A picture from the Rose Festival

Portland Waterfront 2
Originally uploaded by benklusman

This was the first night of the rose festival, and there was a great, clear sky, and awesome lights. Didn't have a tripod, but the bridge rail sufficed.

Spy Pics

The Cufflink
Originally uploaded by benklusman

I had time to do a couple shoots in the studio this week. This is one of my absolute favorites that I got out of it. The guy was new to modeling, but very easy to work with, which allowed me to get the light just right. The only thing I didn't get was a highlight on his left shoulder. That strobe wouldn't fire because the other one was too tighly focused, and I don't have radio transmitters/receivers... but I'm gonna have to get some. Regardless, this came out really well. There are more from this set.

July 4th PIcs

I didn't get as close to the fireworks as I'd hoped, and I didn't have a very long lens, so these are more panoramic than I wanted. Some turned out OK, though, and you can find them...

http://happy-imp.smugmug.com/gallery/3193124

there.

Andy and Jenn Visit

This is to be a very random, disjointed post. I don't have much time right now.

So, Yesterday Sarah and I were surprised by a surprise visit from Andy and Jenn. Yay! Andy had a comedy show to do in Longview Washington, so we went and say it (except Sarah, as she was shooting a show), and had an OK time. His show could have gone better, but it could have gone worse. He'll be back up on Tuesday, actually, for another show. Whoo-hoo!

Today... Wii??? Probably not, as I bet there won't be any in stock. But maybe...

Also, it looks like I'm gonna have to get a Mac Pro. Grumble. Tired of having to buy things, but it seems that there will be unavoidable and unworkable latency issues without a massive upgrade, and that seems the most wise. Oh well, that's not all bad...

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm getting too old to drink. Or rather, too old to drink more than 1 or 2 drinks. It's just no fun anymore after that. It used to be I'd get buzzed and have a good time, but really now I don't do anything except feel crappy in the morning. That's easier on the pocket-book, though. A glass of wine after dinner is nice, or a pint.

Office nearly done!

So, after lots of work, and some money, the office is pretty much done! Hurrah! All I have left to do is a little paint trim, trim trim, and some other tiny stuff.

What a week. Last week I had moved everything from the office half into the studio half, so that I could paint the office half. I did that on Friday, and then was busy shooting weddings over the weekend.

Then, Monday I HAD to totally install the floor, so that I could move everything to the Office side, because the carpet installer was coming in early Tuesday morning. Monday was a long, long day.

Tuesday the nice carpet-man installed the carpet. I spent the first half of the day putting the office together enough to work on pics, and the second half editing wedding pics. I also had a shoot in the afternoon. Wednesday was more pic editing, and thursday was errands, organizing the office more, and I almost had free time!

Today, I had only a few urgent things left to do, and they're long done. So, I got to experiment with my strobes a bit, and now post pics and such.

We should be having an office-warming party soon, which will be very nice. I can't wait!

Also, I should be getting to do some commercial studio work (product photography) in the next week or so. Yes!

Anyway, I'm finally feeling like business stuff is getting into a groove, which is very nice.

Cheerio!

Some new Pics

I've been too busy to go through any of the new pics I've been taking, but not quite too busy to take them :)

So, things are finally settling in with the business, and I had some time this afternoon to not only play around with the new strobes, but also to go through some of my new pics, and post them.

Links:

Portland Rose Festival
Strobe Experiments
More to come...

Enjoy!

Life is full of ups and downs

Yesterday was good at first. Had tons of picture sorting to do for this other photographer in town that I've been working with a little bit when either of us has overflow. Also, our strobes arrived. Hurray!

After getting all the work that I HAD to do that day, Sarah and I went to Yoga and then immediately to the studio to play with the strobes. That was fun. Just before leaving, though, I got an email with bad news (possibly losing a job) and it started bothering me. I was thinking about what I could do to recover the sale and whatnot, but was also just generally frustrated.

I finally shook it, and today was out the first-half of the day shooting real estate. Getting back I found all sorts of good news. Another photographer friend up here who does lots of race (as in foot-race) shoots needed help for one tomorrow. Awesome! I always like getting called up for a shoot, and it'll be a good opportunity to use the new 70-200mm lens. After that I was feeling pretty good.

Then I got a call from a magazine I've shot for once before. I thought they were just gonna bug me about picking up my check (it's in eugene), but they in fact had another assignment! I hadn't heard any feedback from them after the first shoot, so I didn't know if they were happy or not. Well, I guess they were, as I have another gig. This one is even very exciting as it's an 'environmental portrait', which is a portrait of someone 'in their environment'. All those portraits of athletes holding their basketballs and posing on the court, or executives looking decisive while sitting behind their desks are this sort of thing. I dislike regular portraiture, with its formulaic lighting and posing, combined with boring backgrounds. Environmental portraits requiring finding a pose and framing that captures an aspect of a person, a role, or maybe several. You get 1 shot to show as much as you can about the person, as per the topic at hand.

So, it's a day of reminding myself not to let the minor ups-and-downs get to me. It was fine to brainstorm ways of recovering the sale, sure. However, it need not give me stress. In fact, I'd be able to handle it better without that. Overall I tend to do OK with this, but on the photography business front I think I'm new enough to it that I lack some confidence that I possess in other areas, and things get to me.

Also, I've noticed that so far, every time I have a bad news day, the next day has good news, and lots of it. I'm sure this trend won't continue forever, but it helps me realize that getting bothered just wastes energy.

Anyway, that's the lesson for the day. I hope everyone out there is doing great and staying stress-free.

Went on an awesome bike ride

Today I decided to finally get down to Forest Park. I've been meaning to since moving here, but it just hasn't worked out. Well, I had the afternoon free so I decided to go check it out. The bike map showed a nice route down there through NW, down the LIef Ericson trail, and then back over the St. Johns bridge and through St. Johns. Turns out it was around 25 miles, but it was a perfect day for it. In the forest it was very cool and despite it being uphill most of the way it seemed easy. The path is very nice, and it's cool to get to bike through the forest; just like the best parts of the eugene bike system.

I mapped out my route to find out how far it had been. Supposedly the site lets me bookmark the path but it doesn't want to work. Oh well, it was a lot of fun. Also, after finishing the Lief Ericson path part, you get to go down Germantown Road, which is very steap, but in a way that lets you go very fast. It's over a mile of pure down-hill fun.