Emerald Bay Photography News and Updates

I admit - when I signed up for Facebook, I did not sit down with a nice hot cup of tea and take a leisurely half hour to read their Terms of Use. Did you, my dear pro photographer/artist/filmmaker friend? Didn't think so.

Today however (and only a day after I uploaded the first part of my portfolio to Emerald Bay Photo's custom Facebook page), a nudge from a friend prompted me to go take a closer look at the Terms of Use. I was shocked - to say the least. The verbiage has all the elements of a pro photographer's worst nightmare.

User Content Posted on the Site:

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.

While this all may seem like legalese to most people, to me, it's not. I've read, edited, and written enough legal contracts for the photo industry over the past 12 years that verbiage like this sends shivers down my spine (and those who know me, also know that photographer advocacy is a cause close to my heart).

Because in plain English - the second you upload an image to Facebook, they'll forever have a copy of it, and they'll also forever be able to use it. Because, as they claim, you've granted them a full and irrevocable license to your image, and they are from now on able to use it, modify it, give it away and - yes - license it to a third party. (Take a deep breath now, and ask yourself: why would they want to, and what for exactly, if there was no exchange of money?)

Naturally, Facebook has already caught a lot of flack for these terms. Founder Mark Zuckerberg justifies them like this in his response: "When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they've asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn't help people share that information."

Part of me understands that - another part of me cringes at the mere thought of opening myself up to yet another way my images could potentially be abused. And yet another part of me knows that it's a spectacularly difficult situation people don't usually have the bandwidth or knowledge to truly grasp, and therefore their initial reaction is to simply cry wolf.

What it really does though is highlight the complexity of copyright in the digital age. For example - you probably use Google every day, right? You search for content, images, use your Gmail, calendar etc.. But have you ever thought about what kind of license you enter into with Google for these most basic services? Have you read Google's Terms of Use? Here's what I found:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Hm. Sounds an awful lot like Facebook's license, no?

Taking a step back, it occurred to me that too often do we take the Internet and its vast resources for granted. When we use Facebook or Google, we don't think about the enormous amounts of time, effort, and money it takes to run these companies and sites. Or that we can access their services 24/7, from literally anywhere - FOR FREE.

For us pro photographers that means: having our websites show up in Google, or being able to upload our portfolios to Facebook (and share them with our friends, peers, clients) - which (let's be honest) gives us a whole new (and huge) channel of marketing. FOR FREE.

Should we have to trade the potential of having our images abused by a company such as Facebook or Google for the opportunity to display (and market) our services? Maybe not. We certainly have a choice. We can choose not to put our images out there, based on the rationale that if nobody can see them, nobody can abuse them. But if we don't put them out there, we also forever stay in the stone age with our businesses, doomed to having forever missed the train to the digital age. I, for one, readily acknowledge that over the past few years, the main bulk of my business has been generated by my website, its vast portfolio - and its excellent Google rating.

In his note, Zuckerberg talks about respect and trust. How do we know Facebook won't turn to the dark side one day, and start to utilize that trust (and that licensing agreement) for their own profit? We don't. We can only trust that they won't.

In the meantime however - we can be responsible digital citizens, protect our content as best as we can (by keeping your FB privacy settings restricted to only your friends, or watermarking all of the images on our website), and hope that FB does the right thing.

In the same meantime - let's not forget that we all reap the rewards of an open web of connections, such as the Internet or Facebook, to promote our businesses and help us earn a living.

Update: this post was originally published on Facebook, where it generated some interesting feedback links. I thought I should add them here to further the discussion and let other voices speak as well:

Photo Business Forum
APhotoEditor.com
Sportsshooter.com
UsePlus.com

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, Facebook, photographer advocacy, photography

Truly good food is a little bit like a symphony: Elegant. Graceful. Sophisticated. Eloquent. With bold notes and delicate undertones. Sweeping, and yet demure. It can make your head swim, your heart flutter, elevate your mood, and help you forget your everyday life.



Science has tied the chemical dopamine to food - a stimulant your brain releases upon receiving a rewarding experience. Most commonly though, dopamine is associated with love.

So do love and food replace eachother? Maybe. Doubtless however is the fact that when the two meet, something extraordinary is created. Someone who cooks with passion can spawn something far superior than someone who may be educated and skilled in the culinary arts, but is just going through the motions.



And every so often I come across someone whose cuisine is imbued with that passion, that devotion, that intoxication with food. Her name is Lisa Glickman, and she is a personal chef, right here in Bend. I met her on a food shoot last March.

I'll never forget the first time I tasted her food. It rocked my world. Steaming, home-made ravioli were filled with the most delicate and flavorful mushrooms, embraced by simple white truffle oil and delightfully crunchy pine nuts. The lamb was cooked to perfection - impossibly tender and juicy. More like butter than anything else. The red-wine poached pear with the vanilla bean creme fraiche was sweet, but at the same time light and awash with complex flavor.



I left the party that evening with a swing in my step, taste buds that would dance the conga for hours to come, and the certain knowledge that I would worship Lisa's talent for a long time. Ok - make that "all eternity".



If you ever have the pleasure to taste her food, you'll know from the first bite that you just got lucky. As for myself - did I mention that I love my job?

Labels: Bend photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, food, food images, food photographer Bend OR, food photography, photography, product photography

I'm so damn lucky.

I have these incredible friends. They are a talented and generous bunch - who also happen to be awesome human beings to boot.

One of them is Adam Z.

Now - I've never actually *met* Adam. And yet, I count him as a dear friend.

Our lives first touched about 9 years ago, when he was running a powerful site about geek stuff out of his native Toronto, Canada, and I was an Online Evangelist for O'Reilly Media who was looking to partner with exactly such sites to promote our geek books. After the tech bubble imploded, and I had forged on as a freelance photographer, we worked on a couple of client projects together - him doing the design, me providing the photography.

Remote and online-only collaboration has its own challenges, but Adam turned out some incredibly creative designs for my clients, on insanely tight deadlines, and with a level of professionalism and attention to detail I had seldom experienced before. Even the pre-flight guy at the printer's wrote to me in awe that he had never seen such clean and precise files in his life before.

So I am grateful to Adam for many things. Not in the least for designing my beautiful logo years ago... as a pure courtesy.

But now he's done it again.

The other day, I was completely lost, staring at that empty expanse of pixels on my screen, that yawning horror of white I was supposed to fill with colors, shapes and prettiness, spouting out of the creative fountain of my mind. It was all supposed to form itself into a new card for my business, and a slide for the upcoming BendFilm festival (where Emerald Bay Photo is a sponsor). Except - nothing happened. The fountain was dry. No colors came to me. No shapes. No fonts. Nada.

I gnawed on my lip for a while. Then I ran in screaming desperation to Adam.

And he was there for me. With blazing speed, incredible creativity and that awe-inspiring precision, he spawned something of utter beauty, sleekness and simplicity. It was exactly what I had wanted, yearned for, but what my brain was unable to conjure up.







So this is a nod and a deep bow to my friend Adam.

THANK YOU.

Labels: design, photography

Earlier this week, I shot this beautiful home in The Highlands development of Bend:










The house is up for sale now (did you see the one-page ad in the Bulletin today?), and you can get more info and see more images right here at www.bendhighlands.com.

Labels: architectural photography, architecture, Bend photographer, interior architectural photography, photography, The Highlands

Gleaming metal. Clean lines. Sharp glass. Shadow and light, working together to create unexpected and dynamic patterns. Harmonic colors that enhance eachother, play off eachother, contrast and produce an environment of simplicity and grace.

These are the things I live for when doing architectural photography. Yes, I admit, I'm a junkie - my favorite fix being contemporary buildings.

So here's a good example I recently shot for an architect client:









Mmmmm. Mmm. Mm.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, architecture, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, interior architectural photography, photography

I don't even think I need to elaborate past the headline ...





More options on how to delight your palate in the Home Cookbook section of Bend Living, out on newsstands now.

Labels: chocolate, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, food, food images, food photographer Bend OR, food photography, photography

In the world of magazine publishing, working a few months ahead of the print deadline is nothing unusual. So the results of the assignment that took me to San Francisco last July only just hit the newsstand last month.

You can check out the article "Sushi Quest in the City by the Bay" in the March/April issue of Bend Living Magazine - or, given their rather meager selection of images from that assignment, take a minute and indulge in a sort of "extended version" of the adventure...

Truth be told - at first, the idea of a quest to find the best sushi in a city, awash with some of the freshest seafood on the coast and a selection of great restaurants featuring it, seemed rather intimidating. For me personally however - as a sushi aficionado - the promise of spending 3 days reveling in raw fish approached a small slice of heaven.

Oh how very, very, wrong I would be.

Between some rigorous net research, recommendations from friends and my editor, writer Vi Ho and I settled on three restaurants to check out: Blowfish, Sudachi, and Kyoya. With swing in the step, elated tastebuds, camera gear and notepad ready in hand, we arrived at the first place, Blowfish.

Now - to make raw fish look attractive and appetizing, you sometimes really have to work hard. That goes for both the chef and the photographer. Blowfish however really had the presentation down, which made things decidedly easier for me:





Maybe it was the combination of dishes, maybe it was the sashimi - my small intestines didn't really care to make that distinction. They only knew that a short while later, they were very, very unhappy. And not being able to ignore them, so was I. Because in effect it prevented me from being able to enjoy the sushi - and any other solid food, for that matter - served up to me in the following two days.

Talk about being in a depression situation. Here I am - in one of the world's greatest seafood cities, a veritable plethora of choices tantalizing me at every turn, and kind chefs and restaurant managers serving up a seemingly endless procession of (free) dishes. And just the mere thought of tasting a piece of fish making my stomach squeamish.

Mostly I felt bad for the restaurants - they worked so hard to accommodate us and make a good impression. So I tried to be a trooper, indulged in the offered miso soup and edamame, smiled and nodded, and instead of salivating over the offerings, focused on making their food look good.

Sudachi's miso was indeed memorable - but (I was told) even more so were their unusual combinations of sashimi and exotic oils and condiments:





Kyoya shone with their exquisite presentation skills, but Vi proclaimed that their Shrimp Tempura roll was quite other-wordly too. How I wished I could have tasted it ...





After all was said and done, we returned to Bend - satisfied with our quest, and loaded with great story material. Even my intestines had arrived at a place of peace again. Alas, I'm still waiting for that subtle sushi craving to return.

Labels: commercial photographer Bend Oregon, food, food images, food photographer Bend OR, food photographer San Francisco CA, food photography, photography, sushi

Life is challenging without sugar.

Trust me. I know.
I'm going through withdrawals as we speak.

Such is the sacrifice you make when doing a little Spring cleaning on the ole carcass. But hey. I know, it's temporary only. Luscious chocolate cakes, covered with thick shiny coats of couverture and adorned with ripe sweet raspberries loom in the not-too-distant future...

In the meantime, I have to satisfy my cravings by chewing on a low-fat cheese stick - while convincing my discriminating taste buds that it's really a Snickers.

For the rest of you, there is this:



Yepp, it's a berry cobbler with home-made whipping creme - photographed on a recent shoot for Bend Living magazine's "Home Cookbook" section. For the recipe, check the May/June issue.

Labels: commercial photographer Bend Oregon, food, food images, food photographer Bend OR, food photography, photography

Freshly back from my trip to chocolate-infused Switzerland, I got the opportunity to shoot some really yummy sweet treats during an event at Balay in downtown Bend.



They were tiny delicate cups of chocolate, filled with silky mousse. And lush, juicy strawberries, dipped in dark chocolate and decorated to look like tuxedos. And did I mention the heart-shaped truffles?



And yes - after I shot them, I ate them (thank you to Sweet Tooth for letting me take some home too. They didn't last very long ...).

Being Swiss, I'm very picky about my chocolate. But this stuff rocked. And it reminded me of why I love to shoot food. Because I get to eat it afterwards.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, chocolate, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, food, food images, food photographer Bend OR, food photography, photography

For the past two years, I have been co-organizing the Bend Slideluck Potshow with Oregonian writer Matt Preusch. He brought the concept with him when he moved to Bend from Seattle, where his friend Casey Kelbaugh had casually started the gatherings in 2000.

Over those years, the Slideluck Potshow concept took off like wildfire - culminating with a piece in the New York Times today.

Slideluck Potshow in NYC - photography Michael Nagle for The New York Times

And Casey writes:

As we announced at the show, there are several Slidelucks coming up, both nationally and internationally. Alys Kenny and I will be going to Europe for a month to launch SLPS in five European cities. In each place, we will be looking for artists, volunteers, participants, and in the case of London and Berlin, spaces. If you know people in any of the cities listed below, please feel free to connect them with us as we would like to make each show as rich and diverse as possible.

March 30th: Seattle
April 14th: London (in conjunction with the VII seminar)
April 21st: Madrid
April 26th: Copenhagen
April 28th: Berlin (over April2006Berlin gallery weekend)
May 5th: Milan
May 19th: Minneapolis
June 29th: Los Angeles

Also in the works are San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, DC, Portland, Santa Fe, Milwaukee, Boston, Mexico City, Art Basel Miami and New York City public high schools. It is amazing to consider what this non-profit might be able to accomplish with proper funding. In each of these places, we are seeking to present the work of artists working in that community for that community.

Yay to our international brethren! The most recent Bend SLPS was last Friday, but for anybody interested in attending the next Slideluck Potshow in Bend in May, email me and I'll put you on the announce list.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, photography, Slideluck Potshow

Anybody who remembers Mt. Bachelor's West Village Lodge two years ago, and for some unknown reason hasn't been back since (uhmmm - me? because I don't ski?) - get ready for a pleasant surprise:



That's right - the interior of the lodge (which previously had a bit of a strong nolstalgic 70s feel to it ...) has been completely updated. Large, modern steel beams now rule the spaces, rugged floor tiles add color and texture everywhere, and open, light areas invite to linger, rest, snack or warm up with a drink.



The formerly cramped and lackluster bar area has been completely transformed into a hip, inviting space with neon signs, Bachelor-branded chairs and lots of open room.



And in a nod to the environment and green building, modular panels out of recycled wood now protect the walls - and once they are banged up pretty good by the crowds, they can be easily replaced with new ones (as can the floor tiles).



Overall - a very cool remodel. And a fun shoot too.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, architecture, Bend Oregon photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, Mt. Bachelor, photography

If you've seen today's Health & Fitness section in the Bend Bulletin, you couldn't have missed the front page feature on Pilates (sorry, folks - no link to the actual story... uhmmm... it's subscription-only).

Incidentially, the pictures that accompanied the article for once weren't shot by the paper's own PJs - rather, they used the shots I had taken a few weeks back at my friend Diane's Pilates Center of Bend (she was interviewed for the article and tipped the paper off to the images).



So I thought I'd tutor anybody interested in creating similar images on how to achieve these kinds of motion effects. It takes a bit of planning ahead, but it's easy, really.

Step 1: Shoot numerous images while your model is in motion. The important part here is that you either mount your camera on a tripod, or if that isn't possible, you employ a steady handhold while shooting. You want the lines of the body to match up later.

Step 2: Open the desired images in Photoshop. I don't recommend working with more than three images at a time - unless the motion stretches across the entire image, overlaying more images can get visually confusing.



Step 3: Choose your background image (above). Go to your second image, and with the Marquee tool, select the part of the image you want to overlay. Cut and paste that as a new layer onto your background image.

Step 4: Go to Layer > Add Layer Mask and create a mask on your second image. Reduce Opacity on that layer to about 30%. Click on the mask, and with a soft black brush (at 100%) erase everything but the parts you want to showcase the motion with. Your images should now look something like this:



Step 5: Repeat with your third image. Play with the layer opacities to get the desired effect. Done!

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography, sports fitness photographer Bend Oregon

Last Friday, I witnessed an attempted murder.

The crime scene? Mirror Pond, Drake Park, downtown Bend, Oregon. April 14, 2006 - roughly 2pm.

The crime? The attempted drowning of a male Mallard duck by none other than a gang of fellow male Mallard ducks.







While obviously violence is no stranger to the animal world, we generally don't think of DUCKS as savage or ferocious creatures.

The attempted drowning seemed shockingly pre-meditated and coordinated, and left me frozen in astonishment, barely able to point the camera at the spectacle. I briefly looked around for a rock to throw at the party, hoping to break it up and free the poor under-duck, but no such luck.

And as I stood there, witnessing an agitated cluster of no less than 3 to 4 ducks at any time, grabbing the victims head with their bills and holding it under water, again and again - it occured to me that it's not only a dog-eat-dog world. It's also a duck-eat-duck world.

But before someone at PETA gets their panties in a knot, please note that I said "attempted" drowning.

Yes. The duck got away. Barely, I must say (in a couple of instances I thought he wasn't going to make it for sure), but he did.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, oregon stock photography, photography

I had never even considered Google Earth as a tool to help prepare for a photo shoot - but I gotta admit, that's a DAMN GOOD IDEA.

I got tipped off to it in a recent newsletter from the AIAP, an organization I'm member of. Alan Blakely, Director of the AIAP, writes:

"There are literally hundreds of cool things you can do with Google Earth, but let me tell you how I personally use it:

1. Determine compass orientation and sun angle of exteriors.
This is HUGE! I travel extensively, and one of the hardest things to determine when planning a shoot is "best time of day". My experience has been that the people on site are rarely able to tell me accurately which direction the building faces. With Google Earth I simply enter the address of the building and "fly-in" to the location and view its orientation -- amazing! [Note: WOW. That is indeed huge. Knowing the physical orientation of any location is an amazing advantage!)

2. Determine the effect of adjacent buildings, parking lots and potential conflicting businesses on a site.
Have you ever arrived at an out-of-town location with a limited amount of shooting time and discovered that your subject was in the shadow of an adjacent structure? With Google Earth you can predict these potential problems.

3. Find nearby accommodations and services.
Another huge deal for me. I hate booking a hotel in a distant city and discovering that my subject site is on the other side of town. Google Earth allows you to find nearby lodging, restaurants, etc.

4. Find directions to and from a subject site.
I realize that this is old stuff if you use Mapquest, Yahoo Maps or Google Maps. However, seeing directions plotted out on the actual view of the area is vastly superior to any written directions. Google Earth zooms out and draws the way for you.

Now, however cool that tool may be though for larger cities - Google Earth images of Central Oregon are nothing short of SUCKIE. Point in case:



In comparison - the Google Campus rocks regarding detail:



Duely noted too that the City of Bend has a similar web-based application - but after running a few searches and not turning up even obvious stuff like Mirror Pond, Wall Street or Cooley Road, I've come to the conclusion that the thing is utterly useless (never mind that it ONLY runs in MS IE, and not in Mozilla ...).

And admittedly, Google Earth may be more useful for people who travel a lot or specialize in archictural photography, but I thought I'd throw it out there nonetheless. I'm sure creative ways to utilize Google Earth for other kinds of photography can very easily be found.

Post in the comments if you come up with anything brilliant.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, photography, photography gear

For almost 5 years I was utterly faithful.

To my trusty Compaq Presario 7000, that is. It rewarded me with rock-solid performance, few hiccups, and a comforting hum every time I would boot it up.

But it finally came time to add another horse to the stable. Not being able to shake the suspicion that the Compaq would just lay down and die if it ever found out that I was even *thinking* of replacing it, I reached deep into my pocket and bought it a "companion" instead. Sort of the Ferrari to park next to the VW Bus to keep it company in the garage.

The culprit? Photoshop CS2. It flat out refused to run on my lame 512mb of RAM (oops - was that out loud? Those 512mb of RAM are not *lame*. Did I say lame? I meant ... moderately insufficient...).

And at the same time - whenever I was desperate enough to start it up - CS2 would give me hints and peeks at its awesome power that CS1 just couldn't deliver. The fact that I am flirting with the thought of making the leap to the 12+ megapixel Canon 5D made a computer upgrade an even more pressing issue.

So I consulted Digital Photo Pro magazine, and after some brain-storming sessions with my friend Jake, settled on a system he would build for me with the following gear:

- Chip: AMD Athlon 64 1GHz HT Dual Core Processor
- 4 gigs of RAM
- 3 Harddrives - one 74 gig, 10,000rpm drive to host the operating system and daily operations, plus two 400 gig, 7200prm drives in a RAID 1 array (meaning that they'll mirror eachother and I'll always have a backup of all the RAW and processed images that live there).
- 2 DVD burners
- ASUS A8N-VM Motherboard
- POWERCOLOR Radeon X800GT Video Card
- Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2

Since this new machine (Codename: The Beast) is now dedicated pretty much exclusively to image processing, I've networked it to my Compaq (Codename: Beauty) via a Linksys Broadband router, giving The Beast access to all the files on Beauty (and vice versa), plus the internet and all other shared devices like printers, scanners, fax etc. A KVM switch from Zonet let's me share the same monitor, keyboard and mouse between both boxes.

And how has it all worked out so far?

I would have never thought working in Photoshop could be such a boundless pleasure. For the first time, it executes commands, actions and file modifications without the hint of a delay - if I blink, I'll miss it for sure. (And that despite the fact that for some reason, only 2 gig of the 4 gig of RAM are actually operational - the next BIOS update by the motherboard manufacturer or Windows Vista will hopefully fix that though).

A recent project that took up 1.5 gigs on my CF cards was processed in roughly a quarter of the usual time - RAW conversion is now not a time issue anymore, so there really is no excuse not to always shoot RAW.

All in all - it feels like working at the computer the way it should have been (was?) intended: at the speed of thought.

And yes - it was worth every penny.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, photography, photography gear

Last Sunday, a most glamorous event was held at Bend's Tower Theater - the 2nd annual BendFilm Oscar party.



Just like 800 miles to the South - in a mystical place called Hollywood - the people of Bend succumbed to the lure of glitz, glam, fur and shiny jewels (some fake, some not so fake) and turned out in force to show off fabulous gowns and stylish tuxedos.



After running the gaunlet of screaming fans and paparazzi on the red carpet...



... they got busy sipping champagne and saketinis and nibbling on fresh mussels and creamy gorgonzola...



... while Jon Stewart cracked jokes on the big screen.



Costumes were encouraged - and quite obviously embraced with gusto, as one can see from these examples:





A certain editor of a certain Bend glossy publication even went the extra mile and impersonated one of the night's Oscar contenders for Best Film ...



When the night was over, Oscars had been distributed, champagne was spilled, fun was had, and funds were raised for one of the worthiest causes: independent film.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography

A few months ago, Grant Ellis, a freelancer writer for the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper, interviewed me for an article about food photography, and the new tech infatuation of people whipping out their digicams before their fork at the restaurant.

Cruising around on Google today, I found the article got finally published, and it's indeed quite interesting - and at times hilarious.

I quote: I'm reminded of my own trip to China two years ago and the moment when I started taking pictures of my food. Afterward, I had trouble reasoning with myself. Why had I just taken a half-dozen photos of a bearded Shanghai crab, soon to be dismembered and devoured?

Eating I understand, but why did I feel the need to immortalize this transient, perishable subject? After all, by the power and pleasure of my consumption, I was essentially just conspiring to turn the thing into poop.

Thank you, Grant. I really needed this most inspiring mental image for my next assignment ...

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, food, food photographer Bend OR, food photography, photography

One of the reasons for my recent lack of blog posts was an almost one-week long trip to Seattle to see some friends.

As it sometimes happens in life, things go upside down, and our friends had their baby a bit earlier than anticipated. So I got to see (and photograph) their brandnew baby - a girl with the lovely name of Sophia Lilly - up close and personal.


Sophia, less than 24 hours old, holds her mama's finger.


Sophia on her first photo shoot.


Being born a bit early brings on the conveninence of being able to hang out in a tiny and really cozy warm see-through box for a while - although her parents were anxious to take her home.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography