My sister Summer flew to Portland from Phoenix for the weekend and brought her youngest, 10 month old Evangeline along for the trip. As Summer was here for a friend's wedding, my parents came up for the weekend to watch Evangeline during the rehearsal and ceremony. I snuck this one just before we left the house for an errand.
Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai
in Food, Photo Shoots, Sony A7II, Sony RX1r
A few weeks ago I spent a couple days with the team at Pip's Original Doughnuts and Chai in NE Portland. There's nothing quite like an all-access pass so you can get up close with those tiny doughnuts and the wonderful folks who make them!
The owners Nate and Jamie Snell have built a business based on a spirit of family, community and great food. From the recipes, the way they treat their employees, and the decor and feel of their beautiful space on NE Fremont, it's clear there's something special going on here.
Nate was recently featured on the Podcast Right at the Fork where they dig into the origins of Pip's, how they were inspired to do this combination of doughnuts and hand-crafted chai and what the future holds. I really liked hearing more about the way they are striving to build a true community with other folks in the vibrant food scene here in Portland.
I'm honored to partner with them and you'll see some of these photos appearing in their social media feeds over the next few weeks.
Aaron Draplin- Get Cosmic
WebVisions Portland, 2016
I had the opportunity to photograph the 3 day WebVisions conference last week here in Portland. Day one's workshops were held at the beautiful PNCA campus in Northwest Portland. I was able to bounce between them, including everything from Aaron Draplin's actual file managment system and secret stuff he's working on to a plan for how to deal with a zombie alien invasion without killing the humans.
Days two and three were held at Revolution Hall in SE Portland which is an amazing old restored high school theater. Great venue, and really fun lighting for these great sessions. My two favorites - Mike Monteiro talking about the value of designers actually learning what they're doing from a mentor. Aaron Draplin brought his Tall Tales from a Large Man show which has had my brain going for the last week. I also took home a copy of his book which is worth the $40 many times over.
Unfortunately I could only be there until noon on day 3, missing the last few speakers, but it sounds like they were fantastic as well.
Thanks to Brad Smith for the amazing conference!
"Dan is friendly, easy to work with and highly professional. He scoped out our event venue and got great coverage of our event. I’d highly recommend him and will use him again if he’s not booked!”
- Brad Smith, Executive Director, WebVisions
Technical notes-
I carried 2 bodies all day long, all three days.
- Sony Rx1r as my normal focal length (35mm) for candids, close distance and tight quarters.
- Sony A7ii with the Sony 70-200mm f/4 for almost all shots in the theater or from across the room at the workshops. I also took a small handful of ultrawide shots with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 and some audience shots in the dark theater with the Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8.
Blossoms on Blue
I've been incredibly busy with photos lately. Mass quantities of photos. I'm not used to this much post processing. While I was looking for a different photo, I stumbled across this one from a couple months back. I love the combination of colors and it brings me right back to those early days of Portland spring.
Elowah Falls
in Waterfalls, 14mm, Sony A7II
My Brother-in-law Dan and his wife Beth are in town this week and we thought we'd get out and see some waterfalls. You can't really come here and not got see them. Elowah fall is one of my favorites and I just had to take them there. This is also my first landscape photo with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. This lens is a beast and just does some really cool stuff you can't do with a narrower lens. This is a pano, merged from 4 images.
A New Normal
I haven't talked about it here at all, but in early February, I left my corporate banking career. It was a great season in my life, and provided stability when we were starting our family. I met so many amazing people, both co-workers and clients and learned so much about how people do life, run businesses and make decisions.
In many ways, my clients inspired me to make this change. So many of them are completely enamored with their work. Whether running a small business, corporate management, commissioned sales or something really creative or entrepreneurial. I was jealous.
For many years, I've had the itch to work for myself, but it can be daunting to make that leap, especially when there isn't a clear path for how to do it, or what it will look like. This year, Emily's career success, lots of souls searching, research,inspiration and some amazing opportunities all aligned and I'm now doing some meaningful work that I love. I'm absolutely sure that it will be a long-term growing and learning process and thankfully I've had some amazing friends that have given encouragment and real-world, no-bullshit advice.
I chose this photo because I took it during a morning walk with Bailey after dropping the kids off at school, which has become part of my new routine- My new normal. I'm working harder than ever, juggling multiple projects and house-husbandry, but taking time every day to get outside, clear my head and dream. I've never been happier and can't wait to see where this goes.
As far as specifics, I'm primarily doing environmental portrait photography, business and non-profit documentary photography and website/brand consultation. I'll be sharing some of my work right here very soon!
Nate, Pip's and the First-Timers
A few weeks back I reached out to Nate and Jamie Snell the owners of Pip's Original Donuts here in Portland about doing a documentary photoshoot of their amazing location, people, community spirit and of course the Donuts.
As we were standing there in the shop talking about the project, some first-time customers walked in and Nate took the opportunity to step away from our conversation to do what he does best. There's an enthusiasm and care that goes into everything they do and I can't wait to share the photos from my 2 sessions at the shop.
Mark and the Cigar Box Guitar
Bailey and I are still spending a little bit of most every day at our local dog park and met Mark there yesterday. He was playing a cigar box guitar and enjoying the beautiful afternoon just like us.