Happy Halloween!

Jordyn went as a princess and it turns out she really likes candy. Go figure.

Lakeridge vs Milwaukie

Last night I shot the Lakeridge vs. Milwaukie football game for the Clackamas Review and Lake Oswego Review. This is a first quarter fumble, one of five or six fumbles in the game. The final was 27-20 Lakeridge, if Milwaukie would have won, they would have made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, but they didn't.....they have one more chance to make the playoffs if they win next week.

Jordyn in the Leaves

This is Jordyn this afternoon walking through the leaves.

TRL XC

Today I was assigned to shoot the Three Rivers League district cross country meet. XC is a fun shoot sport to cover as the opportunity to create a nice image is always there, you just have to look for it. The main story in the boys race was going to be the team standings, with Clackamas (in the red) and St. Helens (stripes) neck and neck. The paper wanted a photo that showed that it was a close race as far as team points goes. In Cross country you can't always just hang by the finish line and get a photo finish, because usually runners finish at least a few seconds apart and usually minutes apart, so no good action is there and the background and environment is crowed and cluttered and ugly. So you have to find a spot or spots where you can shoot the leaders 3 or more times during the race. To find a spot to do this, you need to get there early, walk the race route and state out a spot that 1) has a good background 2) has good environment to show "Cross Country" and 3) that the runners will pass you a few times, or so you can move a small distance to another location so they will pass you more times. While checking out the route today I found a perfect spot with leaves all over the ground for a good foreground and trees in the background so the background would be clean and best off all, the runners would run out of the shadows and into the great light of the setting sun. I shot this early in the race to show the two teams battling it out.

Baseball Portrait

Shot this portrait today, what do you think?

Timberline Wedding

Yesterday I shot a wedding up at Timberline Lodge. That is a great place to have a wedding! It was sunny and warm all day and in the eve, the clouds rolled into the valley, but the Mt. peaks stayed above it all and made for a great photo.

Families

I never ever had the intention of shooting seniors and families....I don't advertise for it and don't try to bring that business in, but, people keep calling me and I keep doing it....it's actually pretty fun sometimes. This is a photo from this morning.

Old Chevy Truck

Portrait I shot yesterday......

E-mail Pet Peeves

I found this list on the Poynter website, it is from an article about e-mail. I think most of these are pretty spot on. See the whole article here.

1.Sending or responding to all to CYA (cover your butt).Stop sending to all if all do not have a need to know. You wanted to make sure you were covered so you're sending everyone on a list your answer -- whether they needed to know or not. Or you're sending a message to everyone because you're too lazy to select the appropriate recipients.
2. People trying to solve complex issues using e-mail. You're part of a new committee, then the e-mail messages start, back and forth, dizzying speed, the more they come, the more confused you get. Pick up the phone!
3. Dirty e-mail messages. These are those messages you receive loaded with those darn carets (>>>), or pages and pages of e-mail addresses that weren't protected using a blind copy feature. Is it too much to ask for the sender to clean dirty e-mails before sending them? Would you send a letter out on your company stationery like that? You can get rid of carets by pasting the message into Word and using the Find and Replace feature to find a caret and replace all of them with nothing. You can get rid of all the e-mail addresses just by deleting. Clean it up, then send it.
4. Subject lines that don't match the message. Don't pull up an old message, hit Reply, and send me a message that has nothing to do with the previous one. Suppose you sent an e-mail message two months ago that said, "The monthly meeting has been cancelled." You pulled up that old message because the e-mail addresses were already in it. But this time, you wanted to let everyone know that coffee and donuts would be served at this month's meeting. At the very least, change the subject line!
5. Last-minute cancellations. Cancelling a meeting at the last minute and letting me know via e-mail. I show up, "Oh, didn't you get my e-mail?" When did you send it? I left my office two hours ago, and now my whole day is shot.
6. Procrastinators. People who wait until the last minute to ask you to do something as if you had nothing else to do. You know the work was in a pile on their desk, and while they were digging for something else, they found it, and sent you an e-mail message, marking it urgent. Then when the deadline isn't met, it's not their fault because they "gave it to you."
7. People who call you instead of checking their e-mail. You've done your job, and sent an e-mail message to people with information they need. They end up calling you asking for the info because, "I'm too busy to check e-mail. Please always call me with the information or at least call me to let me know you sent it."
8. No response. You send a legitimate e-mail message to someone who has requested information. The message clearly needs a response, but nothing happens. If you're too busy to hit Reply to say "No," you need to examine how you're working. Why did you make me waste your time and mine?
9. One-liners. "Thanks," "Oh, OK." My goodness! You sent an e-mail message to 25 people, and 15 of them sent you a one-liner. Next time, put "No Reply Necessary" at the top.
10. Underlines. Don't underline anything in a message (or on a Web page) that's not a hyperlink. I always move the mouse toward it thinking it'll take me somewhere.
11. Someone replying to my message without the previous message below it or attached to it. I forgot what I asked them.
12. Smileys, emoticons. If you wouldn't put a smiley face or emoticon on your business correspondence, you shouldn't put it in an e-mail message.
13. Plaxo. Those e-mails from you asking me to update my contact information. Your best customer is getting 10 of these a day! And, I don't even remember who these people are. I went to the Plaxo Web site and opted out of receiving any of these annoying updates. Make sure you opt out all of your e-mail addresses!
14. Senseless Autoresponders. How about the one that says "Thank you for your e-mail message. I will respond to you as soon as I can." What a complete waste of my time to open this stupid response. It's almost like the letter carrier leaving me a message in my mailbox saying, "I picked up your mail today. I'll bring you more when I get it."
15. Words from grown, business people using shortcuts such as "4 u" (instead of "for you"), "Gr8" (for great) in business-related e-mail. Are you lazy, or just can't type or spell? If you wouldn't send a company letter out like that, it shouldn't be in an e-mail message. (This is different from legitimate abbreviations a company may develop, such as NRN for No Reply Necessary.)
16. Read receipt. As if you're checking up on me to see if I open your message. I don't know why people waste time doing this, because most people probably have this feature turned off in their e-mail software.
17. Too many attachments. You should get permission before sending someone an e-mail message with more than two attachments. Instead of sending five PDFs, consider combining them into one document.
18. Attachment and no body. If you send an e-mail message about an event and no explanation in the body, especially if it's a large file and would drain my ink supply if I printed it. If the details are in the body of the e-mail, I don't need the attachment. I don't need to see how creative you were with your flyer. I just need the info.
19. Abuse of my e-mail address. I register for an event, then every week, I'm getting notices of deals, webinars, teleseminars, etc.
20. Recipient names not private. No bcc and pages of e-mail addresses in the message.
21. Passing on hoaxes instead of checking them out first. What would make you believe that Bill Gates would send you $5,000 just for sending an e-mail message? And did you know that the Teddy Bear file you so willingly deleted from your computer was a legitimate Windows file? Check it our first at http://www.sarc.com/.
22. Who are you? People I met briefly some time ago sending me an e-mail message without reminding me who they are.
23. Messages without signature lines. Your e-mail signature is a great way to let people know more about you, especially when your e-mail address is something like 189bx@xxx.com.
24. Adding me to your e-mail list. I just met you, barely remember you, and I'm already on your distribution list for your newsletter, thoughts for the day, and news you think I want to know.
25. Bad grammar and punctuation. You can't hide behind an administrative assistant to clean up your act, so go take some classes and learn how to write and spell. Some messages are so bad, it's like reading a foreign language, and it wastes my time trying to figure out your mess.
26. Work e-mail abuse. People sending me non-work-related e-mail from their job. I don't want my name and e-mail address showing up in company reports.
27. Unprofessional e-mail IDs. People who would send a business e-mail message using addresses such as cutesuzy@xxx.com; beingblessed@xx.com; hardliquor@xx.com.

Chedister-Fuentez

Saturday, our good friends Robin and Bryan got married at the Kennedy School in Portland. Jenn was a bridesmaid, I was.....the photographer. Big surprise. I've known Robin longer than I have known Jenn so I was more than happy to shoot for them. We stayed at the hotel and partied until late (well, I had too much to drink and crashed at 10pm, Jenn come back to the room around midnight) then we all had breakfast the next morning. A great, great time. I almost had to become Rev. C.B. when at 4:30 (when the ceremony was supposed to start) the Judge they had hired called and said "AAA was on the way" he would be over an hour late! I've never seen such a thing in all the weddings I have shot. Totally ridiculous. But everything worked out and their wedding was a blast. Congrats guys!

Grandma the Biker?

Last Monday Jenn, Jordyn, my brother Kevin and my mom went to the beach to visit my grandparents at thier condo....this is a photo my brother shot of my grandma testing out the Harley. You look good Grandma!
The beach was fun, Jenn and I went for a ride down the 101 on a perfectly sunny day and I left the casino after 6 hours of poker even money all in all, a great couple of days.

Blazers Sonics

I was assigned by the Seattle P-I last night to cover the Blazers/Sonics game at the Rose Garden. It was the first preseason game for both teams, but the big story was former Sonics and current Blazers coach Nate McMillan going against his former team. Pretty much my only job was to get a shot of McMillan talking to a Sonics player or coach. Apparently there has been some bad blood between McMillan and Sonics guard Ray Allen over the last few weeks, so no one was sure if they would speak or not. Well, much to my happiness, during a free throw halfway through the first quarter, Allen went to the Blazers bench and talked to McMillan. This photo ran as the lead photo on the sports section in today's P-I. McMillan is know for being a hard nosed, take no crap kind of coach, going so far as to ban headbands during games and cell phones on team buses, Allen has been quoted as saying that things are much better in Seattle now that he is gone. Knowing that background, while sitting courtside about 5 fet from the Sonics bench last night, I could not stop laughing at this exchange between Allen and Darius Miles (who always wore a headband) of the Blazers, yelling at each other across the floor:

Allen: Darius! Hey Darius! Where's your headband?! You can't shoot without a headband!
Miles: You know. (sarcastically)
Allen: I think you should get a headband tattooed on your head!

Allen and Evans said the same thing to every Blazer who used to wear a headband. It was pretty damn funny, but doesn't really come off in type :). Anyway...here is another shot from the game:

Wedding 10/8

A couple of my favorites from a wedding in Seattle last weekend.

Fall

The fall is by far my favorite time of year. There is nothing in the entire world better than a cool sunny fall day. Crisp air, colors everywhere. I freaking love it. This is a photo I shot today for this couple. They are having me shoot their wedding next June. On an unrealated note, tomorrow we are going to the beach for a couple days with my Brother who is her on leave from Germany for a week and my Mom. I'm going to ride the Harley and we are going to play a lot of Poker and Blackjack. should be some good times as Kevin would say.

Worst Nightmare

I feel really, really sorry for this guy. He is taking a beating on The Knot. Read this thread and then this one. I guess what happened is his hard drive crashed with all of this wedding's photos on it and cannot be recovered. That really, really sucks and is a good reason I burn everything to DVD once it is on my computer, then again to DVD and CD (the edits) once it is edited and out the door. Having 3 backups of any one wedding is a good idea. This would be any photographers worst nightmare. I cannot even imagine having to tell a bride their photos no longer exist. I really feel bad for this guy because this is something I guarantee he did not want to happen, but cannot really control either.

Wall Street Journal

Johanna Whitaker gestures as Katrina Froelich and Janet Philichi look on while giving their opinions about the patient rooms to Take Care employees Lauren Tierney and Kate Ferris at a "Take Care" Health Clinic inside a Rite-Aid store on October 3, 2005 in Milwaukie, Oregon. Most major drug store chains, including Rite-Aid, have launched programs to put health clinics, staffed by prescription-dispensing nurses inside their stores.

I shot this yesterday for the Wall Street Journal. The story is that Rite-Aid is putting Health Clinics into the pharmacies, staffed with Rx writing Nurse Practitioners. The idea is that is you have the flu or other minor problems, you don't need to go to your doctor, just go to Rite-Aid and they will check you out and write you a prescription. With Oregon now requiring a prescription for cold medicine, that could be a very convenient thing. The shoot was rather boring, the clinic is not actually open yet, they just had people go through in "focus groups" to tell them what they thought of it.

Here is another shot: