Floral Dreams-Bridal Show

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Portland Bridal Show as part of my on-going photography work with Floral Dreams. Floral Dreams had a booth at the event showcasing many amazing floral arrangements. Several of Floral Dreams' arrangements were featured during the bridal fashion show. I photographed both the fashion show and each arrangement (mostly bouquets). Here are a few from the fashion show and of my favorite bouquets.

Yes, that's a mini pineapple in there!

Those are real roses.

The Year of Awesome

New year, new post. Okay, I know that we are five days into 2011, but considering that we still have 360 days left in the year I think the word new still applies.

I haven't posted in a few weeks, mostly because I haven't had any photo shoots or jobs. I spent the last few weeks working on a few print orders. I also spent the rest of the time with my family just hanging out at home enjoying a little down time. Even though just hanging out at home may seem a little boring to some, I was more than happy to get a little break. (My days are usually divided between my part time job, working on this small business or shuttling my kids around to various activities).

Having some down time gave me the opportunity to reflect on 2010 and to dream about 2011. I had a pretty great year in 2010. In 2010, my husband and I paid off our student loans and successfully lobbied for and got an IEP for my daughter's dysgraphia and dyslexia. I saw my little sister get married to an old friend of mine, and my husband and I finally went on our dream vacation to Paris, France and Italy. I also stepped outside of my comfort zone and started this blog and a SmugMug page to "put myself out there" and show off some of my photography work. Although there are probably quite a few more wonderful things that happened in 2010, the above mentioned are definitely the highlights.

I hope that 2011 will allow me to continue to grow my small business and meet new people. I have high hopes for the year. I have actually dubbed it "The Year of Awesome" at home because I truly hope to have a great year both personally and professionally. I hope everyone reading this has an awesome year as well. Happy New Year!

Langenwalter

 The other night I had the opportunity to photograph the Langenwalter family. Read that third word again, night. I photographed them at night in their home. Please keep in mind, I prefer to shoot in natural light (which I didn't have since, again, it was night time) and I don't have any studio lights. What's a person to do with such lighting issues? I took out my bounce flash and dusted off those "college newspaper photographer" bounce flash skills. Here are a few photos from their session.

Black & White (The Paper Mama Challenge)

I cannot remember the last time I competed in anything. High School? College maybe? I don't know.

When I saw this photo challenge on The Paper Mama, I thought "Hey, why not? I have black and white photos of my kids". And so, I am entering this photo in this week's Black & White photo challenge. This is a photo of my son and daughter (and niece) on vacation at Yellowstone. They were waiting for Old Faithful and getting more antsy by the minute, when suddenly they stopped and got quiet. My son put his arm around my daughter and then my niece followed; it was such a nice moment I had to capture it. I'm glad I did because it was such a fleeting moment (which quickly returned to squirming and complaining).

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/