The Reversed Lens » portland oregon family portraits

Jason, Angela, Lucy & Lillian • Portland Oregon Portraits

Emma Easley Darden — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:56:19 +0000

I know that this commentary has the capability to sound just a little bit redundant but I just have to say it again: the world is SO SMALL when you’ve lived in one town your entire life. Case in point: last fall, I was perusing the wares at our daughter’s school auction when I saw this guy who looked really familiar. We did the “where did you…” game until we realized that we’d actually worked together the inaugural year of The Bus Project. And then his wife said, “Oh, how crazy! We [as in she and Jason] met on the Bus!” Then we realized that our daughters were in the same preschool class and that we’d already been hearing about each other.

The other notable thing about that night was that Angela was nearly due with their second little girl, and we made plans to take pictures of their new addition when she arrived. But sometimes life has other plans. The first three months of Lillian’s life were pretty complicated, not by anything horribly dramatic but just a series of things that made fitting in a photo session fairly low on the priority totem pole. We’d see each other at pick-up and say, “Maybe in a few weeks?” Thankfully, the time arrived right around Lillian’s three-month birthday and just as Lucy was turning three. It was perfect! We spent the morning with them in their NE Portland home playing and documenting their life as a family. I love these relaxed sessions when we are able to capture a really intimate side of family life. Here are just a few of my favorites…

Pat, Laurie and Emma • Portland Family Portraits

Emma Easley Darden — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:32:09 +0000

We photographed Pat, Laurie and Emma for the first time about a year and a half ago. Emma was, then, an adorably chubby cheeked baby who I literally couldn’t stop kissing for the entire session. She was just that sweet. We photographed her at home, in her bedroom, and in their backyard in the grass and by their shed and under their gigantic oak tree and… I just loved that session. I especially loved the photograph that ended up being their family Christmas card that year: Pat and Laurie on their front porch, with Emma on their laps, kissing her fat little cheeks as she giggled uproariously.

Well, a few weeks ago Laurie called and asked if I would come photograph them again and I was overjoyed. I LOVE the clients who return to us, year after year. I love sharing in the joy that comes from watching a family grow. And I love being able to record those moments into heirloom-quality art. It means that people trust us on a really personal level. And this session did not disappoint. They’ve since moved to a new home, and Emma is a bundle of energy that needed to be OUT, and so instead of staying inside we moved nearby to their favorite park. I chased her all over the playground (and had so many shots of her that I loved that thinning them down for this post was SO difficult), and then played in the grass with them. We even replicated that first, beloved photo, with similarly amazing results. I just love this family. And I can’t wait to watch them grow and grow and grow!

As close to home as it gets

Emma Easley Darden — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:42:21 +0000

We’ve been doing a lot of rearranging things in our life lately and that’s included our home. Our little girl is now four and was determined to get a “girly room” instead of the childhood hodgepodge that it had become. I did my best to scour the shops and somehow found a combination of purple and pink bedding designs (those colors are never together so I got to get my creative on) that met with her specifications. We’re now onto the decoration phase and so I’m printing these photographs to go above her bureau. They were taken during trips to our neighborhood park, which is one of our favorite ways to spend a little downtime as a family, and they were too cute not to share. Now I just have to wait to get them back and into the frames…

Lily and Beck • Portland Oregon Child Portraits

Emma Easley Darden — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:19:33 +0000

I recently took a trip down to Utah to visit family and while I was there, I had a chance to do a portrait session with Lily and Beck. Their mom has been following our work for quite some time and we were so excited to be in the same place at the same time! Lily and Beck are twins, and if you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that I adore twins. There’s just something about that kinship that I can’t quite put my finger on but love to capture. Like most twins, Lily and Beck are supremely different people. She has quite the mind of her own and he’s pretty willing to go with the flow. In fact, he took a face plant in the mud part-way through the session, but with a little encouragement from his mom, he was back on his feet and running! I had such a great time with them and can’t wait until we get to meet again.

George at seven months • Portland Oregon Baby Portraits

Emma Easley Darden — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:29:11 +0000

I am in love with George. There, I said it. He is just so adorable that I seriously just want to kiss him. He’s such an adorable baby, and so content and happy with every moment, that photographing him is a dream. We played in our studio this time and had such a great session. We’ve recently introduced a new line of wooden toys into our baby sessions and he loved playing with the blocky stacking toys that I brought out for him. We played patty-cake and peek-a-boo. And then I got out a super soft rug that we had and I thought he was going to die of happiness patting it. He’s just such a love. I can’t wait to capture him again and again as he grows in our Beginnings™ series!

Our little Pea • Portland Oregon Child Portraits

Emma Easley Darden — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:23:30 +0000

You know that old adage about cobblers and their shoes? We take a lot of photos of our daughter. A lot. Maybe too many. But most of them are taken on the fly whilst living our life. They end up on our hard drives and never see the light of day. The other day we were out running errands and we stopped at one of our favorite pubs for lunch. She was being particularly adorable, and looking particularly adorable, and so I decided to give a photo shoot with my own child a go. She’s been raised around the camera; she is often impervious to it and any direction by me. But that day she was a doll. And so here she is, at last, for all the world to see– or at least the little corner that follows our life and love.

One Fine Day™ with the Fishers • Portland Oregon Family Portraits

Emma Easley Darden — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:32:16 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Stacey Lynn for, well, at least as long as she’s been on the 105.1 Morning Buzz with Nelson and Terry. She always seemed like a doll and when I met her last year, I was thrilled to discover that she really IS that sweet. She’s the genuine article. And a week ago, I got the chance to see that up close and personal as we followed her family around during one of our One Fine Day™ sessions. She and her husband, Tim, have three insanely wonderful and crazy boys, and we got to be with them at their most real moments, which is our specialty. The RLP style is all about capturing emotion and connection and our One Fine Day™ sessions are the perfect medium for showing life and love through the perfect lens of that realness. The moments are simple: lunch around the table together; reading a favorite story; playing Rock Band; the boys doing their favorite things, all displaying their little quirks and personalities. But we know that all of those moments, in their entirety, are what make up the fabric of their family story.

Stacey in the studio, where her days begin earlier than I can imagine.

And then she’s back at home, where her day really begins.

With three boys the movement is constant– that day they headed to an indoor play park.
And just like any family, just getting out the door is half of the fun.

Grif gets a little bit of solo time while the twins take a nap.

The Huberty-McClellan Family • Portland Oregon Lifestyle Photography

Emma Easley Darden — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:49:56 +0000

Sometimes I feel like meeting new clients is like playing that old game where you used Kevin Bacon’s name and tried to see if you could find a way in which you were connected to him. We meet clients through clients and then realize that there are connections in other ways too, and then we meet clients through them, and on and on it goes. So it is with the McClellans. We met Nicole at a wedding earlier this summer; she worked with the bride, who we’d met at a street fair two years ago but we also knew her fiancee become husband because he’s the customer service manager for our bank. It’s weird, I tell you. Nicole loved our work and had heard amazing things from Emily (her words, not mine) and we immediately set to finding a time to photograph her and her darling family. And they were darling in every way possible. Their girls are both adorable and cute and funny and playful and by the end of the session I just wanted to kiss them. I hope you have the same reaction!

Little Urbanites Halloween • Portland Oregon Photo Booth

Emma Easley Darden — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:50:14 +0000

We love taking the Mini Studio™, the RLPortraits version of an old-style photobooth, to events. So when Little Urbanites, one of our favorite Pearl District kid boutiques, asked us to bring it as part of their celebration for the Pearl’s Halloween Hunt, we were more than game. I have never been able to figure out quite what it is about a photobooth that turns people into an alter ego of themselves. Whether it’s at a wedding or even just a smaller-scale shindig like a birthday party, people will do things in the Mini Studio™ that they just won’t do in front of one of our “normal” photographers. (For instance, at weddings, there’s always someone standing on their head!) The kids at Little Urbanites were just adorable, and I’m so glad that we could provide some memories of a fabulous Halloween extravaganza.

(To view the rest of the images available for download, please visit our photo viewing area.)

The Little Urbanites crew mugging for the camera.

Resnick Family • Portland Oregon Family Photographers

Emma Easley Darden — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:32:07 +0000

We’ve been having a fabulous time working with Holly Resnick and Marni Renison, the faces of Better TV’s “It Moms” segments. Holly & Marni are bringing out a new website and came to us to do some new pictures to match their new look. One of the things that I absolutely love about them is their realness. They are these super chic and fabulous women but they are also moms who get down on the ground and play with their daughter’s toes, or chase their kids down the boardwalk, or swing them until they’re squealing half with glee and half in mock-terror. We spent an afternoon literally chasing them around the Pearl and capturing them in all of their chic momness. I’m featuring Holly and her kids first but I promise Marni and her girls are coming too!