Inessential Stuff

Well, you can tell it’s wedding season by the infrequency of my posts here.  Sorry about that.  I plan on a few more posts in the next few days, but I also have 3 weddings in the next 8 days, so we’ll see.

Anyway, I did manage to get a Trash the Dress shoot in with Kayla and Lucas, whose wedding was just a few weeks ago.   We decided on a farm shoot, plus a bit down at Liberty Lake.

We scheduled it for last Monday.  Locals will tell you that on last Monday, one of the most spectacular storms rolled into the Spokane area, a storm of biblical proportions.  Okay, I exaggerate, but only slightly.  5500 homes lost power.  The dust in the air (and smoke from fires) made the air quality the worst that day than it had been in over three years.  The rain that fell that night (starting while we were at the lake) was the first in six weeks, the 6th longest span Spokane has gone without rain.  It had been 104 on Sunday.  On Wednesday, it was 68.  So yeah, it was a big storm.

The benefits?  Some cool dress-blow-in-the-wind shots, beautiful undulating grass and reeds, and a sense of drama.  The disadvantages?  Crashing light-stands, dust in the eyes, ant hills (okay, the ant hills would have been there either way), and, at the lake, tree limbs floating past the bride and groom.

Actually, things were so crazy at the lake, that I didn’t get the kind of shots I wanted.  I have one on this page so you can see how neat the reeds looked (and how gorgeous Kayla, and handsome Lucas, looked);  but the gallery includes shots just from the farm location.

Click right this way for another gallery.  This is Taryn, and we did this shoot at the same time as I did the shoot with Valerie.  Thus, the same field, same lighting.  The difference is in their different personalities.  It was the first time I had worked with Taryn, and I thought she was great.  We are definitely going to shoot again.

(For those of you who might be offended, be aware that this gallery contains images that contain.)

It was so fun with Christalle (see below), I thought I’d do another.  See if I could get a different mood with basically the same concept.

So Valerie (and Taryn, who will show up in a future post) and I went out, found a remote wheat field, and shot away.  For July, the evening was cool.  A big moon came out.  The stillness of the wheat field, in moonlight, and Valerie slipping away toward the warmth of the car was a scene so perfect, I wish I had captured that on film (or in pixels, as it were).

But these images will do.

(For those who might be offended, be aware that this gallery includes some images that contain nudity.)

I haven’t posted in a while because it’s the middle of wedding season, which has been keeping me busy.  Still, this last week, I managed to work in a shoot with Christalle.  We had shot before, in miserable, cold conditions, so it seemed proper and right that we should shoot on a glorious summer evening.  We shot in the evening, past sunset, and into dusk.

I’m a Walla Walla boy–grew up with wheat fields behind my house.  Maybe that’s why there is something about wheat fields that speak to me.  But put me in the middle of rolling wheat fields, under a massive sky, and I get a sense of the infinite.

So anyway.  I had been wanting to do a shoot in a wheat field.  Results here.

So after Kelsey and Doug’s wedding–after the ceremony had ended and the portraits were done–the newlyweds and their families stood around outside the church, talking, joking, celebrating. While I was taking pictures, I found myself smiling. I enjoyed watching Kelsey and Doug interact. They had an easy, playful manner along with a clear affection. It occurred to me that they would be perfect for an idea I had been thinking about for a while: a “trash the dress” shoot.

So on a whim, I asked Kelsey if she had any plans for the dress. She said she didn’t. They were about to run off to their reception, then honeymoon, but I said I’d email them a proposal.

When they arrived back from their Hawaiian honeymoon, jetlagged, she wrote back (at 1:40 AM!), eager to give it a try. They were as excited about the idea as I was and were game for whatever I suggested.

So a week later we headed out for Bear Lake, north of Spokane, at around 6:30 in the morning. We shared the lake with a fisherman or two and many singing red-winged blackbirds. Kelsy, Doug and I all went into the lake–not as cold as we feared–and we had a great time (photographic proof here). I know that sounds like a standard line, but it was an experience that I’ll carry with me for a long time, and every one of my memories will be happy ones.

The shoot started in an alley, but I thought there were some houses down near Sprague Avenue that might be good backdrops for Nicole.

We actually stopped at one house first, but it didn’t seem quite right.  The second house we found was this green one, a kind of perfect complement for Nicole’s yellow dress. Sometimes one just gets lucky.

So this is part two.

We had a brutal spring here (or a long winter), and I sent my camera to the factory service center for an upgrade, and an assortment of other over-riding factors prevented Nicole and me from getting a shoot done.  It prevented us for months.

Until last week.  Finally.

The whole concept for the shoot was built around color–in particular, a yellow dress.

We started in an alley. We ended at a house. So this is part one.

One day last June, I was driving around the back roads and I discovered this beautiful old house, abandoned, in the middle of no where, desolate and lonely and kind of spooky:

It was about an hour away from Spokane, but I knew right then that I wanted to do a shoot there–late evening, maybe towards dark–play around with some off-camera lighting.

I also knew the look I wanted:  desolate, bleak, hopelessly lonely.  I even had some ideas for props:  old suitcases, maybe a hat case.  My wife was able to procure those from the theater department at her school.  I just needed a model.

I was after a certain look:  someone who could look haunted, abandoned, cold, as if she had been waiting for a ride, but the ride had never come, and here she was, years later, stuck in time, still waiting.

I had one shoot set up.   But the model never committed to a time.  Then another model was interested, but had to cancel at the last minute.  I thought Elly might be perfect, and we had a shoot set up, but then something came up and the shoot was postponed for several months.

But finally–finally!–the day came.  I was afraid the weather might be inappropriately cheerful, but we “lucked out” by scheduling what turned out to be the coldest day in a couple of weeks.  On the hour drive out there, we rain pelted the car.  And then we arrived.

No house.

Maybe I hadn’t remembered right.  I drove up and down the road.  But I was sure I was in the right place.  Finally, I called my wife, who looked up at the old images I had taken, and the time-stamps on them, and I was able to determine that I was very, very close indeed.  But there was no house.  And then we saw it:  a bit of rubble around a foundation.  The house had been razed.

The light was dying.  We were an hour away from Spokane.  More rain seemed on the way.  So we improvised.  I knew of another abandoned house, another 30 miles or so away.  So we drove like crazy to get there.

And we pulled off this shoot.

It was cold, especially with the wind, and Elly was a super-trooper who only asked for a single coat-break (the high-resolution images reveal goosebumps throughout).  She was patient while I fidgeted (in my warm fleece) with the lights.  And she delivered exactly what I was hoping for.

So all’s well that ends well, I suppose.  But wish they hadn’t torn down the house, just the same.

My wife and son and I were up in Seattle visiting my sis and bro-in-law and nephews, and we took in an Angles’ game (not to be confused with a Mariner’s game).  I decided at the last minute it might be a fun idea to do a shoot in the stadium, so I did a quick casting call, and managed to find the talented Brittney Burke (much thanks) the day before the game.  So we did a shoot up in the far, high, nose-bleed seats at Safeco Field.  Here are the results.

I did another fashion shoot with Ronnie from Glamarita. Our last shoot had been a bit chilly, so we scheduled this one for April 5. You know, Spring. For an outdoor shoot. Only it was snowing on April 5. Ronnie pulled some strings and arranged access to The Blvd, a BBQ house and music venue, so much thanks to them for helping out in a pinch.

So here are the results of the shoot. For those interested, it was done entirely with off-camera lighting, with a 580EX II flash through a transparent umbrella (plus a bit of natural light around the pool table). Take a peek at the pics, leave comments, and be sure to stop by the Glamarita store to buy some clothes.