Two cuties enjoying the great outdoors in the beautiful season of autumn, what's not to love? I had the enjoyment of capturing Marie and Kyle's unending smiles while exploring Silver Falls State Park and part of Salem for their engagement session.

Traveling out to Silver Falls, was nothing but thick fog, but as we entered the park, the fog lifted and the golden leaves sparkled along the road and waterfalls. We started at North Falls, explored a bit, and then went to the South Falls where the sun rays were streaming through the mist creating pure magic.

Here are some of my favorites of our mini autumn adventure. If you would like to see the entire image, click on the photo to enlarge.

Last weekend we added to our little family at our (new to us) home in Salem. I'd like to introduce Kona and Coal. They are black lab mixes and surprisingly they aren't related, even though they look a lot a like.

My hubby and I are really excited to have these two part of our family. And my camera might be excited to take lots and lots of photos of them!

I enjoyed the afternoon the other day with my Canon 85mm lens in our backyard as the pups were exploring the fallen autumn leaves and watching the geese flying south. If you are curious, my settings were 1/200 sec, 200 ISO, and f 1.8. Shooting wide open (large aperture, small number) creates the beautiful blur of the background. When you photograph this shallow, make sure to focus on the eyes or what ever you want the focal point of the image to be.

Don't be surprised if you see more photos of these two.

Autumn; it's my favorite time of year with the leaves turning and the brisk morning air. And this autumn I had the pleasure of capturing Lily's infectious smile. We enjoyed ourselves strolling through Salem's Bush's Pasture Park and a short jaunt down to an iconic alley way in downtown. The leaves were blanketing the park in golden hues and the sun was giving the last couple warms rays for the day. It was perfect.

Lily and I share our love for autumn, along with plaid and hot cocoa. She even gave me a tip since candy canes aren't in season yet. Add peppermint ice cream to your hot cocoa for a creamy, mint kick. YUM! I'll be trying that once I make a trip to the grocery store. Sounds perfect to have snuggled up with my pups with a blanket on the couch.

So without further ado, here are a couple sneak peeks of our time finding all the colorful leaves and quiet places at Bush's Pasture Park and the alley way across the street from the Wild Pear.

If you would like to see the entire image, please click on it for the full view.