Great Room Update

My Mom was over yesterday, and brought a "make a rag doll" kit for Kendra, which we had a wonderful day doing together... three generations bonding over the sewing machine. And the seam ripper. ;0)

All that sewing reminded me that I never posted the final pics from our great room makeover! So here you have 'em:



Aunt Lynnae gave me some matelasse, which I used to make this loooong pillow for our entry bench, and some table runners. And Corey earned BIG points with me, making this sweet dining table! I got the top second-hand, and he built the shelving base to fit these fabulous Cost Plus World Market baskets I found:



Don't look too closely at my sorry stitching efforts... I'm SO going to keep my (photography) day job:



I can't believe it has been 10 years already since we built our little log cabin!?  I'm surprised at how light the logs have remained:




Now we're working on transforming our basement!  Woot woot!!  ;0)

To book a wedding or session, e-mail me at jamie.zanotti@gmail.com

Maternity: Diana (Part II).... Eugene Oregon Photographer

This was my first ever truly, truly soggy shoot... as in it rained the whole time and never let up for an instant! But... I LOVED it!! We had so much fun, thanks to Diana and Ed's fabulous "we're native Oregonians and a a little rain isn't going to melt us" attitudes! ;0) They were up visiting from California, and were actually happy to see the rain. Pure awesomeness! With their great, laid-back presence, and the presence of my sweet friend Heather wielding my GIANT white umbrella to protect my gear from the rain, we had a capital time!! Oh-- And the other ingredient that made this work? Diana's amazing hair-stylist friend, Julie Heegard (who works at Diane's Hair Shop in Cottage Grove: 541-942-0251), who must have used some really special product to get Diana's hair to stay PERFECTLY in place the whole time!?



When I was scouting for locations, I met Vaughn Ziniker of Ziniker Orchards, and he was so kind! He graciously let us come and tromp through their orchards, and the kids were super happy to see me coming home with some Ziniker honey!! (That was one good thing about the rain; the bees were all snuggled up in their boxes, and didn't pay us any mind.)





I loved witnessing Ed and Diana's sweet connection:







This series is one of my favs:















Another fav:











Diana and Ed: Thank you so much for the privilege of capturing this amazing time of anticipation! One thing I know for sure; your child can count on some very fun puddle-jumping walks in the rain!! ;0)

To book a wedding or session, e-mail me at jamie.zanotti@gmail.com

Maternity: Diana.... Eugene Oregon Photographer

I knew Diana was my kind of girl when... faced with a forecast predicting 100% chance of precipitation, I got an e-mail from her. Not in regard to re-scheduling, mind you. To tell me about the cute umbrella and rain boots she was bringing along!!! LOVE it!!!!! ;0)

More to come soon!

To book a wedding or session, e-mail me at jamie.zanotti@gmail.com

Engagement: Cassie & Tyler (Part II) ... Eugene Oregon Wedding Photographer

STOP RIGHT THERE: If you haven't seen Part I, you've got to click here and check it out first!! Trust me, you're not going to want to miss any little bit of this sweet story!

(A quick aside before we really get going: As I was snapping the above image, a police officer pulled up behind me, rolled down his window, and said, "Is this an engagement shoot?! That will be such a cute picture!" And I'm thinking, "Since when do police officers use the word 'cute'?" I think my brother--a police officer--must have put one of his buddies up to it. LOL!)

...So where were we when we left off Cassie & Tyler's engagement story? Ah, yes. Clam chowder at my folks' place. From there, we headed to the beach, where Tyler serenaded Cassie with some Johnny Cash:







Tyler and I had agreed that the "signal" for the proposal would be Cassie's final outfit change, into her gorgeous blue dress. Originally, we were just going to go with the flow and let it happen whenever the moment felt right, but Tyler later asked me to carry the ring in my camera bag so Cassie wouldn't see it in his pocket. (Talk about stressful! I was packing that baby in the tightest, deepest pocket I could find... and I swear I watched it with the eye in the back of my head all the way as we hiked out to the beach, even though my sweet hubby was packing my bag for me-- he was fairly nervous at the prospect of toting Cassie's engagement ring through the dunes, too! Ha!)

Anyway, when Cassie changed into her dress it was all I could do to hold the camera steady and take a few pictures as we made our way through the dunes to the ocean, I was so excited:





We finally made it to the beach, successfully snuck the ring to Tyler, and stepped back to capture Cassie's beautiful surprise proposal.

I love these images of her progressive revelation... "Oh my goodness! Are you... ???!!?????"



Then she turned to us... "Did you know?"



And then the huge reality of the moment starts to set in...



WELL DONE, Tyler!!! I'll be quiet now, and let the images tell the rest of Cassie and Tyler's beautiful proposal story:























Cassie and Tyler, thank you thank you thank you for the immense privilege of capturing your storybook engagement!! I'll never forget it!

To book a wedding or session, e-mail me at jamie.zanotti@gmail.com

Engagement: Cassie & Tyler ... Eugene Oregon Wedding Photographer

Holy mackerel, have I got a whopper of a story and a session to share with you! It all started when I ran into Cassie at the grocery store (after not having seen each other for quite a while), and told her I'd been dreaming up a project that involved her... ;0)

I've been wanting to put together a video for a while now, to post online, that will give potential clients a sense of what it's like at a session. Cassie said she was game to be my guinea pig, and we started making plans. It just got better and better along the way! "You have a boyfriend? Great! Bring him along; we'll make it a mock engagement session!"

And then I got the best! secret! call! ever! from Tyler about a week before the session... "So you know how this is supposed to be a mock engagement session? Well, I bought a ring..." Eeeeeeeeeeeekkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUN!!!!!!!!!! ...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's rewind a bit.

We met up for their session in Old Town Florence (on the Oregon Coast), and had some fun on the boardwalk and docks:


I was in heaven all afternoon... Cassie and Tyler are lovely people, for starters. And they're so great together; relaxed, and affectionate, and just plain fun! Plus, her hat! And her shoes! And her hair pieces! And their outfits!! And, of course, they're just a teensy bit photogenic... Truly, everything was perfect:






































After wrapping up in Old Town, we stopped in at my Mom and Dad's for amazingly good clam chowder (thanks again, Mom!), and then headed out to catch the last hour or so of sun at the beach. So stay tuned... because you don't want to miss some Johnny Cash, a police officer, a little box full of something life-changing... I told you it was a whopper of a story! Part II coming soon!!

* Edited to add:  To see Part II, click here! *

To book a wedding or session, e-mail me at jamie.zanotti@gmail.com