Shanna Chess Photography

My sweet little cousin came to visit me this past weekend.  I can't believe she is 3 months old already!  It seems not long ago at all that I was taking her newborn pictures.  And oh my, look at that hair!!  LOVE!  And those baby blues!  She is just oh so adorable and was drooling up a storm :)  Enjoy!

I had the amazing experience this past week of a 1:1 Mentoring Session with the wonderful Katie Anderson Photography in Salem, Oregon.  We scheduled months ago and I have been anxiously waiting for the date to finally arrive!  For about an hour we talked business, pricing and did some prepping for the sessions.  Katie had 2 models coming in for us with lunch in between sessions and we had about an hour at the end to go over some editing and more business talk.  It was just a great opportunity for me and I'm so glad I did it.  And so glad we snapped some pictures of each other while hard at work :)  Thanks Katie!

Sweet little Paisley and her parents came to visit me last week in the studio.  She was a great sitter and is sooo close to crawling!  She gets up on her hands and knees and scoots to where she wants to go.  Usually it is because she is motivated to grab a toy or dad's phone :)  Enjoy!

Raelee turned ONE on July 2nd, but with the Fourth of July holiday in there, we waited until this past weekend to have her party.  I decided on an Alice in Wonderland theme a while ago and loved the play on words for "Raelee in ONE-derland" and with the help of Pinterest and some creative thought, I put this party together.  Of course with help from my husband, a good friend, my dad and my stepmom :)  I am part of our local MOMs Club and every year we have a family picnic.  Last year our President chose the picnic shelters in Lively Park behind SPLASH! in Springfield.  I saw them and fell in love!  Well, as much as you can fall in love with picnic shelters :)  They are super tall with lovely curves and lines.  They are CLEAN!  Which is rare for a picnic shelter at a public park.  There are huge gas grills, hot plates, sinks with running hot/cold water, power, tons of nice picnic tables, high tables for food and a very nice park.   When setting up a crazy thunder, lighting,

This wonderful family was so much fun to photograph.  Grandma and Grandpa were visiting from Tampa, Florida and the session was a birthday gift for Grandma :)  We had a great time exploring Owen Memorial Rose Garden--it was a little windy at first, but it worked out well because it was so hot that day!  The winds calmed down as the sun went down more.  Enjoy!

My sweet baby is no longer a baby...technically.  But until a possible other baby comes around for our little family, she will remain the "baby" :)  She lights up our life with her smiles, mischievousness and giggles.  What a wonderful year it has been for our almost  4th of July baby. We explored down by the Delta Ponds to show off her adorable patriotic romper.  She was obsessed  with the balloons and it took me pulling out all my crazy tricks and funny sounds for her to take her eyes off them.  Until she saw the ducks in the pond...then I had to pull out even more!  I love love love the long white dress I picked up on a whim.  I'm never put either of my girls in a floor length dress before and the innocence and beauty of it just makes me smile :)  And of course my little piggy loved her cake!  She had a blast stomping her feet in it. Enjoy!

Melinda is actually from Arizona and was in the Hillsboro area visiting her husbands family.  And Melinda is also actually one of my prop vendors from Little Man Props !  We met in a Facebook group for prop purchasing and when she scheduled her trip she contacted me to see if I was available for a family session.  It was so much fun meeting a prop vendor and she even brought me a little goody bag :) We had a different location picked out at first, but the weather shifted on us and the chances were good for rain.  Since I do not know the Portland area very well, I started asking around in local photography Facebook groups to see if photographers up there had any ideas for covered locations.  Someone suggested Jenkins Estate so off I went to Google.  It looked beautiful and had a few different covered options so I sent the info to Melinda.  Who would have guessed that is where her in-laws had their wedding reception!?!  How special :)  It for sure rained pretty hard a couple times, and