Dog Mountain

Hard to imagine anywhere prettier than the Columbia river gorge during wildflower season. Got up early last Saturday to hike Dog Mountain. It's a 7.5 mile round-trip with 2,800 feet of elevation gain, but totally worth the sore glutes the next day. The photos don't even completely do it justice. Really breathtaking.

Brigitte and Eric

What have I gotten myself into?

I did an engagement shoot with Brigitte and Eric last week, and I have to say, it doesn't bode well for their wedding photos. For one thing, they're pretty shy in front of the camera. Add to that the fact that they're just not that good looking or stylish, and I smell disaster. If only I could get them to come out of their shells a bit and show their affection for each other...

I'm kidding, of course. I challenge you to find a more adorable, easier-to-work-with couple than these two. It can't be done!

Eastside Mom's Group 2nd Birthday Party

My sister recently had 14 toddlers and their families over to her house for a group second birthday party. Sounds like the set-up for a horror story, right? It turned out to be a lovely morning, though. There was lots of sunshine, mimosas, a downright delicious pot-luck brunch, shockingly few tears and no disasters to speak of. Throw in some trucks, some dirt, some balls, and a bit of hugging, and you've got yourself a party!

Click on the group photo below to see it bigger -- I think it came out pretty good, considering I was standing in a line-up of dads trying to catch 14 moms and 14 2-year-olds looking up at once...

Catherine Creek

Went for a lovely birthday hike at Catherine Creek, which is just over the Columbia from Hood River (in Washington.) There were wild flowers blooming, and blue skies with fluffy clouds -- basically everything you could want from an April hike. Stopped at the Full Sail brewery for some mac & cheese, which is basically everything you could want from mac & cheese. Then took a little detour for some sunset photos in Hood River. All in all, a delightful birthday.

Wedding Season Begins!

Wedding season is starting, and with it, engagement shoots! Last weekend I met with Liz and Mark to take some pre-wedding photos (their wedding is at the end of May.) I like doing these shoots for lots of reasons, but one of them is that I just like spending time with couples as adorably right-for-eachother as these two. They were cracking eachother up and having a grand old time. And they're not at all camera-shy, which is going to make my job on their big day that much easier. Hooray!

We started off the day at the Portland Nursery and then headed over to take pictures outside of the Goodfoot, which is where Liz and Mark met, and then abused some cherry blossoms. It was the maiden voyage of my new Nikon 70-200 vrII lens, to which I recently treated myself as an early birthday gift (happy birthday to me!) If anyone out there is on the fence about this lens, my two cents: I love it! It's sharp, it's fast, and the bokeh is really pretty. Everything I was expecting, and it's going to be a great addition to my bag for many wedding seasons to come.

I also found out that Mark is an illustrator and a comic artist. I can't draw worth spit, but I thought the lines and colors in this shot might work better as a drawing, so I enlisted the help of Photoshop to give it a kind of graphic look, in his honor:

Sample Wedding

Blurb now has a preview widget, so I thought I'd share a sample album I made with them a few years back:

Abby & Will by alyson levy photography | BOOK INFO

It's not your traditional leather-bound wedding album, but Blurb makes fun and easy-to-share photobooks.