Jon Marshall Photography

Just a Test Drive

2009-03-19T21:59:00.001-07:00

So I'm totally new to video. Here's one from the new G7 and iMovie...pretty fun and learned a bunch

and the link to a larger version

Heli Skiing; Ruby Mtn Style

2009-03-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

There's skiing out here?

So I'm currently down in Nevada outside of Elko in the little ranch town of Lamoille. This is the home of Ruby Mtn Heliskiing. I'm fortunate enough to have some amazing friends down here that invited me down for a week of skiing, exercising, hiking, bs-ing, drinking, eating and having a pretty damn good time. I'm just finishing up day 2 of 7 and have already skiied some pretty unbelievable lines.

I picked up a new point and shoot for the summer, a Canon G7 with the CHDK raw hack and have been testing it out down here. Pretty sweet little camera, especially considering I found one on craigslist for 150 bucks. These are actually just some low res jpgs, (like low quality, blah color, no sharpening); I'm still fumbling through the RAW conversions, but it's hard to shoot this beautiful place poorly...

"Terminal Cancer"....3000 foot long, 10 foot wide couloir unlike pretty much anything I've ever skied. Pics just can't do it justice....And no, not many "guests" get to ski this...

A lifetime of skiing in just one drainage!

Louisiana

2009-02-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Louisiana. I was on a prescribed fire assignment just outside of Shreveport for what turned into a 23 day assignment. Fantastic trip. Great people, tons of fried food, a bit of fire and lots of overtime...and I'm getting back in shape. I've got another one tentatively scheduled for April. We'll be heading to Mississippi for a 30 day hitch around the 11th.

For those that care, we're burning off brush to return the overly thick understory to a more native grass understory. This stuff is so thick you can't walk through it. The trees are very fire resistant and out of some 7000 acres we burned down there probably killed fewer than a few dozen trees.

Here's some snaps from the swamp...I had forgotten how great the lighting on fires can be.

Click on 'em if you want to see 'em bigger.

This little sucker. a coral snake (the most poisonous snake in the US), curled up a few feet from me while eating lunch...

Where You Been?

2009-02-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

So over the last few months I've been getting a lot of emails from people about my blog updates or lack there of and wondering what I've been up to. There are a bunch of reasons for this but it's mostly because I haven't shot any weddings since Taylor and Soo's and at some point last summer I decided that this blog would be devoted to my wedding work. This fall I had decided to focus my energy on my commercial work and have been pursuing that whole heartily until around the first of January. If you haven't seen that work, I'd love for you to check it out, www.MarshallStudio.com.

Since then the economy, and in return my pocket book have steadily tanked until I realized that this just isn't going to happen right now. Then, in addition to that my wife Sarah is finishing up school this spring and we're moving back to Montana in the fall which has been then plan all along. It just made it seem like a pretty tough time to keep pursing this thing right now. Sooooo....

I've decided to go back to Smokejumping...Pretty tough to turn down steady government work right now, especially working with the friends I've missed dearly, fighting forest fires and traveling around the west experiencing more adventure in a summer than most experience in a lifetime. Luckily I had thought ahead and took a leave of absense rather than quiting so getting rehired was a piece of cake.

So there you have it...Luckily, I get to take a camera everywhere I go and I'm working on several personal projects while out on fires. I'll plan on posting up pics and stories here so check in from time to time. It's already shapping up to be a busy fire season and I'm sure it'll make for fantastic photographic opportunities.

One of the projects I'm working on is portraits of Smokejumpers. I'll be jumping with off camera flash equipment and I'm pretty excited to see what I come home with. Here's what I've got so far....

Taylor and Soo

2008-10-21T12:08:00.001-07:00

Adi and I headed over to Hood River on Saturday for Taylor and Soo's wedding. They'd already had a destination wedding over in Soo's home country of Korea, and were doing another ceremony here at Stonehedge Gardens, for Taylor's family. It was a bit on the chilly side but the skies were clear. Just a classic fall day with orange and red leaves falling during the service...Stonhedge is an amazing place and they don't just do weddings. I'm hoping to take Sarah over for some of their live music and wine tasting.

Here's the slideshow, Taylor&Soo.

We wish you well and safe travels back home...

Cora and Lucy

2008-10-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Sarah and I headed up north in to Washington for Cora and Lucy's wedding. I've been excited about this wedding for a while. Both Cora and Lucy are two of our very close friends here in Portland and the party promised to be a blast with all of our friends in attendance. I've also been waiting for this because it gave me an opportunity to really test the new camera, the Nikon D700. I'm going to put up a review in a few days, but so you know, I'm blown away by this camera. Coupled with the 24-70, 50 1.4, and the 105 VR macro this is the nicest setup I've ever used. And then I saw the files. Wow. Completely clean files at 1600 and amazing at 3200.

Anyway, enough tech speak, the wedding was beautiful. It was held at The Anderson Lodge just outside of Ariel, WA in the thick wood near Mt. St Helens. The food was the best food I've had at a wedding all summer and the band, Kabir Green, was awesome.

Check out the slideshow here!

Congrats again you guys. See ya soon!

Oregon wedding photographer Jon Marshall is a wedding photojournalist based in Portland. He is available for both local and destination weddings.

Nope, still am...

2008-09-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

While I do think that video feature is an unbelievable feature in the new Canon, it's not where my focus is and there are still too many issues on the "still" end of things.

When I do venture down that road, I'll do it with a video camera instead of a hybrid. I just can't see using it and diving into all of the additional software and lighting equipment right now. So back to the d700....I'll have a review up in the next few days, but in the meantime it's an awesome camera and I can't wait to really start using it.

Oregon wedding photographer Jon Marshall is a wedding photojournalist based in Portland. He is available for both local and destination weddings.

Maybe I won't be switching....

2008-09-28T11:23:00.001-07:00

So I picked up a d700 for last weeks long trip to Montana. I also had a few old lenses and borrowed a 50 1.4. I still haven't looked at any of the images but I was pretty blown away with the camera. So functional, fast, easy to use. I loved the feel. I was totally sold and ready to really start unloading some gear but then I got home last night and saw this...

Vincent Laforet's new video made with the 5dMarkII. Phenomenal....The new canon has completely bridged the gap. Still the same gripes as I mention below, but this is making me reconsider...tough choices ahead as I've always had just a bit of interest in video....

check it out Vincent Laforet

and the making of here...

Oregon wedding photographer Jon Marshall is a wedding photojournalist based in Portland. He is available for both local and destination weddings.

Canon Gear for Sale!

2008-09-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well I hate to say it but I've decided to switch back over to Nikon. I shot Nikon as a film shooter and made the switch in '02 because of the bad luck I had with the d2h and d100. At the time Canon was just much further along and I've loved the images my Canon's have produced since. But that's were the love ends. I'd much rather have a Nikon in my hands and I've really missed shooting with one. I won't get into my specific likes and dislikes but I think the Nikon's are way more user friendly.

This summer I ended up more or less destroying my 40d in a fall during a climbing shoot and my 20d is about 2 clicks away from a shutter failure. I've been shopping for a replacement for about 4 months now and I'd been waiting for the announcement about the replacement 5d before I really decided.

If I had two totally functioning camera's I wouldn't even be thinking about this but I have to make a fairly sizable investment in a new body one way or another and this is my chance to switch back over. Here's how I came to this decision...

At this point I'm only interested in shooting on a full frame sensor and I'd like to stay with the more compact body size which kind of kills my desire for either the 1ds Mark III or the 1d Mark III and all it's autofocus issues. That and the fact that I could purchase 2 Nikons, a d700's and a d300 for the price of either of those.

Anyway, the new 5d was announced a few days ago and I'm pretty disappointed with it. Really the only improvement was in sensor size and the old camera's 12 mp was enough for all but about 1% of the things I shoot. If I ever do need serious resolution, I'd rent the full blown 1ds Mark III anyway...

So what didn't they improve....

Pretty much everything that's important to me outside of better noise reduction.

Frame rate is still slow, raw memory buffer is still slow, same miserable low light auto focus, no additional weather sealing, no ergonomic changes (the big one being that horrible little joystick) a change in battery, the same viewfinder, the same sluggish shutter lag, a longer than 40d mirror blackout time, and oh yeah, a 1/200 sync speed.

What do you get.....21 megapixels...who cares, it'll just slow down my workflow and post production; Video, which I'm not really intersted in, and a bigger screen; which was a given. The high ISO noise performance will be fantastic, but so is Nikon's.

This new 5d is closer to the 50d than it is a 1 series camera. And I know people say wait till you see the actual hands on reviews but if I don't like the spec on paper, a hands on review isn't going to change anything either....

Now compare this to the Nikon d700 for just about the same price. This camera is exactly everything I'm looking for in a camera. It is finally the exact replacement for my favorite camera of all time, my Nikon F100!

That said, I'm looking at selling some gear all in very good condition, mostly used for weddings. None of this stuff has seen/been on a wildfire I promise!

Canon 70-200 f2.8 L IS.....SOLD
Canon 24-70 f 2.8 L.... SOLD
Canon 14-40 f4 L.... SOLD
Canon 580 exII flash.... SOLD

Any offers?

I'll be holding onto a few primes and my bodies to use as backups/beat-a-round cameras. Also if you've got a nice copy of Nikon 24-70 or a wide prime, let me know, I might take it off you're hands.

Oregon wedding photographer Jon Marshall is a wedding photojournalist based in Portland. He is available for both local and destination weddings.

Kim and Jeff

2008-09-08T16:49:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I headed up to Sauvies Island and Kruger's Farm to shoot Jeff and Kim's wedding. I've been really excited about this wedding for the past couple of months. The first time I met Jeff and Kim to talk about their wedding photography we ended up having a half dozen drinks b.s.ing before we even got started on the wedding stuff. I knew we were going to have a great time working together.

Sarah and I have visited the farm a bunch in the past for the great fruit and vegi picking they offer but I had never really thought about the farm as a wedding site. As it turns out, the farm is about as perfect a venue as they come. A bunch of old houses, a beautiful big oak tree, classic farm equipment and 360 degree views of one of the nicer working farms in the area. Check out that blog link above for up to the date info on what's in season.

Thanks again you guys, and Jeff I'll look forward to tromping around in the marsh with you this fall ;)

This wasn't my idea, but what a great shot...too funny.

Oregon wedding photographer Jon Marshall is a wedding photojournalist based in Portland. He is available for both local and destination weddings.

Rebecca and Scott

2008-08-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I joined Jessica Watson for a trip down to the Willamette Valley Vineyards for Scott and Rebecca's wedding. The vineyard is just south of Salem and worth the trip. The rolling, grape covered hills surrounding the venue make the trip south feel like you've stepped into another country. I can't wait to take Sarah back for some wine tasting this fall.

First time playing with the lens baby. Kind of fun, but you'll be seeing cross eyed if you use it for more than about 10 minutes at a time...

Scott's an avid fly fisherman. I meant to BS with him about fishing here in Oregon but Rebecca just wouldn't let him get away for more than a minute ;)

Thanks you guys! Have a fabulous honeymoon.

Nai and Khoa

2008-08-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of shooting Nai and Khoa's wedding this past weekend at the Marriott Courtyard at the North Harbour. It was a beautiful day for the festvities and the setting was perfect. Nai is in the wedding buis so she spared no detail when it came to decorating this place. Everything was hand made using synthetics and hot glue and the results were incredible. Even the cake was unlike anything I've ever seen.

This was a big wedding, (which I love shooting, so many smiles); they had over 450 attendees for the party.

Thanks you guys and we'll talk to you soon!

I think they ordered the wrong size clip on...

Are they flashing gang signs at me?

When you line up 50 beautful women the photographers come out of the woodwork ;)

Even a pair of dragon dancers made an appearence. These two teams of two put on a killer show.

This garter toss hapened so fast I just barely caught it . I love the shot though!

Danielle and Brian

2008-08-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been getting a pretty good tour of the Northwest lately. Last weekend I made the trip up to Gig Harbor just outside of Seattle to shoot Danielle and Brian's wedding. The wedding was held at the Fox Island Yacht Club located on ...you guessed it, Fox Island. The setting was gorgeous and the weather couldn't have been better. Just a little cloud cover and some rain the night before. When I first showed up the tide was out and lot of mud was showing making me a bit nervous, but by the time we had finished getting ready and the formals some 20 feet of water filled the bay and created a perfect reflective backdrop for the festivities.

I had a lot of fun with this group. Brian and several of his buddies are all pilots and I've been hanging out with this kind of crowd for years in the forest service so we hit it off beautifully. And any bride that wears tennis shoes under her dress is going to be about as easy going as they come. Some of the cowboy hats in the crowd even reminded me of the summer I've been missing back in Montana.

Thanks again you guys and congrats!

Running shoes just in case ;)

Keep an eye out for this young vocalist. She was the star of the show with her amazing voice and stage presence. We'll probably see her on the big screen in the next few years!

So tired but still not wanting to miss out on the action.

She's already stealing his beer. Good luck Brain...

Natalie and Jimmy

2008-08-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting caught up on my post production...

Last weekend I shot Natalie and Jimmy's wedding at the Acadian Ballroom. A beautiful venue, friendly staff and excellent food. The mood was very romantic with dim lights, candles and an excellent DJ and everything from getting ready to the dancing went off fantastically.

FYI, this dark venue made for some challenging shooting. I was pretty much parked at ISO1600, 1/30 and 2.8 all night and running through flash batteries like I had stock in energizer... I ended up blasting a studio strobe off of the back wall just to boost the light a little. Hopefully I didn't blind anyone too bad ;)

I really don't mind shooting at high ISO's though and think that the grain/noise really adds a classic character to the images that you just don't have at the lower speeds.

Thanks you guys and have fun on the remaining days of the honeymoon!

Marshall Studio; Soft Launch

2008-08-01T10:38:00.001-07:00

So in an effort to better serve both my wedding and commercial clients I've come to the conclusion that I have to separate my work.

JonMarshallPhotography.com and this blog will remain dedicated to my wedding photography and I'll hopefully get another blog relating to my other work up and running here in the next few weeks.

In the meantime you can find all of my non wedding work at MarshallStudio.com.

I'm pretty excited about this new site. Everything from my new branding, thank you Kelly, to the navigation and site layout are awesome and I'd love any feedback if you get a second.

I'm still adding to the portfolio over there and have some pretty fun shoots planned in the next few weeks so check back in periodically and I'll put a link to the blog on here when I get it up and running.

Thanks guys!

Amanda and Patrick

2008-07-22T12:44:00.001-07:00

Sarah and I just got back from our trip down to Denver to watch two of our best friends, Patrick and Amanda, get married. We had an amazing weekend and owe a huge thanks to both Patrick and Amanda's families for hosting such a great time. With only 30 people attending the festivities we both felt truly privileged to be a considered part of such an incredible family.

I had expressed interest in photographing the weekend for them and am so glad I did. The setting was amazing. We spent the weekend at The Wildhorse Inn, just outside of Winter Park ski resort. The Wildhorse consists of multiple log cabins, incredible scenery and amazing hosts.

Custom designed rings. I've seen a ton of rings lately and these are definitely the coolest. Nice work Patrick!

Sarah was the creative genius behind this shot. It started off with Amanda on the car looking amazing, but how can you not include Sam, the 150 lb Mastif.

The best part of the weekend was getting to experience another friends wedding with my amazing wife Sarah and I owe her a big thanks for being such a great assistant ;)

Thanks again you guys and have an wonderful Honeymoon and congrats. We'll look forward to seeing you soon and in the meantime scruffle that enormous dog for us!

Little Angels

2008-07-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

Last one before setting the camera down, getting away from the computer and heading to the river for a couple days of well deserved R&R. I'm not even gonna take a camera.

Here's Kileigh and Cambriah. I've been lucky enough to work these two before. I tried to get em to pull the arms of the thing but that was one stubborn bear ;) Thanks girls, that was a lot of fun. When can I come watch you guys jump on that trampoline?

Pastor Tom

2008-07-09T17:46:00.001-07:00

I talked about shooting the wedding at first Presbyterian last week. Well it's one of the cooler churches I've ever been in so I asked Sally, their Business administer, if she'd be up for me coming down for a shoot. These folks are just about a friendly as they come and invited me down just a few days later....

This is Tom, one of the church's pastors, and again, one of nicest men around.... I can't remember all the details but he said something about it being built around 1890 using some 26 species of wood. Fantastic.

Check out their website for more info about getting a tour....www.fpcpdx.org

Oh yeah, and I better apologize ahead of time. It was an accident that this pic is right next to the one below :)

One more, with a little different post work...

"The Paper Boy"

2008-07-08T20:55:00.001-07:00

I've been reading so much doom and gloom lately about the newspaper industry. Staffers are getting laid off left and right, advertising revenue is way town and even some of the big ones are closing their doors.

I guess I haven't done my part. Buying the paper for my shoot today was the first time in years...

So that got me thinking. Remember that old Nintendo game paper boy. We used to love it. Do they make a paperboy for Wii?

Thanks Austin...perfect execution!

Grouse hunt and man's best friend

2008-07-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

It's definitely not grouse season, but the cooler weather, a day in the mountains and sighting in a rifle with a good friend sure made it feel like it.

As much as I love summer, I really love the fall; favorite season? Hard to say. Love the winter....well maybe not here in Oregon. Anyway I'm definitely glad springs over ....

...ramblings, but I guess that's how I come up with these shoots. Stay tuned, I've got some fun ideas in the pipeline, lets see if I can pull 'em off ;)

..she's only been gone for two days!

2008-07-06T01:31:00.001-07:00

Sarah left yesterday. Things started out well enough. Relaxing, listening to some tunes, drinkin' beers, having a couple smokes.

Then things got ugly. I remembered I'd be cooking for myself for the next 10 days...

...and fear sets in...
I'm buying the next round for whoever guesses the number of lights used, and I've got some free time on my hands this week to pay up.

BTW I'm not a smoker, but it sure makes the shot, eh?

Wanna Ride?

2008-07-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

Audrey and I went up to Powell Butte bright and early yesterday morning. We had planned on shooting in the meadows up on top, but this California Fire Haze makes for some pretty blah sky. Instead we went for the deep woods and unfortunately for me, the stinging nettle. What is it about Oregon. Everything here has thorns, stings, or is just impenetrable. You ever tried to hike through a rhododendron forest with 50 lbs on your back.....

Anyway I digress, we had a great shoot. I had all the flash power in the world in the deep shade and for whatever reason we didn't see a soul. I love that. 15 minutes outside of town and nobody. After the shoot we took the dogs for a trail run just to round out a perfect morning. Thanks again Audz!

Lisa and Chris

2008-06-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening shooting Chris and Lisa's wedding. Lisa looked absolutely stunning and Chris had an ear to ear grin the entire day. The heat kept us on our toes but out of the sun which made for some challenging shooting. The ceremony was at 1st Presbyterian, a gorgeous church complete with high ceilings, wrap around balcony and a ton of stained glass. I had been warned this was a challenging church to photograph so I made sure to scope it out the week before. Sure enough, ISO's in the 1600-3200 range, with speeds around 1/30 at 2.8. Bring your tripod and primes!

From there the plan was to walk the 6 blocks down to the Treasury Ballroom and get some shots of the couple on the way. The heat was just too much so instead we hustled for the A/C and refreshing libations afforded by the Treasury. Another 5 star choice of venues, the Ballroom is perfect.

Troy from jus4fun promotions was the DJ for the night and kept things flowing and fun. Definitely check him out.

Can you believe I didn't even set this one up....

Congratulations again you guys and have a wonderful honeymoon!

A River Runs through It

2008-06-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

When living in Montana I'm known as a somewhat obsessive fly fisherman. I can't really wrap my head around things here in Oregon but the scenery is still pretty hard to complain about. Here's a few of a good friend, trout aficionado and overall fish bum Justin. I owe him a day of hopper fishing on the Bitterroot. Maybe this fall we'll get lucky enough....
Any guesses for the lighting on these. Definitely a challenge!

Yoga with Jillian

2008-06-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

This is the second time I've been lucky enough to shoot with Jillian. A great model who is about as nice as they come, and of course super fit! Our last shoot together was pretty high fashion, so for this one I suggested something a little more in line with my athlete portrait series. Thanks Jillian!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2008-06-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

While I was shooting this and looking at the LCD on the back of my camera I couldn't help but think of that movie. I wish I had just a little better flash duration to get better stop action, but not bad....

Khoa is an incredible athlete and it was awesome watching him pull off these moves. Wushu is chinese martial art form characterized by aerial spins and twists. It's better known brother is Kung Fu.

Rodeos and Rock Climbers

2008-06-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I headed down to Bend for the weekend just to get out of town for a few days. I had planned a couple of shoots before I left and ended up with some great images thanks to my climbers Ty and Dave. I grew up going to rodeos with dad and it's almost a requirement of residency to attend at least a rodeo a year in Montana. But Sarah, being from New York had never been to one so we hit up the infamous Sisters Rodeo on Sunday for a little bull and bronc riding, steer wrestling and barrel racing. What a blast and you couldn't ask for better weather.

If you ever get the chance to shoot a rodeo jump on it. You can easily grab the action from the stands with an average telephoto (70-200) and the action is pretty fast and furious with just enough time between competitors to let the buffer finish writing.

Paddling Anyone?

2008-06-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Just a real quick one from this morning before I head out of town for one of my last free weekends for a while.

I wish I had a picture of me taking this picture! I'm sitting in a big whitewater raft laying over the side trying not to fall in, drop my camera or get my flash stuff wet. Meanwhile the wind is blowing my octobox over and pushing Mike, the kayaker, and me around in circles. Totally ridiculous but it always pays off.....

Thanks to Steve and his team at Scappoose Kayaking for taking me on a tour of their shop and wetlands! If you're ever looking for a fantastic paddling adventure look these guys up. They do everything from a learn to kayak tour around the bay to a 4 night, 75 mile, catered trip down the Columbia. Also, check out their full moon paddle tours!

Karli and Nick

2008-06-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

I shot Karli and Nick's amazing wedding on Saturday with photographer Jessica Watson. Bridal Veil Lakes is one of the most beautiful wedding venues in Oregon and despite the marginal weather, it lived up to its reputation. Between the glassy reflections on the water, the small creeks providing background noise, and the thick Oregon rain forest surrounding the area it's pretty hard not to love this place.

I only put this first picture up as an example of what not to do 30 minutes before your best friends ceremony; but boys will be boys and I have no idea how, but no suits/groomsman were harmed during the crash landing that followed....

Is there a more romantic way to get from the ceremony to the reception?

Want some intensity?

2008-06-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Had a fantastic shoot with model, actor, athlete, do everything at full throttle, Michael. This dude simply kills it. He pretty much scared everyone off the track with his presence so we had it all to ourselves.

He's moving to LA in a few weeks so I probably won't get the chance to shoot with him again unfortunately, but I'm sure he'll jump right into the game down there.

Good luck Michael....

Little Suprizes

2008-06-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

Do you ever plan something to a "t", only to have it go completely differently than planned, but then ultimately end up with something pretty close to what you had set out to do from the beginning. Weird stuff and so it went tonight. Terrific shoot with cage fighter Blake. Thanks dude...

Playing with HDR these days by the way....Aside from the three obvious flashes used, there was also one lighting the beams in the background.

ISO 400, 1/30, f5

The Project Continues.....

2008-06-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

How about these two? Thank you Kimberly and Shawn. I've absolutely tortured my models this past week to get some incredible shoots in. Cold temps and fitness attire, tough combo.

Linzy

2008-06-03T11:15:00.001-07:00

A quick one from last night. We shot for what seemed like a few minutes before throwing in the towel. The weather was about as bad as you can get so we didn't have many options for backgrounds. I think it works.....

Thanks Linzy!

Lighting....
f4, 1/200, iso 100,
XL Octo up front@ around 1/4 power, 2 vivi 285's on 1/2 power on each side and behind for rimlight,

Nicole and Cable's Wedding

2008-06-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I helped shoot a beautiful wedding on an absolutely gorgeous day. You know those people that just smile all the time...Nicole and Cable are two of the happiest people I've seen in a while and were really fun to hang out with for the day.

I was shooting their wedding with another great Portland photographer Robert McNary. Thanks to Amy, from Blush Bridal and the venue Holocene for putting on such a good show...

Best wishes you guys!

Best DJ Shot ever!

The New Project

2008-05-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

What a weekend. Sarah, Timber and I had a fantastic three days in Maupin, OR floating the Deschutes river (despite the 28 ticks we found on Timber). We convinced 4 of our best friends and their dogs to head down there with us. A little whitewater, a little sun, a lot of beer, tons of food and great friends. I also had the chance to work on a couple of images I've been thinking about.

Here's a sneak peak.... I've got about 15 more shoots I'm hoping to do in the next month with a similar feel. Hopefully they all go this well; I think these turned out great! Thanks to my awesome models Tanda and Chip.....

Techie stuff....

-Canon 20d, because I had a shutter failure on my new 40d :(. Thanks to the folks down at Pro Photo though I'm back up and running as of last night.
-White Lightning x1600 through a large Octobox

ISO 800, 1/30, f8

ISO 100, 1/250, f 14

CANO Clothing Shoot

2008-05-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Had a really successful shoot on Saturday despite the brutal temps and high contrast shooting conditions. This was for Cano Apparel's new spring line. The whole team was out for the occasion. We had Briana Cano our designer, makeup for the day by Rachael, hair by Sarah, and our fantastic models Rachel and Lucy. I'll definitely be shooting with this group again. Thanks you guys!

Jeff and Kim E-Session

2008-05-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

I had a great E Session with Kim and Jeff last night. These guys are true adventurers and wanted to explore a little bit of Macleay Park for their shoot. I'd never been up there before but I'll definitely be going back for some trail running. It was gorgeous up there, nice and cool, quiet, and even a little creek. It proved to be one of the more challenging shoots I've had in a while and post production isn't any easier. Between the crazy white balance issues, ISO 1800 (thank you 40d!), and sunny hotspots there was a lot going on. I still managed to get some great shots though. Thanks guys!

Lighting geeks: I used off camera flash (580exII) triggered with pocket wizards's for almost every shot, usually at about 1/4 power. I was also firing this through an extra small photoflex softbox at 10-20 feet. I do have one double exposure in this bunch just in case you're wondering :)

Quick question for you Photogs: I had some serious chromatic aberration on a few of my shots using my 17-40, white shirts, and flash. Any feedback appreciated.....Is this a) my lens, I never shoot with this lens b) funky lighting c)my camera or d) all of the above. Worst I've ever had :( Thanks for the help.

Why do your photos need retouching?

2008-05-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Last month I posted about not doing at ton of post processing on a lot of my images. Well, for the most part thats true, although it's all pretty relative when you take a look at what's out there. Try typing the word "retouching" in youtube. You'll be blown away at the power of photoshop and what some of those folks are doing to images. So compared to that extreme, I'm doing very little. I really try to nail my exposures in camera and then enhance things a bit from there.

Unfortunately some images just need a little help, and this is where photoshop is a lifesaver. For me it all boils down to the final image and what people think of the final product and my skill as a photographer.

The following two photos of Crystal illustrate my point. I won't get into the specific photoshop treatments on this photo, but I spent about 30 minutes on it and I think the differences are obvious. Of course I could have done more but I like to keep things pretty natural. I don't know if Crystal is using this image in her portfolio, but if she is, I'm willing to bet that she's going to get better feedback from the top image than the bottom one.

Tony and Andrea's Engagement Shoot

2008-05-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

I had another great engagement shoot last night with Tony and Andrea. Tony used to model and Andrea easily could have. They're both gorgeous and were a lot of fun to shoot with. We ended up in the Pearl late in the afternoon and had some awesome evening light. They're wedding is right around the corner in mid June.

Still Life

2008-05-05T10:28:00.001-07:00

I'm an avid fly fisherman. You can't live in Montana for 10 years without at least getting your feet wet from time to time. I've even got my wife thinking about getting started. A fun part of it for me are all of the intricately tied flies. While I have no patience for creating them, I can sure appreciate the good ones and I've been thinking about doing a personal project based around fly tying. I tried a couple of sample lighting schemes yesterday that I might use...

For you lighting geeks....

The lighting looks pretty simple, which is what I was going for, but there are actually three speed lights and multiple white fill cards used for each of these.
I actually don't have any fly tying stuff, so I was just working on the lighting. I'll swap out the shells and calls for feathers and spools...Going for kind of that antique/timesless look.

Speed Shoot Pics Finally, and I Won!

2008-04-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

I've been promising this for a couple of weeks now and finally here they are....

First a little background. This shoot was hosted by Style Is So You Magazine and a benefit for Outside In. Basically 20 some photographers, 3o some models, and 2 minutes to shoot each model. This was a tough shoot. No warm up, no "hey how's it going" chit-chat. It was straight to posing and shooting. Because of the limited time I ended up only getting about 10-15 images per model mostly because of my flash recycle time and the limited space.

First the bad news, I didn't post 'em all and some of my favorites aren't posted. The good news, it's because they're going to be published. Out of the twenty some excellent photographers whose work I really admire, I won both the Best Overall Image and the Best Overall Photographer.

I'm really happy with the images I came away with and look forward to working with some of these models in the future. I'll be doing an editorial spread with winning model Sable and Editor Sara in June and I can't wait....

Also, I really want to applaud both Pete from Study in Light Photography for his logistical wizardry in planning this shoot and Sara and her team from Style Is So You for not only helping to organize the event but dealing with the editing of some 600+ images after the fact.

Thanks to everyone involved......

Missy and Ryan

2008-04-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the opportunity to go second shoot Missy and Ryan's engagement session with photographer Gregory Pierce. It was gorgeous out and with some really thin cloud cover the light was just about perfect. These guys were both so easy in front of the camera and so open to some of our ideas. They also couldn't keep they're hands off of each other which always makes our life as photographers that much easier.....

Gregory has been working with the folks at Red Leaf studios on some new ideas for posing, locations and treatments in post production. It's funny, out of a million wedding photographers out there we're both fans of the same studios. I've been following Red Leaf for about a year and love their stuff. Really powerful and emotional. Check em out....RedLeaf.

Congrats you guys and have a great wedding!!!!

The Kiddos

2008-04-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Despite the frigid morning on Saturday we had a really fun shoot with Kileigh, Cambriah, and Lillie being the stars. Rather than have them try and sit still for boring old formal portraits while freezing to death, I decided to play sports photographer and tried to keep up with them running around the playground. This is really the way I love to shoot. Fast, furious and fun. From my first frame to my last was less than 30 minutes and I shot just over 900 images. I think I got 1 or 2 mom and dad will be happy about.

BTW, after extolling the virtues of RAW a few posts ago, I've been shooting JPG more and more lately. This shoot was entirely JPG and I'm really happy with 'em. The key of course is getting it exactly right in camera. Not nearly the wiggle room of RAW files....

Thanks you guys!!!!!

Speed Shoot Pics!!!!

2008-04-14T16:41:00.001-07:00

Not really....

So I participated in an awesome fashion photography speed shoot on Saturday with 20 photographers and 25 models, themed Tokyo Street Fashion. I know at least a few people are looking forward to seeing the pics, but unfortunately I can't post any of the images for about a week. So stay tuned....

In the meantime, here are a few from Friday's shoot with Jennifer. Another local actress, she's got a part in "The Wild Party" production coming up in May. We had a lot of fun out near the rose garden. Things are really starting to bloom and the temps were in the 70's.

Thanks Jennifer....

Baby Blog

2008-04-10T13:53:00.001-07:00

I don't get the chance to shoot a lot of babies. It's not that I'm scared of them, I just don't get the opportunity all that often. I actually really like kids, especially other peoples kids. I just turned 30 last week, and while not "old" by any stretch, it would be hard not to notice that more and more kids are showing up at friends picnics and barbeque's. Sarah and I are even starting to play the game, "who's next." Not us that's for sure. The cat and dog are just fine for a while. We've got a couple different bets going though.....

Anyway, this cute little 6 month old is Natalie. Angela, her mom has this huge window that was letting in tons of natural light making the shoot really easy. All smiles :)

Website Update

2008-04-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

My old website was driving me crazy. Any of you that visited it probably know what I'm talking about. The tiny thumbnails on the left that gave you just glimpse of what you might actually see and then a pretty small image once you actually did get one to open. It was more about navigating than viewing so I ditched it.

I use Bigfolio's templates and I remembered that I had one free template switch so I started looking around. I found one I liked, the Redmond, and was just inquiring as to how hard it would be to switch over and wham! They switched me just like that.... The only problem was I had to rebuild everything from scratch. None of my old web images fit the new size requirements so I've spent the last two days getting everything back up and running.

I am completely blown away at the awesome customer service from the bigfolio team. My emails are always answered within a day and major upgrades and switches like, "can I completely rebuild my website" only take a couple of days.

Another advantage to rebuilding everything is I was able to highlight some of my recent portfolio work.

Check it out if you get the chance....JonMarshallPhotography.com

Sunday

2008-04-07T00:28:00.001-07:00

I had to cancel a few shoots on Friday and Saturday to go grab a commercial assignment, but managed to get one on Sunday. Even though the weather was pretty good, Carolyn and I ended up shooting in a parking garage a bunch. Just seemed to be working for us. I was really hoping to color balance my flashes for the fluorescents but couldn't find a gel. I'm kinda glad though, I think the weird ambient adds to the flavor.

Light Geeks: I was using two flashes for a lot of my shooting today. The key light high up front through a shoot-through umbrella and then a little kicker behind, direct. Key light was set to around 1/8, kicker at 1/16 with a one stop ND gel to get it to a 1/32, ambient underexposed by almost 2 stops.

How about those eyes on the 7th and 8th!!! Thanks Carolyn!

Bonnie

2008-04-04T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well the warm weather we've been having the last few weeks finally gave out on us today. Cold and rainy. Not a great combination for shooting outside. We still managed to get a few awesome images of Bonnie and her BCBG dress. Believe it or not, the flash that was used is one speedlight inside a 16x20 inch softbox. There are some advantages when shooting on those dark days. Thanks Bonnie.

Last but not least

2008-04-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Last shoot of the day. Most of you know I'm not afraid of a long shift, and 12 hours of photography is still a lot easier than 39 hours digging fireline so today I packed the day full, just to see if I could. Three 2 hour shoots and I even had time for some quick edits just to make sure I got some keepers. All of the images in the three posts from today are out of camera RAW files with some sharpening and maybe a vignette here and there. And one image has a quasi Dave Hill lighting feel and action applied to it. I'll leave it to you to figure out which one, (it's subtle). Thanks Alisia, great shoot and you definitely got the best light of the day....

Next Up!!

2008-04-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

Round two for today. Emily. We checked out some of the old trains along the waterfront for her shoot. Piece of cake shoot. I don't think you can take a bad picture of her. I can't wait to run some texture layers over a few of these to create some great vintage shots. Thanks Emily.

Jackpot!!

2008-04-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

I knew it would only be a matter of time. I finally found America's Next TOP Model. Alexis absolutely kills it in front of the lens. Not bad at all for an 8 year old. Her brothers' no slouch either. He went for the James Dean look and we even tried some unique lighting to really add some edge. Thanks you guys. Great shoot.

Miss Jones

2008-04-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

I'm back to shooting this week after a fun week of assisting last week. Today I had the pleasure of working with Katherine. She was super comfortable in front of the lens and with temps in the upper 60's the sun dress even made an appearance.

Natalie & Jimmy; Engagement Session

2008-03-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

I finally had time to go through some images from my engagement shoot with Natalie and Jimmy. We got some great photos and I can't wait to shoot their wedding this summer. They are so easy going and happy and as you can tell from the images, totally crazy about each other.

My favorite of the shoot. Can you believe the light in there...and thanks to my assistant Justin for helping me pop just little flash that I think really makes this image....
Although this flash-not-firing accident turned out pretty sweet too...

iGoogle and Google Reader; Tech Tip #2

2008-03-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

So I usually consider myself pretty well informed as far as the internet is concerned, but you learn something new everyday....

I was hanging out with photographer Kevin Meyers the other night and he said he'd been following the frequent updates on my blog and had visited a few times in the past week. We got to talking and he starting telling me about Google Reader.

I've been playing with this application for a few days now, and WOW, it is going to streamline my surfing experience; for free.

I typically have about 30 different blogs that I'm following at any given time. Some of them update all the time, and others update like once a month, so it's always kind of a pain to try to figure out what's new. Enter Google Reader. You can subscribe to as many different blogs/rss feeds as you want. You can have Reader automatically check for updates and then list all of the feeds that are fresh.

To customize things even further, set up an iGoogle page. This is a really user friendly homepage. You can have it display everything from your Reader subscriptions to your local weather to a stock ticker, to google analytics (another must have if you've got a website) without having to leave your home page.

So there you go, a quick tip that probably everyone but me already knew. Thanks Kevin...

Missy

2008-03-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

The weather held off just long enough yesterday to get a quick shoot in with Missy down by the water. I only made her endure the cold and rain long enough to get a couple of great shots of that red dress. Thanks Missy...

New Albums for '08

2008-03-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

I finally received my new flush mount studio sample album and all I can say is WOW! This album is gorgeous. It's incredibly well made and the attention to detail is beyond what I've seen in any other album. The best part is there are about 40 different materials (leather, silk, and fabric), layout and size combinations to choose from. What an awesome way to display photographs....
Each of these pages is about 1/16" thick and really stiff. The photographs run right to the edge.

Most albums have at least 1/8" and usually more like a 1/4" gap in the center cut. This album is about as close to seamless as you can get.
I ordered the two tone brown leather in a 9x12. It has 25 inserts, or 50 pages, is about 2.5" thick and weighs at least a couple of lbs...

The spine is really well made and allows the book to lay completely flat even when fully opened. I don't see pages falling out of this one anytime soon.

Brooke

2008-03-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Today's shoot was with aspiring actress Brooke. She was great to work with, and of course had no issues being in front of the lens...Another softbox kind of day and didn't really use any lighting...

Kim

2008-03-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty quick shoot with Kim today. Just enough time to get a handful of great images. Special thanks to my friend and fellow shooter Cammie who helped out...

Trista

2008-03-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Back to it this week. Had a great shoot with yesterday with Trista. She's a designer and photographer here in Portland. Her style is defintily her own, kind of a Tokyo Street Fashion with her own spin on it.

For you lighting geeks. Today's project was all hard light. Everything was shot with one Canon speedlight, usually at 1/2 to 1/8 power, direct to overpower the ambient. Of course you end up with pretty harsh shadows, but you gotta know that going in.....

Tech Tip of the Week #1

2008-03-13T16:55:00.001-07:00

So for those of you who spend a lot of time looking at other photographers blogs you'll notice a pretty sweet new trend. Everyones been pretty into giving back to the photographic community in one way or another. I've definitely learned a ton from all of the free educational websites out there and can credit a lot of what I've learned about photography to this free sharing of information.

So I'm going to try and do my part. I've already had a bunch of great feedback from some of my earlier tech posts, and at least a couple of people seem to get something out of em so I thought I'd try to make it a weekly/bi-weekly installment. It'll keep me on my toes learning new stuff too, which is good.

So this weeks tip is on flash....again. I know, I know, but it's just amazing stuff once you figure it out and I'm loving it.

I'm using two images from the shoot with Carolyn on Tuesday (hope you don't mind Carolyn); although neither of them were keepers from the shoot, they illustrate my point really well. We found this sweet little bar named HOBO's in the pearl. They've got this awesome back patio that is surrounded 360 by brick. We walked in and both instantly had visions of a French bistro and setup shop for 30 minutes or so.

Anyway, it had this great light coming straight down, but then bounced kind of crazy off of all the brick and windows. The result...some pretty harsh shadows. Check 'em out on Carolyn's face.....not exactly flattering light...

Usually I would just pop an umbrella on a flash stand, balance the flash color/intensity with the ambient and blast away...but

...I didn't have my umbrella with me for this shoot, (it was destroyed the day before in a little wind gust that luckily didn't trash my flash) but I did still have a flash, a stand and a couple of pocket wizards. I really didn't want to shoot direct flash because I wanted to retain that really natural light look, I couldn't really bounce off of the brick behind me because of the red tone it would have introduced to Carolyn's face. So I played a little pool....
There was a wall with a window just to my right. My flash was set at 24 on manual at about 1/8 power I think. It's on on a stand right next to me bouncing at an angle into the window 2 feet away, in turn bouncing onto Carolyn. Instant soft box....The light is still really dimensional, which is great and gives the image its depth, but the shadows have been knocked way down.

Sure it's no studio, but not bad for a single speedlight; and besides who wants to shoot in a studio anyway ;)

March Madness continued.....

2008-03-12T18:39:00.001-07:00

Completely crazy.....

I've burned through 3500 images in the last week. Of course we had another perfect day to shoot. Thin clouds, no rain. I'm really starting to like shooting in the NW. The world is my softbox.

Today's unbelievable actress/model was Mia, another Oregon native. Check her out in the upcoming play, Neil Simon's FOOLS, in April.

Thanks Mia....

March Madness

2008-03-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

It feels like portfolio madness this week. I finally decided to work on creating some amazing fashion images while I had some time. Well the free time has quickly disappeared. A shoot yesterday, one today, and another tomorrow, and then back up to Seattle on Thursday for a day of assisting, before heading down to Sun River for a little R&R.

Today's model Carolyn was totally unbelievable to work with. Another day with fantastic weather and a couple of cooperative bar/hotel owners and we were in business.

Thanks again Carolyn!

Ok, two more, I can't help it....

Marine Park Photo Shoot

2008-03-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

Had a really fun shoot yesterday with a couple girls from WA. Thanks Cortney and Bonnie. They were great and even entertained my idea to barefoot it down to the swamp for a few shots in the grass. They turned out to be my favorite photos from the shoot.

The weather forecasters were nice enough to be way off base again; no rain in sight.....

The New Toy!

2008-03-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

I finally decided to sell my trusty Canon 1d Mark II. It was a great camera, and I'm sure I'll miss it. The problem was it was too big and heavy. I found myself always grabbing my backup 20d for 90% of my shooting. The problem with the 20d is that it's supposed to me my backup. I have a tough time relying on it; it's lived a tough life as most of my friends can attest to. Also, the high ISO noise quality pretty much sucks compared to what's out now.

So out with the old, in with the new.
I was debating between the full frame 5d and the brand new 40d. I won't get into the specifics here, they're both great cameras, but I decided to go with the 40d. It basically came down to two things. First. the frame rate. This camera still shoots at 6.5 frames a second compared to the 5d's 3 fps. Still not as fast as my 1dMark II but fast enough for pretty much all the sport shooting I do.
Second, the price. It was about 800 bucks less. As a starving photographer, money is always an issue....and besides I'll have some extra money to spend on flash equipment. I talked Sarah into posing for a couple....
Seems to work

Tanda & Justin

2008-03-07T12:02:00.001-08:00

What a gorgeous night for a quick shoot on the waterfront. Super thin clouds and late afternoon light. What more could you ask for? And a beautiful couple always helps. Thanks guys.....

Having Fun; what it's all about!

2008-03-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

So when I first edited this photo last week, it didn't really grab my attention. Just another party shot. But like a lot of my favorite images, it really started to grow on me. I hadn't looked at it since the first edit, but I found myself bringing it up in Photoshop today to take a closer look. I think it's one of my favorites from this wedding. It's got a little bit of everything. Good lighting, emotion, color, even the two on lookers add to the image.

Now for some photo geek stuff...

I'm really starting to like my off-camera lighting setup. This winter I broke down and bought a bunch of wireless lighting equipment. Three pocket wizards (radio triggered remotes), a couple of flashes, light stands...the whole nine yards. I'd been pretty intimidated by it in the past, but I love the images that the best photographers are out there creating and want take my work to that level. It definitely brings a new level of "vision" to the table, but like I said, I'm always looking to improve my photographs and I think I owe it to my clients.

This image has three light sources. First the ambient room light. I underexposed this slightly to darken the background. Self Critique: In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have underexposed so much. It's starting to look like a bat cave back there. Lesson learned.

Second, the off camera light creating the star burst. I like to try to keep the burst out of the frame for the most part, but every once in a while it really adds to the image. The back lighting created from that flash is what really gives the subjects that three dimensional quality.

The third light source was from my on camera flash. I had it pointing behind me and to my left, bouncing it into the upper corner of the room. If you look at the shadow on dads hand, you can see where the majority of the light was bouncing back from. I probably should have turned my flash exposure compensation down a hair, or fired it a little more straight behind me, his face is pretty white compared to everything else in the frame. Overall, I'm really happy with it and I learn a ton every time I use this new setup.

In my links section there are a couple of great resources for learning more about off-camera flash. The Strobist is broad and general and a library. Flash Flavor and Planet Neil are wedding specific and a little more readable. I think we all owe it to our clients to learn as much as we can to improve our skills and use all of the tools available to us today to help create those amazing images

So before you book your wedding photographer this summer, ask "are you shooting off camera flash?"

Sonny and Andy

2008-02-24T14:27:00.000-08:00

Just editing through some of my photos from last nights wedding up in Seattle. Another great shoot with photographer Laurence Kim. A non traditional ceremony and a gorgeous day in downtown made for some killer images. And heres a link to the slideshow.

City of Roses

2008-02-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

Heres a quick shot from yesterday morning. A cold crisp morning made for a great morning shoot. Almost missed the good light before I saw this great composition.

The new slideshow feature!

2008-02-19T14:06:00.001-08:00

So I've been struggling with a great way to share my images with people for a couple of years now. I've always wanted to be able to show a bunch of high quality images and make it unique and dynamic and most importantly retain all of the image quality. I think I finally found a solution. I made up a quick sample of a recent wedding just to make sure everything was working right.

Fair warning though. I can't figure out how to get it to stop without hitting the reload button. If you want to see a larger version check it out here, and stay tuned, I'm sure I'll be making a bunch of these.

Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-18T20:29:00.000-08:00

So I'm not really one to talk negatively about others...but I had a shoot planned for Saturday with one of the "studios" in town. This place employs multiple photographers which is usually my first red flag; but I thought it's a slow time of year for most of us here in Portland, they've got some work, I'll give 'em a shot and create some killer images for them. Well I'm still pretty unimpressed. They canceled on me TWO days before the shoot.

Long live the independent photographer!!!

Of course I had the flu , so it probably would have been miserable anyway. All I could do was mope around the house playing with the flowers we got for valentines day.

Next week I'm still shooting with Laurence Kim, an outstanding independent photographer from Seattle, and a guy that's sure to hold true to an agreement.

Tonight I also met up with another independent, Robert McNary, whose got a great pj style. I'll look forward to working/hanging out with him more in the future.

How much Photoshop?

2008-02-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

I often get asked how much time I spend photoshoping my images after a shoot. First off I shoot with my camera set to RAW. This allows a lot more control over the image after it leaves the camera. It's just a lot harder to mass process jpg files.

Take this self portrait. Nothing special. Two off camera flashes triggered remotely. One flash fired into an umbrella to my right, the other direct onto my left side. Of course these two photos look very different. The image on top is
straight out of the camera as it was shot. This is why so many people hate shooting raw. The photo looks washed out and blah before processing...Now take a look at the image on the bottom. Great contrast, color and detail and a little bit of depth to it. This image spent less than 5 minutes in Photoshop. The key to the whole operation is in processing the RAW files. I've just started using Adobe Lightroom and it is amazing for this. I can get the first image dialed in, and then apply that setting to all of the images I shot in similar lighting. By the time the image comes out of Lightroom the photo looks pretty much perfect. The only thing I have to do in photoshop is some detail work, (smooth out my face and brighten my tired eyes.)

Of course there are a ton of great RAW processors out there and most cameras even come with their own software so you don't have to go out there and buy Lightroom just to start shooting in RAW.

Wifes New Do

2008-02-06T19:51:00.001-08:00

I love my wife. She's so spontaneous. Today she decided to cut it all off and go for the short spiked look. I love it and took the opportunity to break out a little lighting!

Before:

And after:

Another Goose Egg

2008-02-04T10:07:00.000-08:00

Steelhead and steelhead fisherman! I don't understand 'em, either of 'em. They're out there. Everyone knows one around here. But you never see one; either of 'em.

This kind of fly fishing is for the dedicated and I'm not sure I've got what it takes. Committing 10 hours of standing around waist deep in freezing cold water that seems to have found its way through every thin spot in my waders, while getting soaked from above by the Oregon rains, casting a weighted sinking flyline praying that 3 inch long furry streamer doesn't get tangled in the bushes behind me and won't hook me in the back of the head as it screams by at 100 mph all for the chance at a 10+ lb fish that'll I'll be releasing 10 minutes after I hook it....

It's so much simpler in Montana.....

I promised photos

2008-01-31T18:19:00.001-08:00

Despite being a pretty slow week for pictures, I managed to grab a few worth holding onto.

Just another guy on the street......only in the Pacific North West.....

First Wedding of the New Year

2008-01-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I jumped at the opportunity to make a trip up to Seattle to shoot Ryan and Erin's wedding with Laurence Kim. I had a great time and what a wedding. We bounced around between Ryan's house, the Hilton in Bellevue, the Bastyr Wedding Chapel for the ceremony and then finally onto the reception at Demetrios Hall. Laurence is a great guy and a lot of fun to shoot with. I learned a ton and hope to have captured half of the great images he got. I'm going to try and make another trip up there next month. Here are a few of the images....

The New Photography Blog!

2008-01-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

New Years Resolutions. My big one for the year is getting a blog up that focuses on my photography. My best intentions are to keep it updated once a week with new work and at least of few images. So this weeks...

I love fly fishing and some of the rivers in and around Portland hold some amazing steelhead, or so I'm told. So last week we started hearing rumors that the fishing was picking up. I put the boat back together and found a few hours to float the Sandy river just west of town. Of course we didn't get any fish but even the slowest day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Of course I did shoot a few photos while we were out.