Krevanko/Craig

On Sunday I had the opportunity to photograph my friend and co-worker Tracy's children. This was the first time they have had photos taken of the three of them together in quite some time.

First let me say they were troopers because it was COLD outside! Photographers who prefer natural light don't have it easy here in Portland, especially in the winter. First we have to fight with the oh-so-short days. Then we have to fight with the rain. Cloudy is nice to reduce shadows, but rain is, well, rain. And of course the cold. Oh the cold! Most people want photos of themselves in their cute clothes, not their Gor-tex North Face jackets. Lucky for us we had a break in the rain when we photographed these, but the temperature was hovering at 40 degrees that day. The twins (Callie and Carter) and Parker braved the cold and removed their jackets so they could pose for a few nice shots.

Here are a few photos from their session.

Real Estate

I've mentioned this before, but I photograph a variety of things. One of the frequent jobs I get is taking real estate photos. I used to work at a real estate office and I saw tons of bad photographs with new listings. I  realized that I could offer my photographic services to agents, since one of my least favorite things about a new listing is bad photographs, and I knew I could do better. I know some of the agents are doing the best they can with a point and shoot camera that they share with an entire office. Others just don't have the time to take great photos. I try to offer a nice, affordable alternative to the usual listing photos. I've never promised anyone that I could make a 700 square foot bungalow look like a mansion, but I do give them photos that are clear, bright, and most importantly in focus (you'd be surprised at the number of out of focus photos on the RMLS).

Over the last few weeks, the only jobs that I've had are listing photos. I know photos of houses may be kind of boring to some, so I'll only post one of an actual house. But since this post is about real estate, I'll also include a photo of real estate agent, Kellie Jenkins, who I photographed back in the spring. I took photos for her to use on her office web site, business cards, Facebook, etc.

If you know a real estate agent who could benefit from better photos, feel free to pass on my name and e-mail address to them. If you are looking to buy or sell a house, I know several agents whose number I can pass on to you, such as Kellie.

Floral Dreams

In my "About Me" portion of this blog, I stated that I don't have a specialty. I photograph a variety of things. One of the on-going projects that I've been working on is photographs for Floral Dreams, a small business located here in Portland, Oregon. Selena and Peggy, the owners of Floral Dreams, decided to rebuild their website with all new photos. I was given the opportunity to take photos of the work they do for various events and occasions.

Now I have to be honest with you, when I was in college I disliked product photography, and here I've just been given the ultimate product photography task of taking all new photos for a website. Once I started the work I was pleasantly surprised to find that I truly enjoyed taking these photographs. Of course, even though I've enjoyed the process, it hasn't always been easy. Each setting for Floral Dreams' photos have been different, which makes for varying and sometimes uncontrolled light sources. Sometimes when I've taken photos I've been in reception halls, sometimes outside and sometimes just in Selena's basement with a big piece of fleece and a bounce flash. Working with these lighting situations and varied locations has sometimes been challenging, but the end result usually ends up coming out quite nicely, (which is probably pure luck).

Here are a few photos that I took on location at Bigfoot Lodge. The floral arrangements were for a wedding on a typical Oregon autumn day-cold, wet and rainy. If you are interested in seeing more of the work I've done for Floral Dreams or hiring them for your special event, visit their website: http://floral-dreams.com/

Rene & Joshua

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph my old friend and former college roommate, Rene, and his partner Joshua. I got to take photos of them individually and together. I really enjoyed the process, especially since they are the first couple I've had the opportunity to photograph since I started rebuilding my portfolio. Here are a few photos from their session.

Getting My Groove Back

I have a degree in photography, a B.A. in Photocommunications to be exact, but when I graduated from college, life threw me a curve ball, my daughter. Trying to be the type of mom I envisioned I would be, I put any career ambition on hold and became a stay-at-home mom. After several years of being a mom and not really doing anything with my photography, I decided I needed to start taking photographs again. I began taking photos for friends and people I worked with. My first real break came when I took a profile photo and some yoga poses for a friend's blog; that photography job lead to another friend approaching me to do some photographs for her website. Now, I've been rebuilding my portfolio slowly but surely for almost two years. Not all photography jobs I've taken during this time have been glamorous, and some have been challenging, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience and finally feel like I'm starting to really get my "photography groove" back. Sometimes I feel like I'm having to re-learn things and other times I'm having to learn something new (since technology has changed photography quite a bit since I was in school), but I'm trying. I may not be as hip and trendy as other photographers out there, but hopefully I'll find my niche.

I decided I needed to start trying to market myself. I designed a simple business card, made some fliers and started a SmugMug account to have a place to put photos for people to see. I want a website, but since my business is still pretty small and money is tight, I put it on hold. My friend Kellie suggested a blog. Being kind of shy, I hesitated. But I decided I needed another platform to get my name out to people, so I took a leap and started this blog. A website will come in time if it's meant to be. I'm not sure if I'll even have one person read this, but if you happen to stumble across this, maybe you'll see something you like or at the very least it will give you something to do while you're on hold with someone on the phone.