Senior Ally sneak peek [Wenatchee senior portraits]

I've known Ally for probably 6 years. She is a close friend of my middle daughter, Carsey. Throughout the school years, she's been at our house so many times that we've given her an assortment of nicknames, just like we have our own kids. Her name is most definitely NOT Alexandria. But that's what we call her anyway. Her session went so well I ended up with the most ever portraits for a senior session. I usually like to give 20-30 for a mini session but after narrowing it down to just the best, I could easily go over 50. That's if I narrow it way down. Apparently, the girl can't help but take a good photo. Love ya, ALEXANDRIA.

Senior Ashley sneak peek [Wenatchee senior portraits]

Meet Ashley. I got to meet her yesterday afternoon and had a great time getting to know a little bit about this easy-going, friendly, genuinely nice, high school senior. We spent some time exploring the East Wenatchee Apple Capitol Loop Trail park area and found so many gorgeous, natural areas that perfectly suited her personality. Here's a little peek because I know she's eager to see how it went. See, Ashley, I told you you photographed well!

JCPenney and Seventeen Haul Nation [Wenatchee teen portraits]

OK, so if you have Facebook, and you want to help make someone's day, and you aren't opposed to contests decided by public voting (I hate them personally because they always resort to this type of asking for votes) then I would love if you took a minute out to vote for my daughter in a contest sponsored by JCPenney and Seventeen magazine. She made a video for their "Haul Nation" program (showing how versatile their clothes are and how affordable) and was picked by them to be in the top ten. First place is a trip to NYC to check out the behind-the-scenes of Seventeen magazine, among other things, but most important to her is a guest columnist spot at seventeen.com. She dreams of being a writer and that is her real desire to win the contest. Anyway...the link is http://apps.facebook.com/jcphaul/?video_id=97 and she is Carsey and you can vote once every day until Sept. 10. Here are a few pics we took yesterday in a little mini-shoot. Thanks! Oh, and have a great Labor Day. Always the bittersweet combination of time off and spent with family but it means summer is almost over. Boo.

Moist banana bread [Wenatchee food photography]

There are a zillion banana bread recipes out there and after tinkering around with a basic recipe, I came up with this one. It's super moist and for the first time, made me love a banana bread ALMOST as much as zuchini bread. The addition of chocolate chips on top adds a little something without adding TOO much. It's versatile. If you have 2 bananas, that's okay. If you only have all-purpose flour, use as much as you would if you added up the other flours/oatmeals. One kind of sugar, same thing. The only thing I wouldn't skip is the sour cream, it's the key to moist. But, feel free to substitute yogurt instead. I wrapped the individual mini-loaves in "Martha wrap", which is a brown parchment paper bonded to a thin aluminum foil. (In theory it sounds like a great product, but I'm not in love with it.) It did work well to make cute, little brown-paper wrapped loaves that stayed shut.

Wenatchee boudoir photography