November 24, 2018 Intimate Wedding at Clarklewis || Portland, OR

A couple weeks ago I got to live out one of my many dreams; I got to photography a wedding in Portland. The milestone was exciting, but it was my experience at the wedding that really reminded me why I began photographing weddings in the first place. Every single piece of this celebration - from the seating assignments using a photo of one or both of the brides with the assignee to the dozen toasts to the chorus of every guest singing the final ceremony song - was personal. The atmosphere of the entire day was one of thoughtfulness, of peace, of brilliant happiness (both for the couple and from them.)

Travel Prints || Portland, Oregon Film Photography

In the span of my first three trips to Portland, I shot five rolls of film. On this past trip, I shot five rolls of film.

Street photography has become meditative for me. Since I’m shooting only for myself, it allows me space to try new things while developing my style, to continually train my eye to find the story. It’s also a time for me to “unwind,” to let everything else on my mind melt away for a couple hours while I focus solely on the sights around me.

Cannon Beach Roadtrip: Making Friends as I Go

I talk about that a lot - not having a plan. That’s become rather important to me this year. I mean, obviously it’s useful to have some sort of game plan for a lot of things (I know several routes I’d like to explore in my business next, for example), but the key is to not get hung up on one objective, not fixate on one goal. So, when I organized the trip, all I said was that I wanted to go to the coast and I wanted to take photos, and that if we added in a winery visit I would not complain.

Portland in November Days 1-3: A Little Bit of Everything

I finished up what turned out to be one of the best days I’d had in a good while with a delicious meal at Thai Peacock. Noodles are good in all circumstances, but perfectly cooked Pad Thai with crispy trout after a very long day of photography really hit the spot. As I took the bus back to the house, I reflected once again on what an amazing journey it’s been: from that first feeling that Portland was the place to start, to this day capturing the love of two people I would never have gotten to be friends with had I not taken the initial plunge. Sometimes things happen slower than you want them to, but now that I’m on the other side enjoying the fruits of all my hard work, I can see that every bit of it was worth it for a day like this.

Travel Prints || Portland Film Photos

Interestingly enough, while I've spent the most time out of any destination in Portland, Oregon I've shot the least amount of film there. This is probably because I'm always there to do portrait sessions, which I still shoot in digital. Nonetheless, each day as I'm walking to my meetings or shoots, I always have my Vivitar locked and loaded. Along the way, I've created some images I'm quite happy with, a very basic beginning in capturing the flavor of the city.

Portland in March Days 2-3: Museums, Meetings and the Best Tea Ever

As much as I love writing, particularly in entertainingly depicting my travels (and often misadventures), sometimes all I want to do is make photos. So, for this latest trip to Portland in March, that's exactly what I did. However, now that I've stayed put in Asheville for over a month and am itching to get back out on the road - or even better, the plane - I'm having to satiate my travel bug my reliving my pleasant week spent exploring more of the city I've fallen in love with.

In particular, I keep daydreaming of the hour I spent enjoying tea by myself in the Chinese Gardens as the rained pattered off the tin roof, so to get myself back in the same headspace I'm writing this from Dobra Tea enjoying a pot of puer and tea cake.

Portland Family Photoshoot || Alison, Tom and Josie's In-Home Session

Alison, Tom and Josie were one such family. When Jen put us in touch, Alison said that they hadn't had any family photos made since their daughter, Josie, now three-and-a-half years old, was born - it was definitely time to change that! A family who loves simple pleasures, they wanted to do their photoshoot in their home to "capture the simple joy of being together just the three of us." I love in-home sessions for that exact reason; not only do they put my subjects at ease in front of the camera because they're in their own home, but they allow me to capture how they actually live their day-to-day lives. To me, these lifestyle sessions are the essence of what my brand is about: documenting the simple moments that my clients will want to remember years later. Not to mention, photographing inside meant we didn't have to worry about the constant Portland March rain!

Portland Day 1: Same Old Portland

It's funny traveling to a city that's at once all the way across the country and yet so familiar. Now on my third trip to Portland, while the city doesn't feel like "home" precisely, I've found it easy to jump right into the rhythm of life here without even thinking about it.

One of the best part of traveling from East coast to West is the time change: the only way I function decently after getting up at 7:30am is when it actually feels like 10:30! I walked the girls to the bus stop as usual, then quickly got ready and headed off to my first meeting of the day, a wedding consult for a couple whose engagement photos I shot last year.

Portland Family Session + Birthday Celebration

Since they hadn't gotten photos with the whole family together in quite a long time, we started the gorgeous sunlit evening with some group portraits out in front of the house - first with just Sue and her daughters, then with spouses as well. Not only did their outfit colors all coordinate with each other (and the house!), but they had so many perfect seating spots for portraits - especially the wooden swing - so I felt like the yard was made just to be a photographer's playground.

Portland Day 1: All of My Favorite Things

I started off my first full day in Portland bright and early, catching the bus at 7:30 to get over to Cathedral Park for my first session. I was really hoping that since it was actually 10:30am in Asheville I might have an easier time waking up, but no such luck. So with bleary eyes, I transferred to the MAX along with every other person in Beaverton and attempted to not stick out as we bumped and jostled our way along. I certainly can't speak for everyone, but whenever I travel I always feel this need to look as un-touristy as possible (perhaps a reflex from being an American abroad), but trying to look unmoved as I repeatedly jolted from side-to-side, white-knuckling the hand rail, was a bit difficult. It did wake me up though!

Mudiyanur Family Photo Album

Every album comes with its own set of storytelling challenges and for family albums, that challenge is generally making sure each person has their fair share of page space. For this album, we used a mix of sibling photos, spreads with all three girls (the sisters plus their cousin), and a few individual pages and spreads to give each sister the spotlight.

Jeannie + Anne's Downtown Portland Engagement

I really can't emphasize enough how well everything fell into place for this Portland trip. Only a week or so before my departure, Jen emailed me saying that two of her friends (who were also the witnesses at her elopement) had recently gotten engaged and would be interested in an engagement session. I could not have asked for a more fun and easygoing pair to work with!

Jen and John's Mt. Tabor Elopement in Portland, OR

These two almost-weds had selected the crest of Mt. Tabor Park as the place to make their vows, so we grabbed what we needed for their ceremony and hiked up the numerous steps to the top, coming out into a grove of evergreen trees. Jen and John both practice mindfulness, so they wanted to begin their ceremony with a few minutes of silence as they readied themselves for marriage. Their unique idea was to set up a circle of flowers which they would each step into once they were ready to begin. In a stroke of genius, Jen had the idea to bring a hula hoop in order to create a perfect circle (this hula hoop also served a photographic purpose later in the shoot) so Jen, John and their two friends/witnesses set about selecting greenery and placing flowers from Costco around the hoop.

Jen and John's Portland Coffeeshop Engagement

"Some people follow their dreams. Others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission." This is the quotation that graced the back of our team t-shirts one year in high school and I've found it's applicable to a lot of things, especially business as I believe you really have to go after what you want. When I was planning my trip to Portland, OR last month, I knew I wanted to photograph a couple of engagement shoots and an elopement to use for my destination portfolio, so I sent out email upon email to local professionals hoping to find the right people to work with, and I did! As it happened, although he performs far more full weddings than elopements, Steve of A Beautiful Ceremony was officiating an elopement the very week I'd be there and as it was planned last minute, they did not have a photographer. Long story short because I'll be talking about the elopement later this week, they were delighted with the idea of actually having photos of their special moment and just as excited about the idea of getting some more casual engagement photos.

Portland: The Rest

While I try to stay pretty on top of my blogging and social media, there is certainly something to be said for putting away the technology (except my camera, obviously!) and enjoying the moments, so that's what I did for the rest of my Portland trip. Though I arrive back in Asheville a couple days ago and am now headed to Columbia, SC to shoot the first round of the women's NCAA tournament, I had too much fun in Portland not to share.

Portland Day 4: Sunshine, Blue Skies and Happy Tears

I used to tease people who cried at weddings or movies - here's lookin' at you, Mom - and especially those who cried happy tears at things, but now I've become one of those people myself! Yesterday's forecast was more forgiving than any of the other days this week but still looked bleak, yet by the time Jen and John picked me up from my morning coffee to head over the Mt. Tabor, the sun was shining brilliantly. I've seen this happen many times, pouring rain during wedding day preparations only to miraculously turn into blue skies just in time, but the phenomenon never ceases to amaze me. That was the first ingredient of the recipe to make me cry.

Portland Day 3: Textures and Layers

To me, the best thing about traveling is getting to unravel the many layers of a place; getting to know the people, the culture, the history and ultimately the city's character. As people are very obviously not one-dimensional, so too are cities many-layered and today was one of those days where I got to see Portland from many different perspectives.

I started the day at the not-so-enjoyable hour of 5:30 am (I can feel myself slowly getting used to the time difference which made for a difficult morning) and made my way over the river - using 3 different buses, I might add - to meet Jen and John for their engagement shoot. I was pretty proud of myself for not only making it there, but actually getting there early.

Portland Day 2: Networking and International Women's Day

I had originally planned on writing two separate posts for today: one for my second day in Portland and one for International Women's Day. But because the celebration of feminism is a lifestyle and not an annual festivity for me, I thought it more appropriate to combine them. Now, if you're thinking of closing this post because I just said the word "feminism," perhaps keep an open mind here for a minute and see what I have to say.