that dress take on a life of its own. Then the golden hour hit so hard when we were in the beach grass and the rest is history. Wedding blog post from these two coming soon!
Winter had me in a bit of a slump and the Cherry Blossoms were having a happy bloom so I asked Shana and Blake if they would meet me and let me take a couple pictures of them. I think I felt like I needed some practice being around people and directing a photo session, posing people, talking to them.... etc. The woes of the introvert who gets much to comfortable in the solitude. I think so highly of this couple, it was fun to take some photos of them and I cant thank them enough for indulging me in. I even brought out my Film camera and took a couple shots on film. The first 5 photos before the break are. those film photos, then on to a quick digital session around the cherry blossoms along the Waterfront in NW Portland. A little history lesson about the Cherry Blossoms, (cause you know, I love to read the plaques and nerd out and do a bunch of google research on the places I go) They were a gift from Japan given for the dedication of the Japanese American Historical Plaza in 1990, which is what the park around the Cherry Blossoms to the Steel Bridge is called. According to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, the plaza was created to raise public awareness of the diversity of cultural experiences in America.
 And here we are back, to the digital camera, and the entire session start to finish.
Gallery GoGo goes to Seattle!
Stay Tuft and Felicia Murray, both Fiber Artists in residence at Gallery GoGo contributed to the Soft Touch Exhibit.   And in the bottom level was Gallery GoGo's Exhibit you can shop gallery gogo here!
The traveling typist was on site the final night of the exhibit writing free poems, you provide one inspirational word.
I was exhibiting my favorite prints of dumpsterscapes, gnomes, mushrooms and flamingos and other neighborhood finds framed as fridge magnets. I also had copies of the food cart zine there as well.
 A little change of pace here these are film photographs I took at Squids Art Show that happened Jan, 7 2023. Squid showed a selection of his skating boarding photographs taken in Portland Oregon over the last two years. I love Squids dedication to his photography and commitment to his passions. Everyone can do things once but the continued practice driven by passion alone is something much more impressive. Squid makes time to coordinate with other skateboarders to photograph them at least once a week. As we watch late stage capitalism crush passion and intuition its truly something special to carve out time for passion. This show also included a variety of other. talented Portland artists who love skateboarding. Photographer Ari Landon exhibited his film photographs of skateboarders and tabled a variety of prints and the coolest film test strip bookmarks. Also Tabling was Joe Brook, Ocelocuauhtli Ollin and Little Hen. Music was by, and Donavan Diaz exhibited his painted skateboard decks. It was a great turn out and a beautiful celebration of art, community and skateboarding. ❤️
I love that this show was hosted at Gallery GoGo. The gallery is a re-imagining of space. located in the mall in downtown Portland it was originally a fancy dress store. Azure, the gallery owner, has re-impinged and creatively transformed the space. My favorite example is the dressing rooms turned immersive mini galleries. This kind of re-imagining is so important as we see people going out and using mall spaces less and less. I love the spirit behind spacing these spaces and its this same spirit I see in skateboarding. Skate boarders see mundane pieces of construction and imagine so much more. I love walk with squid when he tiny gasps and grabs his phone to take a picture of a ramp or piece of abandon concrete. I see something mundane, he sees a challenge, a trick, a photograph. How special to see things differently, to re-imagine, to bring life back to forgotten spaces.
It was quite an honor to photograph Felicia Murray. Felicia is a fantastic Fiber Artist and a residence artist at Gallery GoGo. Her work is as bright as her spirit. It was a pleasure to photograph her next to her work. These photographs were taken for her first book Hurting, Healing, Growing. A collection of poetry by Felicia. Artist, Poet, Glowing human; I believe thats a triple threat!
I have Portrait sessions available every Tuesday from 5-7p at Gallery GoGo. These mini sessions include 5-10 digital downloads, discounts for groups available. Schedule your session on Eventbrite
Click Here! photos taken at Gallery GoGo https://www.gallerygogo.com/ Open 7 days a week at the Pioneer Place Mall. 11a-7p. No entry Fee Follow @gallerygogogo for more details and events. 700 SW 5th Ave. Portland Or 97204 backdrop art by: Felicia Murray Arta Powers Levant k. I love being a freelance photographer. I absolutely love it. This event is one prime example of why. I think i was asked to be around to photograph this event the night before. All the sudden the next day I am "sitting" front row to a Hayley Johnsen concert at Gallery GoGo, inside the Pioneer Place Mall. A mall concert by a powerhouse women artist, yes please! Hayley was launching her new eyeshadow, a perky violet-y purple inspired by her new album. Goner. This eyeshadow is a collab with the iconic Event Cosmetics, who were on site doing makeovers. Lastly, Topo Chico provided sparkling mineral water and the art on the walls is by Stay Tuft and Levant Art.
photos taken at Gallery GoGo
https://www.gallerygogo.com/ Open 7 days a week at the Pioneer Place Mall. 11a-7p. No entry Fee Follow @gallerygogogo for more details and events. 700 SW 5th Ave. Portland Or 97204 What a pleasure to photograph a sweet family at the Gallery. Especially this family, Torrance and Melissa are fashion icons in Portland. Both creating a gutter empire. Melissa is the owner and designer of the Fashion line Gutter Girl. Winner of best new designer at Fashion X 2022, Portlands Fashion week, Melissa's designs are "focused on high quality design using repurposed materials". The outfits worn in this session were made by Melissa. Torrance is the owner and designer of Gutter Grillz making custom high quality jewelry and gold teeth. As for Onyx, he is the sweetest, smiley baby and soon , from what I hear, will be a big brother.
I have Portrait sessions available every Tuesday from 5-7p at Gallery GoGo. These include 5-10 digital downloads. Schedule your session on Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/portrait-tuesdays-tickets-603193326477 photos taken at Gallery GoGo https://www.gallerygogo.com/ Open 7 days a week at the Pioneer Place Mall. 11a-7p. No entry Fee Follow @gallerygogogo for more details and events. 700 SW 5th Ave. Portland Or 97204 backdrop art by: Arta Powers https://www.artapowers.com/pagecv The last of the Joe Buck Marketing team its Natalie! Such a beam of light and up for anything Natalie was a joy to photograph.
I have Portrait sessions available every Tuesday from 5-7p at Gallery GoGo. These mini sessions include 5-10 digital downloads. Schedule your session on Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/portrait-tuesdays-tickets-603193326477 photos taken at Gallery GoGo https://www.gallerygogo.com/ Open 7 days a week at the Pioneer Place Mall. 11a-7p. No entry Fee Follow @gallerygogogo for more details and events. 700 SW 5th Ave. Portland Or 97204 backdrop art by: Megan Beltz https://www.facebook.com/megan.beltz.94/?locale=en_GB Arta Powers https://www.artapowers.com/pagecv Makiah should look familiar, she was one of the fabulous models at the Pinkham Millinery Session Fall 2022. I was so honored she referred me to her marketing team! She continues to tell me she's not a model but I don't believe her, and wont believe her. I won't believe you either! You can schedule your own Portrait session with me at Gallery GoGo on Eventbrite. Contact me here to inquire about all other sessions!
Joe brought his marketing team in for Portraits. Since we photographed Joe last I think its fitting to blog him first. I loved the denim shirt against Megan Beltz's abstract painting. Check Joe out at his restaurant , Lola's in Lake Oswego, OR The Team Sessions: Makiah Natalie
I have Portrait sessions available every Tuesday from 5-7p at Gallery GoGo. These mini sessions are only $40 (discounts available for groups!) and include 5-10 digital downloads. Schedule your session on Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/portrait-tuesdays-tickets-603193326477 photos taken at Gallery GoGo https://www.gallerygogo.com/ Open 7 days a week at the Pioneer Place Mall. 11a-7p. No entry Fee Follow @gallerygogogo for more details and events. 700 SW 5th Ave. Portland Or 97204 backdrop art by: Megan Beltz https://www.facebook.com/megan.beltz.94/?locale=en_GB Arta Powers https://www.artapowers.com/pagecv This is the first photo book, mini zine, i made. It was done in high school. Circa '99 on film. What kind? I wish I could remember! I developed it and printed it myself. Then chopped it up, glued the pages together and hand-sewed the pages together. The cover is a piece of exposed printer paper, true black. I took the photos at the Long Beach Harbor. I was probably there researching or applying for CSULB. :) Fun project. I remember being really happy with the images and loved the little book I pretty haphazardly made. The cuts are so rough, which is normally not like me! Still so proud of this. I have very few of my early photograph work. It was all printed (usually 8x10 or larger) and mounted. Ive moved so many times throughout my 20s/30s that I "lost" most of it along the way but this was so small it managed to stick around!      |
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