Repeat Customers....

Lately something very cool has been happening. People whose wedding's I shot in the past, are now coming into the studio and having me shoot their children too. This is fun because normally, I see a bride and groom on the wedding day, then never see them again, and its cool that they like my work enough to come back for more, and I love little kids so that's fun too. I've shot a few different babies this month now of former wedding couples. Above is the cute little 8 month old of a couple whose wedding I shot in 2004.
This is another shot from today...it was kid day at the studio :):

Eng Session

Photo from an engagement session I shot Sunday.

Peony Tree's

This morning I had a shoot for "Dig" Magazine of these two guys, who are peony tree growers. The shoot is for an article about the trees and their business. The father (in the foreground) is a well respected peony tree grower and his son (background) now runs the business. This shoot was supposed to take place at the Portland Japanese Garden, but when we arrived at the location, they only had 2 really sad looking trees that would not show in a photo at all, so as a last ditch effort, we went to the Chinese Garden, hoping someone would be there and let us in to shoot. No one was, but luckily out front was a large good looking Peony tree (in between the two of them) that would work for the photo. Its not the best portrait in the world, but it will work.

Google changes something....

For some reason, yesterday I noticed that google had changed something and my site dropped off the face of Google's earth....this is bad, very bad. But it was not just me. Nearly every photographer who came up in a search of "Portland Oregon Photographer" or something similar, also dropped off the face of the earth. So if you are a photographer reading this, check your page-rank and search rank in google right now and get to fixing the problem. I'll be spending the rest of the week I am sure working on Search Engine Optimization for my site. I've ben reading about a google algorithm change for quite some time and it looks as if they have implemented it. No worries. I'm ready. My site just needs a few tweaks here and there and will be right back up there soon.

Happy St Patricks Day

Jordyn and her boyfriend Mikey got matching shirts to celebrate the occasion.

Dinner and a Movie

Lisa Schroeder, owner and chef at Mother's Velvet Lounge and Cafe, maneuvers through the crowd to deliver a spaghetti dish to patrons who have come to the restaurant for "Spaghetti Western Wednesday's." The restaurant recently installed a 108" projection screen to show old Italian western movies each Wednesday night.

I shot this the other night for the Oregonian's A&E section.

Wedding from a while ago....

I've been a little slow to edit this really fun wedding I shot in Bend a couple weeks ago.....here is the cover. I had a really good time and shot some cool photos....that is until the drive home that night....I got pulled over for going 75 in a 55 near Madras, got a ticket, then got pulled over AGAIN about an hour and half later in Sandy. No ticket that time as I told the cop in Sandy I already got nailed that night and he let me off...horrible night, but fun day. Go Figure.

Assignment

Shot this portrait for the Chronicle of Philanthrophy yesterday. They are doing a story on this guy, who is giving a bunch of money to schools.

Studio Work

Since moving into the new studio, I've been pleasantly surprised at how much I've used it and how busy I've been. This is a portrait from today. I was at Hollywood Lights and they had some used gels laying around that were free....I found a cool purple one and tested it out today.

Yesterday's Shoot

Yesterday the studio got its first big workout. I shot an ad campaign for a local bank. They had 17 of their customers come in, one every 30-45 minutes and I shot portraits of them that will be cut out and placed with a quote and the bank's logo and used in ads and on billboards around town, etc. There was make-up people, an art director and of course subjects in and out all day. There was plenty of room and places to hang out and wait while I was shooting and other people were waiting, etc. This was one of my favs from the day.

Ribbon Cutting at the Studio

This morning the Chamber of Commerce came out and we had a ribbon cutting at the new studio. Pretty decent turnout, the Chamber president, Mayor of Milwaukie and Chairman of the Board of the Chamber all showed up, along with numerous other important business people in this community. Cheesy I know, and every PJ dreads covering a ribbon cutting, but hey, free press is free press :)!

Our Mexican Cruise

So, I'm a little slow to get this up, but its been crazy busy since we got back. Our cruise to Mexico was AMAZING! It was easily the best vacation I have ever been on. It was so relaxing, so fun to be able to just hang out and do nothing with Jenn and Jordyn and so great to see 3 very different Mexican ports, oh yeah and so very, very warm! When we left Portland on the 19th it was like 30 degrees outside. Every stop along the way on the cruise it was 90! The boat was great, I never got bored like I thought I would, there was always something to do, swimming, shows, activities, etc. My favorite things to do on the boat (in order) were swimming with Jordyn, playing poker, eating and singing karaoke at night.

We were on the boat for 8 days. we went with most of Jenn's family (her parents, aunts, grandma, cousins, etc), my mom also went as did our friends Danielle and Doug.

Day 1: boarded the boat in San Diego, ate a nice dinner and saw a show that night.
Day 2: At sea, played cards, ate, sang in the karaoke bar at night, good times.
Day 3: At sea again.....spent almost the entire day in the pool with Jordyn, then at night it was "formal night" so we all got dressed up ate some fancy dinner and went to a show or two.
Day 4: Acapulco. We got off the boat, got in a taxi, prayed for our lives as we quickly learned that in Mexico, the lines on the road are more of a suggestion and not really there to mean anything. Horns are used early and often and speeds reach unknown levels. we ended up on a pretty nice beach and rented some wave runners and just tooled around in the bay.
Day 5: Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa. Here my mom watched Jordyn for a bit and we on a tour that had us swimming with dolphins. It was soooooo fun. the dolphins would come up and "kiss" you, then they would pull us through the pool by hanging onto their fins and finally, two would push you by your feet through the water, it was really cool. Then we went back to the boat, had lunch and took a little boat to a beach on the other side of the bay, complete with tiki huts and a huge reef to snorkel in. We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking pina colodas in the sun. Jordyn ate lots of sand and saw lots of fish. This was by far my favorite stop.
Day 6: Manzillo: Here we got in a scary cab once again and went to a really nice resort. We paid $30 and got a wristband that allowed us full access to the resort, including all you could eat and drink. They had a cool pool right on the beach complete with a pool side bar and full buffet. It was nice. We made sure to drink our $30 worth of free drinks and rented some wave runners again and just hung out at the resort all day.
Day 7: Sea Day, mostly spend relaxing.
Day 8: Packing, eating, ready to go home.

I would highly recommend a cruise to anyone. It was so, so fun. Of course since I'm a photographer and was on vacation, I did not bring a camera and really wanted nothing to do with anything even remotely looking like a camera, but we did take a point and shoot and Jenn took a few shots here and there. Here are a few:

These are my girls on the second night on the sun deck of the ship:

Here is Jordyn and I dancing on Formal night:

Jordyn getting ready to jump into the pool:

Jordyn playing in the sand with the Carnival Spirit in the background in Zihuatanejo:

Jordyn and I in Zihuatanejo:

The top deck of the boat had a huge chess set and Jordyn loved to move all the pieces around:

Ice cream for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack:

These are our dining room servers Ivan and Alena, they are from Croatia and were awesome! This is Dani dancing with them on the last night:

This is me breaking out the karaoke, I think I'm singing a little Garth Brooks here. Jenn's aunts are my backup singers:

Jenn and I at dinner:

Adorable

Another shot from yesterday. How cute is this little munchkin?

I'm back.....

I'm back from our 9 day vacation on a cruise to Mexico. It was AWESOME. So fun, I'll update about that later, but the best part of being back is the new studio is DONE! I spent the last 2 days moving into the new fancy headquarters of Mitchelldyer Photography. These photos don;t really do justice to the space, but here you go.
Here is the shooting area:

Wider view of the shooting area, there is a changing room on the right:

View from the back corner of the office. the window overlooks the shooting space:

View from the shooting area looking back to the office (you can see the front door in the center):

View as you first walk into the office, there will be some wedding photos on the back wall, but its brick so I've yet to put them up:

And of course, I must show the first image shot in the new space:

I'm very excited to be here now. Its a bit weird, but I'll get used to it. Thus far I LOVE it. if you want to swing by for lunch and check it out, let me know.