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.

Do you remember Sam from one of my shoots last summer? Well, he’s a lot bigger now, and he’s got quite the artistic streak running through him. I love shooting with the paint set up for a couple of reasons. First, you are almost assured a ton of smiles. Secondly, it keeps your subject still long enough to capture some images. Studio shoots are notoriously hard to do with two year olds, because all they want to do run around. Really, the only way to combat this is to have a large studio and powerful strobes that allow for some wiggle room in terms of a lighting sweet spot. (Both of which I have neither of) When we first got the paint out Sam was a little hesitant to make a mess. I get why; it goes against everything he has been told for the last 12 months. But it really didn’t take much coaxing to get him to overlook the rules and go for it. In fact, he got a little too into it, and slung paint across the kitchen onto the blinds. It was washable paint, but I don’t know if it was coming out of the blinds any time soon. (My apologies to Mom and Dad) I guess I would classify this as Post Modern/Abstract Expressionism…. Oh who am I kidding, I got a D in Art History. What ever it is, nice work Sam!  

Sorry for the break. This is the 7lb 14 oz reason I took a short hiatus. Her name is Avery Brooke Hauser and she is an angel. I have ALWAYS wanted the photo of a newborn on a stack of towels. I saw it done on another photographers website a few years back and I loved it. I’ve been patiently waiting for someone with a newborn to contact me for photos, but all my sessions to date have been for toddlers. Well, I don’t have to wait anymore!

These were from a family shoot last weekend. I really prefer to shoot outdoor family photos, but the weather just doesn’t  allow for it in Oregon during the rainy months. One of the other primary reasons for my preference though is that it really is a pain to set up my studio lighting for every session. I envy the photographers that have studios with their strobes set up and ready to go, quite literally, at the the flip of a switch. What makes it even more difficult is that I offer to set up my gear at customers houses. I’m really only taken up on this offer when kids are involved, because it is so much easier to bring the photographer in rather then pack up and head out to the studio. Now, all that being said, I think you get better results when the kids are comfortable at home.  This was a fun session. These two are six years apart, just like my brother and I. Oh the times ahead of them…

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I’m ready to confess; I enjoy engagement photography the most. Don’t get me wrong, all genres have their advantage, but all-in-all engagement sessions always seem to put me in a great mood.  It’s probably because the one facet of photography that I love the most is capturing emotion. Every week I look through the top 500 associated press photos from the news because so many of them convey a strong sentiment.

Ariel, Ben and I met up in the South Park Blocks by Portland State University area for their engagement session. I was excited to shoot with Oregon’s Fall in full swing as my backdrop. All it takes around here to turn Fall into fell is a good wind storm. There’s a good chance these leaves will be reduced to a  brown paste in a week, so we were all thankful for the nice weather. The last photo was taken in the music hall on campus where Ben wanted to take some shots since he spends a lot of time there as a music major. Great idea!  Best wishes to Ariel and Ben, I think they make  a great couple!

I’ve been using my flashes a lot  lately as a result of cloudy weather and earlier sunsets.  This weekend I wanted to try to stay away from the flashes if possible, so  I scheduled this quick family shoot for 4pm thinking we would have enough light for some outside shots. However, I forgot Daylight Savings ended Sunday morning which pushed the light back to what was the equivalent of 5pm! I thought I was screwed, but in the last few moments of daylight the clouds broke on the horizon and we got about 3 min of soft setting sun. I had to fight the urge to take the easy way out which would have been simply pointing them into the sun and shooting. Instead I used it as a back light and used my flash to fill in on the front side. This is something I probably wouldn’t have thought about doing a year ago…

Fall is here and the days are definitely getting shorter. So much so that this engagement shoot had to be stretched over a couple of evenings. Emily and Rex are both in the middle of their Residency at OHSU. By the time they got off at the hospital there was really only an hour left of useable light. At least it’s the best hour of light for photography! I wish I would have had someone take a picture of me while I was 15 feet up a tree with a couple of cameras hanging from my neck. I need to climb more trees; it made me feel like a kid again!

  I’m excited to shoot Emily and Rex’s wedding next summer at Cooper Spur Resort on Mt Hood. I’ve been told we can go for a ride on the chair lift, which will make for some great photos!

This little cutie is just as much fun to be around as she was a year ago. I’m soon going to be in the business of watching kids grow up, so I was excited to see her again. Just like last year, all she did was look at the camera and smile. I was finding chocolate frosting on myself several hours after the shoot, so I’m sure her mother is still finding it on her!

Here are a few images from the wedding I shot a couple of weeks ago. The rain this fall is really starting to hack me off. This time it forced me into a scramble to find new locations to shoot that were covered. The two middle images were taken directly under I-5, just before the Marquam Bridge. We had to scream at each other to be heard, but at least it was dry. I guess the one redeeming quality of rain is that it produces a reflective surface that can add some great character to a photo. I had originally set up the dancing shot with a flash overhead, but the batteries in my flash gave out just as I started to shoot. Since the rain was starting to pick up again I decided to steady the camera on a table, leave the shutter open for 1 second and just use available light. The convention center lights in the background illuminated the low clouds and made the cool looking halo. This area is where the ceremony was going to be held before the rain forced it indoors, so I’m happy we got at least one shot there for Ben and Lindsay.  Also, for any future couple that want me to stick around at the reception little longer than originally planned, tell me to help finish the Keg and have college football playing at the bar

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, and 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!