Night at the Library

So if you know anything about me, I'm not a reader. So whats a guy to do when your pregnant wife decides we're going to the library at 7pm when the sun set half an hour ago? Well, I've wanted to learn how to do low light photography for some time now :-) Here's my first attempt.

Thank you Beaverton fountain for being such a good subject. Your not quite as good as my wife, but you did your best.

Enjoy!

These are a little more fun with the backgrounds. Amazing what you can do with $5 and picnik. lol

My Beautiful Wife

So I've put my energy towards something good. Thanks to my father for some industrial lighting, my wife and Evan for modeling for me, and having enough cardboard, duct tape, and aluminum foil, and bed sheets around the house to not spend a dime. So heres to trying out something new in the wonderful world of photography. Kinda cheated on this one though... Taking pictures of someone naturally as beautiful as my wife was as simple as pointing and shooting in her general direction :-)

Lost in the Woods

So, so much for posting weekly, eh? Amazing to me how NOT having a job seems to take more out of your day then when I'm employed. At any rate, it was really great to be able to get away from the job search - aka: beating my head against the keyboard - and see a bit of the great outdoors.

Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Old Columbia River HWY

So my thoughts have been very scattered this week as work went from being way too much, to dying down to a lull that could potentially put me back on the unemployment list - over the course of a single week. Seems like thats a small metaphor for life - highs and lows - capturing and holding on to those highs are what gets you though the rougher spots. Honestly I have no worries right now about what may be coming my way - this too won't stop the world from spinning and another day from coming. After all - I have my God, my wife, my family, my friends, and my camera. Everything else will work itself out in due time.

And besides - unemployment lets you randomly take the longer road less traveled cause your not in such a big hurry to get back to life. Like the last time my wife and I were going up to see my grandparents and great grandma - we took the old Columbia River hwy route and these are just a few of the precious gems....

Classic Multnomah Falls shot. Nearly everyone has this one, but I like mine the most ;-)

One of the bridges by the lesser stopped at falls.

Our traveling companion. Caution: Objects in mirror are cuter than they appear.

My Wifes favorite stop - Lookout Point.

I had a different close up water shot to share, but blogger kept turning it sideways! This will do well as a replacement though I suppose ;-)

Dayna ~ to you my lovely wife who very well might be the only person left still visiting this page, I PROMISE to share my precious few rustic barns next week!

Till then - God Bless!

From the Back Porch - Revisited

Hmmm... So had life get in the way there for a bit but the important part is I'm back I suppose.Between hard drive problems and 6 month old benign cysts its been a crazy few weeks... and thats only the start of all the craziness - lol. But bag all that. Photography is what this is all about.

Life is very unexpected at times. And honestly, those rare moments are what is the true beauty behind the lens. Here two of the craziest moments I've captured... and they happened all where you would least expect it - right at home in the boring farm land of America (boring and quite IS why I personally would want to raise kids in such a place - so don't take that as me dissing).

This flower was literally growing out of a crack in the concrete where my grandmothers back porch stairs are. Being the primary entrance and exit to the residence, we all had to step over this little smiling guy for about a week and a half while he graced us with his presence. I dubbed it "delicate defiance" and it reminds me of how even the most delicate of us can push back with our personality.

The hot air balloon woke up the full house at 7am on a Saturday morning. For some reason or another the pilot decided our back yard was the ideal place to land. The kids certainly didn't mind - neither did I as you can see. If you look closely, you can still see the frost on the roof of the house - cold morning to be sure!

Thanks for being patient with me - and I look forward to seeing any new comments on these or any other of my photos. Till next week!

Tonight... From the Back Porch

There are two specific pictures I wanted to post today that are on my home computer - ergo, I'm going to edit this post tonight when I get home.

Todays theme is "From the back porch" and includes only pictures shot from around my parents/grandparents/great grandparents hay farm. This is the same back porch that my wonderful wife and I were wed on nearly 3 years ago now (man the time goes by fast). I will talk more about the pictures when I get home tonight to post them.

My most sincere condolences to the friends and family of Donna "Grams" Crittenden. Not that it's epic by any means, but today's post will be dedicated in her memory.

Sunsets

Hey everyone!

Thanks for leaving such great comments so far. I really appreciate it! As promised, here are a few of my favorite sunsets and sunrises. I tried to show the best variety I could between shots to give a fresh look when these are all put together. All of these are completely untouched, or touched up very little. After all, when it comes to photographing God's handy work, the only flaws are in the camera itself! If you feel so inclined, please feel free to use these or any of my other postings as computer screen backgrounds. It's really only commercial use that I'm apposed to since I have this little fantasy of some of these actually being sold at some point.

I'm letting ya'll pick next weeks theme: People and kids (not my strong suit, but I try), Some of my best Photoshoped random works (some are pretty crazy), or Landscapes of Oregon and Washington (including building landscapes and a lightning strike).

Enjoy!

Perspective

In photography, perspective is everything - and the angle we hold the camera is only the beginning. Recognizing this fact, I thought I would take a step back and give some perspective about the person behind the lens. Who knows, maybe even those of you who know me well will learn something new.

Next month on the ninth I will have been married three years! This comes as a surprise to some because we were married after knowing each other for eight months, dating for five or six of them. When I see what I want I tend to not wait around to be sure. Side note - we didn't even kiss till that day on my dads back porch - witnessed by 10 of our closest family.

I'm going on four years now as a structural engineer. This is my career and I try and not make it my life. Life is for living, work is for paying for it. With that said, engineering has given me a perspective on life I never would have known without it. Growing up I was sure I was going to be a gold metal swimmer. That transformed into an artist, which got me into drafting at Chemeketa Community College, which lead to a B.S. degree from OSU in Civil Engineering.

I love photography for many reasons - some of them not so pure. I love the angles and the adventure of taking a shot from some unique spot that no one has though of before. I also love it because even an elaborate set up of a camera only takes minutes at most to take a shot - where as my old mediums in artistry took weeks or months to complete (resulting in most pieces never getting finished). Also, who doesn't appreciate every time they get out of the house and into the fresh air? Most of my pictures come from long long walks around the city with no particular destination in mind. I let the stop lights at the cross walk tell me right or left. Or when I'm out in the woods, its typically the path less traveled (which has gotten me in more trouble sometimes than you could imagine - but if the worst happens, at least my camera will speak on my behalf - jk).

So without prolonging any further, my theme this week is a sample of my long walks. AND - I decided that next week I'm posting some of my sunrises and sunsets - so I'm gonna leave you a preview of that. I'm doing this for feedback, so as this progresses please feel free to leave a critical comment no matter what the length. Thanks and enjoy.

The Beginning, and a close up look at Flowers

So I've decided to have a photography blog for 2 reasons: this will serve as encouragement to get out and take more photos, and I'm genuinely curious if there is an interest for my style and perspective. I want to canvas more of my work, but if its crap I'd rather swallow hard now and try my hand at something else before I lose any more of my hair. I will try and post once a week on Fridays, but this is a trial run.

Please Comment. Thats why I'm doing this and feel free to say exactly what you think as I have a pretty thick skin. However - don't bother checking my spelling cause we would be here all night.

With out further ado - Here are a few photos I took while Dayna was recouping from her surgery. Bonus points if you can identify the type of flowers.

PLEASE ASK FOR PERMISSION BEFORE USING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

(or whatever I'm suppose to say these days)

Till next Friday!

-Bobjamin