I’m always on the lookout for fun places to take photos, but on occasion I’m stumped at where to go. Alaura contacted me several weeks ago about an engagement shoot with her fiancé Ryan. She mentioned that they wanted to incorporate the 67’ Chevy Pickup that Ryan and his dad restored. I immediately fell in love with the concept of having a classic truck in the photos. Alaura and I both agreed that a country setting would look good. I spent several hours over the span of two weekends on back roads trying to find something that would work, but I just wasn’t happy with any of the locations. As we were driving back into town Ashley suggested shooting at the Sweet Oregon Grill. It was an iconic restaurant that was known for its fried chicken and blueberry pies. This was until it burnt to the ground several years ago. I had all but written this location off when I decided to drive by it during my lunch break several days later. I thought that it was completely gone, but to my surprise one building was still standing with the logo. Since the property hasn’t really been kept up, it was overgrown and offered more of a country look. I think the 50’s/60’s signs and street lamps really added to the scene too; perfect spot for these shots in my opinion. Best wishes to Ryan and Alaura!

These are from a morning shoot last week at Mt. Hood Bed and Breakfast. Yup, the same B&B I was at a few weeks ago for my buddies wedding. Darcy (the bride) grew up with horses and even spent some time on the East Coast showing them. She wanted a few photos with a horse on her wedding day, but time just wouldn’t allow for it. Darcy happened to mention this to the owner of the B&B and it turns out that she has always wanted bride and horse shots for marketing purposes. Jackie and Mike, who own Mt Hood bed and Breakfast, offered to put us up in a couple of their rooms so we could shoot with the morning sun. A summer sunrise in Oregon is hard to see considering it usually starts around 5:45 in the morning. I think I woke up every hour after 3a.m. just because I didn’t want to miss it! As the sun began to rise over the hills that lead east from their property, it slowly set in motion an “unveiling” of Mt. Hood. It was amazing to see it change from almost an iridescent blue to a warm gold in a matter of minutes. I can’t imagine a place to get married in Oregon that has a better view than what they have to offer. Its need-less-to-say that a place with these views has attracted some very good photographers in the past. Jackie’s office was fully dressed with photos that make my work look like the Hamburger Helper of the culinary world. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with Hamburger Helper; love the stuff! I just wouldn’t want it sitting on the kitchen table if I was trying to sell my house. I guess what I’m getting at is that she knows a lot of great photographers, yet she was offering me a crack at these shots. Jackie is one of those people that genuinely loves to help people and see them happy. She knew I would be eternally grateful for the opportunity to grow my portfolio. I think that was why I was extremely nervous for this shoot. I wanted to make sure I got some good memories for a great friend, and I also wanted to get some images that Jackie could use for marketing. Overall I am happy with the results. The morning sun was fun to work with. The most challenging aspect was framing. It was tough to bring enough attention to the bride while getting a horse and a mountain in the shot. Jackie, I know you wanted some that shows how close you are to the mountain. Trust me; there are some coming to you that look like we shot them on the chair lift!

Even if you aren’t getting married anytime soon, head out on Hwy 35 from Hood River, take a right on Cooper Spur Road and stay the night at Mt Hood Bed and Breakfast. Ask Mike for some German Pancakes in the morning too!

Here are a couple of shots from a wedding I shot at Cannon Beach Saturday. They say if it rains on your wedding day it’s worth good luck. If this true Megan and Zach can expect to win the lottery next week. Seriously, when has it ever rained in Oregon during the month of August! Hats off to Megan, I walked into her hotel room to shoot some prep photos before the ceremony and she was just as happy as if it were 75 and sunny. Needless-to-say the ceremony on the beach was very short, but this allowed more time with the group shots. In my past weddings these photos are typically a bit rushed simply because they are not as important  as the couple shots, and the groomsmen eager to commence drinking. This time we had a little more time, and the beer was conveniently located right next to the spot were we shot.  It was nice to take a little more time with my lighting and composition. I shot the groomsmen in a skate park next to the reception hall. I was down in the bowl shooting up. The low cloud cover produced a white backdrop that made the pink/black tuxes pop. The girls shot was under a gazebo in the park with two off-camera flashes. This photo was originally a full body shot, but I liked it with a waist crop and slightly tilted.

I was in Hood River, Oregon last weekend for my buddies wedding. Ashley and I took a couple of days off work and made a short vacation out of it. I have to say, Hood River is my favorite town in this state, but I love it even more during mid-week before the weekend crowed arrives. I love the breeze off the river too. It reminds me of the Kansas wind. (Without the heat!) The wedding was at Mt Hood Bed and Breakfast, which is located outside Parkdale, OR, on the rolling hills that lead up to the base of Mt. Hood. I forced them to let me take a couple of pictures in front of mountain. The opportunities to shoot with this background are so few you have no choice but to take advantage of the situation. The dancing shot was inside their barn. They didn’t even use the barn for the wedding, but the owner let us use if for some photos. This wasn’t actually their first dance; I forced them to fake it so I could get a few portfolio pics. I used one speedlite to backlight them.

This little ball of energy is Sam. I’m not going to lie, this was one of the more difficult shoots I have done. I would get on one side of him and he would run the other direction. I would then run around so I could shoot him running towards me, and he would then turn a 180 and go back the other way. If I had to guess, I would say he ran about a half mile during our shoot. I ran at least 4 miles. Unfortunately I didn’t have my nikeplus running gear on or I would have logged it! All this being said, Sam was just a kid being a kid, and that is ultimately what I love to take pictures of.

I took this while looking down a small alley in the China Town District of Victoria,  British Columbia. With the red brick and colorful signs I thought that an HDR shot might look cool. I’ve talked about this before, but basically it is taking multiple shots of the same image at different exposures, and then overlapping them digitally to create this “look”.

Here are a few images from the engagement session I shot this weekend. Shyla found my website with a search on Google for “engagement photography”. It’s very exciting that I’m starting to get business through organic web searches like Google. I’m sure my website was on page 60 of the results, but that’s still a WIN in my book! I have always wanted to shoot on this dock near OMSI. It offers a great backdrop of the city along with the Hawthorn Bridge. I have a wedding I am shooting in September that is very close to this location. I may try to get the bride and groom here for a sunset shot in the same spot. The road with the leaves was in the Lloyd district by the State Buildings. I can’t tell you what type of tree produces these pink leaves, but they look great blanketing the road. Shyla and Jason were great to work with; they were up for just about anything, floating docks, puddles and dodging street traffic to name just a few. Best wishes to them. Oh, and let me know if you need anyone to shoot the wedding in Maui, I know a great photographer  

Sunsets are hit and miss this time of the year in Oregon. If you want to practice with lighting during one. you really cant hesitate or it will be cloudy before you know it. I packed up my gear and sweet talked my wife into being my test subject the other day. This is with a two strobe set up. One strobe is set up to the left of my camera at about 6ft high and the other is set up behind her, and to the left, at around 8ft height. If I didn’t have a second strobe I could have slowed down my shutter to around 1/50th of a sec and used the setting sun  “hair light”. However,  in this case I used  a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second @f4 to darken the background and leave the blue haze of the sunset. The trick is keeping your flashes set on low or they will easily blow out your subject at this low of an aperture. At least she has some new Facebook photos now!

Here are a few images from the wedding last weekend in Phoenix. It was nice to get out of the rain and soak up a few rays. I am really happy with the images. I am starting to learn that every wedding presents a challenge in terms of lighting. This one was no different. As the sun began to set the lighting was changing very rapidly. My white balance was all over the place at times, and what was was a proper exposure at one time, wouldn’t be in 5 minutes! Ryan & Erin were great to work with. We were running a little behind schedule following the ceremony but they made time to take one last shot out in font of the country club with the sun setting. Its on my websites home screen right now. The shot of them dancing was interesting. I set one of my flashes on slave and controlled it with the other that was on my camera. I thought it would look cool to get a shot of them back lit during the first dance.  The tricky part is that to do this I have to stay in one place to have the other flash directly opposite of me. I took several shots and never got the “look” that I wanted. Just as their dance was ending I took one last shot and got the image below. My flash was sitting on the table behind them; it really makes them pop out of the background! I love it when an idea works!

Oh man it’s been a while since the last blog entry. Between vacations, moves and pure laziness, the blog hasn’t seen much love lately.  It’s been so long I even forgot my password to write an entry! I have a good backlog of things to write about, so I guess I will start with the oldest. This is my co-workers daughter, Riley. The last time we attempted photos of her it didn’t go well. She was a little tired and wasn’t in the mood for my camera poking around. This time she was in a fairly good mood, but has since gone mobile. When she wasn’t moving out of the range of my strobes, she was sitting with her back to the camera. This was one of the few shots I got with the help of her mother grabbing her dress to slow her down a bit. When I first took the shot I thought it would be a “throw-a-way” but I started to like it more because it really does a good job at telling a story about a time in life. She doesn’t want to stay still, so why should we have a photo of her trying to do so!