I predict that you will be seeing these two on the blog again in a short 10 months from now. I’m sure due to wedding checklists and planning that statement probably freaked Lindsay out a bit (maybe Ben too )  It’s tough to shoot outdoors during the Fall and Winter in Oregon. I found myself on weather websites trying to determine when a break in the rain will occur. I must hand it to them though, you really can’t tell how cold it was in these photos. I had my jacket and stocking hat on and still felt the chill! These were all taken in a little park in the Pearl District. It’s kind of fun to shoot there. With the condo market in the toilet there are tons of empty condo buildings and you have the area to yourself on the east side of the neighborhood.  They’re a fun couple and I look forward to shooting the wedding next Summer. Should be a blast!

Here are a few more from the wedding last weekend in Kansas City. The weather turned out to be quite nice, but it was not looking so good the day before the wedding. I barely got into Kansas City  due to over a foot of snow being on the ground in Denver, where where I was scheduled to catch my connecting flight. It took us three attempts to land. I’m not a nervous flier by any means, but by the time we were on our third approach;  I could have told you where every exit was and how many people I was going to need to climb over to reach it first… My connecting flight ended up getting canceled into Kansas City, as did the evening fight. As soon as I exited the plane I rushed to the gate for the earlier flight in hopes that it was delayed. Sure enough, it was still at the gate and they got me into Kansas City almost on time. My lighting stands didn’t make it, but they got delivered the next day. The weather in KC wasn’t much better, hard rain and wind. It continued to do this up until the night before Jason and Denise’s wedding day, and then Saturday turned out with no clouds and 60 degrees.  They are a fun couple and it was nice to see some of my brother’s friends at the wedding. Jason and my brother roomed together at the University of Kansas. It was nice to see everyone back together.

“Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight? I always ask that of all my prey. I just like the sound of it”

Batman, 1989, The Joker – Played by Jack Nicholson

I’m still processing photos from the wedding I shot in Kansas City last weekend.  I wanted to post this particular shot first though. It was taken of the bride and groom dancing during the reception. Since the wedding was on the 31st of October they turned the reception into a costume party. You really couldn’t of asked for a better setting. It was located at the Bingham-Waggoner estate in Independance, MO. The house was built in the mid 1800’s and really looked like it had a few unexplained stories behind its doors. The area where the reception/dance was held was VERY dark. Its tough to shoot in this type of setting because  your constantly trying to find an appropriate balance of off camera flash and available light. To make things more difficult, you have to maintain a decent shutter speed if you want any chance of your flash being able to freeze the action on the dance floor. Not to mention the camera’s auto focus is pretty much useless because its so dark, so the only option is to manually focus.  I think the lighting balance in this shot turned out perfect and I squeaked by with a just enough shutter speed to freeze the action with a few light trails in the background. I guess it just goes to show how much goes into a shot like this to get it to turn out the way you want.

Technical details.

24mm @ f3.2 1/4 sec shutter ISO 1000

HDR stands for High Dramatic Range. Basically its the process of taking several photos of the same object at different exposures. You then combine, or layer all of the images into one photo. It can be done at several levels. I have seen some images that were made from 10-15 different exposures. At this point the images beginto look less like photos and more like paintings. I took these at my dad’s hanger on my recent trip back to Kansas to shoot a wedding (coming soon to the blog) All three of these were made from 5 different exposures. I then combined them in photomatix and tone mapped at different levels. If your a purest I guess this may be considered pushing the limits of true photography. I was just having a little fun.

I had the joy of  being able to photograph this little cutie this weekend. Her name is Lauren, and she will be turning one year old this week. Her mother and I got onto the discussion of kids photography a couple of weeks ago while I was visiting her office for a work function. Anyway, this naturally allowed me to shamelessly plug my website.  The weather cooperated on Saturday and allowed us to go outside for a few shots too. I must say, one of the things I love the most about children photography is capturing moments of kids being kids. Clearly it wast too tough with Lauren!

Well this is a first, back-to-back niece photos on the blog. I just got back from a weekend trip to Colorado. This first one was taken at the KU vs CU football game. I wish we would have ended up winning; never-the-less it was a GREAT game to watch. Our defense gave up some yards in the first half, but shut down the Buffaloes in the second half. We allowed nearly 200 less yards as compared to last week against Iowa St. Not bad considering this was done with several first time starters. We have the Sooners coming into town this weekend, so I hopefully the bugs will get worked out. All of the other shots are from our Sunday trip to Estes Park, Co. I’ll post a few more later. Too tired right now from the early flight!

Oh man I have been a bad blogger lately. October has, and will continue to be very busy.  Ashley and I were in Bend last week to see our new niece, Emalyn. Such a cutie! She’s already proving to be just as photogenic as her older brother. I didn’t think he had a chance vs. the Costco hot dog, but he proved me wrong.

I forgot to post this one last photo from the juggling shoot a couple weeks ago. Remember I said the key to juggling is selecting three objects that are roughly the same weight.  Well, it doesn’t help when one of them is wiggling and licking. I know this looks like a Boston Terrier, but it’s actually a pint-sized Bull Terrier that accidentally got dropped on its face a couple of times. I think the key to juggling animals is not necessarily the size, rather the age. I should have found a lethargic poodle that didn’t move a lot. Oh well, maybe next time….

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.