Nov
15
Holy smokes, September and October were busy months, and November is panning out to follow in-suit. A lot of catchup to play here on the blog. Why not start with a wedding post. I had a wedding gig up in Whidbey Island last September. Whidbey is a beautiful place, great wooded and beach areas. As you drive along the winding roads (aching for a motorcycle), you never know when the next scenic visual delight will be around the corner to surprise you, going from dense woods to wide beach vistas.
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Aug
03
In my opinion, there is no better way to spend an evening than to be laughing the whole time. Life is just way too short to not enjoy it and make the most out of it. Laughter makes us feel good, brings people together, and on this particular evening, laughter raised a boat load of money for a great cause. In front of a sold-out crowd, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie played in the beautiful Mt. Baker theatre. The quick-witted duo even had me laughing as I was capturing the action. The show’s proceeds went towards the Burned Children Recovery Foundation. This show was the first of three days of fundraising for the organization, thanks to Ryan and his team.
The theatre itself was fun to photograph, the interior lighting design was well-thoughtout.
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Jul
16
And the weekend begins with a bang. Photographed a sold out show tonight at the Mt. Baker Theater. This being the first of three events that make up the Ryan Stiles Golf Classic weekend of fundraising. Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie played in front of the packed theater, generating plenty of laughs. All of the ticket sales going towards the fundraising event.
The Ryan Stiles crew asked if I’d oversee the photography needs for the event and I said yes. Donating my time for the weekend will produce a lot of great photography for the organization, providing plenty of memories and marketing material for years to come.
700 photographs dumped off of my two cameras tonight. Ouch, there’s a few hours in post production… I’m going to guess that the weekend’s total will come in around 3,000ish.
Loved working in the Mt. Baker Theater. What a beautiful structure. Attention was paid to details and you can tell. Not a bad seat in the house either.
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Jun
08
Last month, one of my regular clients, Tiare Floral Design, was chosen to accent the Gala Fundraiser at the Northwest African American Museum with his floral designs. Owner, Tomasi Boselawa, asked me to attend so that I could photograph his work that would be spread throughout the museum. I have captured Tomasi’s work many times, but this was the first at a live event, as all the other occasions were in a staged setting and lighting. This time around I’d be capturing it with the existing lighting. The assignment was just that – capture the flowers in an event setting, to showcase this in a realistic event environment. It’s funny how you have to present things to people like this, as if seeing well-photographed floral designs in a studio doesn’t translate to the possibility of it sitting on a table at an event. But I get it, and I was happy to attend and photograph the designs in such an environment.
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May
15
They are hectic, exciting, sexy, exhausting, exhilarating, and chaotic all at once. I’m talking about fashion shows. Sure, sitting out by the catwalk waiting for the show to start, everything seems normal, maybe even down-right boring, peeking to see when the models will start to strut their stuff. Well, the pre-show catwalk is the ying to the backstage’s yang. Ironically, the backstage is where I wanted to be to capture the Fashion Night Out event that London Couture was hosting. It was the busyness, the prep, the inside look into what goes into a fashion show, but at the same time, snag some seemingly calm images of the models before they hit the runway. I spoke with the owner of London Couture, Tina London, a couple days before the event, and was able to snag the backstage access. I knew there was going to be a herd of photographers there to click away on the catwalk, but if you know me, you know I’m always out to get the shots and the look no one else is getting or thinking of.
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May
02
Zoom, it passed right by, another workshop completed, another set of legit photographers roaming the landscape. This is a photo I snuck in of Shawna, one of the students from this last weekend. She’s been shooting for years, but had been letting the camera call all the shots. She was tired of that, decided to take the workshop so she can nail the photos she wants in life.
Still hearing inspiring stories from the first group of beginner workshop students, which is so great to know the benefits of the workshop are still coming for them. For more details on the past workshops, visit the workshop website by clicking on “workshops” at the top of the page.
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Feb
24
Last Saturday evening, I photographed a teen dance at the Whatcom Community College. It was quite the scene, I’d guess about 500ish teens shakin’ their stuff. I also setup a photo booth for the kids to come over and get a fun photo. The photos were shot up on a GIANT screen via a live feed from my laptop to the projector, so everyone in the dance room would see them. As soon a I took the picture, it was projected on the screen and I sent the photo directly the the subject’s email, allowing them to view their photo almost instantly on their phones. It was a pretty cool setup.
Here’s a couple pics showing the scene.
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Feb
19
Thursday night at the Upfront Theatre was the place to be. In front of a sold out crowd, the main stage players put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. It was a non-stop string of laughter that made an hour of entertainment seem like only 10 minutes. Ryan Stiles was there, performing with the last group of the 8pm show. For those of you that do not know, Ryan owns the Upfront. He started it up a few years back, and he’s been regularly performing with the rest of the main stage players on Thursday nights if he is in town.
I have a scheduled shoot with the theatre on Sunday, but I came to the performance to get some live shots, and I’m SO glad that I did. I stayed and captured both the 8 and 10pm shows, both providing plenty of laughs. The first show, an ensemble of the whole gang split into three groups. The second show, presented by The Project, a format hosted by Morgan Grobe and Stephen Edwards, “General Tso’s Comedy Show.” I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking, and stay tuned for more photos from B-ham!
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Jan
21
At least it seemed so at Richard’s 50th birthday party. And when I say party… it really was a party. I don’t think anyone would have guessed this was a birthday party if they stumbled in, it was the next level of party. The event was held at the Pacific Grill event center. I’d say that the space comfortably holds 125ish people, but Richard is a pretty popular guy. I would have pegged the attending number around 250+. That meant standing room only for a good number of people, and limited space for me to work. It was all good though, everyone had a great time, and the limited space made everything a bit more exciting.
The shots below were the first two of the evening, and probably my favorite. Richard’s father, who lives in another part of the country, was not supposed to be in attendance, however, he made the trip and was there to surprise his son. Here are two consecutive frames – Richard walking in like he owns the place 
, and then when his father walks around the corner. Love the second shot and how it is framed, father with arms out. It tells a great story.
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Jan
09
Wow, ok… the last and final installment to this whole shebang, the trash the dress shoot. We met-up the day after the wedding, around sunset. Leeann and Daymeon’s condo was just down the block from mine, so we just met at the beach that at across the street. Now, these might be my favorite shots from the whole week. It was my first ‘trash the dress’ shoot, so I was pretty excited.
The scene was pretty funny. We roll up, girl in wedding dress, guy with big camera, and Alice (my assistant) walking around to a good-sized mobile softbox. Toss girl with big white dress into the surf and everyone walking the beach stops to watch. There were actually other groups down there taking pics of family and friends. Before you know it, they have turned their cameras on us, taking pics of us doing our thing. Before you knew it, a crowd had gathered, with probably 30 sets of eyes on the shoot.
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Jan
09
Getting tired of these wedding posts yet? This is the second-to-last one, so hang in there, cause this is the good stuff! Yes, by that I mean the lighting stuff. Towards the end of the wedding reception, I pulled Leeann aside to get some “fun photos.” I had been eyeing the alter they got married under ever since I arrived early that day. I knew it would make a great location to work-in some light, and make some interesting compositions.
Started simple, with one light, 2′x2′ softbox for front light. Then added some edging details to both the bride and flowers with a bare backlight directly behind Leeann.
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Jan
09
Pictured above are Leeann and her best buds. It’s great when you see a group of friends stick together, even 10 years after high school. Sure, new friends will come and go along the years, but there is just something about those high school friends that makes it special.
Soon after the portraits were wrapped, the sun dipped below the sea, leaving torches, chandeliers, and candles to light the reception.
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