A Cappuccino and a Photograph

There's no accounting for taste.  This has always been true with art.  Whether you're a private collector of Italian Renaissance, a natural history museum curator or a Christie's auctioneer - one can have a hard time quantifying art.  And there will always be a myriad of voices with an opposing point of view.

The same can be said for coffee.  We all have our own tastes, born from experience and knowledge.  No one is going to convince us, short of showing us their International Coffee Barista Card (which does not exist to my knowledge) that we are wrong in our choice.  Whether it's a perfect cappuccino or a "triple vente, half-sweet, non-fat, chocolate macchiato", no one's going to tell us what we like.

With that I give you this.  Art.  Brewed in 180^th of a second.

The Value of Our Expressions

Part of the fun of my job is capturing candids.  We all have expressions, facial or otherwise that only come out when we're engaged in thought, either in conversation with someone directly or thinking about something in our own minds.  These expressions are one of the things make us uniquely human and the real reason why I choose to photograph people instead of objects or things.  As people we're all unique and I love capturing that individuality on-camera.

Art is Everywhere

I've always loved images of machines.  They are a product of art.  From their intellectual conception, their mechanical engineering and their industrial assembly, humans are intrinsically involved in their development.  After all of this they are then put to work in a setting that many would consider completely devoid of any kind of creativity.  I disagree.  As a commercial photographer it's truly a pleasure to turn these machines back into art.

Always the Spectator

It's nice to capture someone in the moment.  This was a recent shoot in a sensory deprivation tank.  The salinated water made our model so buoyant that a good portion of her body was out of the water.  I can only imagine the relaxation she was feeling while I struggled to hold the camera steady above her.

Floating peacefully in a quiet tank while being photographed... maybe I should have been a model.

Thanks to Olyfloat in Olympia.

Community Personified

I like to think that every photograph I capture tells a story but some do more than others.  On a recent visit to San Francisco I spent some time in the community of Bayview.  As with many communities I visit across the country the economic downturn has left a mark - a large portion of their commercial storefronts closed, many people looking for jobs, a mirror for much of America.

But what really amazed me here was the sense of community.  Families grilling on the sidewalk, wafting their tasty smoke down the street, a blocked-off street full of gradeschool children dancing to the beat of a live band, a saxophone blowing notes into the air that skirted their way down 3rd Street.

It was truly a pleasure to meet the residents of Bayview.  It may be a community in the midst of economic change but it's a community whose residents haven't forgotten what really makes communities work: neighbors.

This image is all about the details.

Love, Literally

I get asked quite a bit if I shoot weddings.  My answer is: I do.  But I don't necessarily consider myself a "wedding photographer".  The biggest difference between myself and a wedding photographer is that they must give up their weekends during most of the summer for their shoots.  Most of my business takes place in my studio or on-location and mostly during the week.

With that being said, when a couple does book me for a wedding I have an incredibly good time.  Maybe it's because there's always dancing and laughing and smiling faces and that makes me happy.  Or maybe it's because, in my job, I don't often get to capture true love on camera.  And when I do, it takes my breath away.

I was somewhere around the edge of the desert...

It's a rare occurrence for me to have a full week off during the month so when I was contracted to do some filming in Arizona I jumped on the chance to drive myself there instead of fly and take a week photographing the deserts of Nevada on my way down.

Having time to explore I opted to stay off the interstate and take roads that had far fewer people on them, some of them not on my map.  At one point I realized I had traveled for nearly an hour on one stretch of road and hadn't seen another soul.  Well that's not entirely true, I stopped and said hello to a couple cows.  They weren't much into talking.

Below are some photographs taken during the trip.  Shot with a Nikon FE.

Engagement Session: Capitol Campus

With the last vestiges of fall still clinging to the trees we met Travis and Gianna at the Capitol campus in Olympia for their engagement photography session.  The rain held off just long enough for us to capture their looks into each others eyes - their excitement to be together was palpable.  Their wedding is set for next year and we wish them the best of luck during the wedding planning process.  We'll see you next year at the wedding, enjoy your engagement!  (As part of their wedding photography package Travis and Gianna also received an engagement session.)

Wedding: Stacey and Stryker

You couldn't ask for better weather for a wedding, sunny, gorgeous blue sky, beautiful.  One of those days that are so warm and bright that they make you almost forget that winter exists.  And so it was that beautiful day that Stacey and Stryker got married.  It was an Irish affair, right down to the handfasting ribbon at the ceremony and the Irish cornhole bean-bag games.  From my standpoint behind the camera everything went off without a hitch.  Except for the part where two people actually did get hitched.

Never mind the creaks, this is a wedding!

Shotgun weddings are not out of the ordinary.  So when I got a call from a friend asking me if I was free to shoot one that same day I told him I was happy to, I happened to be free that evening and it was for a friend.  But I became more interested when he told me where it was taking place: in a treehouse.

I've been to casual weddings before but this one took the proverbial cake.  I might have chosen to think it was a joke if I hadn't seen the marriage certificate myself.  You know the minister means business when he shows up in a hoody and a stocking cap, looks at the walls and says, "I hope this thing can hold this much weight."

Here, in front of a wall tapestry and underneath a plywood ceiling the bride and groom provide some comic relief mid-ceremony.  Not that we all needed any, nobody was taking themselves too seriously that evening, not even the photographer.  Especially since we all got out alive.