Good afternoon to you all! This may be the fastest I've posted a session in quite awhile, but I think any photographer out there would be anxious to process photos of such a beautiful little girl. You may be familiar with this sweet little face. We did their family session last fall and Jocelynne and her parents Jay and Maria are our closest friends so I'm sure you've seen her in a few other posts as well (here)

It is plain to see that Jocelynne is growing into a beautiful young lady.
We took these photos at McCosh park here in Moses Lake, where there is an abundance of fallen leaves-as you can see. Jocelynne was not as excited in most of the photos as she is in this one and this will be part 1 of her photo session. Maria and I decide to do some idoor shots later this week as Jocelynne was a bit tired and cold for too many photos.

I think we got just enough photos to show her off for now and when all was said and done it was plain to see who her heart really belongs to. Daddy of course! I love her little hand on his shoulder.

I'll share more from her second shoot soon! Thanks Jay & Maria for sharing your sweet little girl with us!

Family Session-The Lybbert Family

Meet the Lybbert family! This particular session Caleb photographed and left me home with the kids for a little break. Shane is Caleb's framing partner during his day job. Any home or building they frame is done in record time and the two of them make one of the best crews in Moses Lake.

Shane's wife Jill chose to have theire session done at Blue Heron Park here in Moses Lake. It's a great place for photographs here in the fall and gives families lots of space to run around and be themselves.
This is definitely one of Caleb's favorites.
What a couple of beauties Shane has been blessed with!

And of course a couple of rambunctious boys that look very much like their father though from what I hear they have a lot more energy and are quite a bit more mischievious than their quiet father.

Looks like Jill won't have any problems keeping up with the boys though...

Nice work Caleb! Thank you, Shane and Jill, for the chance to photograph your family!

Friehe Farms Potato Harvest

I ventured out to Friehe Farms for a second time recently, to photograph potato harvest. Grant county is our nations top potato producing county. That's alot of spuds!

We know many farmers that produce potatoes around Grant County and Friehe Farms seems to produce the most per single farm. They run 8 potato diggers during full scale harvest which is the most of any farmer in our area. In fact Caleb ahs heard that potatoes from Friehe Farms account for up to 6% of the potatoes used by Mcdonalds. I have no documentation to back that up but I did ask one of the farm hands while I was out taking photos and he did not seem surprised at that number at all though he did tell me that the majority of the potatoes sold to McDonalds go to the Japanese market.Wheat harvest was dirty to be sure-a lot of chaff blowing everywhere-but potato harvest surely takes the prize for dirtiest (as in actual dirt) job. This is very clean dirt mind you no rocks, not much weeds, but very fine dusty soil.In order to prepare for potato harvest the farmers stop irrigating the fields a few weeks in advance, allowing the potato plant above groundto dry up and separate form the potatoes below the soil so that only the potato itself is harvested and the foliage is discarded easily.

Unfortunately an untimely windstorm can really make travel bad during potato harvest. This year parts of I-90 between Moses Lake and Ritzville had to be closed due to poor visibility caused by all the dust. Visibility was as low as 5 feet in front of you and having driven in it (very slowly with a county pilot car to lead the way) I think that was rather generous. Before the Columbia Basin was irrigated there were dust storms all the time throughout the year-I can't imagine! Another reason to be thankful for water!

Potato harvest doesn't last too long though and it's well worth it-soon we'll all be celebrating what another year has brought us around a nicely roasted turkey and, of course, mashed potatoes!
Thanks again, to Friehe Farms for having us out to photograph another part of harvest!

A Quick Announcement...

Remember the good ol' days when you had your whole life ahead of you...

Krista and I on graduation day in 1999

When you had tons of energy for things like prom and grad night...

Krista and I on prom night

and we celebrated marriages and new babies together...

Krista's bachelorette party, me 4 months pregnant with Joseph

Well time keeps marching on...

I thought I'd let Krista tell you all that Erlenmeyer Photography is expecting it's newest model in March!

I am currently 5 months pregnant with our third little boy.
Caleb and I are thrilled to share the news with you! I'm sure we'll have some official maternity photos coming soon so stay tuned!

Family Session-The Almaas Family

Good afternoon to everyone! With this post I believe I will have introduced you to every member of Krista and Todd Parsons extended family. You met Todd's side of the family back in June and of course that wasn't too long after we introduced you to the youngest member of the family with little Kylise.

This September morning found us photographing Krista's side of the family complete with both sets of grandparents.

This session turned out to be a very memorable time for the Almaas family and very meaningful for us as photographers, for it would be the last time that the family would be photographed with Grandpa Almaas.As photographers we are aware that every moment captured is truly a special memory that will be remembered forever-it's not just a clever slogan we came up with to sell photos but it is what we truly believe. Krista had even mentioned at the beginning of the session that it was great that both set of grandparents were able to be there because naturally you never know when it may be the last time. Krista called me the following Tuesday morning to inform me that granpa Almaas had passed away the day before. He had had a heart condition for over 30 years, she explained and was never expected to even see his own son marry let alone live to see him go on to have 3 children and even meet a great grand daughter. He had a life that was blessed and it was our pleasure to capture him with his family one last time. Our thoughts are with the Almaas family and I am grateful to, as a photographer, have been given a chance to capture a few more memories for you all to treasure.

Grandpa Don and Grandma Mary enjoying a moment-
it was such a beautiful day.
Everybody got their turn with baby Kylise!

Krista had originally asked me to come photograph her family before her brother Evan left for the military. I remember her turning to me with tears in her eyes wanting to have photos of her brother with the family not knowing to what extent his military travels might take him. Sometimes we take for granted that though safe here in America we continue to be safe and enjoy freedom because someone else put themself in harms way and gave up their freedom to fight for ours.

We all wish Evan the best during his service and send our prayers of safety and encouragement wherever his military years may take him, along with our gratitude for his service.

The recently married baby sis, Kendra, now known as Mrs. Schadel with her Mr.!

Proud grandparents Larry and Sandee Almaas!

And not to be forgotten Todd and Krista(Almaas) Parsons. We had a great time with you and your family at your new home and beautiful backyard. Our thoughts and prayers are with you always. We love you guys!

-Caleb and Sharon Erlenmeyer

Wedding Sneak Peek-Josh & Danielle

Alright, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with this one but hey I was excited-mostly because Caleb and Ihad such a good time at this wedding and with my family this past weekend.

So the last of my own bridesmaids, Danielle, was married to her best friend Josh on Saturday in a beautiful ceremony in Chehalis at Red Barn Studios. As you might've guessed it's a farm setting complete with a big Red Barn. I was in the wedding as a bridesmaid, and Caleb helped photograph with Stepheni and Savannah of Mason Jar Photography . However I got my photo fix with my iPhone and it was rather fun. Somehow we managed to get ahold of the rings before the ceremony and Amber one of the other bridesmaids, and myself were running around the farm in four inch heels photographing the rings in all sorts of odd places. There are websites dedicated solely to ring shots-so for a photographer it's not that crazy but to two bridesmaids in heels on a farm well...hey we had a blast and no one had a clue what we were up to thanks to the pockets in our dresses to conceal the evidence. I give you Erlenmeyer Photography undercover iPhone style...

Amber has quite a few more shots than I do-which I can't wait to see, and I will have some actual wedding posts as soon as Caleb is done editing. Thanks for the good time Amber and of course, congrats to Josh & Danielle!

Maternity Session-Michele Jansen

I went out to my friend Michele's home this past week to do a few maternity shots for her. Michele Jansen is also a photographer and friend of mine expecting a little girl in October. As a photographer it's always hard to get photos of yourself since you're usually the one behind the lens so I offered to take a few shots of Michele. It was a pretty informal mini session and we didn't have a lot of time but here are a couple of my favorite ones.

This one was an idea I've had for awhile and we were able to pull it off in the short time I had. After a little editing and some text added via photoshop I love the way it turned out just as I'd envisioned.

Thank you, Michele, for letting me come to home and take a few photos. For more about Michele and her family as well as her photography visit her blog at http://moseslakejansen4.blogspot.com/

Whitworth Football-Pirates at Hardin Simmons

In the beginning of September Caleb had the opportunity to fly to Abilene, TX to watch his brother Jeff's team, the Whitworth Pirates take on Hardin Simmons University.

Caleb and his other brother Jon were able to get field passes and Caleb has secured a position for the season taking photos at the Whitworth games that we are able to attend.

Since we are not hired by a newspaper we have a little bit more editing freedom so I added a little Norman Rockwell-esque feel to this one.

This is a great close up of the official Pirates game footballs.
...and one of Caleb's favorite offensive shots of the game.

While Caleb had a good time photographing the game it unfortunately was a disappointing loss that I think Caleb captured quite nicely with this shot of one of the coaches.

Newborn Session-Baby Allie

I introduced you to the Louvier family a few months ago when we did their maternity session. We were lucky ebough to be in town a week after their beautiful little Allie Rae was born to do her newborn session as well. As you know babies tend to come on their own schedules so it always wonderful when it coincides with ours and what blessing it was to meet this sweet little girl.

We did the photo shoot at my parents home in Auburn and had wonderful morning light coming in the breakfeast nook-the nice thing about babies is that you can photograph them almost any where since they are so small and portable.

Before the Louvier's arrived I raided the garage for any props I could find and hit the jackpot with a tote filled with my nieces old princess costumes. We nestled little Allie right in the middle of a soft pile of sparkly pink tulle princess skirts the perfect nest for a sweet little bundle of sugar and spice.

It is always a pleasure to photograph friends with their new little family members and to be a part of their joy.

...and speaking of nests we made our own with grapevine wreaths from my mothers garden and nestled her in the middle on one of my boys brown blankets. This was actually the first pose we did and she was nestled (literally) so peacefully in the warm morning sun as Caleb and I snapped away.

Who can resist sweet little baby feet!
Below is the announcement design I came up with for Nate & Jenny

I liked the nest theme and Jenny loved how it turned out.

Thank you for sharing your sweet Allie Rae with Caleb and I, Nate & Jenny. She was a pleasure to meet and photograph and we hope that the days ahead are filled with joy as she grows into a little girl.

Carlson Family

Meet the Carlson Family! A few weeks after photographing Debbie we had the pleasure of capturing her parents, John & Marie and her and her brother Garett's families at the the Carlson Residence.

I of course already knew Mark & Debbie and their children but had never met her parents who Caleb had the pleasure of working with while building their new home.

John and Marie seem to really enjoy their new home and have expressed a lot of appreciation to Caleb for everything involved in building it. The shot below was Caleb's idea-he said he wanted to capture them enjoying their new home just the way he saw them each evening while he was still building in the area.

This shot was my idea- I thought since Caleb had been so involved in the building of their new home a shot of Caleb handing them the keys would be essential and meaningful. we tried quite a few trying to get the key in mid air but I like the way this one turned out the best as it just lands in John's hand and you can still see Caleb having released it from his fingers. I love these kinds of shots.

John and Marie you have a beautiful family and a beautiful home and we are glad to have been able to capture both for you.