Time to Shine

I had one of the best weeks of my life last August! My friend Donna Eaton joined me for what became a most memorable week and a tremendous adventure!  The adventure began when I was given the opportunity to participate in photographer Sue Bryce's project about women who are 50+ and Fabulous. (If you have never checked out Sue's work, stop reading now and check her website, she is amazing!) Donna and I flew to Seattle for the shoot and spent our first day exploring the area. We walked the city, made photos, visited Pike Place Market and even took a Duck Boat Tour!

           I had never seen so many cut flowers in one location as there were at

 Pike Place Market! Heavenly!

The morning of Day 2 found me nervous but so excited to be at Sue's studio. I am not usually comfortable being on the subject end of a camera, but Sue and Nikki Closser helped me to relax and the shoot was a blast! Thanks to Kendra Springer and Christine Carbone, my hair and make up never looked better and who knew how much fun false eyelashes could be! I was also lucky enough to share the experience with another fabulous woman, Robin Hill is gorgeous and we had so much fun together!

I was back at Sue's studio for Day 3 and my photo reveal.  Turning around to see 20 printed images of myself all together on Sue's Reveal Wall was a moment I will never forget, a very emotional experience for sure. I saw myself in a new way, and will be forever grateful to Sue for her kindness, grace,  generosity and amazing talent.  She gave me such a gift!

The next day, Donna and I headed to Portland, Oregon. We met our friends and fellow PPSOP instructors Ron Goldman and Chris Hurtt for dinner that night, always great to see Ron and wonderful to meet Chris in person after all these years!

When I found out I would be only a few hours away from my friends at Lensbaby there was no way I was going home without meeting them in person so Day 5 was Lensbaby Day!  We began with a tour of Lensbaby Worldwide Headquarters, and there were flowers throughout the building in my honor! Thanks for your thoughtfulness, Kirsten!  It was so much fun to meet everyone in person and see where my favorite lenses are produced. After lunch we headed for a field trip to Swan's Island Dahlias in Canby, where there are over 40 acres of Dahlias! Imagine my delight! Donna and I had so much fun being with Craig, Kirsten, Keri and Sika and the dahlias were gorgeous! Bright sun and 88 degrees made shooting a little tricky but we managed to diffuse or block the light as needed. I made lots of images that I love, what a day!

Sika filmed a fantastic video of our garden visit, you can see it here:

  Lensbaby Field Trip With Kathleen Clemons

I think you can tell how excited I was! What an honor and opportunity! I loved every minute of that experience and the video is a fantastic keepsake of that day for me.

Lensbaby is also offering a Macro Magic Bundle to celebrate the visit, and you can get 20% off the bundle using my code, macrospecial.

After the Dahlia shoot Keri and Kirsten showed us some of the gorgeous Portland area landscape, and we visited several amazing gorges and had a fabulous dinner outside close to one of the gorges.  So much fun but tough to say goodbye, I definitely want to go back for more fun with them!

For the last day of our adventure, Donna and I drove back to Seattle via the Pacific coastline. I was surprised how much of the coast looked so similar to Maine! One of the things I really wanted to do was to put my toes in the Pacific Ocean, and we found a beautiful beach and did just that! It was a great drive with lots of laugh and fun stops and I only got lost once. ;)

I learned so much on this adventure, pushed myself in ways I never had before and that paid off beyond my wildest dreams. I am deeply grateful to everyone that made this trip so amazing for me.

Special thanks to Donna Eaton for accompanying me and for her support, encouragement and all the laughs!

I'm heading back to Seattle next month for another photo shoot with Sue Bryce, I cannot wait to see what she has in mind for me this time! I am so enjoying this time in my life, wishing you all a time to shine as well!

Kathleen