Portrait Fine Art

Thinking of something different or unique that you want as an end result of your portrait session? Here is a Andy Warhol style collage that we designed at the request of senior. He wanted something to display as a piece of fine art. The 16x20 print he ordered I am sure will be hanging up in his room and future home for years to come. It's truly more art than photo. if you have something in mind let us know and if we can make it happen we will!

Spoiled Rotten Photo Event Update

We had 16 little ones Saturday 4/19 at Spoiled Rotten to take photos for the Extraordinary Expressions Photo Contest. It was a great time, Molly and I enjoyed seeing and interacting with everyone. Thank you for coming out to those able to attend. We have many images to go through now. Next we will be picking one image from each child/baby to display in Spoiled Rotten for you to vote on. Molly or I will not be deciding a winner, you will need to come in and vote. Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd will be awarded from both AKP and Spoiled Rotten. Here are just a few images to hold you over until you can view all of them in the store. Tentatively we are scheduling this for the week of 5/5.

Additionally, at this event we collected 50lbs of canned food which was donated today to Oregon Food Bank. Thank you everyone for your generousity!

Alvord Playa

How many of you know of the Alvord area in SE Oregon? Logan and I took our first trip here the week of 4/14. I always seem to think I need to travel far away to experience unique places yet here in OR we have such a diverse landscape, and this trip reminded me of that. The Alvord Playa area is mostly dry averaging only 7" of rain a year. Heck we can get more than that in a month here in Portland! It sits at the bottom of the Steens Mountain Range, which tower a vertical mile just above the playa. The mountain tops with their white blanket in winter and spring leave you in awe when you stare at them for the first time on a clear crisp day.

Even though it's beautiful one reason this place is not normally ebbing with tourists is the shear remoteness. The area much of the year is stark and desolate. You have to travel many miles of gravel roads to get there and the largest town about 115 miles away is burns of 10k. Once you arrive there is no cell service, no gas, no store, no mini mart... just wide open spaces with a small number of ranches. If you go, go prepared. Some of the side roads we traveled I know easily can go many days or longer without seeing another person. Come prepared to hike for help if need be, and carry plenty of food and water. The other thing is that we literally experienced 4 seasons of weather and temperatures in 4 days. Wind storm, rain, snow and crystal blue skies...where dress ranged from just a t-shirt to several thick layers!

There is the Alvord Hot Springs which we used twice and was a nice way to warm up when the windchill was in the teens. It's on public property owned by Paul and Toni who own the Alvord Ranch. I met them both when I went to ask permission to hike their property for photography. It's easy to see why they allow the springs to be open to the public for free, they are very nice folks! If you go please follow the basic rules scrawled on the wood and metal around the tubs. They can decide to fence off the public at anytime if they choose.

If you need any supplies like gas or snacks I would highly recommend visiting Fields Market & Cafe which is about 30 miles from the Alvord Playa. The owners here are warm and friendly as well. The cafe is small seating about 10 folks inside but serves up some of the best milkshakes by far. And if you need gas you can get it here. Considering we were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere $3.95 a gallon seemed like a deal.

Enjoy these photos for now until you can get down there on your own. I encourage you to do so, you won't soon forget the trip.

Lexi Turns One

One of our clients Lexi turned 1 recently and we attended her birthday party. Her parent's Jennifer and Seth did an amazing job putting on her party. The level of decorations and coordination that went into would be hard to match. It was the most I had ever seen for a one year old party. I am sure when Lexi is old enough to look at photos from it she will be in awe too. Lexi enjoyed her day as much as the guests. I was sitting on the couch talking with others when I noticed Lexi standing there trying to rip her hair clip out and I enjoyed her facial expression as she was obviously struggling to get it out! Also here are a couple images from her one year studio session.

Danielle and Sam

This is a precious image from a recent session my wife Molly had with Danielle and her little guy Sam. He was a very cooperative baby and allowed Molly to capture some great images.

Wind Swept

While on a recent outing for landscape photography images I visited the Painted Hills in Central OR. This is a beautiful place and sees very few visitors even though it's a national monument. Although the skies were not vibrant the relentless winds allowed for a unique image with the grass bunches swaying away. Enjoy.

Simple Moments

While doing a studio session with another young one, we took a brief break as we often need to do with little ones. During this break my daughter (the studio greeter) decided she would like to sit on the chair we were using. While I was talking to our client I turned around to see this view which I was lucky enough to get my camera and take the photo before it was gone.