Can you feel that warm breeze in the air? Finally, it feels like summer is almost here in Seattle, and if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that summer is my absolute favorite time of year to photograph my own children. There are many reasons why. I absolutely love the sun and our Seattle summers are full of it. When the kids are out of school, I have way more opportunity to photograph them. Because there is no school, we often let them stay up late which means I can be shooting at sunset, my favorite time for outdoor photos. I love to shoot film and warm sunny days are perfect on film. Summer is a time of vacations, long lazy days and bright colorful clothing which adds some playfulness to images.

Going into summer, I like to write a photography bucket list. I also sit down with my boys and write a summer bucket list, and the two often go hand in hand. For example, if the boys want to fly kites on the beach, then my photography bucket list will include taking images of them flying kites on the beach, but I also add other goals, such as shooting after the sun goes down. Above is my 2019 summer photography bucket list. Please feel free to use it as inspiration. Some things I’ve put on it are literal, others you can use any interpretation you’d like.