Alex & Natalie – Portland Engagement Shoot

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In June I will have the privilege of capturing the memories of the day my Friend Alex joins his life to his very special fiance Natalie.  Alex and Natalie both live in Salem, Oregon so originally it did not look like we were going to be able to have an engagement session but it happened to work out that I found myself in Oregon on a previously unplanned vacation and were able to work out an afternoon where we could spend a few hours together.

Alex plans to attend Western Seminary after graduating from Corban University this spring and since this is also the location of their wedding and where they attend church it was a very fitting place to start out our session.

We finished our shoot at the park near the seminary, after a short hike we found a place with some interesting buildings and a spot that overlooks the city.

Congratulations to both Alex and Natalie, I had such a great time with you for our shoot and am very excited to be a part of your wedding day!

 

Sandpoint Volleyball Club Magazine

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It takes a substantial commitment of time and money to be a part of club sports.  The Sandpoint Volleyball Club works hard to come up with ways to raise funds to help offset the financial burden that club volleyball requires.  This year they are putting together a magazine featuring the teams with funds being raised through the sale of advertising to local businesses.  I had the opportunity to be the feature photographer in the production of the magazine which is scheduled to be finished the first week of February and should be available all over Sandpoint.

The first thing we needed was a cover shot, something that would be signature Sandpoint and also catch the eye.  Volleyball uniforms are not exactly insulated but nonetheless Beth Lewis braved the cold Winter day to work with us for a cover photo.  Here is the cover shot along with a couple more shots from the afternoon.

For the rest of the photography we moved indoors. We took some team photos and then moved on to some individual photos.  I wanted to be able to do some composite work with the shots so we took head shots and full body shots using a seamless paper backdrop like this one below.

Shooting this way made it a bit easier to do some composites.  Here is a single player version:

Now a single player along with a team photo.

The composite that I really wanted to put together was a team photo made up of each individual portrait.  I created one for each of the three teams that we created full body shots for.

To finish off the day four of the ladies stuck around to do some action portraits.  We set these up using five different lights, two high powered strobes were the main lights and then for some of the photos I used as many as three speedlights to ad some interest in the otherwise black background.

If you are interested in seeing all of the finished results from this project you can find them on my website at this link: http://bit.ly/ysPKG1

 

Shooting the Moon with Shea (Sandpoint Photographer)

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 This afternoon I was going through some photos and came across some shots that I took this summer and had totally forgotten about.  My assistant Shea and I were on the drive home after covering a vow renewal ceremony and came across a scene we could not resist.  It was right around sunset and the moon was low in they sky we did not have much time so we threw together a very quick one light set up and started shooting.  I think we came away with a few fun shots in our very quick, impromptu portrait session.

We also were blessed with a few minutes of some great color in they sky, so we stopped shooting the moon and captured some images with the last traces of sunset.

Lastly, I let Shea snap a shot or two as well, here is one of them.

Nikki’s Senior Photos (Sandpoint Photographer)

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Just before the cold and snow found it’s way to North Idaho Nikki and I spend a couple of hours at her home taking her Senior Photos.  Here is a peek at some of the final images.

While Nikki was changing outfits for the photos in the barn her brother Shayne stood in to model for me so I could get the lights in position, here is one of the test shots of him.

 

The Osman Family (Sandpoint Photographer)

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The day was chilly, but other than that it could not have been much nicer for capturing some photos for the Osman family.

By request, the Osman family Tree . . . . . .

Adam and Darian – Engagement

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This last spring I had the pleasure of capturing the memories of the beautiful wedding of Phil and Britt.  At the reception while I was taking some photos of the bride’s brother on the dance floor with his girlfriend someone approached me and said something to the effect of “there is the next wedding you will be photographing”.   I have had a number of weddings since that day, but part of what they said was true, because in less than two months I will have that honor!  This last week my assistant Shea and I spent a couple of hours with Adam and Darian as they braved the cold to have their engagement photos taken.  You will be able to tell from the photos that we had a very fun time and it was well worth getting our noses a little chilly!

Thankfully we were able to make our way inside for a while where it was not quite so chilly!

 

Luke and Hannah’s Birthday (Sandpoint Photographer)

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Every year my daughter Hannah has a special birthday celebration with her friend Luke who was born 8 days before she was.  This year’s party was bitter sweet because “Buddy Luke” is going to be moving away in a month and this might very well be the last birthday that they will get to celebrate together.  Along with the usual birthday events we also set up a photo booth for the kids to have some fun with.  We came away with some images that made us laugh and of course since this is quite possibly the last time we celebrate together it also brought some tears.  Here are some of the fun shots to help us remember the day.

Here are the ones to make the momma’s cry!

Erin’s Senior Photos (Sandpoint Photographer)

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Erin wanted an urban look to her senior photos and I was happy to oblige.  We had a great spot with a number of different options for us and even got a little creative with the lighting.

On the rest of the photos for this post we used some colored gels on two flashes to create a colored backdrop.

For this last photo we took it a step further.  I set up a couple of gelled lights for the background and then shot one flash through some lattice work to try to give a very different look to the photo by intentionally casting some patterned shadows.

Stearns Family (Sandpoint Photographer)

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Recently I met up with the Stearns family to shoot their family photos.  We worked on some different group shots and also took each of the kids “School Pictures”.  Rather than the ordinary school photos, this year the family saved those pennies so they could get some more unique portraits when we did the family photos.  Rather than give each of them the same background and pose, we worked to try to give each of them their own unique photo that showed something of their personality.  This was a fun challenge and I think we came up with something fun for each of them.  Here are some of my favorites from afternoon.

2011 World Wide Photo Walk: Sandpoint, Idaho

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This weekend the 4th annual Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk is taking place.  Saturday, October 1st I led one of the almost 12,000 walks world wide in Sandpoint.  It was a lot of fun to meet and get to know many of the walkers that participated and  I am looking forward to seeing the photos that they were able to capture!  Here are my favorite shots from the afternoon.