Ash and I went to Salem this weekend to take family photos for her long-time  friend Kim. Ash and Kim have known each other since 4th grade when they were neighbors in Forest Grove. I have gotten to know Kim and her husband Doug over the last few years.  Funny story; the photo of the adorable little girl (looking out the glass window) on my website is actually from Doug and Kim’s wedding in Bend a couple of years ago. I wasn’t completely certain who she was, but after speaking with Doug, apparently it is his niece. Thankfully her mom (Doug’s sister) is cool with me using the photo. I’ll make sure I get her a copy, although I’m sure she’s grown up a little by now! By the way, if its not on my home screen anymore you can find it in the “wedding” gallery. I’m thinking I may use one of the shots from this weekend as my home screen; at least I’m keeping it in the Jadin family! Their 3 month old, Kaylee, is adorable. She endured a two hour photo shoot with outfit changes and really didn’t put up a fuss. We shot all of the photos around Bush Park. It was bright out with the afternoon sun, but Bush Park offers so many large trees it didn’t prove too be much of a problem. Oregon is great for outdoor photography because it has an abundance of natural light diffusers; lots of clouds and trees! I really like the results I got from my new Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. Of course, it helps when you have a cutie like this on the other side of the lens. Fun weekend, I wish we could hang out with Doug and Kim more; they’re a fun couple. Check out the website to see the new home screen photo. www.hauserphotography.com

Today was a payoff for the damp weather that we had last week. I think the high today was around 85 with very few clouds. In my opinion it only gets better through the next two months. Late summer and early fall are by far my favorite time in Oregon in terms of weather. I’m not ready to let go of the warm temperatures yet, however the idea of cool mornings and college football are starting to creep into my mind. Speaking of back to school; best wishes to my niece who had her first day of Kindergarten today. I have no doubt she will do great.  I took this from the top of the hill we live on, the view is from the West Hills looking over Hillsboro and Beaverton at the Coastal Range.

Is anyone else slightly concerned about what’s happening in California? Not the wild fires, but rather the sheer size of the kids that are taking the field in the Little League World Series Tournament. There were several games from the national bracket televised this weekend, and nearly every time I tuned in some 12 year old with a beard was crushing a hanging curveball over the outfield fence. Yeah, you read that right, curve ball. I also saw 80mph fastballs, changeups and even a couple of knuckleballs. The team I watched last night, Chula Vista, CA, have outscored their opponents 72-9 and lofted 28 homeruns to date in the tournament. This has been accomplished with the help of their pitcher/first baseman who is 6 foot, 2 inches tall and weighs in at 206 lbs! This kid looks like he could drive a Chrysler and have a mortgage! I’m not suggesting we test this kid for HGH, beaver tranquilizers or miracle grow, but maybe the fences could be moved back just a bit. Like, maybe to the front door of the local thyroid specialist.

I’m working on a small “to do” list for my website. One of these tasks was to get a photo of myself on the “about me” page. This is easier said than done, considering I’m usually on the other side of the lens. I wanted something quirky, fun, slightly awkward and made people say, ” you don’t see that every day”. So, I decided to grab three random products from the grocery store this evening, set up the studio lights and let my wife photograph me trying to juggling them. I taught myself how to juggle the summer before I started third grade. We were building our new house that summer and I would stand in what would one day be my room and try to juggle peach pits. (our property was located on an old orchard). By high school I was fairly good. Though I could never juggle more than three items, I could juggle large or odd shaped things. The key is selecting three items that are similar in weight. Now, I would like to tell you that I didn’t put a lot of thought  into selecting the items, but that would be bold face lie. I knew I wanted SPAM because the concept of canned meat is just odd. The other two products were the result of some serious inner debate. I kind of knew I wanted a fruit or vegetable because I didn’t want to put off any vegetarians out there with the can of SPAM. ( Hey, I’m starting my own business, I cant afford to lose any potential customers) First, I selected an ear of corn because I thought It could be a good representation of where I’m from, the Midwest. But I quickly determined that A corn dog might better represent where I’m from. (I would have bought a box  but my freezer is full) I ended up with a pineapple for a couple of reasons. First, its fun!  Second, Its awkward! Remember what I wanted to accomplish with this shoot. It turned out to be a bad selection though, I’ll tell you why later. The third item wasn’t difficult to choose. I asked both Hank and my brother and they suggested beer. I went with Pabts Blue Ribbon because its classic.  PBR and Schlitz are considered by many to be the Red Soxs and Cubs of the American Brewing Industry. Maybe I should say the Red Soxs and Brooklyn Dodgers since Schlitz really isn’t around much any more; of course neither are the Cubs…  The juggling proved to be more difficult than I was anticipating. The SPAM and PBR were easy, but the pineapple was tricky part. I dropped it a couple of times causing it to drip juice.  However, the big problem was that I didn’t have much room to work with. To get everything in the frame meant I couldn’t throw the items very high.  That’s tough to do considering a pineapple weighs a couple of pounds! Overall, it was an interesting yet surprisingly rewarding evening. I know some of you may be wondering if I drank the beer after the shoot… You bet your ass I did!

If you want to see the shot I used on the website go to www.hauserphotograpy.com and select the “about me” link from the “info” tab on my home page.

Come on in! Take your shoes off! Pants are required though. Welcome to the new blog. I know, I miss the old place too, but I packed up all the old post to make it feel more comfortable for everyone. I have a little rearranging to do with the boring header, but so far I like the feel of the new place. Why did I move? Bad address… Seriously! The more often you update your website the higher you are placed in search engines results for potential customers. The problem was that I dont make changes to my website often enough. However, I do make entries (changes) to my blog. So, I had to get a new blog and attach it to my website address. We’ll see if it begins to work. So, the good news is that you will probably start to see more posts. The bad news… They might not have a lot of “meat” to them. I’m joking of course.