Thanks Karl!

Karl Maasdam is the man! After visiting with him last night I had a whole new look on shooting seniors. His photos are fantastic and when he told me he shoots them in the alleys and buildings under construction around his studio I was amazed. It made me look at the areas right around my own studio with a completely different eye and I discovered some great places to shoot right in my own backyard, places I drive by everyday, but never give a second glance. This wall is right across the street from my front door, but I never even though of using it as a backdrop until last night. I have some railroad tracks that the trains go by every 20 minutes, but never thought of shooting on them, a brick building with great light behind me, the list go on and on....Karl, you are the man! Sometimes seeing how other people see things helps so much in seeing things yourself.

Sunday

4 of 4! Just finished Day 4 in a row.....I thought I would be dead after this week, but besides needing a bit more sleep, it was not bad at all, in fact, it was fun!

Saturday

3 of 4! Lake Cliff B&B Hood River, OR. Great Venue. Drew and Christine were a blast and the wedding was totally fun.

WPJA Winner

The Wedding Photojournalist Association announced the winners of the summer contest. This image placed 10th in the "Bloopers" category. I shot this back in June, the entire sequence is pretty good, even if it looks bad. No brides were hurt in the making of this photo, and she didn't even spill her drink on the way down, which was very impressive!

Friday

Today's lesson: Wedding+Sunset+Beach=Great Photos. How could you NOT love a wedding with that takes place on the beach at sunset, with no shoes? I sure had some fun Friday night.

Thursday

Cover from Thursday's wedding. Since I am shooting 4 weddings this week, I am trying to finish the edit of one before shooting the next...so basically, when I got done last night I began the edit process, at 2am I went home and slept until Jordyn woke up (8:00am) then we came to the studio to finish up and I just got done at 3pm....now I am leaving to Cannon Beach for tonight's big shin dig! Yesterday's wedding was a blast. Once again it was at Garden Vineyards, which is now on my top 5 places to shoot a wedding at. The light is great the venue is great, etc, etc, etc. Jen and Sebastian live in Morocco and had their wedding here in Portland....of the 75 or so people there, only 8 actually lived in Portland, all the others flew in from London, Spain, Chile, Colorado, Canada, etc. It was cool to meet all these different people from all around the world who all had one thing in common....this couple....I had a lot of fun, congrats guys!

Another Weekend...Another 2 Weddings

August is busy. Crazy Busy. I shot two weddings once again last week, here are the covers. Another couple of great weddings. Sunday's was at Garden Vineyards, a place I had never been to...great place...Saturday they had cupcakes instead of a cake and there was some sweet light hitting them so I spent a while shooting them and got some images I really like...shocking...the fat kid likes pictures of the cup cakes...I know, I know....I'd write more, but its midnight and I just got finished shooting another wedding and I am now editing it. This week I have weddings Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I think I may be dead come Monday. Stay tuned.....

Fun to be an assistant once and a while....

Today I assisted Darren Carroll on a shoot for Sports Illustrated. Its fun to not have to actually shoot and to just help out, set stuff up, carry equipment around and watch another photographer, another really, really good photographer in this case, work. You always learn something new. or in the case of today, something old. We shot on old 4x5 cameras with Type 55 Film. Fun stuff. It's been forever (at least 4 or 5 years) since I've even looked at a roll of film and I've never shot with the 4x5's before, so it was great. Check out SI in a few weeks to see the results.

2 Weddings, 2 Days

Last weekend I shot 2 really fun weddings. The first was at the Tiffany Center, and was originally supposed to be in March, but because of Hurricane Katrina (the Bride, Groom and all of the Grooms Family live in the New Orleans area) it was rescheduled for last weekend. It was a blast, great people, great fun, and oh yeah, the Bride has a twin sister, the Groom has a twin sister, and the mother of the Bride has a twin sister! Good times!

Then on Sunday I shot a much smaller wedding with Jay and Stacey. Jay is a character and we had a blast. The ceremony was at the art mueseum and then we rode the MAX light rail down to Kel's Irish Pub for the reception. riding the MAX with a newlywed couple sure made for some fun pictures!

Softball World Series

All week long I have been shooting the Little League Softball World Series for the Kalamazoo Gazettte in Michigan....the team I am shooting is really, really good. They have not given up a run all week and yesterday threw a perfect game. Makes for boring photos, but great games. Tonight's game the light was awesome. Tomrrow night I'm shooting the title game and the light should be great again, I just hope the action is good too. There was a collision in the outfield tonight though:

Here is today's front page in Kalamazoo:

Holy Blog Update Batman!

My Little Brother actually updated his blog! Go Read about his adventures.....you know , That Marine sure has it rough......ok maybe not, he has got to have the easiest job in the Corps, what a life he lives. Lets see, he was stationed in Germany, travels all over Europe, then he gets sent to El Salvador, travels all over Central America, next up Russia....I can only assume he wont be working much there either....Hey Kev, when do you actually work?...oh right, its classified. See ya in Russia, I swear I'm going to get over there this time.

Chair Dance

This is something I'd never seen before. I've never shot a Jewish Wedding before and it was cool to see all the traditions, etc. I shot this Sunday, this wedding was fun, they had a 30 piece Brazilian marching band come into the reception and they played for 30 minutes straight, it was very cool.

One heck of a tantrum

Being the father of a 2 year old, I have seen my fair share of good tantrums! But this little ring bearer threw a really good one during the ceremony on Saturday.

One Tank One Trip

Shot a peice for the Seattle PI travel section Thursday. They are doing a series of articles called "One Tank, One Trip" places you can visit from Seattle for just the cost of a tank of gas.....this is at the Portland Japanese Gardens. What a cool place. I must admit as far as landscape and travel photographers go, I suck, bad. The peice comes out in the next week I beleive and from what I am told will have a bunch of photos from this assignment. I also went on a walking tour of Old Town China Town.