Puyallup Photography – Oh Baby!

Firstlight Photography welcomes Molly!

These pictures of Molly were taken within her first week.  It is a crazy time for new parents – even experienced parents like Molly’s (she’s their fourth girl!) but these early shots are so amazing.

Because it is hard for new parents to travel to our studio, we like to bring the show on the road.  Within minutes our lights and backdrop are ready to go – right in the comfort of your own home.  This is especially helpful for the parents of young children. 

Keep Firstlight Photography on speed dial and we can pay you a visit when your new addition arrives.

Please call 253.335.7958 to find out about our winter portrait specials.

Seattle Wedding Performers?

Photo Courtesy of Raw Corn

I love facebook and its many connections to my friends now and from the past.  I just watched a video of Raw Corn busking in the Pike Place Market.  I know Ronn, singer and guitar player extraordinaire, from my early college days when I worked at his record store – for those of you too young to realize this,  there used to be stores that sold vinyl and cassette tapes!

Photo Courtesy of Raw Corn

I decided I needed to see and hear more than the one video so I googled Raw Corn and found their myspace page.   You can also find Raw Corn on facebook.

It isn’t too often you find a duo that rocks their acoustic set with just a guitar and accordion but Raw Corn is more fun than I can handle on this Sunday morning.  I can’t imagine a song these two couldn’t play.  One of my favorites is “Blitzkrieg Bop” originally done by the Ramones.  I love the remake and its polka-esque vibe.  It is a good romp.  I also like their version of Elvis Costello’s “Peace Love and Understanding” and found myself thinking that these guys need to blog. 

Being in the wedding business I have met some fabulous business owners.  I know right away those that I hope to work with at a wedding.  I must say that doing a wedding with these guys would be spectacular.  We tend to attract fun and vibrant couples and I just have to imagine that Raw Corn would be the perfect duo for one of our upcoming weddings.  Not only are they experienced musicians, they are comedians as well.  This is not your typical wedding band.

Check them out and let us know what you think!  I would love an excuse to work with these two.

I see the Monkee’s hit “I’m a Believer” as a top wedding must have.

Maternity Photos by Firstlight Photography

Firstlight Photography at South Sound Wedding & Event Magazine’s Tacoma Wedding Show

Over the weekend we were at a wedding show in Tacoma put on by South Sound Wedding & Event Magazine.  It was a great show, met a lot of people, including quite a few vendors that I will be sharing with you.   The show was at the convention center and was much nicer than the shows I’ve been at in the Tacoma Dome.  Not only is the venue nicer, but the show was a little smaller giving brides a chance to really interact with the vendors and giving them a fighting chance to remember those that they liked.   I had a great time and am looking forward to the next show on JAN 31st at the Great Wolf Lodge!

Camano Island Wedding by Firstlight Photography of Puyallup

It’s taken me a while to post these photos.  Summer is a crazy time for a wedding photographer and now that things are calming down a little bit I’ve been able to post theres.  This wedding took place on a bluff overlooking the Sound and was one of the most beautiful locations I’ve ever had the pleasure to shoot a wedding in.  The Groom had been a bull rider in the rodeo and they both love horses, so the bride arrived at the wedding on horseback and at the end of the ceremony they both got on the horse and rode away.  It was all very cool.

2009 U.S. Open Swimming Championships & the reluctant sports photographer.

Once again I’m shooting another really cool event. For the next couple of weeks I’ll be shooting the U.S. Open Swimming championships in Federal Way, WA. There’s a lot going on, events going all day, some of them quick and others, like the 1500m freestyle, that take forever.

I’ve often found it quite ironic that as I’d end up shooting so many different sporting events when I’ve never really been a sports person. Sure, I played soccer as a kid and later on in life I was drafted by the roller hockey team some of my co-workers had formed when I worked at The Mac Zone. I’d never even watched a hockey game, but when they found I was was born in Canada they decided that Hockey was in my blood and I should be the goalie. Other than that my interest in sports has been pretty minimal since Magic Johnson left the Lakers.

How is it then that I ended up spending so much of my time shooting sports? Some 15 years ago I was hired by a medical device company to travel around the country taking photos of their products in various hospitals and I was thrilled to finally be making money doing something that I love. When I got back from that trip I started contacting all the local newspapers until finally I badgered the editor at the Federal Way News enough that they finally gave me a couple of assignments and I kept after them until finally the sports editor started giving me regular work. I was so excited to be doing the work that it didn’t matter a bit to me what I was taking pictures of, I was being paid to take pictures and they were being published in a newspaper! I did this as a sideline along with my day job for a few years until I finally decided I’d had enough of the day job and quit without any real plan other than I knew that I wanted to take pictures for a living.

It took a few months, but I finally got in touch with a company that specializes in sports photography and since that was what I’d been doing with the paper I thought it was a good match. I started doing contract work for them 7 years ago now and I still love it. While I’ve never really been into professional sports, at least not since I spent my youth watching Lakers games with my dad, I do really love getting to go to all the high school tournaments. I also get to travel quite a bit and see a lot of places I’d never get to see otherwise.

The Cake Must Die! – Camano Island Wedding gone wrong.

Why do I love my “job” so much?  I love it because I get to work with some of the coolest people I’ve ever known!  I literally just got home from their wedding, and I couldn’t wait to post this photo, the rest of the photos are still downloading as I type this.  David & Mandy were so much fun to work with, the entire day just flew by and I ended up doing Mandy’s sister’s senior photos when the wedding was over.

Rock Creek Gardens hosts Jazz in July

I mentioned this before, but I was informed that I had the day wrong, so I wanted to make sure that it got corrected.  Jazz in July is on Wednesday Evenings in July, including TONIGHT, from 6pm – 9pm.

Firstlight Photography’s Friday the 13th bride featured on offbeatbride.com

I’ve written a couple of other posts about my “offbeat” Friday the 13th Bride, Tiffany, and now I’m at it again.

There is no need to go on and on about how much fun I had working with Tiffany on her wedding day and the shoot we did at the cemetery in Tacoma, I’ve said it all before.  I am here not to rehash old stories, but to add on to the story that just keeps going.

How does the story keep going?  Well, I just got an e-mail from Tiffany to let me know that her wedding was featured on offbeatbride.com!  Check out her story HEREg, then go check out other ideas about planning an “offbeat” wedding.

Since the story on offbeatbride.com is being seen by people outside of the Seattle / Tacoma area I just wanted to let people know that if you are interested in hiring Firstlight Photography to shoot your wedding, but you don’t live in the Seattle area we will travel.  If you have questions feel free to call (253.335.7958) or e-mail (kier@firstlight-photography.com) for details.

Wedding Photography at LDS Temple in Bellevue

I just got an e-mail from a client that had posted her wedding photos on her Facebook page and I wanted to share the comment.

“This guy took some of the best wedding picture at the Seattle temple I’ve seen! He’s good!”

Cindy and Camron got married at the LDS Temple in Seattle / Bellevue a few weeks ago and I was very excited to shoot my first wedding there.  While I say that, I wasn’t actually able to go in the temple to shoot the wedding, but we did their photos right after the wedding on the grounds around the temple and we had a great time.  I’m not LDS, but over the years I’ve had so many really great friends, neighbors and clients that are, so I was very excited to finally get a chance to shoot wedding photos at the Bellevue temple.  The grounds are amazing and the temple makes an awe inspiring background.  To top it all off the couple were so excited that we couldn’t help but get some really great photos.    Yes, a “great photo” is very subjective, so I’m posting some of the photos and you can make up your own mind.