catching the ox pt.7

i wanted to bring it back to basics, so this time around i chose salt and pepper. this is the yin and yang of savory cooking. ask any cook, if you cant master these two ingredients, yer not gonna get very far in the business.

meet rachel and kirsten

i have been trying to build a stronger fashion portfolio recently. i don't know too many models, per se, so i find it best just to shoot my friends. i got to go out to mt. hood a few weeks ago and spend the afternoon with two very lovely and
photogenic ladies. we had a blast and i got a ton of great portraits. i am even breaking my "only 3 shots per post" rule.

thanks, R & K.

thrift store inspiration

gotta keep shooting, and lets face it, it cant all be food! sometimes the best inspiration comes from a quick trip to the goodwill. i can always find something to throw in front of the camera for the afternoon. found this little guy for $2.99. i liked the look in his eye...

catching the ox pt.6

in honor of the fourth of july mike chose Beer, the all american bevvy as our next topic. dont have too much to say about this one. just more lighting practice. enjoy!

holga loves the great outdoors too

my girlfriend just ran her first triathlon 2 weeks ago in sun river (she kicked ass!!) so we decided to take the long way home with a few days through the deschutes national forrest and ht hood national forrest.

now, i normally say nature photography as a whole is anathema, but i just love how the holga can capture a scene. like a mental snapshot from a dream.

and yeah, thats right. i just used the word anathema.

catching the ox pt.5

in keeping with the whole local sustainable thing, mike and i decided to shoot asparagus before it went out of season and out of our lives for another year. i hope you ate your fill while it was around.

for the first time, i actually couldn't decide on one final image this time, so i am posting two. i am leaning toward the first one, so feel free to voice an opinion on which one should make the final cut.

the mayor of icecreamville

a recent assignment put chad draizin of fifty licks in front of the lens. he was a Blast. he showed up in a custom made 3 piece white pin stripe suit and a madras tie. (those who know me know that i'm a sucker for a madras tie.) his pic didnt make the final cut, but as you can see, he was a great guy to shoot and talk with. look for his ice cream cart in the ron toms area this summer. (BTW, this was shot in natural light!)

more new orleans on film

film is fun. besides from the mild but very obvious self righteousness associated with film use these days, its is an amazing form of delayed gratification. that used to be my favorite part of being a photographer.

with the digital era, instant gratification gets very comfortable very quickly, but sometimes its fun to shoot a few frames, completely forget what you shot, finish a roll a few months later, and suddenly that trip to the camera shop (in portland... Udevelop ...always!) is like christmas morning. whats in the stocking? two winners from new orleans.

cochon 555

this year, although it had a bit of an infamous finale, cochon 555 in portland was a huge success and a lot of fun. big props to Olympic Provisions chef, all around swell guy (and really good friend) jason barwikowski for kickin some major butt! good luck in Aspen dude.

i was the official photographer and soon you will be able to see all my shots on cochon555.com. for now, here are a few favorite selects. had some fun playing around with the digital double exposure...

self portrait time

i realized it was just about time for a new self portrait. i had a broncolor set up for the whole weekend (thanks, BTA) so i set up a little make shift studio, poured myself a cocktail, and switched to timer mode. good times. all in all, a very interesting exercise in editing.

catching the ox pt.4

as this project progresses, mike and i are talking about possible expansion and hopefully a seperate blog to share the images. stay tuned....

until then, for thid round, mike chose vodka. i decided to follow in the Irving Penn style of still life images, so i hit up two wonderful local russian food markets with great names: Russian Elegant Food and Good Neighbor. it took a whole afternoon, but i happy with the final result. and i styled it myself!

miho izakaya

i did a quick shoot at miho last week. the late afternoon light was beautiful. here are two you didnt get to see...

busy week

it was a busy week. 7 shoots in 4 days. if i had to edit it down to my very mostest favorite single photo, it would be from the Scotto di Carlo family, originators of supportland.com. check it out. an amazing family and a great local business idea.

gruner restaurant

i recently got hired to do the shooting at chris isreal's new restaurant, Gruner, which is really lucky because the food is great (and unbelievably photogenic) and the interior is beautiful. here are a few.

china forbes birthday bash

the day after the fashion show (see next posting) i got a last minute phone call to be party photographer for china ( the lead singer of pink martini.) really fun party... and shooting on-camera strobe two days in a row!

lots of chefs and musicians in attendance. storm large was nice enough to mug for the final pic of the night around 1 A.M.

mercury fashion show

i got put on the guest list last friday to shoot at the bossanova. (i had actually never been to a fashion show.) it was a blast! i dont know why all the photographers stand at the end of the catwalk though. seems kind of limiting...

here are a few of my faves.

catching the ox pt.3

this time around we chose knives as the general subject. i had had this image in my head for a while and wanted to try and create it.

its not easy to swing a cleaver and click a shutter at the same time.

we lost kan somewhere in the hills of japan, but hopefully he will be back around for a later installment.

i had bought 3 tilapia for props, and after the shoot, threw em on the grill and served them with some sweet and sour pickled cucumbers, white rice and cilantro.

saturday art market

for the second year in a row i am shooting the portland art market under the burnside bridge. great people watching and some fine artwork. here is a little local flavor.

lille boutique, portland oregon

just cause you don't have a model doesn't means you can't make it sexy...

new orleans

i lugged the mumiya 220 down to nawlins for some 120 film shooting (and a mighty fine Big Easy style wedding. here are the fine folks we went to see wed.

800 lbs of crawfish and a few pimms cups later... a good time was had by all.

catching the ox pt.2

here is the next segment in the photo project myself, mike gross and his japanese photo friend kan kanbayashi have been doing. last time it was mire poix. this time pizza. kan is up on the next subject, so we'll just have to wait and see what comes next.

the kids

what are they looking at?  i dont know.  there was nothing there.

you wanna buy some tea...

a few months ago i got to shoot steve smith,  creator of tazo tea.   since he had sold tazo to starbucks and was now starting a new line of teas,  i thought this would really illustrate the whole situation.    steve was a total trooper when i explained the idea,  offering up not only his own coat,  but the alley next to his office as location.   he was great,  and got really into the character.  the shot didnt work for the article,  but its still one of my favorite portraits.  

the whole time i was humming the song from that old sesame street skit "would you like to buy an O..."

the yashika T4

(yeah,  yeah,    i didnt even know who terry richardson was when i bought mine...)  

so i keep a yashika T4 in my car with B&W 35mm film.  it usually takes a few weeks to finish the roll.   i just finished a roll.   here are some highlights. 

catching the ox pt.1

i recently got back in touch with an old friend from jersey, mike gross, who as it turns out has become a pretty badass photographer in nyc. (click on his name and check him out - but then come back.) since we both shoot alot of food, i thought it would be fun to pick random food items, shoot em and compare. ( keeping the proverbial claws sharp while the assignments weren't rolling in.)

normally i think this sort of thing might be like putting two cats in a closet, but seeing as how we are 3000 miles apart i think the friendly competition can stay friendly.

he was down, so this is our first go at it. this is my take on mirepoix. you can see his shot on his blog. apparently he just recruited one of his photo buddies in japan to join in. stay tuned for pizza shots later this week.

we will be calling the project Catching the Ox, and a full website will be following soon, but for now, stay tuned for updates here...

adam green at dante's

"hey.  things wont be strange any day now. "       -adam green,  the jewish james dean.

natural light in portland

you gotta love portland's evening light,  accompanied by a light drizzle,  through the kitchen window.   even the dog looks dramatic.