Its been a while since I updated the blog. The seasonal family photo rush finally came to a close and I put the camera down for a month. It was a nice break, but I was excited to get back into it with a family photo shoot this weekend.  I love it when someone comes to me with an idea for a photo and I have to figure out how to materialize it. Katy contacted me about a month ago with the idea of getting a shot of her son in front of her husband’s Marine Cover. We were both visualizing the shoot with her son in the foreground and directional light on both him and the cover, which would be in the background.  This lighting setup required the use of a light modifier that I did not own, so I had to postpone the shoot so I could order it. It’s called an egg crate, and I guess the only way to explain it is that it’s a honeycomb looking piece of material that fits over your strobe. The purpose of it is to keep the spread of light contained in a specific area. This allowed me to put the light from my strobe on him, and then the light from a second strobe on the cover. I had Katy’s daughter stand in for a couple of “test’ shots while I was working with the lighting. I actually really like one of the photos of her! She crouched down and gave me this perfect little smile. I guess you never know when you take a test shot that you end up liking…

Well the holidays are over and things are turning back to normal (whatever that is) around the house. I guess it’s time I jump back onto the blog and give it a little love. During the week between Christmas and New Years I took the family back to Kansas. Usually I go back during the summer months, so this allowed me the opportunity to take in a University of Kansas basketball game. I’m a huge Jayhawks fan, but I haven’t seen a home basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse since 2002. The place holds just as much electricity and charisma as I remember. There may be a few venues that rival it, but I cant imagine a better place to watch college basketball. This was taken from the rafters with my fisheye lens.

I’m a little late getting around to posting these on the blog. It’s been a busy month! I think I have something like 10 studio sessions planned for November and December, along with a couple of outdoor family shoots and this engagement session. We shot around the Pearl District in downtown Portland. One of my favorite Sushi restaurants, Sinju, is located in the Pearl. Every time we eat there I notice a really cool brick wall that at one time was the front of a building. Now it is a decorative front that separates the road from a parking lot for some other restaurants. I have always wanted to shoot photos in it because I love the bright red bricks peppered into the worn white brick. The Pearl district actually has tons of great places to shoot and I think we visited nearly all of them. I guess I should explain the boxing photos. Each of them brought props that they wanted to use in the photos. Sivan brought the red decorative umbrella and Josh, who is a kick boxer, brought his boxing gloves. I was stumped on how to include boxing gloves into a shot, so we decided to make it look like they were going at it. I set two flashes behind each of them and set them to full power to give it that look of flash bulbs going off from the vintage matches.  Think it looks pretty cool!

I had three family photo sessions booked for this weekend and I just happened to get a full day of sun to work with. I should probably go out and buy a lottery ticket, because this doesn’t happen too often around here in November. I love shooting in what is called the “golden hour”. It’s the hour before sunset when you can shoot directly into the sun and use it for a hair light. I should have had about 20 more minutes of it to work this evening, but in the blink of an eye the clouds rolled in and it was gone… maybe until April.  Here are a few from one of the sessions. I would put the others up but I’m too tired. Well, that and i have to go de-flea my dog. Frick n awesome…

There is usually a lot of leg to be seen at weddings, but this one probably takes the cake. Danny, the groom, was born and raised in Scotland, and elected for the entire wedding party to be in traditional Scottish kilts for the wedding day. Other traditional Scottish influences that were to be seen this day were: bagpipes, scotch and scotch. (Did I mention scotch?) The picture in front of the bridge was actually pretty tough to get, simply because it’s a heavily used road/bridge that crosses the Sandy River. To make it even more difficult, the spot where we shot was on a blind corner. I had two groomsmen stationed on either side of the bridge to block traffic. I figured the sight of a man in kilt would, at the very, least get someone to slow down. This was a feel good wedding. It’s great to see two different families from different parts of the world come together, and that is after-all, what it is all about. Best wishes to Danny & Nicole, thanks for letting me be a part of your wedding day!

Overall, it was a great wedding season. I feel like I learned a lot about lighting this summer. Since I am a self-taught photographer, I learn more by trial and error than any-other way… For example, I learned that when I set my flashes up for the ceremony processional, I need to take into consideration that everyone will be standing for a bride. If I put them too low, someone tall standing next to the isle could block the light from front of one of my flashes and cause a dark shadow to be cast over the most important person in the room.  Most importantly, I think I improved my ability to think quickly and creatively. So when I make the aforementioned mistake, I can quickly correct it and not miss an important shot. I look forward to what next year has to offer. Weekends are already being booked, so if you know anyone who is still looking for  a wedding photographer, please send along my info!

As promised, here are a couple more images from the wedding last weekend. The reception was at the Zoo and the staff allowed us to shoot virtually anywhere we wanted. We even had an escort with a stretch golf cart to wheel us around. I’m sure it was so we could be supervised, but it was nice not having to lug my gear all over the place! Maybe I should roll up to weddings in a golf cart from now on… My only regret was not getting a shot with the foot fetish penguin. Check out the book,  Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland Oregon By Chuck Palahniuk, if you need to know more about this notorious penguin.

I usually don’t process any wedding photos the day after a wedding, but I was excited to see how this particular shot turned out. We started shooting downtown yesterday afternoon before the wedding at the Forestry Center. The plan was to ride the max (our light rail train)  to the Forest Park/Zoo exit for the ceremony. I knew I wanted to get a shot with the train, but it is kind of an eyesore and usually packed with weirdos. Friday night it occurred to me that it would look cool to have the train moving in the back ground with the bride stationary in the foreground. I left the shutter open for two seconds to get the train to blur and used two flashes  (one front and one over her left shoulder) to freeze  the image of the bride. I thought it was going to be hard to get all of the passengers out of the frame, but everyone cleared out and we got a couple of shots. The cool part is that depending on what advertisement was on the train, the streaking is different colors. I love that you can see the reflection of the bride in the train even though its moving. More to come of the wedding!

Here are a few images from the wedding on Mt. Hood this past weekend. Things were a bit dicey for this wedding earlier in the week. There is a nasty fire burning on the Northeast face of Mt. Hood that has consumed roughly 4,000 acres and is only 4% contained. Cooper Spur Lodge, which is on the Northwest side of the mountain, had a lot of smoke throughout the week, but the winds shifted this weekend and pushed all of the smoke to the East. There was a constant stream of helicopters and fire truck throughout the day. It was kind of creepy knowing that a large fire was burning only 10 miles away and a change in winds could quickly bring it in the direction of the lodge. When the sun set over the back side of Mt. Hood it illuminated the smoke in the air to a bright red. The sunset shot has no color correction to it, that was the true color of the sky during sunset! The only other unfortunate event, of what turned out to be a great wedding, was that my main camera broke 5 minutes into the day. I had to shoot the entire day with my backup camera. Because I was down to one camera body; I was unable to have two lenses loaded for the ceremony. So, I strategically placed my lenses around the parameter and ran to each one, changed the lens and snapped a few shots. Need-less-to-say, I look forward to getting my other camera fixed, all though I shudder (shutter) to know how much it’s going to cost! (pun intended)

I got some new photography gear last week.  I thought it would be a good idea to give everything a “test run” prior to the wedding I’m shooting this weekend, so grabbed my daughter and went to the park tonight. I always use my flashes off camera with radio controlled slaves, but my old ones would only sync up to 1/200th of a second. This is okay, but it’s almost necessary to use a tripod to avoid any image blur due to camera movement at this shutter speed with my zoom lens. Another downfall is that I was unable to shoot at low apertures because they would require a high shutter speed for proper exposure. Thanks to these nifty little devices, my problems are solved! I bought two PocketWizard Flex Transceivers and a Mini TT1 Transmitter for my flashes. These bad boys will sync at shutter speeds up to 1/8000th of a second. The image of my darling daughter was taken at f2 @ 1/3200th , they worked great!

Here are a few images from last week’s wedding in Oregon City. Jason and Shauna did a great job decorating their backyard for the ceremony and reception. I’m sure it was a little stressful getting it ready, but I think it really pays off on the wedding day. Everyone seemed to be more relaxed by being in a familiar place. It was a beautiful day too. I’ve been watching the weather back in the Midwest, and i can’t imagine trying to shoot a wedding in 110+ degree temperatures. I had sweat pouring off of me during the ceremony and it couldn’t have been much over 80 degrees!