October 2021 / November 7, 2021 by Bebe Besch

This October, I really tried to focus on taking more photos. Besides that, I tried to just tap back into myself, my happiness, and my creativity! October is my favorite time of year and I challenged myself to get back into finding inspiration and to keep up with being creative.

I decided to start a YouTube channel to document my growth and challenges of overcoming creative plateaus. I hope that I will continue to grow and learn in this process - to push myself to be uncomfortable but ultimately more fulfilled because in my heart, I am a creative. I want to express myself - it is what makes my life feel most meaningful.

Please find some of my photos taken over the last month below, and my video documenting what I took on this month along the way!

We went out to Snohomish, Washington for a weekend date and to check out the area.

We held my father’s Celebration of Life in Seattle in September, and I ordered these flowers to celebrate him. They lasted a long time on my porch, even into October.

Some of our weather in the beginning of October was just beautiful. This “Vanilla Sky” night was so charming and I had to take a few photos during our walk.

In our neighborhood, we know most of the local cats better than we know the people! Here is one of our most well-known neighbors, Bob. She is feisty and loves to get pets and say hello to us if we happen to cross by her home.

At the beginning of October, my friends Rina and Travis moved away, but not before we had a chance to hang out with them a few more times! I also grabbed a few photos of them on their last night at their home in Seattle, before they made their big flight the next day to the East Coast.

We went out to The Ice Box to check out some live music and see what being social is like, again.

Lo Fives performed and were a treat! They were also so kind to let me take a few photos of them.

A card from my best friend - she knows me so well!

My best friend out at Bob's Corn & Pumpkin Farm.

We also stopped at the Maltby Produce Market to check out their pumpkin selection, wine selection, and farm animals.

Our pumpkins.

Ready for trick-or-treaters.

Halloween evening! Yes!

Behind the scenes photos…

Me taking a few photos of Rina and Travis.

Me at Lo Fives!

Angela and I at Bob’s!

Me as Jareth the Goblin King and Lee as Sarah from Labyrinth!

Check out my first YouTube video above, documenting my creative process this month and how I tried to get back into my photography while tapping back into feeling like myself again during my favorite season!

It Feels So Good to be Back! / September 19, 2021 by Bebe Besch

Summer 2021

It isn’t news that I haven’t been as actively posting on my website (or taking photos in general) since the pandemic started. I went from being out in the hustle of the big city of Seattle, to working my day job from home. I was very fortunate to do so, but that kept me inside my home walls, away from others, tucked in and doing almost no real photoshoots. I also decided to go carless when I realized I wasn’t going to need to drive anywhere for a bit, as the pandemic progressed on. Needless to say, this left me with few options to get together outdoors to shoot safe pandemic photoshoots.

This time did give me a chance to focus on other creative endeavors, and to focus on my health and fitness. I became quite the cook of healthy meals.

That all being said, I really have missed photography. So so much. I was so thrilled to be vaccinated once I was eligible because I of course wanted to keep others safe and myself safe, but I also knew that so many more things would be open to me again. I am not ready to go back to full on concerts just yet, but I hope that in the future I will feel safe enough to attend and photograph them. I miss live music more than photography.

At the beginning of Summer, I finally got together with my friends Chelsea and Colleen again, from my last job. It had been so long since we had caught up. I brought my camera and only took one photo - of Chelsea and her pooch, Lana, the poodle. My photography was finally staring back up with this photo. Besides photographing music, my favorite thing to do is take a portrait of someone, especially someone I care about!

Also early in Summer, I got together with my friend Rina, to celebrate her birthday. We both had been lacking any social interaction during the first year + of the pandemic and it was so good to reconnect with her and take some birthday photos after we grabbed coffee.

Also this Summer, I got to photograph some families that were expecting! Here, Shayna and Lee anticipate their little one, due this November.

I also got to photograph my friends Lillian and Andy, along with their son Ollie and in anticipation of welcoming their baby girl to the family.

Minnesota Road Trip

Here, there is an invitation to my father’s Celebration of Life on my cousin’s mantlepiece. We used one of my favorite photos that I took of him.

This Summer, we went back to Minnesota for a long overdue celebration of life for my father who passed last Fall. He passed away in Minnesota during the peak of the pandemic in the area there, where snow was plentiful and we didn’t think gathering the family indoors was safe. We postponed until Spring/Summer and felt fortunate there was also a vaccine available before we made the trip back to settle him.

Lee, my fiancé (who does NOT travel) came out to support me on this trip and I was briefly able to show him around the town my parents grew up, and the family farm that my parents had spent some of their lives living on.

Pit stop for laundry during our Minnesota trip.

We got to visit with Steve and Linda, and their dogs Cooper and Sky.

In Halstad we got to visit with my Aunts Lisa and Dana.

Some of my dad’s siblings made it out to his Celebration of Life.

Frances and Randy at Oaland Park. — Frances and Randy at Oakland Park.

My fiance and I at my father’s burial. — My fiancé and I at my father’s burial.

Secret Photoshoot

My friend Tim Billick has been cooking up some new solo music. We spent some time photographing a bold idea he had - more to come on that later. Check out his music here.

When Tim and I took a break at the end of our shoot, we grabbed a quick picture of him with his pup, Herbert.

Seattle Design Festival

I love attending the Seattle Design Festival every year- and I always have a blast if my best friend can attend with me. This year was one of those lucky years. The theme this year was “emerge”. We happily checked out the different exhibits and interpretations at South Lake Union park.

Wrapping Things Up

As the end of Summer came, my friend Maddie visited Seattle for the first time on her own solo trip. We’ve been online friends for years because we are both massive Foals fans, and it was SO EPIC to get to meet her while she was here. It was even cooling down that week, so she was able to wear some flannel! So Seattle.

As I come to a close on this post and this season, I am so happy. I have gotten to photograph and see so many people I care about over the Summer. I got to lay my father to rest. So many things I did had me feeling like myself, once again, after so much time spent alone. I really hope to be photographing more friends and events from here on, and focus on reconnecting.

And then, everything changed... / August 23, 2020 by Bebe Besch

A big part of why I love photography is the ability to document. There can be concepting and artistic vision in a photoshoot, but then there are also the photographs that are important because they represent truth and transparency in history.

Suffice to say, as an American, my life slowly started being affected around February-March dramatically as the novel coronavirus became a larger concern in our country. I normally commute into the heart of Seattle every day, and that slowly halted, as public transportation became less safe, and then eventually, our governor issued a Stay-at-Home order.

I have been taking things very seriously, and unfortunately that means that for me and many other photographers, it is a lot harder for us to take the kinds of photographs we want to. Collaborating or shooting with other people is more difficult, and not something I feel comfortable pushing the limits on, until things are safer. In the meantime, that means I get to shoot what is around me, which is the mundane. But in a time like this it is important to document all things, so we can remember this time when we are in a more fortunate position. Hopefully, people will keep safe and help to stop the spread of Covid 19, but right now, none of us know what the future holds. Concerts, my favorite pastime, are likely not coming back for a long time.

It is time to find new hobbies and time to be thankful for what we can. Also, to document. Some of the best art has come out of times of desperation and I love seeing what everyone has been creating in their environments during this pandemic.

I finally got around to that gradient puzzle.

I often cook dinner, even before the pandemic hit the US, but we’ve done a lot more home cooking since March.

My boyfriend also decided he wanted to try some cooking of his own…although we had some delicious home-made orange chicken, we also experienced a small house fire and had to replace our range. It was scary and we were very lucky things weren’t worse.

Groceries in 2020 - ours are almost always delivered now.

Max was exploring while we moved the furniture around to set me up with a desk space for my new working-from-home station.

A bird on a telephone wire outside, in the reflection of my work desk. A juxtaposition of how indoors I have become.

How to keep track that I’ve checked my work voicemail from home.

A Summer rain - a beautiful night spent on my porch. Where we spend a lot of time these days soaking up fresh air.

Drying some freshly-washed masks.

My best friend and companion while I work everyday.

My other child who likes to nap in the other room while I work.

I also did have a “quarantine birthday” which I suppose most of us will experience at some point. I was lucky that friends and family stopped by and I got some socializing with them from the street. It was so good to at least see some of the people I love the most even if we couldn’t hang out inside my place like normal.

Shayna and Lee visiting me for my birthday!

Here I am at 32, trying my best to look happy. There’s a lot to not be happy about right now, but for me there is even more to be thankful for and I need to hold onto that.

I’m not sure what will happen next or where my photography will go from here. “Normal” isn’t coming back - there may be a new normal one day but things aren’t going back to how they were in 2019, and maybe there is a silver lining to that. We are all learning and growing from what is happening and coming to light in this world. I hope that we can become kinder people from this experience.