Emerald Bay Photography News and Updates

I think my editor at TIME Magazine has some sort of special radar. I may not talk to her for eons, but she seems to know exactly when I'm either gone on vacation, or when I'm about to leave on vacation.

Point in case: last week, I was scrambling to get my work organized in order to leave on a 10 day trip to California. Tuesday was a day of solid meetings, and I had a 2-hour shoot scheduled for Wednesday at 10am. So who calls me on Tuesday afternoon with an assignment, completely out of the blue? My TIME editor. Just like she did last time.

Now - alert readers will note here that my bread and butter consists of architectural, food, and product photography. To spice things up though and keep it lively, there's the occasional editorial/corporate portrait. But what really trips my trigger (literally) is shooting an editorial - telling or illustrating a story with my camera.

So doing the occasional shoot for TIME, Canoe & Kayak, or some other magazine is always fun. Yet this particular assignment was different. No heads-up to the subject. No fuzzy, happy "let's make this look good" approach. No. This was going to be complete clandestine. A "no comment" shoot. My instructions were *not to be seen*, and not to talk to anybody.

The target? Mount Bachelor Academy, about 20 miles east of Prineville.



The private school had been recently in the news about the State investigating possible abuses. TIME was picking up on that, but because the story was going to be negative, they couldn't ask for PR images from the school. So they called me.

The deadline was tighter than usual - less than 24 hours. As I had already scheduled that other shoot (which was impossible to postpone due to a unique subject unavailability), I decided to get up at 5am and drive the hour and a half to the location in order to be able to return to Bend in time for my 10am.

April in Oregon can be unpredictable however. As it turned out, it had snowed the night before. The road froze, coating the tarmac with a 1/4 inch of black ice. Which literally turned the surface into an *ice rink*. I got only a few miles past Prineville before I had to turn around - or risk breaking my neck.



A quick call to my editor later, she agreed to postpone the deadline to the early evening so I could go back in the afternoon (and after the ice had melted off the road).

So I drove back to Bend, did my other shoot, then returned to Prineville in the afternoon. The road was clear now. Thanks to Google Maps/Earth, I knew exactly what to expect from the location: a big, semi-fenced compound with several buildings, situated clear up against a deserted stretch of highway, high up in the Ochoco National Forest. No real way to sneak up and carefully compose a shot. Oh, well. Drive-by shooting it was then.





Hours later I delivered the finished shots to my editor. She wrote: "Success! This is better than expected." Thursday morning I delivered high-res. Friday, the story ran.

Wham. Bam.
High pressure deadline.
Instant gratification.

As much as I love being able to take my time styling, tweaking, and lighting my photo subjects, and through the resulting images help my clients gain new business - I have to admit, the editorial way of working has its appeals too. There's a certain soul satisfaction in contributing to a story that might alter someone's life, change someone's mind about a topic. Especially when you know that millions of people will read it.

What it boils down to for me however is balance - keeping my interest in the craft fresh, knowing that I can tackle any challenge that presents itself, and maintaining that equilibrium that gets me up out of bed every morning, ready to shot the next big challenge.

I love my job.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, Bend Oregon photographer, Bend photographer, Central Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

I'm sure Homer Simpson would have thought he'd died and gone to heaven - if he'd only taken time out of his cartoon life to attend Deschutes Brewery's annual Fresh Hop Tasting in their beautiful Mountain Room.

Indeed, the beer flowed free and strong, and Homer would have been quite certainly delirious, trying to decide which to grab first: the Mt. Angel Fresh Hop Stock Ale or the Harvest Moon Fresh Hop Strong Pale Ale? Or maybe the Fairweather Fresh Hop Golden Ale?



Incidentally, Deschutes Brewery hired me to shoot the event and venue that evening, so while I can provide visuals, Jon over at The Brew Site has a far more educated and ind-depth review of the affair than I'd ever be able to conjure up.





Did I mention though that the desserts rocked too?

Labels: beer, Bend, Bend Oregon photographer, Central Oregon photographer, Deschutes Brewery, drink photography, Editorial Photography, Event Photography, food photography, product photography

Bend-based travel writer Tim Neville and I have been working for the past 8 months on a 4-part series of articles for Canoe & Kayak Magazine, chronicling his efforts to build a kit kayak in his garage.

Arriving at Part 3, he writes:

"You start out building a boat with all these grand, romantic visions of Man and His Craft, getting sawdust in your hair, sanding a keel that's fair and true, and then reality hits. You don't know shit and things that should take an hour take a day.

Then winter hits and it's freezing outside and you have no place to work. But you're not alone with your troubles. In fact, there's a whole community of boat builders out there with all the knowledge you need. Hit it right and not only will you have a warm place to work with an expert to guide you, but you'll become friends in the process and that means paddling buddies when it's all said and done."

And looky here - a community of saw dust, glue and cedar he found indeed:



Look for the entire story and more pics in the May or June issue of Canoe & Kayak Magazine.

Because I'm lame though and forgot to post pics of Part 1 & 2, here they are now. Better late than never, right?

Labels: boat building, Canoe and Kayak, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

Last Tuesday, February 12th, BendFilm and the Tower Theatre premiered the first film in their new Indie Reels series, a celebration of independent film outside of the annual festival.



The brainchild of new BendFilm director Sandy Henderson and Tower Theatre chairman Eli Ashley, the series debuted with the film "The Breast Cancer Diaries", and drew a packed house.



A sometimes sober, sometimes bitterly funny commentary, the film chronicled the story of a thirty-something Maine newscaster who turns the camera on herself during her ordeal with breast cancer. The excellent documentary was followed by an equally interesting panel of local doctors, discussing the disease and answering questions from the audience.



It was an enlightening evening - part entertainment, part education, but wholly for a good cause. Getting the opportunity to be part of and photographing important events like these makes it all worth while for me. More pics here ...

Labels: BendFilm, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, Event Photography

Sometimes, in my line of work, it happens that I have to wrestle beasts, brutes and monsters. And I'm not just talking about a particularly finicky photo editor or client...

And so it was then last week, that I got to work with a special kind of monster. It had a purple tongue. And scaly skin. And claws. In short - it was the newest addition to the wildlife area of the Bend High Desert Museum: the Gila Monster.



Wikipedia generously provides us with the following account (and so much more) about the charming qualities of above creature:

The gila monster (pronounced "HEE-la") is a species of venomous lizard native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is a heavy, slow moving lizard, up to 60 cm (2 feet) long, and is the largest lizard native to the USA.

Unlike snakes which use hollow upper teeth (fangs), the Gila monster injects venom into its victim through grooves in the teeth of its lower jaw. The teeth are loosely anchored, which allows them to be broken off and replaced throughout their lives. The Gila monster produces only small quantities of its neurotoxic venom, which is secreted into the lizard's saliva. By chewing its prey, however, it tries to put as much of the venom into the bloodstream of its victim as possible. The Gila monster's bite is normally not fatal to humans (there are no confirmed reports of fatalities), but it can bite quickly and holds on tenaciously.



From the kind and most informative creature wrestler at the museum (a brave soul who stood in the terrarium only inches from the lizard and tried to coerce it into posing for my camera for a full hour), I learned that the Gila monster is shy and spends 98% of its life underground. Which I suppose explained why it apparently didn't like my lights too much and - fussy as it was - constantly tried to crawl into cracks and holes in the exhibit.



The lizard also showed off an incredible gift for climbing and moved at surprising speeds on the slick rock. Again, the handler related that should one come across one of these lizards in the wild (unlikely, but it's been known to have happen), one should just back away slowly - and quietly hope that the lizard may be too full from a recent feast of mice and other small animals to be in the mood to chase after you.



Knowing all that, I was pretty happy that I even got the shots I did - without having had to sacrifice any small animals, handlers, or even editors.

I think the museum was overjoyed too.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

Freshly back from my trip to chocolate-infused Switzerland, I got the opportunity to shoot some really yummy sweet treats during an event at Balay in downtown Bend.



They were tiny delicate cups of chocolate, filled with silky mousse. And lush, juicy strawberries, dipped in dark chocolate and decorated to look like tuxedos. And did I mention the heart-shaped truffles?



And yes - after I shot them, I ate them (thank you to Sweet Tooth for letting me take some home too. They didn't last very long ...).

Being Swiss, I'm very picky about my chocolate. But this stuff rocked. And it reminded me of why I love to shoot food. Because I get to eat it afterwards.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, chocolate, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, food, food images, food photographer Bend OR, food photography, photography

As our world grows more visual every day, some of my clients are starting to look for new and innovative ways to incorporate my photography into their marketing.

One such client, Pilates Center of Bend, has just set foot into the brave new world of the web's latest darling - podcasting. By producing a series of podcasts, showcasing specific pilates exercises, and posting them for free on iTunes, they are hoping to attract not only virtual admirers, but also real-world clients.



Cleverly - and to keep their presentation dynamic - they have incorporated some of the photos I took for them into their own iTunes page and at the beginning of the podcast.



The first in their series of presentations - demonstrating the pelvic curl - is now available in iTunes or as a Quicktime movie via their website.

Want to even stay tuned to new pilates episodes as they hit the web? Easy. Just subscribe to them via iTunes!

Overall - very cool. And a refreshing way for me to see my clients utilizing photography.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

After the appetizer I served up last Monday, the main course is finally ready now for consumption.

Go ahead - gorge yourselves!

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

I did some cooking yesterday. The ingredients were:

6 beautiful fire dancers
Several cans of Kerosene
Colorful costumes and makeup
1 snow-covered clearing in the Cascade mountains
1 bottle of Maker's Mark whiskey

The result:

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

Kudos to the New York Times for writing an most excellent article on the importance of good architectural photography when trying to sell a high-end property or residence.

In real estate, a picture can be worth more than a thousand words. Much, much more. When selling properties online, agents and Web designers say that the pictures buyers see of houses and apartments for sale are often the first - and sometimes the only - chance for a seller to make a good impression. Less-than-flattering pictures can turn buyers off and lead to lonely open houses.

"Good photos will grab people's attention and help you sell a home," said Jacky Teplitzky, an executive vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York. "Bad pictures will absolutely give you trouble, because you won't have any calls on it, and nobody will come to see it."

Eighty percent of people across the country who bought a new home last year used the Internet while house hunting, and they rated photographs as the most useful tool in their search, according to a survey of buyers and sellers by the National Association of Realtors.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

Normally, winter is a time for me to kick back a bit, relax, collect myself again for the busy Spring/Summer shooting season. You know - catch up on reading those great books you've been saving all summer, go out snowshoeing, organize your office, prepare your taxes - fun stuff like that.

Not *this* winter, however.

I suppose that's what happens when you're finally so sought after in your field that you can (have to) work all year round... Or when you decide to pull a second business up by the bootstraps, make yourself CEO and photo editor of it, and end up having the thing take on a life of its own.

Serves me right. I should have known better. That's what I get for being so damn ambitious. Hahaha.

To sum up the past 3 months though:

• My clients know that I love a challenge. This residence certainly was just that. Contemporary homes are hard to shoot because they tend to be very uncrowded, with simple, clean and stylish lines. That makes it hard to find things to fill your frame with. But I was actually very happy with the resulting images - look for a full portfolio and an article on the residence and its unusual family dynamic in the March/April issue of Bend Living.
  
• Speaking of Bend Living: Their beautiful coffee table book hit the stores and shelves last November, just in time for Christmas. Given that I was one of the 27 photographers chosen to participate in the project, I'm very happy with the finished book. Yay. And a big thumbs up to Tiffany at Bend Living for making her way through 9000 images to choose just the right ones. Nice going!
  
• Another project I recently shot that is worth mentioning: the St. Charles Heart Center in Bend. This is actually an amazingly elegant, non-sterile space for a hospital. I wish all my commercial architecture projects were this interesting!
  
• Couple of editorial assignements that were fun: shooting Patrick Kruse, CEO of Bend dog product company Ruff Wear, with his dog Otis. And Redmond mayor Alan Unger - both for the Oregon Business Magazine. Look for the shots in this February's issue.

So there. That's the reason why I haven't really blogged in a while. Just in case anybody was wondering ...

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, Bend Oregon photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

After shooting the BendFilm festival for 3 days straight - frankly, I'm exhausted.

On Saturday, I barely had enough time to process a few shots for Day 2, but just not enough to actually post them in the blog - so here they are now.

More extensive commentary and more images from all three days (and in specific the awards on Saturday) will get posted a bit later this week.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

For all those of you who have been living under a rock - the BendFilm festival officially opened yesterday for its 3rd year of showing and celebrating independent film.

I was there (as I will be today and tomorrow) to bring you all fresh shots from the event, hot off the CF card.

Check it out ...

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

:: Let it be noted that this post is preceeded by some seriously furious chest beating a la King Kong .. ::

So a couple of weeks ago, while I was still lingering in California on food photography assignment, a surprise phone call from the West Coast photo editor of TIME Magazine came in. She had found my website (yes, this one), liked my work, and needed me to do an assignment in Bend for them. This was Friday afternoon, 4.30pm.

After I had gotten over the initial minor heart attack and wave of self-doubt (ME? Why did they pick ME? Can I pull it off?), I convinced myself that this was going to be just like any other assignment - only on a bit tighter deadline. I made the arrangements for the shoot with the contact in Bend, cut my California stay short, did the shoot on Monday afternoon, and had the final 30 selections to the editor Monday night.

The coolness of it all hadn't really sunk it though until yesterday - when I found two sample copies of the magazine (current, October 9 issue) in my mailbox.



Here's the page with my half-page shot leading the story:



And if anybody is interested in reading the story, it's right here (although only the print version shows off the picture).

Yay.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

I first saw them a bit over 3 weeks ago - during ArtWalk in downtown Bend.

There they were: Clad in leather and colorful outfits, adorned with tattoos, lean, glowlight paint on their bodies. They twirled and twisted to the rythmic beat of drums - and they breathed fire.

"They" are the newest (and by far coolest) night-time attraction in Bend: FyreFlyte, a troup of fire dancers.

Watching them, I trance-like time-travelled back to last year's Burning Man - and then I remembered to pick up my camera, and actually take some shots....

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

Many moons ago, when I was still living in the Bay Area (or more precisely Sonoma County), I used to go to a small Irish pub in Sebastopol to listen to some live music on Wednesdays and enjoy a hard cider.

The acts were always good, but one frequently featured musician with a raspy blues voice, cool funky tunes, and some interesting tattooes really stood out: Eric Lindell.

So when I saw his name in the line-up at last Saturday's Bite of Bend, I grabbed my camera and headed down there to take some shots and enjoy his music.













Overall, it's just real nice to see a musician do well, and judging from the concert line-up he has on his site, he seems to keep busy.

For anybody interested in hearing his sound, head on over here.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

As I had promised yesterday, the PDF of that story I wrote and shot for Log Home Design Ideas Magazine is now resized to something a bit more sane.

Click on the small versions below to see the full-size jpegs (at 72dpi):












Note: While LHDI did a bang-up job on the layout - thanks, Dave! - the original story was quite a bit longer and more detailed. Hence, if you actually go ahead and read it, and it ends up sounding a bit cut up, then that's why.

Addendum: It's always wildly interesting to me just how and why photo editors choose the images they do. I personally had some real favorites from shooting this stunning home that didn't make it into the final article. If anybody is interested to check out the rest of the shots, they can mosey on over here and here.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, Bend Oregon photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

I love surprises. Especially when they're ... uhmm ... pleasant.

Working with national magazines who have a 12-14 months leadtime on an assignment or article, you sometimes loose track of exactly who is going to publish what, where and when. Especially when they've already paid you for it long ago too.

So it was that only a few days ago I remembered that the feature I had written and shot for Log Home Design magazine last year was going to run in this June issue.

And upon checking the mag out online - looky here! - I was surprised to find that one of my shots had actually made the cover! Weeee ...



Alas, the swift publishing pace of the mag has already pushed the magazine off the shelves at B&N in Bend and replaced it with the July/August issue. Luckily, the kind photo editor at LHD sent me a huge PDF of the article, so once I have that resized, I'll post it here for people to check out.

Cool though. A milestone for sure.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, Bend Oregon photographer, commercial photographer Bend Oregon, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

This coming Friday & Saturday is going to be FUN.

I'm one of 30 photographers who will be descending on Bend and surrounding areas that day for a special Bend Living project.

The goal is to capture the soul of the community, and the best photography will be published in a lenghty portfolio in the Novembere/December edition of the magazine. My assignment will be to cover downtown Bend.

The best part though: the proceeds of the possible spin-offs - a coffee-table style book, calendar and photo exhibit - are all going to a local charity, the Bethlehem Inn homeless shelter in Bend.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, book publishing, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

This is the season in Central Oregon where one can get outdoors and take on pretty much any sport that trips one fancy. Thanks to the fantastic snowlevels this past winter, the rivers are raging right now, and rafting the Deschutes River can turn into some serious fun.

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a little photo excursion with fellow photographer Stuart Gibson and we amused ourselves by doing some "raft-by" shooting when two rafting groups from the COCC floated by.

Here are some of the shots (the entire gallery can be found here):

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

Ahhhh ... SUMMER.

Yes, it's finally here. With 95+ temps and glorious thunder-and-lightning storms every evening. Heaven. (The fact that we still shovelled snow in Central Oregon no less than 4 weeks ago is *almost* forgotten already ...).

So during our 6th Bend Slideluck Potshow last night, this photo was taken from the porch of our host house:



And somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear Judy Garland singing ...

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography

If you've seen today's Health & Fitness section in the Bend Bulletin, you couldn't have missed the front page feature on Pilates (sorry, folks - no link to the actual story... uhmmm... it's subscription-only).

Incidentially, the pictures that accompanied the article for once weren't shot by the paper's own PJs - rather, they used the shots I had taken a few weeks back at my friend Diane's Pilates Center of Bend (she was interviewed for the article and tipped the paper off to the images).



So I thought I'd tutor anybody interested in creating similar images on how to achieve these kinds of motion effects. It takes a bit of planning ahead, but it's easy, really.

Step 1: Shoot numerous images while your model is in motion. The important part here is that you either mount your camera on a tripod, or if that isn't possible, you employ a steady handhold while shooting. You want the lines of the body to match up later.

Step 2: Open the desired images in Photoshop. I don't recommend working with more than three images at a time - unless the motion stretches across the entire image, overlaying more images can get visually confusing.



Step 3: Choose your background image (above). Go to your second image, and with the Marquee tool, select the part of the image you want to overlay. Cut and paste that as a new layer onto your background image.

Step 4: Go to Layer > Add Layer Mask and create a mask on your second image. Reduce Opacity on that layer to about 30%. Click on the mask, and with a soft black brush (at 100%) erase everything but the parts you want to showcase the motion with. Your images should now look something like this:



Step 5: Repeat with your third image. Play with the layer opacities to get the desired effect. Done!

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography, sports fitness photographer Bend Oregon

Last Sunday, a most glamorous event was held at Bend's Tower Theater - the 2nd annual BendFilm Oscar party.



Just like 800 miles to the South - in a mystical place called Hollywood - the people of Bend succumbed to the lure of glitz, glam, fur and shiny jewels (some fake, some not so fake) and turned out in force to show off fabulous gowns and stylish tuxedos.



After running the gaunlet of screaming fans and paparazzi on the red carpet...



... they got busy sipping champagne and saketinis and nibbling on fresh mussels and creamy gorgonzola...



... while Jon Stewart cracked jokes on the big screen.



Costumes were encouraged - and quite obviously embraced with gusto, as one can see from these examples:





A certain editor of a certain Bend glossy publication even went the extra mile and impersonated one of the night's Oscar contenders for Best Film ...



When the night was over, Oscars had been distributed, champagne was spilled, fun was had, and funds were raised for one of the worthiest causes: independent film.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography

One of the reasons for my recent lack of blog posts was an almost one-week long trip to Seattle to see some friends.

As it sometimes happens in life, things go upside down, and our friends had their baby a bit earlier than anticipated. So I got to see (and photograph) their brandnew baby - a girl with the lovely name of Sophia Lilly - up close and personal.


Sophia, less than 24 hours old, holds her mama's finger.


Sophia on her first photo shoot.


Being born a bit early brings on the conveninence of being able to hang out in a tiny and really cozy warm see-through box for a while - although her parents were anxious to take her home.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography

What do you get if you combine some olympic-grade snowboarders, a world-class event and a really, really nasty blizzard?

A very cool, but cancelled event. With some unhappy snowboarders. And some serious fresh powder.

Such it was last Saturday at the Chevrolet US Snowboard Grand Prix. No less than 15 minutes after I arrived at the Superpipe (and *after* checking in at the media desk and then huffing and puffing my way up the steep and snowy hill for 10 minutes, mind you), the cool dude who had narrated the event with much gusto, informed all the other resident dudes and dudettes that - uhmm, so *totally* sorry, man - the event would be postponed until later, or at least the next day.

I fired off exactly 15 frames prior to that, obsessively trying to protect my rather water-sensitive camera from the driving snow and hoping Mother Nature would chill. No use.

I did see some rad moves by the snowboard kids, but documentation in the manner intended (with blue skies, sunshine, and actually being able to see out of my eyes) fell sadly short, to say the least. Hence, below pictures:





Yepp, they suck. I know.

Making my way back to the base then, I came to know what the term "snow blind" means. With snow crystals, sharp like tiny razors, coming at me with insane speeds, not even the combined efforts of my sunglasses, hood, and shawl were able to protect my eyes enough to actually be able to keep them open - I staggered down the hill blind, having faith in the fact that *other people* could (maybe) see me and get out of the way in time.

On Sunday, I contemplated a return to shoot the Superpipe and the Slope-style finals, but after checking the Mountain's Weather Page and Webcam and seeing nothing but snow, I ditched it in favor of another adrenaline sport - playing four solid hours of Baldur's Gate.

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, oregon stock photography, photography, sports fitness photographer Bend Oregon

Yesterday, I went down to the Deschutes River in La Pine, near Pringle Falls, taking some shots for the Upper Deschutes River Natural Resources Coalition.

The waterlevel looked to be about 6 to 8 feet below normal, exposing the black obsidian on the river's shore, in places whitened by dried algae. An older fisherman I came cross only mutely shook his head when I asked him how the fish were biting, and shuffled off with his head hanging low.

Given what I had to work with, I decided on some close-ups - of which this one here became my favorite:



(By the way, it's all private property down there. I got permission in advance from the homeowners association to access this part of the river, so please, folks, don't go trampling around down there without asking first.)

I later talked to the president of the homeowners association, who told me that every year around this time, the powers in charge of the water supply turn off the faucet at the dam upstream, leaving only just enough water so the fish can survive. It stays that way until spring. The reason is conservation - so the farmers down-stream will have enough supply next summer to water their crops.

Now, I could launch into this long rant about how I detest the practices of the local water-management officials who seem to base their decisions purely on a commercial rationale, and with little regards towards the natural health of the river, its inhabitants and the wildlife who relies on it. But - that would do little good, now would it?

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, oregon stock photography, photography

Last week, the good people at the Oregon Business Magazine sent me on an assignment into the foothills of the Ochoco Mountains, near Prineville. I was to do a portrait of Rick Steber, celebrated writer of Western novels and recent recipient of the "Best Western Novel" award for his new book Buy The Chief a Cadillac.

I ended up hanging out in his cabin for three hours. He read to me out of a couple of his books, told me about the time when his dog Strider got attacked by coyotes, and talked about all the interesting people and stories he comes across while travelling the West. It was utterly fascinating, and I was having a real cowgirl moment.

Of course, I did take his picture too:

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography, portrait photographer Bend Oregon

After the awards party on Saturday eve I was seriously exhausted, so I took yesterday off to recover - and hence, the pics from that event are up a day late. I hope you all still enjoy them though:


The amazingly talented Marcia Whitehead sings an aria after the screening of "Laundry and Tosca", the documentary based on her quest to become an opera singer


The BendFilm awards festivities at the Elks Lodge get started with a drink at the beautifully decorated bar


Central Oregon's own "American Idol" Katie Rush greets the guests at the door with her glowing smile


Jody Denton, head chef and owner of "Merenda" restaurant, puts the finishing touches on the dessert buffet


The evening kick-starts with the announcement of the "Indie Kids" award.


Mark Duplass accepts the award for Best Screenplay for "Puffy Chair"


The audience loved Taggart Siegel's "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" so much, they awarded him the Big Check with an almost 99% approval rating


Taggart Siegel lets Farmer John give direct thanks to BendFilm over the cell phone after the movie wins its second award of the evening for "Best Documentary"


The "Best in Show" award went to "Shakespear Behind Bars", a documentary about a band of prison convincts who put on a production of Shakespear's "The Tempest"



From singer to singer: Marcia Whitehead chats with Central Oregon "Idol" Katie Rush


A happy Taggart Siegel celebrated his win with Hanna Elias, director of "The Olive Harvest"


Winners Circle (from left): Scott Coleman Miller ("Uso Justo"), Evan Stuart ("Reality Check"), Taggart Siegel ("The Real Dirt on Farmer John"), Mark Duplass ("The Puffy Chair"), Taggart's producer, and Devor Robinson ("Police Beat")


The most sought-after piece of brass of the evening - the BendFilm trophy

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography

For those interested (and seriously - who isn't?), here are shots from the second day at the BendFilm festival:


At the screening of the much-anticipated documentary "The Eskimo and the Whale" by Bend filmmaker Jenn Hofman


A sold-out McMenamin's theater


Author and "Oregonian" film critic Shawn Levy discusses his new book ...


... "The Last Playboy", at DiLusso's Coffee shop


Filmmaker Taggart Siegel ("The Real Dirt on Farmer John") at home with his Bend host family


Free public transportation, provided by the "GreenEnergy" bus


Party at the "Tigerlily" boutique on Minnesota


The sponsors from Oregonlive.com at the Tigerlily party


Filmmaker Evan Stuart ("Reality Check") at the Sportsvision/Bend Living party


The jam-packed party at the Sportsvision store on Wall Street is in full swing


BendFilm founder Katie Merritt & friend at the Sportsvision/Bend Living party

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography

In my function as volunteer photographer for this year's BendFilm Festival, I was out there yesterday to cover the first day of the Festival.

Here are a selection of shots:

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography

As a kid, I spent many Sunday mornings staring at the beautiful colored-glass windows and the lofty rib vaulting of the ancient Roman Catholic church in the small town in Switzerland where I grew up.

Never mind that I wasn't a catholic. But I volunteered to go to church with my catholic friends, just so that I could sit and examine the tall gothic windows, detailed painted ceilings, and intricate wooden carvings at my leisure during mass. My protestant parents didn't mind.

And it was here that I fell in love with architecture, probably without even fully realizing it. To this day, I relish the quiet, almost magical quality of a church - the creaking of those old wooden benches, the hushed voices, the distinct smell of old, musty stone.

There's also something awe-inspiring and symbolic about the art and architecture of a church, especially an ancient European one. But I've learnt to appreciate a religious painting or sculpture for the pure artistic value of it, without letting its subject matter affect me.

So on my recent trip to Vienna I stopped off at one of the city's most commanding sights - the St. Stephan's Cathedral. The weather was dull and grey outside, so the church's interior seemed darker and gloomier than I'm sure it would have been usually.

Yet when a sudden sun burst briefly lit up the windows, the effect was wonderous:

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Here's another snippet from the European travel files, as they trickle in...

The Emperor's Crypt in Vienna is truly a place of beauty as much as it is of death. The bronze coffins from the 16th and 17th century are enduring artistic masterpieces from their time, never mind their morbid suject matter. Lavishly encrusted with symbols of death and religion, they hold the remains of the 146 proud kings, queens, and noblemen that once ruled the extended Austrian kingdom. The last one was buried there in 1990.

Labels: architectural photographer Bend Oregon, architectural photography, editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography, travel, travel photographer

I *was* going to save this image for Halloween - but as I browsed through the new pictures from my Europe trip, I found this one really struck me. So I figured, what the heck...


Crowned skull figure at corner of 16th Century crypt, Emperor's Crypt, Kapuziner Church, Vienna, Austria

I'll try and post at least one pic a day as I make my way through the approx. 1000 images, so please hang in there with me.

Labels: editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography, travel, travel photographer

Last night, downtown Bend was turned into a playground for the ultra-super-hyperfit - the 25th annual Twilight Criterium, part of the Cascade Cycling Classics.

This basically means, that the entire downtown section gets shut down to make way for a 6-corner cycling race like no other - men and women (separated into classes), at one with their sleek bikes, burn up the pavement for a respective 50 and 60 minute race, cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand.

Despite the low-light conditions and objects moving at a blinding speed (the pack created a breeze that blew up skirts and whirled dust and hay into the air), the photo opp was too good to resist. So for everybody who couldn't be there for the excitement, here are a few visuals to enjoy (to see the entire gallery, go here):

Labels: editorial photographer Bend Oregon, Editorial Photography, photography, sports fitness photographer Bend Oregon