October, briefly, and Pacific Northwest portraits

There were a few things, big and small, at play in this shoot. I’ll just list them here: 1) Having been in Seattle for a month, wanting to appreciate a quintessentially Northwest setting before boarding the flight home, 2) Never ceasing to think of my grandmother who had passed almost exactly two months prior, and recently having spent time with my mom, who gifted me Gramma’s wedding band to wear around my neck (I bought a gold chain and feather charm to go along with it shortly after). I wanted to honor her, but have been having trouble doing so in words., 3) Having recently purchased this dress as an impulse buy on a day I wandered downtown alone, feeling a strange, familiar blend of happy and hopeless. Lastly, I wanted to be able to play around with Lightroom + VSCO, and I often find that portraits lend themselves best to experimentation. I didn’t intend on the botanical gardens being the setting for this mixture of objectives, but on a chilled, rainy day, we were the only ones there, and wrapped up this little session in under thirty minutes. I was a fool in my dress, but now I’m happy I braved the cold in order to allow the photographs to tell my story, rather than words, just this once.

In honor of the Pacific Northwest and having time away and the greenest trees and walking and conversations and family and wool dresses and the distance between here and there. Most importantly, in honor of her.