2nd in League, Districts, Regionals and 6th place 4A State Tournament

State was great! The Chiefs worked and played hard. I’m so proud of this group of girls. I’ve known and loved most of them for years. Their only fault as a team was being too nice. This is the nicest group of girls on the court and off. It was on the court that their niceness was sometimes to blame for a loss. Lots of talent and many hours of hard worked helped get them to State this year. I didn’t know how much I would be able to photograph them until the second game. The first game I tried to shoot from the stands and was able to get a few good shots but nothing like the last 3 games when our High School Athletic Director was able to get me a Press Pass so I could shoot right down on the court. Thank you Loren! Sports photography is hard work. Timing is everything and it takes several frames to get a “good” shot, and even more frames to get a great shot. SI photographers take hundreds of images to get one that is print worthy. Tonights Banquet is the official last night of basketball this year and for some it is the last of High School Basketball. Some of these girls are going on to play for College Teams and others are going on to pursue other dreams. What ever road they take I wish them well.

Friday morning I met with the sweetest little family to photograph their first born child, baby M.  I fell in love with this sweet bundle of joy and enjoyed every minute of the time I spent with him and his mommy and daddy.  If I could spend all week photographing newborns I would.  The best part about this session was that I photographed his mom and dad’s wedding a few years ago. They’re such wonderful new parents.  I enjoyed watching their interaction with each other and their son.  Watching families grow and capturing special moments in their lives is one of the thing I enjoy the most about being a photographer.  It’s also nice to get a little baby fix now and then.  

Congratulations Todd and CJ, he’s beautiful!

My youngest daughter, Kaitlin, plays on the Varsity basketball team at Moses Lake High School. Earlier this week they played Richland for their first regional game and their regional tournament started today. They won their game today against Mead so they qualify for state next week!! They are super excited and hope that their luck will be in their favor this year! They play tomorrow at 3:00PM against Pasco and then they are headed to state March 4-7! Congrats girlies!!

We love you girls!! Keep up the hard work and good luck at state!

I can’t began to tell you how excited I am.  I just launched my new website.  www.juliewaitesphotography.com  Ashley and I have been working on it on it for weeks in between Senior sessions and MLHS winter sports photos.  This has been a major project and I’m so relieved its over, but it was well worth the time.  I loved the  website I’ve had for the past couple of years. www.juliewaitesphotography.com/oldsite  It was designed by a very talented graphic artist from Tri-Cities, Jared Bates. I was going to contact him again and have him create something new for me, but at the last minute Ashley talked me into trying our hand at web design.  I was up for the challenge and the work began. It was through trial and error, like everything else I’ve had to learn in the last 9 years of business.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I’m a hands on learner and lucky for me art is very hands on.  I want to publicly thank my daughter Ashley for all of her hard work and talent that she has put into the business for the last year and a half.  I know she’s had her hands full with a husband, two babies and going to school full time.  I appreciate her willingness not only to work with me but help me to make Julie Waites Photography even better.

I haven’t been very good about updating my blog this month so I’ve decided that one of my many New Years resolutions will be to update my blog more often. December was a whirlwind of family and fun. Christmas was especially fun this year watching my grandchildren and seeing things through their eyes.

Ashley and I have been busy working on my new website and hope to launch it in the next couple of weeks. It will be great to have a new look for the new year. I thought I would post images from my last session of 2008 and my first session of 2009. I have to say as much as I hate the cold I love to be out shooting in the snow. There is something so refreshing and magical about winter and I love to try and capture that in my winter portraits. The light reflected off of the snow can be a little tricky to work with but when you get it just right it’s so beautiful. Of course it really helps to have beautiful subjects to work with!
Here is Christina, my last photo session of 2008.

The first photo shoot of 2009……. Aimee!

I’m so excited. A few weeks ago I received an email from a family that I’ve gotten close to in the past few years.  I’ve had the privilege of photographing both their daughter and son’s weddings.  They are a Mustang family and thought it would be fun to submit a photo and a story to My Ford Magazine. Ford loved it and published both photo and story and put it on page 2 of their fall 2008 issue.  Phil sent me a copy this weekend and the PDF file this morning so I could share it.  I’ve had several of my images published in local newspapers and in advertisement fliers but never before in a national Magazine.  Thank You Phil for thinking about submitting this. It’s something both our families will enjoy for years. 

The image and story are on page 2 of this PDF file

Click on the link below to view PDF 

mustang-love-1

Here are a few more from Andrew and Brenda’s Mustang shots and Andrew’s Sister Sara and her husband David’s Mustang shots taken several years before

I have a beautiful new daughter.  On Friday November 14th William Robert Waites Married Brandi Kisler in the Columbia River Temple and became a member of our family.  I was worried we wouldn’t have nice weather on that day so a few weeks ago I took advantage of a beautiful calm day to shoot some wedding photos.  Here are a few from that day.  As luck would have it the actual wedding day weather was nice a little cold but we did get some great photos that day, I will post those tomorrow on their one week anniversary.

One of the great thing about taking team sport photos at MLHS is getting to know the athletes. After photographing them for a few years I have the opportunity to photograph many of them for their senior portraits. Mr. J is one of those talented athletes.  He was great in front of my lens and gave me some great poses and facial expressions.  His mom took the opportunity to sneak in a few family photos so I was able to get to know the whole family.  I love it when mom’s realize that taking a family portrait before the kids all leave home is important.     

 The last of the fall color is fading fast. Before the last leaf falls I
thought I had better post some more of my senior sessions from this
fall. These two gorgeous young ladies are near and dear to my heart. I
watched them grow up to become full of talent and grace and beautiful on the
inside as well as the outside.

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