Friends, clients, and new friends

I often say I have the best job in the world, and one of the reasons is the great people I meet. My clients often become my friends. And sometimes my friends become clients, and our friendship is deepened through the joy of capturing images that become part of their family heritage.

My friends the Mickleys are a great example. We met at church and our friendship quickly grew. I photographed their family for my own purposes in the beginning – I was selling stock photography and my main subject was family relationships. I photographed generational pictures, staged photos of game playing and quickie family portraits, as I only knew how to photograph journalistically. As I grew into portraiture, I was officially hired for senior pictures. And then came the highlight of my portrait career – they paid me to photograph their daughter's wedding in Switzerland.

Chari was working as an au pair (nanny) in Zurich. She met Chris at an international church. It was an amazing and unique wedding, beginning with Chris swimming across the lake to the church! The guests came from all over the world - Malasia, Australia, Scotland. The Mickleys and I stayed with the groom's mother. Doris could only speak Swiss German and the Mickleys, English. 30 years earlier I was an exchange student in Germany, and most of my German stayed on the shelf, but a week of translating for the in-laws brought back much of the language.

Chris and Chari continued to live in Switzerland for the next four years, adding two baby boys to the family. I photographed their growing family during their visits. Then in 2010 they moved to Whatcom County where Chris is now in ministry.

Chris' mom visits during the summer and I get another chance to renew my German skills and strengthen our friendship. This year I photographed their family and parents at the Mickley's home, which was in peak fall color.

We grow, we grow older, hopefully wiser, and certainly closer as friends. I really do have the best job in the world.