Senior Pictures for Christina

June marked a major milestone in my sister Christina's life--a few weeks ago she completed her final courses for a bachelor's degree from Whitefield College, majoring in philosophy. I'm very proud of her! She's worked hard on this for years and has been a very dedicated student. Okay, almost everyone says something like, "Philosophy...wow... what is she going to do with that?" Well, she got it more for the knowledge, rather than to prepare herself for a job. She enjoyed her studies, but she's glad to have this behind her now. We're waiting to see where God takes her next.

As part of graduating, Christina wanted to get some on-location (non-studio) "senior pictures," because she only got Penney's studio portraits when she graduated from high school. And she was willing to let me take them, so I got some great opportunities to continue practicing with portraiture. These were taken at Lewisville Park. It's such a great place for doing portraits! We went on a weekday morning and it wasn't crowded, which was really nice.   

Christina has played flute for quite a few years now, so she wanted some shots of her with/playing her flute. 

Hawaii--Some Time on the Beach

My last day with Anna and family we went to the beach in Honolulu. Actually, this was my second to last day, but I spent a lot of the next one in the airport trying unsuccessfully to get on a flight (the risk you take when you fly standby), so it doesn't exactly count. 

We went to Alamoana Beach Park. It's more of a "local beach" (not so tourist-y), but very nice. Here's me with Sydney, Mack, Cole and Nora. You can see Waikiki and Diamond Head behind us.

Anna and the kids.

Then we went down to another beach that was supposed to have sea glass. Believe it or not, the beach-combing in Hawaii is not particularly good, so it was exciting when we actually found interesting stuff in the sand here.

Cole and Sydney scanning the beach in front of a perfectly blue backdrop.

I think that pretty much completes my recap of my time in Hawaii--now time to focus on enjoying and photographing our brief, but lovely, Northwest summer.

Hawaii--A Day on the East Side of Oahu

While I was in Hawaii we spent one day over on the east side of Oahu, which is the lush, green side. I just love the mountains over there!

We ate lunch in a park near Chinaman's Hat, a famous little island so named for its unique shape.

We also toured a Buddhist temple in the Valley of the Temples. The grounds there are lovely, as you can see.

There's a huge bell there that visitors can ring.

You are allowed to go inside the temple, but you have to remove your shoes first.

The actual statue inside the temple. The picture really doesn't get across how tall it is--over 18 feet. I'd never seen something quite like this before, so it was certainly an interesting experience.

Hawaii--The Botanical Garden

I was able to visit my friend Anna and her four kids again at the end of May. I was only there about a week this time, but it was really good just to see them again and hang out. While I was mostly there just to spend time with them, we did do a little sight-seeing and hit the beach a couple times. One place we visited was a botanical garden in Honolulu. Here's a few shots from our time there.

Mack and Nora--very cute!

This is some kind of giant seed pod--I thought it made a nice abstract shot.