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…

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!

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!

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!

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….

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.