It's been, I don't know, 1,086 days since my last post. Okay, not really. But it kinda feels like that. I have had a lot going on in the past 6 weeks. The biggest news is that I have a new studio. A NEW STUDIO!!!! Like, a real one!
I have been working in my house for, well, as long as I can remember. I always think it's funny when people visit my husband's and my home and see our 4 bedrooms, our big rec room and basement and outdoor workspace, ALL of which are used for our businesses. We don't have kids but we easily use every single room in our house. And my business uses two of those rooms- one as an office and prop room and one as a studio.
Since shifting the focus of my business over to food, my workflow and process have changed quite a bit. The biggest change is that my clients often come to my shoots, which has been a pretty major adjustment for me. I love working with people but, honestly, I am not the hugest fan of people watching me work. It makes me nervous and twitchy and I find myself awkwardly trying to explain what I am doing, which doesn't always make sense. This was a big reason why I knew I needed to find a larger space, one which had a kitchen and prop area and sitting space for my clients to hang out while I do what I do.
So, enter Lara Ferroni.
Lara is a very talented food photographer and blogger and author of a soon-to-be-released donut cookbook, who has also worked out of her home studio for several years. She and I had chatted casually about sharing a space at some point and, this past February, that dream became a reality! We found an amazing space in The Bemis Building, a live-work building in the heart of SoDo, right near Safeco Field. The space is 1600 square feet and has a kitchen, (that we remodeled....check out the before and after on the blog), plus a bathroom, a small prop room, and a good amount of wide open space that gets gorgeous natural light all day long. It's amazing.
Since we are planning on renting the space out occasionally- to other photographers for shoots and to people wanting to teach a class or host a dinner or whatever- our new studio is now aptly named Spare Room, and it has it's own blog where you can track all the goings-on in the space.
So, anyway. That's the big news. My plan is to be able to balance both this blog and the new blog and post cool, original and exciting things on both. But, in the meantime, there may be some overlap....like the post below. But I am hoping you'll forgive me for that. :)
I spent the day at the studio yesterday, with back to back maternity shoots. Although the majority of my business is now taken up with food work, I still do a lot of portraits. I have so many clients that have been with me for years, it's just awesome seeing their lives and families change and grow.
This was the first time shooting maternity sessions outside of my home studio, where I have worked for the past several years. It was AMAZING having so much more space to shoot in and, as stated many times previously, the light was incredible.
The shots below are of Zuleika and Doug and their daughter, Lelani. I photographed Zuleika for the first time four and a half years ago- during her first pregnancy (and two home-studios ago!) Now, little Miss Lelani is 4 years old and soon to be the big sister to another little girl.
Check out a few shots from their session below. How beautiful is this family?!
