In Saturday's mail I received three thank you notes. Many of you know how much I love snail mail and these three notes all were special and I would like to share them with you. The first was a beautiful card designed by our good friend Maude May from our cherished intern, Brenna. She was writing to thank me for a couple little graduation gifts I had given her, but she got sidetracked and wrote about working her with us at Soul. It was so refreshing to read her description of working around this nutty middle-aged photographer. I so often think that I am young and then realize that to these teens who volunteer, I must appear in a less than youthful light. I am thankful that Brenna so freely shared her feelings. I am going to keep this touching missive and I will work to live up to the observation that she presented--"No idea is too big for you nor is any detail too small".

The second note was from my friend who has been dealing with Parkinson's. The great part of this is that she is on new medicine and she can write again. I am so happy that there are researchers working on this dreadful disease.

The final letter was from a young family that I worked with at Seattle Children's. They were writing to let me know that their beautiful baby boy had died the day after I had worked with them. The note has his tiny footprints and their words help guide us forward in this mission of Soulumination. We all love to hear the thoughts of the Soul parents and their insights into the meaning of the photos.

I do appreciate emails also and was so happy to open one yesterday from our board member and photographer, Randell. She kindly attached a number of photos from her Saturday shoot for Soul. The family was radiant in the shots and the child is a stunner. Thank you so much Randell for your continuing efforts, you bless many with your skill and kindness.

I feel like this sunny day will be full of many inspirations. I am a little concerned that my beloved father in law is feeling a little disoriented. He is a man that means so very much to me so I hope to get good news from Sally after the doctor visit today. Heavens knows that once you are over 80 you are entitled to some days of less than clear thinking. He loves his garden and I am hoping that he is taking some time to just relax in the sun with his faithful little dog by his side near the fish ponds in his yard.

Keep my pal Charlotte in your hearts. She is going through a lot right now. Her image opens this entry. In love and peace, Lynette

Many thanks to Bill Gates Sr. for sharing this quote through his book "Showing up for Life":

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed its the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead.

In this time of economic hardship, the work of Soul seems more important than ever. I want to thank all of you who make Soul tick, from the committed staff, the many volunteer photographers, our interns, our supporters, the businesses like Annie's Art and Frame and Moonphoto who give a gift to each and every Soul family, our amazing bookkeeper and accountant. Truly we are blessed to have so many who care enough to put aside what must be their own struggles in this economy.

Sarah and I counted yesterday and came up with 7 photographers, our accountant, one board member, one long time volunteer and many other treasured helpers who are my former brides or grooms. I am one happy and thankful photographer because these numbers do not even start to include those who I have shot for years as family clients who step up to volunteer time and again or my family who so firmly stands with me. I am truly and well blessed, but better wrap this up and get showered and ready to go to work with one of my amazing family clients this morning.

A big thank you for being the committed citizens who are helping to change the world of grief and loss by allowing us to continue our work of recording beautiful families and the love that surrounds each Soul child.

Please keep my little pal Charlotte and her family in your hearts as its been a rough stretch for that beautiful girl. I am sharing today new photos of my friend and fellow Ballard resident Victor. He starred with Charlotte in our documentary, "Portraits of Hope."

In love and peace, Lynette

Oops I was just trying to get upstairs but remembered something important, one of our newest recruits to the Soul photographers staff is Walter Grio and he is going to be having a show to benefit Soulumination at Gossamer Collective Gallery on Friday, September 18th. All of his sales will be benefitting Soul and there will be a raffle as well. I am so thankful for his generosity and I hope you will put it on your calendars, of course I will remind you as the date approaches.

Its a small world and the magic of our connections sometimes amazes me. I was shooting a lovely 50Th Anniversary celebration at my friends winery last nite, J and M Cellars and one of my former grooms, Jon told me that Soulumination had done a shoot for his niece. It took my breath away to know we have served someone so close to my own life. When Jon married Diana it was a magic day, beautiful sun, kids skipping rope, the ring bearer and flower girl were already clients of mine. A few years later Jon called to ask me to photograph his son with Diana's wedding ring, unbelievably Diana had died after giving birth. Jon, with wonderful support from family and friends has raised their son into a wonderful teenager and I am so thankful to Michael Good who did a brilliant job with the photos of Jon's niece. Life just keeps reminding me that no matter how emotional this all is, we are just supposed to keep moving forward in an honorable and loving way. As I walked to my car from this event, Jon told me to tell my girls hello and reminded me that the girls put on a little play for he and Diana when they came to interview me to be their photographer.

I was up too late last night finishing a baby sweater for Lulu's college roommate's baby shower. I used to knit all the time, but frankly in my enthusiasm I made over 80 sweaters and burned myself out. Now with new babies in my life I can see that knitting is going to be on the roster. I had hoped that riding Mac's cool pink California beach bike would be the new summer thing, but after a little fall today on my second time out, I realize that I lack many of the normal skills. I don't swim well or ski or play racket sports or run, so maybe I need to be satisfied with knitting and making fun things from the recycled cans and keep to my stationary bike.

I am very excited to say that I am debuting my tin luminarias next month with a little show at La Tienda. It will coincide with the Ballard Art Walk and I am very thankful that a store that I have admired for years is willing to give my recycled art a try. I already delivered greeting cards to them and will be showing the luminarias and bead dolls the first part of July. If you are in Ballard stop by La Tienda to see what I have been babbling about and also while there walk down and give Annie's Art and Frame a little look/see as they are one of Soul's biggest supporters so we always hope we can direct customers their way.

Tomorrow will be my first mushroom foray of the year in the Cascades. I am very excited to go and Patrice's dad is in town so the camera is coming to record this fun day. Patrice and others were kind enough to go shrooming with my dad in celebration of his 80th birthday a few years back and we had such a grand time I can only hope we weave some special memories tomorrow. The next day I am slated to visit our wonderful Soul friend, Victor and his parents. I will do some updated photos for Vic and hopefully we can capture something special with his helper dog.

So I must finally get moving this morning as Doug and I are attending our pal Ellory's first birthday party. Ellory's parents, Dawnelle and Greg are amazing supporters of Soul and have asked their guests to gift Soul in honor of this birthday. I consider this family to be part of our family. I shot their wedding, Dawnelle works for me, Greg has done special videos for the Soul families and they are just multi-talented people who have the most gracious and generous way with their friends. I am honored to say that I was at the birth of both of their beautiful daughters and they knock me out with this second fund raising effort for Soul. More Aussie photos soon, just waiting for them to be back from post production work. In love and peace, Lynette


We are just home from Ellory's party and the photos posted are from the celebration.

As we walked off onto the plane in San Francisco for our final leg of the journey home from the paradise of being with our oldest daughter, Doug turned to me and said something about how incredibly lucky we are in having such a good life. I so agree and then to arrive in Seattle into the loving arms of our youngest daughter just reinforced the sentiment. Now all I have to come to terms with are the 4 bad kitties that we have found ourselves contending with and all the work that piles up while the owners of 2 small businesses are off traveling!

I had some time to reflect while we were away and I remembered a couple of things so clearly from my high school years that it helped make sense of all that has happened with Soul and its expanding outreach. One of my favorite teachers lost a daughter to leukemia after I graduated from Sequim High School and there is a lovely mural in her honor at Children's that I always stop to enjoy when I pass it. Plus one of my best friends lost her first baby just 2 years after we graduated, the feelings came flooding over me that these people that were so important to me as a young woman have led to me this expansion of the work of Soul. While away Sarah was busy fulfilling 10 requests according to the calendar, I am so thankful for all the photographers and for the staff that allows me some time to step away from the depth of emotion that builds as we weave our small gift into the lives of such amazing families.

I will share various photos and experiences from our trip down under in the next weeks, but mostly want to say that it was amazing that McKenzie and Ian so graciously shared their apartment and every part of their lives with parents for 2 solid weeks. They showed us their new country and fed us with their amazing cooking abilities and gave us so much joy in their kindness. Doug and I had both worried about being so much in their space, but they handled it all with grace. The highlight of the time is hard to pinpoint as we so enjoyed it all, but the weekend trip with them to Margaret River was indeed special and in a few days I will share photos of Ian and Doug climbing over 250 feet to the top of a huge gum tree, so unbelievably unsafe and I am sure exhilarating. With my fear of heights I made it up all of 4 rungs and felt proud.

As Doug likes to say after special trips, "back to reality". In love and peace, Lynette

Here I am sitting in Mac and Ian's apartment finally rested with the unusual time warp that is caused from traveling into the future for 13 hours. Doug and I had 2 nights in Sydney where we had been looking forward to seeing my brother David but due to the incredible flooding in his part of the country he could not come to meet us. I am sad indeed but happy to be with McKenzie now that we have traveled from Sydney to Perth.

Its really been nice just getting time to totally space out and not even think about the daily stress that comes from running the business and the foundation. I love my work and I think you all know that the foundation has indeed captured a part of my soul, but its also nice to have this time to just see new things. I am actually knitting which I haven't done since I burned myself out with producing more sweaters for my daughters than was within reason.

The vegetation here is stunning and I am gathering pods to make a wreath for Mac and Ian and the birds are really something --- parrots, cockatoos and huge bats, plus a kookaburra in a gum tree have all delighted us.

I have my camera with me to record Mac on a daily basis. Ian seems to be getting comfortable with the constant recording also which is very sweet of him. He is an animated story teller and has a great laugh so its fun to capture his mannerisms. Both Mac and Ian are obviously successful in their life here.

I hope that things are going will with the Soul families and I am thankful for all the support that stands with me. In love and peace, Lynette

We have got house sitters, cat sitters, neighbors to help, we have Sarah and Kari running Soul and Diane skillfully booking my summer and fall business shoots, we have Sidni running Doug's crew and a host of others coming and going, it takes a village for a contractor and a photographer/foundation director to take a vacation. We are thankful to all who are part of all this and we so look forward to having time with McKenzie and Ian and hopefully we will see my brother who says they might be flooded out at his airport.

I share today photos that my dear friend and Soul shooter on the other coast, Sarah Mattingly took at the Tay Sachs conference of me with my new pal Landin and the sweet Krystie. Every chance I got I was trying to get my hands on a beautiful child and Sarah was gracious enough to record them for me. These photos for me are legacy treasures and I so appreciate that the parents would share their little ones with me.

Thank you so much for the donations that we are receiving from the newsletter. We are so thankful that we can move forward. Another thanks to dear Emma R for her birthday wish that family and friends support Soul or the Cure Tays Sachs Foundation, what a generous girl she is to share her support with us.

Huge congrats to our beloved intern, Brenna on winning a $10k scholarship from Toyota. I think the angel babies had a big hand in this win even though Brenna is also very involved in other activities I like to think that the angel babies pushed this through since Brenna secured the grant for us in the same amount that is moving our adult legacy portion forward. We love Brenna and will be so honored to watch her next steps in life.

I will of course have a camera with me so if at the last moment you think of someone in Perth with a Soul child please let Sarah know and we will do our best to arrange a shoot. Off to a new continent, in love and peace, Lynette

It was one rewarding weekend as I was honored to photograph the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for 2 young adults that I have been working with since they were babies. Its such a lovely journey through life when you have valued clients who trust you to record their beloved children. It knocked me out that at Sydney's Bat Mitzvah they had a canvas to sign and it included the 13 photos from each yearly photo session and at Sam's Bar Mitzvah his 'guest book' had the current photo from our recent portrait session. As an added bonus, both events were attended by a long-time friend and client who is a cancer survivor, it was so grand to have time with this woman who leads her life in such a positive way and does not let cancer define her. She is one heck of an amazing mom, wife and friend, hats off to you Michelle.

I send special condolences to my friend and Soul supporter Stephanie Solomon who recently lost both of her precious French Bulldogs. Stephanie coordinated the photo show at St Marks when Soulumination had it first major event debuting the Soulumination Collection of prints. I know these losses weigh heavily on Stephanie and I also know that the new little bulldog that arrived yesterday can never replace those she loved but I am still glad she has this new puppy.

Doug and Lew and I were so pleased to have a visit from baby Elizabeth Kochel and her entourage on Friday evening. We shared a glass of wine and hugged and I shed a few tears as they came to make a lovely donation in honor of Elizabeth's big sisters Lauren and Lillian. The night I recorded the beautiful twins is etched upon my heart and the support and friendship that Matt and Celina and his parents have given in return is priceless. I share today a photo of the youngest Kochel and the youngest Johnson, I think both girls are stunningly beautiful, hmm, a proud mom and 'auntie' I am for sure.

We couldn't be more appreciative that in this down economy that we are seeing donations arrive from our newsletter. We received a donation in honor of my little pal Emma's 5th birthday and wish her the best. With the increase in requests we are so thankful that with your support we can continue to serve all families who want Soul shoots.

Enjoy the amazing sun, in love and peace, Lynette