Mother Daughter Reunion

January 06, 2018

Valerie is enlisted with the U.S. Air Force. She is a single mom with a 6 year old daughter. Valerie has be separated from her daughter for 9 months while being temporarily stationed in a dangerous area of Afghanistan. Recently, she returned home safely to be reunited with her daughter.

It was an honor to to offer a Mother Daughter photo shoot to have a little fun and commemorate their reunion. Thanks for your service Valerie, and best wishes to you and your daughter.

Here are a few of the photos from our session.

When Day Turns to Night

September 24, 2017

When my wife and I found out that there would be a total solar eclipse in Oregon, we just had to plan our summer trip to the Pacific Northwest around this event. As luck would have it, my in-laws' house in Silverton, Oregon sits in the middle of the fifty-mile-wide path of totality.

We arrived a number of days before the event, which was a good thing, as millions of people converged upon the path across Oregon. The little town of Silverton and the surrounding areas were slammed with eclipse fan traffic. But we had a great view from the comfort of our own front yard, including some friends and neighbors with coffee, donuts and of course, plenty of solar glasses to go around.

I set up my camera on the tripod, checked my settings and prepared for the show. I was mainly interested in getting photos of totality and the flowing corona streaming around the sun, but needed to point the camera at the sun beforehand to get the exposure and focus. I did not want to invest in a solar filter, so I ended up taping my solar glasses to the lens so that my camera sensor did not get fried from the direct sun.

As the moon started passing in front of the sun, we really couldn't see much of a difference. As a matter of fact, the brightness of the sun didn't change much until well after half coverage.

When the sun was about 95% covered, the light started fading quickly. Within a few seconds, day turned to night. As I peeled off the solar glasses, I looked up to see nighttime stars and what looked like a black hole in the sky for a minute and eighteen seconds. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees.

At the moment the moon starts to uncover the sun, a bright flash of light appears through the mountain valleys on the edge of the moon known as the "Diamond Ring."

Once it was over, I heard comments such as "it was like a dream," spiritual" and "a powerful feeling." We all agreed that it was an awe inspiring experience that we would appreciate forever.

Environmental Portraits

April 05, 2017

www.Customplanet.com and www.Createashirt.com specialize in custom design printed t-shirts, hats and jerseys.

The owners of the companies, and my friends, Chris & Becky Taylor needed headshots of their team of employees for their websites. I suggested that since the organization was a progressive, dynamic dot-com, we should steer away from the traditional studio headshot and go for a more engaging environmental portrait concept.

The vision was to have each employee photographed within their respective work environments.

It was a bit challenging at times working to find the right composition with each of the employees throughout different areas of the shop. Some of the spaces were a tight fit, requiring a wide angle lens, while trying to muscle in the lighting equipment.

I was impressed that all 14 team members being photographed ended up being very enthusiastic, even helping out with composition and posing ideas. It was a fun, creative day and everyone seemed to like the end result photos.

Here is a sampling of the shots that will be used on their websites:

Even Pearl, the friendliest 3-legged canine print shop companion, gave it her best.

P.S. Don't tell Chris & Becky that I shared some of the photos before they had a chance to post them on their websites.

Electric Green Oregon

March 17, 2017

Last week, my trip to the state of Oregon offered some great photography opportunities. I have been to Oregon many times over the years, but had never visited during the early spring months. It was shocking to see so much green, especially after spending most of my time living in the Mojave Desert. Green fir trees, green grass, green farm fields and electric green moss growing on just about everything.

Trail through Silver Falls State Park, OR

The spring showers let up enough to allow me to hike through a muddy Silver Falls State Park, which houses multiple iconic waterfalls. Through advance research, I'd identified a specific set of falls that I wanted to photograph called Middle North Falls. I hiked 1.5 miles through some of the most beautiful forest area I have ever seen.

Middle North Falls, Silver Falls State Park, OR

Because of all the rain and snow this year in the Pacific Northwest, the falls are currently sending a broad curtain of water 106 feet down into the rocky plunge pool below, with a thunderous noise and clouds of mist.

Later in the day I was able to break out the long lens and grab a shot of the 136 foot high North Falls from a quarter of a mile away.

North Falls, Silver Falls State Park, OR

I also visited the Oregon Coast spending time between Lincoln City and Newport.

While in Lincoln City, my plan was to photograph the tide pools at low tide, hoping to capture starfish and colorful sea urchins on the rocks with a background setting sun over the ocean. The hike along the beach was farther than I had planned. By the time I finally got the camera and tripod set up on the expansive tide pools, it was starting to get dark and the fog was rolling in. I quickly struggled to find a composition to at least get a few somewhat mediocre shots.

I was having a hard time finding my way off the tide pools because of large crevasses and 6 foot high rock formations. I started thinking, "it was easy to get out here, now how do I get back to the beach?" Feeling anxious, I started hurrying across the rocks, lost my footing and slipped flat on my back, smacking my camera gear on the wet rocks. Also, I later realized that I had lost my new progressive eyeglasses in the fall which would soon be owned by the Pacific Ocean tides.

In the darkness, I walked up the beach for over a mile beating myself up as the thick fog continued to roll in. At a certain point I wondered why I couldn't find the trail to my car... did I pass it? Oh no, do I have to call 911 to have the Coast Guard save me before the high tide gets me?

Sometimes I guess it's the price you pay to get some "just okay" photos.

Cabo San Lucas

October 16, 2016

Hola. We just got back from our first time visiting Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We headed down there with a group of over 30 friends, so as you can imagine it was quite an experience.

I didn't get a chance to get out and take as many photos as I wanted during the day because the weather was uncomfortably hot and humid. Going from indoors to outdoors caused my camera lens components to fog up so bad that it would take a while before they were usable. So unfortunately, I had to spend most of the day in the pool with a gang of friends hanging out at the swim-up bar with unlimited free drinks.

Here are a few shots I wanted to share with you...

On the way home, the Mexican Airport Federales confiscated my travel tripod and would not let me take it on the plane. Everything seemed to be less restrictive in Mexico, except for possession of a tripod I guess.

To Catch a Shooting Star

August 13, 2016

The annual meteor shower know as the Perseids is going through an outburst this year, which means sky watchers can view more meteors than usual, up to 100 per hour. Last night it was at it's peak.

My Nephew Chris recently purchased a digital camera, so we decided to head out into the darkness to practice our night photography skills and see if we could capture a meteor streaking across the sky.

We ended up in East Apple Valley, far enough out to get away from some of the light pollution from the High Desert Cities. With cameras, tripods, remote shutter release and flashlights in hand, we walked through the Desert night to find some rock formations offering a suitable foreground with the North-East sky as the backdrop.

It took quite a while fumbling in the dark to get the correct exposure and focus settings. Now we are ready to roll... As the shutter button is pressed, let the show begin. I said, let the show begin... ohhh sooo slowly.

Actually, we did end up seeing lots of meteors, probably more last night than the previous total I have seen in my entire life. But of course, never in the area that my lens happened to be pointing. Eventually, both of us did end up capturing a couple. Not the iconic huge streaking fireball, but a meteor nonetheless. Did anyone else on earth happen to capture a photo of this one specific meteor last night? Probably not, so I will assume that I have the only photo documentation of this 10,000,000 year old piece of comet burning up in our atmosphere. Pretty cool. Gone forever in a flash, but mine to keep as a photographic souvenir.

At 2:15 am, we decided to pack it up after about 300 long exposure shots. We got a lot of practice in last night, but most importantly, Chris and I really enjoyed spending time together, soaking in a certain tranquility that only gazing at the heavens can offer.

The Jefferson Memorial at Night

March 26, 2016

Last October we took a family trip to Washington DC, Philadelphia PA and Amish Country. I was able to get most of the typical and some not so typical photos of monuments, museums, street scenes and people.

I had two shots in mind that I really wanted to get while in DC. The Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument at night. I wanted to capture the lights and reflections on the water surrounding these landmarks.

Before we left for the trip, I spent time researching the lay of the land in DC, knowing that I would need to find my way around the very difficult city streets at night to get to the right location near the monuments, not to mention trying to find parking which is also very tough. I studied Google Maps and Street View to determine the right angles and distances across the water to set up the photo I was visualizing.

At 11 pm I arrived at the predetermined location on the North Shore of the Tidal Basin. I looked across the water at the Jefferson Memorial which was about a third of a mile away. I knew this would have to be a long exposure with a telephoto lens which was a challenge because I couldn't bring my tripod on the plane. The camera would have to be perfectly still to let the image slowly burn into the sensor for probably about 30 seconds or so.

In the darkness, I found myself laying on my stomach across the pedestrian walkway at the edge of the water, using a piece of trash to prop up and steady the camera at the right angle, and the glow from my iPhone to see the camera settings.

I was only there for 15 minutes, to get a handful of exposures to pick from. I didn't want to stay any longer than I had to, because DC is not the safest place to be at night when you are alone.

Periodically, people would come strolling down the walkway towards me and each time they would be startled when I announced my presence from the darkness. As they slowly diverted around this weird guy on the ground, they would hear "I'm OK... Sorry."

For me, the adventure of planning and actually pulling off the shot makes looking at the final product more satisfying.