This girl. She and I have known each other since the seventh grade at Kopachuck Middle School. Since baggy Mossimo shirts and neon cat jumpers. Since Nirvana and Bush and Delia's catalogues. Through big hair, bad hair, and good hair. Through summer camps and yearbook staff and college dorms. Through moving away and home and away and home again. Jobs found and jobs left, wedding, baby, and big life do-overs.

We've been separated by as little as bunk beds and as much as oceans, but here we are, both back in Washington!

Nina has the easiest laugh. She and her husband, Sierra, are both the kind of people you instantly feel comfortable around. Understanding, open, and warm.

And because the universe is a startlingly unfair place to live, she's also this naturally and effortlessly gorgeous, the jerk. There are tutorials on youtube over 30 minutes long about how to achieve the "no makeup makeup look," and then here's Nina...just not even wearing any makeup...that's just her face, you guys. A tiny bit of mascara...and then just that beautiful face.

Plus she's an artist! She's been sketching and doodling and creating masterpieces large and small for as long as I've known her...from hand-drawn paper dolls to giant oil paintings of David Bowie to the @happyragnar instagram account (which you should totally follow because it is all kinds of twisted whimsy) to a thousand other creative pursuits and now raising baby Bodhi, which takes more creativity and artistry than I think people ever give credit for.

Seeing as it was just her birthday and I'd just launched this shiny new website, we thought it'd be fun to play around with the light during the golden hour down on the beach out here on Fox Island.

Not to give away our ages or anything, but about 16 years ago we had our senior pictures taken on this exact beach. Even though we're just slightly older now and crawling over logs is just the tiniest bit more difficult than it was when we were 17, I'd say we had more fun this time around.

I don't instinctively lean towards black and white in my work, but there was just something about some of these shots of Nina where removing the color popped her personality and sparkle right to the forefront.

There is something so fun about having someone in front of your camera whom you've known for so long. There is something special about having years of experiences together and capturing a single evening on what's hopefully just somewhere in the middle of your journey together.

And there's something special about coming back to a place you were kids together, to crawl over logs again, to laugh and play again.

Thank you for being such a loyal and life-long friend, thank you for letting me boss you around for an evening, and thank you for being like a sister to me. I love you and your beautiful face, sweet Nina!