Happy Birthday to.... Me!

Today I turned 40 years old. To some this might be a birthday to dread but as I was facing 40 for the past few months, I decided that rather than dreading it, I was going to help pave new roads for younger generations and completely embrace this milestone instead. To celebrate, last night I had a few of my best girls over for a good old fashioned, no-boys-allowed slumber party!

Each of us either just turned 40 or are about to and all I wanted for this year was to remind us all of our youthful spirit and girlie-girl nature... so I decorated my house with balloons and streamers and requested that everyone wear pink : ) Throw together a bunch of itching-to-boogie girlfriends and some good food & drink with a disco ball and non-stop hits from the 80's, and I had myself the best 40th birthday celebration I could ever wish for!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Parks!

Today is my little buddy Parker's second birthday so it seemed like a good day to share a few photos from last month's shoot with him and his mom & dad, Lindsey & Jeremy. As crazy as I think they may be, this family's favorite season is winter! There is a really beautiful field near my new home that provides an amazing backdrop for photos. A soon as the snow starting falling I knew just who to call to do my first shoot there! This family of three (soon to be four!) braved the icy roads on a frigid Sunday morning to join Asher and me for a little arctic fun. I'm so glad they did because this shoot yielded two photos that went straight into the "All Time Favorites" file... the above photo of Parker being one of them. Parks was watching big boy Asher play in the frozen creek when I sneaked up behind him. I knew if I could get him to look at me it would be a priceless shot. Thankfully Parker cooperated! When I said his name he turned toward me and click! He gave me exactly the expression I was hoping for : )

This photo of Linds & Jeremy is my other favorite from this shoot. I always try to get a photo of mom & dad together too, but often have a hard time getting couples to not fall into what I call the "senior prom" pose. Sometimes suggesting a kiss will do the trick, which was the case here. A little kiss turned into a big hug and here is the result. I love this photo, looking at it makes me sigh! It just has L O V E written all over it. Not bad for a couple who's been together for ten years : )

On this wintry day, Parker learned a tough lesson in cause & effect... when you refuse to wear mittens in the snow, your hands get really, really cold!


After we'd stayed outside as long as we could stand, we headed back to my house to warm up and introduce Parks to our new kitties, Maverick and Crash!

While I'm at it, I might as well use this opportunity to formally introduce these punks who joined our family as my gift to Asher for his 13th birthday. So far they are smelly, noisy and pretty much all around annoying, but we love them anyway!

Crash & Maverick... conjoined twins?

Find Me On Facebook!

A small time business girl always has to be looking for inexpensive ways to market her skills. In fact, as many of you know, I grew my client base by posting free ads for my services on craigslist! Over the past couple of weeks I have been reading everything I can about the Facebook "page" and how it can work for me as a means of reaching potential new clients. I know a lot of my current clients have Facebook profiles and often upload the photos I take for them to their photo albums to share with friends and family, so I thought having a SHP page would not only be a fun way to interact with current clients, but a great way for you to help me create new ones!

Of course I will continue adding photos and stories to my blog, but a proper blog entry requires a good deal of time and I'll never have enough of it to blog photos from every shoot that I do. The Facebook page provides a place for me to share more of my work. (I've uploaded a bunch of photos I created in the past couple months when I was too busy to blog- go check them out!) Not only will fans of SHP receive an update when new photos have been added, but I've set it to update them via Facebook when I've posted a new blog entry here as well.

One thing about the page that I am very excited about is the album I created for fans to upload their favorite photos that I've created for them over the years. My favorite photos are rarely the same as yours and I am always curious which ones you love most and why! I thought this would be a fun way for clients and myself to interact and for some of my older photos that I have archived to be shared with others. Clients are also able to tag themselves in photos I've uploaded to other albums, automatically sharing them with their friends.

I also want to use this opportunity to remind everyone that I require clients to credit me for the photos I've created whenever they are uploaded to any online location, whether it's your Facebook or MySpace profile, the family blog, etc. The best place to do this on Facebook is in the caption space provided when you upload your photos. Simply writing "Photo by Sandi Heinrich" or "Photo Credit: Sandi Heinrich Photography" goes a long way toward getting my name further out there and keeping your personal photographer very happy : )

You can find my Facebook page by clicking here or on the Facebook badge I've posted on the right side of my blog or by searching Facebook for Sandi Heinrich Photography. Also, just FYI, as a fan, your Facebook profiles will remain private to me- only your interactions on the page will be visible!

Thanks so much for your ongoing support- see you on Facebook!

2008 Newlyweds!

As you may recall, I encountered some "technological challenges" just as wedding season was getting underway last summer which put me behind in my work load for quite some time. Add to this our move across town in November and unfortunately, spending time blogging fell to just about my lowest priority. Things are starting to settle down here a bit and knowing this is engagement season, I thought I should finally share some of the highlights of the 2008 wedding season before we get too far into 2009!

Since I have photos from five weddings to share and some of them happened almost five months ago, I'm going to keep my words to a minimum and let the photos do the talking (with a few exceptions.) To keep things from getting out of control, I've limited myself thirteen photos from each wedding and tried to select the ones that best tell the story of the day. Enjoy!

Stephanie & Jeff
Beach Cottage, Burien
August 2, 2008

A classic moment as the groom ponders marital advice from his new father-in-law.

Trisha & Felipe
Lairmont Manor, Bellingham
August 3, 2008

There weren't many dry eyes in the crowd as Trisha & Felipe exchanged family vows with their children, Malaena, Bailey & Javier.

The groom forgot to pack his dress socks : )

Group photo time with this family was a blast. I had practiced saying "Is everybody smiling?" in Spanish all the way to the wedding then completely forgot how to say it once I got there. I was instructed that yelling "cheese-o!" would suffice : )

More photos from this wedding can be seen here.

Summer & Chris
A Tuscan Lady, Freeland
August 16, 2008

This is my favorite bridal bouquet photo I've taken so far. When I arrive at a wedding the first thing I do is survey the scene, looking for details just waiting to be photographed. This birdbath in a shaded nook of the garden was the perfect match for Summer's beautiful bouquet. I only wish I could have somehow captured it's sweet scent- it was amazing!

Summer looks so happy to finally be donning the wedding dress her mom made for her!

This photo is easily my favorite shot from the entire summer. Little Orion, a very excited flower girl, is whispering in Auntie Summer's ear "it's time to start the wedding!" I felt so blessed to have witnessed such a sweet moment and still can't believe I was in such good position to document it!

This scene is one of those that made me pull my already packed away camera out of its bag... I had no idea Aunt Sunny & the girls were planning to serenade Summer & Chris with a rousing version of You Are My Sunshine until I was walking out to say goodbye!

You can see Summer & Chris' engagement photos here and more photos from their wedding here.

Karen & Patrick
Private Residence, Lake Washington
August 23, 2008

My favorite shot from our engagement session adorns a special gift from the bride's sister!

This shot wins for Best Comedy- there's the handsome groom seeing his bride for the first time, and there is the family dog, Pedro, showing the world his best side : )

Joli & Kenny
Private Residence, Sedro Woolley

September 13, 2008


In Kenny's hand you see a photo of him & his cousin/Best Man Matt when they were boys... this is them recreating that photo at the insistence of the photographer ; )


I love it when I can get close enough to capture the tears in the bride's eyes...


or the love in the groom's : )


Joli's grandfather restored this stunning vintage Martin as a gift to his daughter who arranged to have it driven to the wedding so we could include it in some photos!

More photos from this wedding can be seen here.

Carrie & Frank
The Willows Inn, Lummi Island
October 25, 2008

I think the best photos I take of people are when they don't know I am doing it. I love this photo of Carrie's parents witnessing the ceremony.


On the beach at sunset on a beautiful autumn day... the light just does not get better than this!


Carrie waited until her wedding day to wear her ring and so spent an awful lot of time gazing at it on her finger : )


More photos from this wedding can be seen here.

To all of my 2008 Newlyweds, thanks once again for allowing me to document your weddings for you. I hope you all enjoyed your first holiday season as married couples!