Allie & Ryan | An Engagement Session at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Oregon

Allie & Ryan | An Engagement Session at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Oregon

Allie and Ryan brought their dogs to their Hoyt Arboretum engagement session — a Jack Russell mix and a yellow Lab, both wearing matching plaid bowties, both completely certain the session was for them. They weren't wrong. The arboretum's redwood grove, forest trails, and fall ferns gave us some of my favorite frames from this location, and these two were absolutely natural in front of the camera.

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Murphy McGuinness, Finn McCool & the People Who Love Them | Dog Portraits in Hoyt Arboretum | Portland, Oregon
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Murphy McGuinness, Finn McCool & the People Who Love Them | Dog Portraits in Hoyt Arboretum | Portland, Oregon

I met Chris and Jessica over a decade ago when they were my neighbors in downtown Portland. I had to introduce myself — Jessica was out on a walk with Murphy McGuinness, a Newfoundland puppy so impossibly adorable I had no choice. We've been friends ever since. Now there's Finn McCool, a massive Leonberger, and the four of them together are exactly as wonderful as you'd expect. We took it to Hoyt Arboretum, one of my favorite places in the city, and the fall forest did not disappoint.

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Michael & Svetlana | Duniway Hotel & Hoyt Arboretum Microwedding | Portland Elopement Photographer
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Michael & Svetlana | Duniway Hotel & Hoyt Arboretum Microwedding | Portland Elopement Photographer

A silver sequin gown. A rain-soaked wooden deck in the redwoods of Hoyt Arboretum. Mini champagne bottles clinked among family and friends. And then Cathedral Park, where the Gothic arches of the St. Johns Bridge — Portland's only steel suspension bridge — made the most extraordinary backdrop I could have asked for. Michael and Svetlana's elopement was exactly the kind of day that reminds me why I love this city.

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Holding Space | Portland Family Photography Through Childhood Leukemia
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Holding Space | Portland Family Photography Through Childhood Leukemia

I've known Amanda since we were kids playing soccer together. I've photographed her engagement, her wedding, her family — and when her son Levi was diagnosed with leukemia as a toddler, I was there for those seasons too. This is a post about Levi, about his brother Wyatt who wanted to name him Monster Truck, about a family who loved loudly and completely — and about why preserving these memories is the most serious and sacred thing I do.

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Hoyt Arboretum Forest Elopement in Portland, Oregon
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Hoyt Arboretum Forest Elopement in Portland, Oregon

Sara has been one of my closest friends for over ten years. When she asked me to photograph her December elopement at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, I said yes before she finished the sentence. Six of her favorite people, a redwood deck in the trees, dinner at Le Pigeon, and a bottle of wine they bought on their first date. This one was special.

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