the Ujjyana Tea Co.

i meet a lot of people on my photo adventures,  and every now and again,  i meet family that is just sooo freakin' cool  it almost totally renews my lost faith in humanity.   The Ujjyana tea peeps,  Miguel, Nicole and their daughter Eva are one of these families.  Ujjyana (oo-khee-ahna) meaning "drink"  in quechue is a brand new portland company.   they spent the afternoon is my  (sweltering) studio yesterday as we did some new product shots.    and i gotta say,  we had a blast.   so check out their tea, available at new seasons and many other spots around pdx.  or look em up HERE .

the holga goes to the rodeo

i just got some film back from the july 4th rodeo.   remember film?  its that stuff your parents used to remember what you looked like when you were little...

happy birthday America

this year,  the misses and i went down to watch the rodeo in St. Paul Oregon.  it was a beautiful day, and for a city slicker such as myself,   and a pretty interesting and amazing experience.   I definitely got my fill of cowboy hats,  anti Obama sentiment,  livestock of all kinds and unadulterated christianity for one year.   See ya next July 4th.

from Russia with love

 this is a good one....

so a few months ago,  i get a random email from a magazine in Russia looking for some Portland restaurant photos for a story.   seemed a little random and more than a little dodgy,  so i wrote back and said sure,  i have images,  you guys wanna buy some?   here was they're response,  possibly the greatest email i have ever received in my professional career:

Dear Braine,
Yes, we pay . We are interesting in pictures when we can feel city throw cafes, restaurant , food markets. It can be everything with food on it.  Also we are writing  about hipsters...)))
So, if you have pictures like hipsters seating in nice cafe in the city center –will be grate!)

All the best,
Yana

not quite sure where the "Braine" came from,  since every other email they address me as david.   but at this point,  they can have anything they want because that was awesome.   in the long run,  i did a little research and Afish Eda,  the magazine in question,  is probably the best food culture magazine in the Eastern hemisphere.   the portland article is about 10 pages long with tons of photos.   since its completely in russian,  i have no idea what they are saying,  but i hope to god its about all the hipsters....

i couldn't have said it better myself

the  Mercury came out today,   with one of my photos on the cover.    pretty fuckin' stoked on the image and the sentiment behind it!  I'd like to mention with all humility that  i cooked,  styled and shot the whole thing  myself but couldn't have made the image happen without the wonderful art direction and collaboration of one Justin "Scrappers" Morrison,   portlands favorite prodigal son returned.  

 Thanks for bringing me in on this project.  And for supplying the badass authentic ka-bar knife.

Lars and the real shrooms

if you live in the portland area and you want the best wild mushrooms,  fresh truffles or other seasonal delicacies,   you pretty much gotta deal with Lars Norgren.    i first met/shot lars about 5 years ago when i shot him for the Paley's Place photo project.   he is a genuine, kind and ridiculously knowledgable man and last week i had the good fortune to spend the afternoon foraging with him and his amazingly sweet dog Betsy.   This is for the Le Pigeon cookbook....

what to do when you get a free case of ramps...

the other day i was shooting at Le Pigeon for their upcoming cookbook and Gabriel says,   i got this case of ramps I'm not going to use.   want em?       sure,  i says.   so i popped over to the studio and had a little fun...

shooting French wines for Imbibe

the new issue of Imbibe just came out.   it was art director Molly Henty's first issue and she did an amazing job.    it was a challenging but fun shoot,  and Molly was great to work with.   looking forward to more Imbibe shoots in the future.

i love my job

last week i was hired by new seasons to beef up (no pun intended) their stock (still no pun intended)  of BBQ photos for the upcoming summer grilling season.   i was handed a few gift cards and told to go to town at the shop,  buy a bunch of food,  cook it,  style it and shoot it.   so thats just what i did....  hung out in my backyard for two sunny days with elvis,  simon,  bea,  zsa zsa,   and two grills...  doing what i love to do,   playing with food.    here are some of my faves:

Spella Coffee for Market of Choice

i just did my first shoot with the local supermarket Market of Choice.   I had never heard of Spella coffee,  but it seems everyone else in town has.... and loves them.    The owner,  Andrea Spella was great to work with,  as was the Art Director from MoC,  Lyn Ryse.   We did some location portraits at the roaster and then i did some product shots in the studio.

a trip to Dutcher Farm

all in all,  i am one pretty lucky dude.  currently i am shooting both the Le Pigeon and the Toro Bravo cookbooks.   not only are the chefs of those places two of my best friends,  but their restaurants, food and staff are all amazing.

on top of that,  i get to travel around and meet all sorts of cool folks in conjunction with the projects.   last week,  to get some portraits of the owner of Nicky USA, Jeff and his right hand man,  Nicky Bob,  we took a quick drive out to a farm in Boring where they get some of their rabbits, duck eggs, and lamb.   the Dutcher family were so gracious,  their animals were amazing and Jeff and Bob were great.  as you can see,  i got a ton of cool images.

to learn more about Dutcher Farm,  click HERE.

new catching the ox

i just finished up the newest installment of my food photo project catching the ox.   my partner in crime this time around was the lovely and talented Ariana Vitale,   an amateur photographer in her free time, Ariana is an amazing bartender.  (she just won a cocktail contest that afforded her an all expense paid trip to the Encanto Pisco distillery in Peru.  Not bad!!)    she chose Salad as the theme.   this was a hard one,  but i feel a well won victory.    check out the whole project HERE.

the lovely andrea sloenecker

for the uninitiated,  andrea is a really talented local food writer who is currently finishing up her first book about pretzel making.  i was supposed to go over to andrea's apartment and shoot some new headshots for her.   i fucking hate headshots.    so this is what we ended up with.  we had a great morning... drank a little Lillet,  talked shop, took some photos,  ate some stew.   i rarely get to shoot portraits these days,  so i really tried to take advantage of the opportunity.    and i gotta say,  i really love these.   andrea,  sorry we actually never got the headshots taken care of.  soon,  i promise.

thrift store project pt. 16

i don't often post 2 images for the TSP,  but i really couldn't decide which of these i like better,  so whatevs.  i'm posting 2.  deal with it.    i have always been a big fan of owls and this guy just caught my eye.   i thought he was so cool  i didn't even notice his missing toes until the lady at the register pointed it out.  by then it didn't really matter tho.  i knew he was gonna make a good addition to the project.

new times with my old friends

many moons ago,  i was a cook at Simpatica.   recently i was hired to shoot a PIKA fundraiser they were catering.  here are some of my personal favorites from the day.

portland juice press

i was recently hired to shoot a new company called portland juice press.  started by two women in town,  the company offers fresh squeezed juices delivered  right to your door.  check em out HERE.