International Conservation Photography Awards

Today I found out that one of my photos was selected for 2008 International Conservation Photography Awards Exhibit (ICPA). If you are not familiar with this juried exhibition and award it was prior to this year called the Environmental Photography Invitational (EPI), created by Art Wolfe to promote awareness and preservation to the environment. I will admit I am quite happy to have one of my photos selected for exhibition into a show that is themed near and dear to me. Most folks that know me understand how I feel about our environment today. We really need to watch everything we do as a society to our world. Once a natural place is developed it's rarely brought back into being a natural or wild place again.

I will post more about the show later on. For now here is a link to ICPA http://www.icpawards.com/ and the image that was selected. It's one I took hiking up Mt St Helens a couple years ago with my son and a small group of friends. It's called Above The Clouds and is still one of the most amazing sunrises I have witnessed to date.

Klein Family Photo 2008 – Part II

As most of you already saw on a previous recent post we had our immediately family photo taken by Emily Andrews. Shortly after that we headed to Missoula MT for a family trip with my brother Eric, sister in-law Malia, sister Kim, brother in-law Steve, niece Marlo and my Mom. I asked everyone ahead of time to bring certain clothes for this years family photo, last year was a quick mad dash for a photo at the last minute. I was sure this year would be different, which I should have never assumed!

Our plan was to take the family photo towards the end of the trip, after our outing to Glacier NP. However, when we returned our family was invaded by a highly contagious intestinal stomach virus of some sort. Nine of the ten people staying in our house were sick all around the same time! It was so crazy we had to laugh; you could not have made this story up. As I type this we are still not fully recovered. In all reality the photo shoot for this image lasted only 10-15 minutes once setup as Molly and Kim were still quite under the weather here and required some coaxing to make it happen. Unfortunately my Mom was still not well enough to make it for the photo. In the end it probably worked out ok to get an image of all the young Klein’s for the rest of all our families to enjoy. I am glad we have a photo to show for our efforts and I appreciate that my family headed out for this very short walk and photo session despite still not feeling well. We had thought about doing the family photo all with our buckets to really have something to remember but realized the experience itself was insane enough to remember for many years!

Image made on timer mode as I dashed back and forth for each shot!

Sublime Sunrise

I still have many other photos to go through but wanted to post this one while I am still out on the road for our yearly family trip. Which of course includes some photography. How can you not in such a beautiful place!

The forecast when we headed to Glacier National Park was for mostly sunny skies, which we got. However, closer to the end of the trip I was pleasantly rewarded with this amazing sunrise. I literally had to stand there and stare at it's beauty for close to a minute before I could get the camera out. It was one of my favorite sunrises to soak in and I feel thankful I was there to enjoy the moment. After shooting for about 25 min I was scared off by some grunting not too far off in the dense forest. Not sure if it was a bear or moose but I was in bear country and not to keen to hang out there by myself much longer! Fortunately I already knew I had the shot I truly wanted.

Jellystone NP

Ok, it's really Yellowstone NP but I like Yogi's Jellystone ring a little more. Logan and I had our first quick trip to Yellowstone this week, spending 1.5 days in the park. We did see quite a bit but of course not everything nor in depth. It was a great preview for when we WILL return though. Old Faithful was fun just to see but not the most exciting place in the park by far. There are other geysers, springs, etc that albeit don't erupt nearly as often or high are much more beautiful. Here are just a few of the photos I captured on our brief but great tour of the park. I promised Logan we would go there at his request since he is such a good sport about going all the other locations I want to travel.

Anthony & Kimberly

We photographed the wedding of Anthony & Kimberly Mosca this last Sat at The Governor Hotel in downtown Portland (see engagement photos on prior blog posting). They live in New York but decided to have the wedding in Portland, where Kimberly lived prior. The Governor Hotel is an amazing location for a wedding and we were truly thrilled to be photographing their special day. The way they went through the day and enjoyed themselves you can tell without a doubt they are one happy couple. The wedding day always has some anxiety and stress, it's natural... they dealt with it well. We wish them the best on the rest of their vacation in Portland and a safe return back to New York!

The Palouse Hills

Driving the scenic highways around The Palouse Hills are simply some of the most beautiful open and rolling farm fields you will ever see. It's easy to see why people will drive to this some what remote area. This was my first outing here. My son and I stopped for one night to enjoy the sunset and sunrise near Steptoe Butte. Here are a couple images. The first one is sunrise this morning which was amazing. Rarely do you get the hazy sun that you can star right into and literally watch it rise. No sun glasses needed for this sunrise! And the other is an up close image of the glowing wheat tops in the morning sun. If you have not been here this is a must if you are ever in Eastern WA. You will not be disappointed.

Klein Family, Wall Portrait Session

As a photographer I love being behind the camera, that is not a shock to anyone reading this I am sure. However, Molly and I also recognize that we need to make our way in front of the camera as well. We do have some family portraits we have taken putting the camera on a tripod, setting everyone up, and then pushing the timer button and making the mad dash for the proper position before the 9 seconds hits...and -click- of the shutter! Yet this did not work quite right for a true lifestyle scenic portrait that we want as a large display for our home.

Our friend Emily of EA Portrait Design talked to me at a recent photography conference about photographing my family and if we would be interested in doing an outdoor on location family session. I knew we needed a wall portrait for our living room and of course Emily does great work so this seemed like a no brainer. With my scenic and landscape experience I scouted out the perfect location, and last Monday evening we made it happen. Here is our favorite which will end up as a 30x40 canvas in our home. This is definitely our style, being outdoors like this and mixing a beautiful backdrop scene with our family. Thanks again Emily!

End Of Day

This last Thursday I spent the evening at Cape Kiwanda for sunset. There were less clouds in the sky than I would have liked but enough to give me some nice color along the horizon. Also, this was much different than my last trip here. The wind was calm and the waves less intimidating which allowed me to get closer to the water without fear of being sucked out to sea. I really enjoy the warm sun lit rocks in the foreground on this photo. Being close to summer solstice this moment was not captured until close to 9:15. I know for Alaska folks that is nothing but late for the last light here in Oregon!