Oh man am I behind at getting the blog updated with wedding photos. Here are a few from Christopher and Kylee’s wedding two weeks ago. They did something unique in that they scheduled a Sunday morning shoot with me downtown at some of their favorite places. Often the wedding day is extremely busy, this eases some of the pressure on scheduling knowing that you still have the next day to get more bride and groom shots. The image of Kylee before the ceremony made me question why I haven’t been using my 50mm 1.4 lens more. Never underestimate the quality that a prime lens can produce. By prime I mean that it doesn’t offer a range of focal lengths like a 24-70mm lens. Prime lenses often vastly outperform their counterparts in terms of quality. I brought it out at the wedding I shot this weekend and it looked great too.

Here are a few of my favorites from last weekend’s wedding. I shot Ben and Ariel’s engagement photos last fall, and they graciously asked if I could cover their wedding as well. The ceremony was outside at McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. High afternoon sun is always difficult to shoot in, but once we got into the shade I got the lighting I was looking for with the couple shots. The reception was in the Compass Room which typically serves as a movie theater or live music venue. With its abundance of natural light and arched ceilings, it was a fun location for a reception. During a break in the action I was playing a game with a little girl that was in attendance at the reception. She would poke her head out above and below this chair as if she were trying to avoid me taking a picture of her. I won!

Congrats to Ben and Ariel, and thanks for inviting me to be a part of your big day!

The wedding season is officially off and running! The first one of the year is always a little more nerve-racking, simply due to the fact that it’s been a while since I shot a wedding. I had a great time and enjoyed spending the day with a truly wonderful and genuine couple. Stephanie and Paul met on the campus of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, so they decided to travel back to their roots for the ceremony. I have been looking forward to the opportunity to shoot on the campus of Gonzaga for a couple of reasons. First, ceremonies are often held at venues or churches that hold no special meaning to the couple. Since Steph and Paul met at this location I knew it would come through in the photos. (and it did) Secondly, it’s a challenge to shoot somewhere that you have never been! I was a little nervous about the ceremony. Flash photography is sometimes frowned upon in churches and on-campus chapels seem to be dark.  I was amazed at how beautiful the chapel actually was. I have been in a lot of Catholic churches, but this one was one of the most unique and inviting that I have ever been in. When I asked the Priest about using my flashes he said, “Do whatever it takes to make her happy”.   I knew it would be smooth sailing from that point on.  Overall, great day, great couple, great way to start the season!  ** UPDATE**  Just noticed the word “ERECTED” in the second shot. I’m gonna need to crop that or do some cover-up work  before its all said and done.  Right? Or am I just childish? I guess the way I see it is if I had the option for having, or not having, the word “ERECTED” in my wedding photos; I would probably choose the latter…

Spring is taking its sweet time to show up this year. This engagement session was for Andrew and Michelle and it was supposed to be in the middle of their family’s orchards in bloom, but I think we missed it by a week. These were taken last weekend and I’m going to bet that with the few days of sun we had last week; things look quite different around that area. We made the most of it though and found some other cool locations that could provide a scenic backdrop.  I am shooting their wedding in July, so I look forward to seeing what the area looks like then. Plus, it will be fun to shoot with Mt. Hood as a backdrop!

Well, I finished processing the third session from this weekend just in time to leave for Palm Springs. This little cutie is a co-works daughter. I have been trying to use more natural lighting lately. I really don’t think you can beat it when comes to photographing babies. The top photo is taken next to a window and the bottom is flash. The problem is you need a lens that can handle the low light. Speaking of which,  I have a nice two week break before the photography stuff starts picking back up again so I decided to ship off my 24-70 2.8L to canon to get it fixed. It will focus in auto mode, but it wont in manual. Clearly this is something that needs to be fixed before wedding season! I’m already in the hole $40 with shipping, hopefully it wont be too much to fix!

Here are a couple more from the busy weekend. Ashley and I were in  birthing class with JayDee & Azeena… and i guess their daughter was there too : -) Marayva is roughly a month older than Avery. We have been hanging out quite a bit since our classes last fall. It’s nice to know someone that is going through all the same crap (I mean joy) that you are. I was processing their photos and immediately started laughing when this one popped up.  I felt like she was screaming at me to hurry up! Anyway, they are great friends and I look forward to seeing our daughters grow up together.

My wife and daughter were out of town this weekend, so I booked 3 photography sessions for Sunday thinking I would have all the time in the world to set up, shoot and process photos. Daylight savings got the best of me again… I ended up rushing out the door because I forgot about the time change and had no more than 20 minutes in between each session. On the bright side, I have been waking up at 5:30 and fighting off the urge to go to sleep at 8:30 J I’m starting to think Arizona has the right idea by forgoing the whole time change thing. Anyway, here are a few from the first session. You may recognize Lauren from some of my other posts. She has a new brother on the way; I defiantly look forward to taking more photos of the two of them!

Here are some images of Avery’s 2 month photo shoot from this weekend. I had originally got out all of my strobes; however her temper was on the fence so I elected to just use available light from the picture window and forgo the possible mood swing from my flashes. The top image is special in that she is laying on the quilt my mom made for her. I don’t think I will ever get tired of taking pictures of her!

I finally upgraded from the original Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to version 3.1, and I’m in love with the selective editing tool. Often times when shooting outdoors a correct exposure for some-one’s face will inevitably cause the sky to be overexposed and loose any of its true color. In the past I was limited to the degree of color correction I could use because it would turn other pieces of the image to a shade of blue as well. This might not sound too bad, but it’s unacceptable to turn a bride’s dress blue because I want a blue sky.  Now with  selective editing  I can do just that  and only make color correction to portions of my image.  Here is an example of some editing with the software. I was able to bring out some highlights in the truck and barn with altering the exposure of the subjects. Cool stuff!  I look forward to using it more.

My brother and his wife were in town last weekend to meet Avery. We went out on Monday morning to take some photos of their daughter, Olivia. I can’t believe how big she is. She was born just after I moved to Oregon, 7 years ago. I cant imaging what my daughter will look like in 7 years. Everyone always says that it happens too quickly and I think I’m finally starting to understand what they mean.

 I was battling the sun while we where shooting out by the old gas pump. I would set my exposure for a cloudy sky and then the sun would pop out overexpose my shot. I would then reset and it would cloud up and underexpose the shot. I finally got tired of it and we moved to a shaded area behind the gas pump. The backdrop is a black garage door that had a cool reflective look, so I underexposed the shot and used my flash to light up Olivia. We took several of her jumping into different poses, but I think this was my favorite.