expectancy.

lately i've felt much like this tree, stripped clean but strangely hopeful.

the best is yet to come.

catching up

the thing about mothering four kids is that come flu season, someone always seems to be ill. the past couple of weeks i've nursed two sickish littles, a role i truly don't mind but which also leaches any normalcy from my schedule.

they're mostly better now (i think), so i'm attacking my catch-up list with zeal.

near the top of my list are some photos i owe you, my faves from the last couple of senior sessions. today we'll highlight the beautiful brooke.





brooke is funny and authentic and completely comfortable in her own skin, everything i wish i would've been at eighteen.





she's bright and pretty and involved in everything, but she has a rare depth to her as well. brooke has weathered sharp sorrow and loss, and this makes her strength and serenity all the more remarkable.



i had the best time with brooke and her mom...the light was gorgeous, the company delightful. i am nothing short of blessed to have a job i so completely enjoy.



thanks, ladies. and brooke, go change the world. we've been needing someone just like you.

again with the trees.

in the northeast corner of our backyard stands a towering oak that is just about my Favoritest Tree Ever. it's sublime.

i'd consider moving my computer and pillow outside and living beneath this tree for the entire month of october, did it not have a certain proclivity for dropping acorns on my head. plus also nights tend to be cold, and not to mention my computer is of the desktop variety. but you know, hypothetically.

i call this oak Exhibit A.



see, most of the year when i field the question: why would you move from oahu to HERE? i have to hem and haw and generally appear an idiot. however.

come october, i merely point to my tree and say this. this is why i live here.

and also the cost of living.

holiday mini sessions

the air is crisping and the leaves are turning, which can only mean one thing: holiday sessions are here!

i am currently booking a limited number of mini photo sessions between now and november 15th. these are perfect for fancying up the fam and taking a few silly or formal shots for greeting cards (or framed prints for grandma's mantle).

the session fee of $100 includes the following:
20-30 minute session
25 5x7 flat or folded holiday cards OR one digital file
one to two dozen finished proofs to select from
private online gallery to view your proofs

**more details below.

take a gander at this year's custom card designs (all are available in both flat and folded styles):







**details

additional 5x7 cards may be purchased in sets of 25. flat cards are $40, folded cards are $48. all cards are printed on quality paper cover stock and come with white or parchment hued envelopes.

flat cards will be printed in color on both sides, with a customizable message. (you also have the option of a blank back side instead if you wish.)

folded cards will be printed in color front and back, with a white or cream inside and a customizable message in colored text.

you are welcome to order prints, canvases, and any other specialty items i offer from your mini session proofs.

if i have recently photographed you (in 2009), you are welcome to order cards from your archived proofs. please contact me for details.

since holiday mini sessions are already a fantastic price, further discounts cannot be applied.

please stop by nicoleowensphotography.com to reserve your session. grazie!

leafy goodness.

Today I opened the garage door to find our driveway freshly carpeted with leaves.



Autumn is grand, if a bit on the frigid side. And what the world am I doing with proper capitalization? let's cease and desist with that at once. (phew...for a moment there you thought i was tied up in the broom closet while an impostor blogged in my place, eh? no worries, i do not have a broom closet, though if anyone would like to guest blog for me, i will totally build one and voluntarily hop inside.)

speaking of blogging, i apologize for the lean pickings around here as of late. it appears that these posts actually require something in the way of cohesive thought and emotion from me...and these past few weeks (months?), the hubby and i have been wrestling with future possibilities that are exciting and life-shaking and bigger than we are. our discussions and research leave me emotionally exhausted at the end of each day, and i find it difficult to lace two words together.

[yes, i know, could i be more ambiguous? i do promise to fill in the details when we figure them out. or when God tells them to us, which is a far more likely prospect.]

so. a few notes from my recent life:
1. em is ill, the hubby is ill, the rest of us have developed close ties with lysol and vitamin c.

2. we are a Family of Readers (well, the hubby's membership is mostly honorary), and bookmarks are in constant short supply. the other day i noticed that zee was using a sock to mark his place in a novel, and from the looks of it, this particular sock had come directly from his foot. nice.

3. um. i really did have more to report, but those thoughts have fluttered off into the ether. alas. and adieu.

4. except! a quote! (or two or three)

"the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." [elie wiesel]

"whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." [mark twain]

"it is never too late to be what you might have been." [george eliot]

a study of five.

notes on five:

1. i just peeked in on your little slumbering self, snuggled up with your birthday gifts: a small lizard tucked beneath your chin, your gnomish doll clutched loosely in one arm, your giant diego coloring book at your feet. i'm not sure how there's any room left for you to actually sleep, but you seem to be managing just fine.

2. you use words that are taller than you are, sliding them into conversation at whim, and rarely concerned with their proper meanings. (your mother would be proud.)

3. you are an exercise in contrasts: tender and feisty and affectionate and contentious and diffident and ebullient, and i love every last bit of you.






happy birthday, elle. you are some kind of wonderful.

hookey.

today had the best sort of morning: brooding storms chased by a brightening sky, where the only reasonable course of action was to skip homeschool and head out into the wonderment with my camera and my girl. there were banana muffins to be savored, and books (just finished GUERNSEY, what a treat!), and wind, and hazelnut coffee (recipe: 1/2 cup hazelnut creamer, 2 drops of coffee. stir.), plus newly fallen leaves pasted to the ground.





we swung by the library and then home again for lunch out back (well, elle lunched; i antipastoed).



the fluttering outline of oak leaves reminded me somehow of coral. (you know, if coral were green and set in the sky. and in our backyard, no less.)





i'm crazy about autumn. the crisping air, the sun pressing on your skin, the way the day is alive with wind and scuttling clouds and a thousand blades of trembling grass reaching for the light.

meanwhile, elle has been begging for school today, namely math** and art (except you must say it MATH! and ART!). we shall get to those this afternoon, i suppose, provided i am not once again sidetracked by october's siren call.

**incidentally, i do think my girl is in for a sad case of bait-and-switch when she arrives at school and finds that the wonder of problem solving has been largely replaced by rote memorization. alas.