My daughter laughed at me

I have to shoot a wedding!

My daughter Riley laughed when I told her what I was doing a few Saturdays ago. It’s not because she was making fun of me for shooting weddings, but three years ago I decided I was finished shooting weddings. I was not going to do them anymore, and I made a big deal of it, telling everyone. She said I had a ceremony or something to mark my last wedding, that sounds like me, but I don’t remember that.

 I had been shooting a wedding since I quit my job at the Gazette-Times. in 2004. Weddings were exciting  and saw the whole change in how wedding photography evolved. When I started there were just a handful of photographers shooting documentary style weddings and it was growing fast and very trendy. It was fun to be on the edge of that wave covering weddings just like I would as a photojournalist. I see myself as a storyteller and weddings are great stories to tell, they were fun to shoot. 

As my kids grew older and weekends became more valuable time, to spend with them I started shooting fewer of them. Pinterest and social media also changed wedding photography. All weddings began to look the same,  and I was getting bored telling the same story every weekend. I thought I was done with them forever. 

I still kept weddings up on my website and would even get inquiries about shooting them, but always passed on them. Saying was always “already booked that day” which was right, I was just booked doing something other than a wedding. Earlier this year I told my wife I think I might shoot a wedding this summer, I missed them, and Riley is going to college in the fall so the extra money would help with that. I am glad I did it.  Sarah and Brett’s wedding was beautiful with, and their marriage was perfect. I have a few wedding scheduled to shoot this summer, and I am happy to be doing weddings aga

15 days in Omaha

After a few days home I wanted to put down some thoughts and memories from my 15 days in Omaha where I was documenting the Oregon State baseball team's eight-game run to the National Championship. In the 26 years, I have been a professional photographer; this was one of the highlights of my career. Writing is hard for me,  I wanted to write this epic post about covering OSU Baseball in Omaha winning the 2018 National Championship and give a game by game blow of how each game was, what photos I like, what went right, and what I messed up on. I am running out of time though and want to get these photos and my thoughts up online. So I am just going to ramble on with my thoughts and get down what I can before I forget it all. 

Omaha by the numbers:

15 days in Omaha

34,000 photos shot

1.2 TB of photos

860 photos edited and delivered to OSU 

35 photos on average transmitted during each game to OSU for use on social media

109 photos in the slideshow above (My favorites from the trip)

4 hours and 31-minute rain delay during the Washington game. The longest delay in College World Series history

12 pieces of carrot cake I ate during the rain delay. Kasey Byers, the OSU videographer, was worried I was going to be sweating cream cheese frosting when the game resumed

4 hours and 24 minutes in the first game vs. North Carolina the longest 9-inning game in College World Series history

110º temperature on the field for the first game against North Carolina. With the humidity, it was the hottest weather I have ever shot photos in. It was miserable to work in

The Town

Omaha is a beautiful town, and they embrace the College World Series. It is the perfect place to hold the event, and I hope they never move it

Block 16: Ate lunch there three times and had the same thing each time, Nashville Hot chicken. I am craving it right now.

The Mercury Lounge: Great cocktail bar with couches and ample seating areas for large groups to hang out. It was where we celebrated the Beavers making it to the Championship series. The best drink was their Rich $ex cocktail 

Nite Owl: Best cocktail place in Omaha, one of the best bars I have ever been to. I went here twice; they had a riff on a Rum Old fashioned with cold pressed simple coffee syrup. It was the best cocktail I have had in a long time. I had four of them. Nite Owl is an in an area called Blackstone, it is out of the downtown tourist area where most of the fans hung out. Nite Owl has great bartenders and great food. The Sriracha Honey Chicken slider was the best thing I ate.

I tried to walk each morning, Omaha is a great walking town and our hotel was right in the middle of downtown. They have a park that runs through the city and connects to a path along the Missouri River. The best part is that they have a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Missouri River so you can walk to Iowa. I walked across the bridge five times. It was a great way to start the day.

Memories

I will never forget standing next to the dugout in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, knowing that with one more out the Beavers would win a National Championship. Before the Beavers won the National title in 2006 I thought I would never see an OSU team win a national title in any sport, and now in 2018 I am got to see them in person win their 3rd, and I am there to photograph it. I was nervous, adrenaline pumping through me. I was trying to collect my thoughts, what am I going to shoot? Who should I focus on? What should I shoot after the dog pile is over? Are my cameras all set correctly? Questions like that. Right before the last out, The NCAA photographer (I wish I could remember his name) asked me if I had ever shot a championship before, he could probably tell I was getting anxious. He gave me some advice. He told me that "The dog pile comes quickly," and something like "Focus on one person," and then he gave some words of encouragement. It was great advice and it calmed me down enough so I could do my job.

The night before was maybe the most exciting five minutes of my career. OSU is down to its last out and down to its last strike, Cadyn Grenier pops the ball up in foul territory on the first base side, right near me in the photo well. The game was going to be over, Arkansas was going to win the Championship, OSU would be going home losing two in a row. Every other photographer was focused on the pitcher because they wanted to get the dog pile photo. As three Arkansas players barreled towards the ball, I remember thinking that it was over. If you watched the game you know what happened, the ball dropped between them. I grabbed the camera around my neck and was one of the only photographers to get the photo of the play. After that Cadyn got a base hit to tie the game, and Trevor Larnach, the next batter hits a two-run home run into right field, and the Beavers win the game. It was magical, electric, and unbelievable.

The thing I think I will remember most from the 15 days is the celebration the day after. We landed in Portland and had two busses, along with two limos for the players to ride into a rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square. I did not ask, I just hopped into the second limo to get photos of the celebration. It was an enchanting ride. People in cars were stopping to honk and wave. Players were hanging out the windows, waving and enjoying every moment of the trip.  Pioneer Courthouse Square was packed with fans in orange. Early on I decided that I was going to shoot the fans and not the ceremony. I ran around shooting from every angle I could think of. I knew I needed to get up high to shoot an overall of the whole crowd. As soon as the ceremony started, I quickly ran from building to building until I found one that I could get into and up the elevator. It was amazing to get up about ten floors and watch a sea of fans dressed in orange. It was beautiful. The ride from Portland to Corvallis was just as fun. I skipped the limo and hopped in the bus which was a great decision. We followed the limos down I-5, traffic was slow, of course, so that gave the players a chance to hang out of the top of the limo's sunroof and celebrate with motorist almost the whole trip down I-5. When we turned on to Highway 34, things got crazy, people on both sides of the highway were pulling and over honking their horns and getting out of their cars to and wave at the team, and the closer we got to Corvallis the more people there were, and the slower we drove. The players soaked it in. When we got to Goss Stadium, the plan was for the team to park and walk on to the field, but someone at OSU made the brilliant decision to drive the limos with the team on top on to the outfield of Goss. The place went crazy. It was an incredible moment to be a part of. 

The celebration on Friday was a highlight for me. When we won the game on Thursday night, of course, I was ecstatic, but I also had to work. I did not have time to celebrate because I was taking photos and sending them as fast as I could to my great friend and fellow photographer, Ryan Gardner, who was editing and sending the images to Hank Hager, Kylie Murphy, and Trevor Creamer at OSU so they could get the photos out as fast as possible. When the celebration was over, and we were back at the hotel I was almost too exhausted to celebrate. I did, of course, have a few gin and tonics.

Photography stuff

These are the notes for me to help me improve the next time I shoot one.

I put up a remote-controlled camera every game trying to cover a different angle, I put them low to shoot home plate, high to shoot the whole field, I tried everything. I Did not get any good photos from the remotes. Two reasons, the remotes did not fire well at TD Ameritrade Park. Talking to other photographers who were there and also set up remotes informed me that no one had great success with the remotes. We concluded that there was too much metal in the park and that interfered with the signal. I need to figure out how to get the remote cameras to work before next year. The other reason was just the luck of baseball. For most of the games, I had them set to shoot home plate, to get that great play at the plate photo. For all the great plays at the College World Series, none happened at home plate. I have to keep setting up remotes at events. It is a pain sometimes and I would have to get to the ballpark at least 3 hours before the game to set them up, but I have the equipment and no excuses not to do it.

I tell myself all the time that it is okay to miss photos. When I look back, there are so many photos I'm angry for I missing. Two, in particular, I wish I had. First, after the dogpile freshman pitcher Kevin Able, who pitched an incredible game to win the series for OSU, had the trophy in his hands and his teammates lifted him up on to their shoulders, and he lifted the trophy above his head, it was very quick, I was in a bad position and did not get the photo. I wish I had that, I am still beating myself up. In game two vs Arkansas, the Beavers had tied the game in the top of the ninth, and Trevor Larnach came to the plate. Before ever batter, I go over in my head all the possibilities of what to shoot if they get a hit, home run, bunt, etc. It depends on who is batting, the situation, the photos I have already shot, and the score of the game. When Trevor came to the plate you knew he was going to get a big hit, the Arkansas fans in right field were taunting him the whole game, chanting "Trevor sucks, Trevor sucks" it was too perfect, I knew he was going to get a big hit to win the game. Trevor is not a big celebrater, so I told myself to shoot the benches reaction, When Trevor launched the ball into right field, I shot the bench, got a great photo of Adley Rutchman jumping and celebrating, I really like the picture. When I watched the replay of the game, Trevor celebrated around the bases. I wish I had those photos.

During the games, I need to move around the stadium more to better capture the atmosphere and more photos of fans in the stadium. I did a much better job of this last year. This year I have a lot of excuses, I am disappointed in myself for not pushing myself harder. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to document this journey and I hope I will have the chance to do it again.

My equipment:

Cameras D5, D850, D4, D3

Lenses 400 2.8, (2) 70-200 2.8, one on remote one on me, 24-70mm, 50mm, 20mm, 14mm, 

Two magic arms, four super clamps, six pocket wizards, Tethertools Case relay

One NCAA vest that I wore for 12 of the 15 days, bad luck to wash it so it is a stinky, sweaty  mess, but I keep it

 

The people

15 days away from home is a long time, but we did have a good time, and it would not have been as fun without the crew I got work with. I would like to give a shout out to the following people:

Aaron Maisel, my roommate for every road trip I go on with OSU, I have spent more time in a hotel room with him then I have my wife. 

Kasey Byers, OSU videographer, an incredibly talented storyteller who pushes me to be better. One day I will get him to quit drinking vodka and t to start drinking better drinks.

Hank Hager, #Omahank, Sports information director and the hardest working man in Omaha. He puts out an amazing amount of information and takes a lot of good-natured crap from the team. 

Evan "Big Cat" Bany, Equipment Manager, It's impossible not to have fun when he is around. He is the perfect millennial, a jaded, smartass that takes no shit from anyone.

Eric Edison and Kylie Murphy, OSU Ideation, our two relief pitchers they came in for the Championship series right when we need a lift, there energy and passion got me through the last few days.

Keith Warner, a graphic designer for OSU and was not on the trip, but the cool things he does with my photos makes me look way better then I am. Thanks Keith.

Jacque Burns, my one goal in life is to find one cocktail that you love, and not a Gin and Tonic.

Marianne Vydra One of the most authentic person I have ever meet, she kept me informed, entertained, enthused. Even though I am not an OSU employee, I am a contractor, she makes me feel part of the team. Always working behind the scenes doing her job to make it easier for everyone else to do their jobs. I don't think it is a coincidence the sports she oversees at OSU are some of the most successful ones.

My brother, Eric, who flew out for the championship series, and because of the rain delay, he only got to watch the first to games. There is no one I would want to celebrate an OSU win then with him, it was great to share the game two victory with him in Omaha. 

Kyle Nobach,  All the players were great to me, letting me into their world for a short time to document this incredible journey, I enjoy photographing every one of them, but Kyle, it is impossible to point a camera at him and not get a great photo I could do a gallery of 100 great shots of just him, see below.

Bob the Bridge and free photos

For the second year in a row, I have been in Omaha for the College World Series. Last year for ten days, this year for two weeks. It is a lot of time to spend away from home but shooting the College World Series is worth it. When I travel, I like to walk every morning to explore the city and get out the area around the hotel to see other parts of the town. Omaha is a great town. Good food great cocktails and easy to walk around with lots of parks and pathways. One of my favorite walks takes me over the Missouri River to Iowa on a pedestrian bridge affectionately called "The Bob" I have been over it five or six times this year already. One night last week I was up on the bridge shooting photos of TD Ameritrade Park at sunset. There is a good vantage point of the park from the top of the bridge. I also shot a few pictures of people on the bridge with the beautiful sky and sunset behind them. I put a photo up on Instagram because I do love Instagram. A day or two later I got a message from the Bridge's Instagram account saying how much they liked the photo and if they could use it in their marketing material. Of course, I was flattered, every photographer wants their work to be liked, but I had to say no. I replied (you can see the messages in the screenshot above) I hope I did not come across as a jerk but, professionals in any line of work don't give away their product.

5th Grade Portraits

Four years ago when Regan was in 5th grade, her teacher asked me if I could shoot a portrait of each 5th grader at the school that would hang in the entryway of the school for the last few weeks of the year. The art teacher used to do it, but she moved on, and they wanted to keep the tradition going. The object of the photos is to capture this moment in the kid's life when they are the top dogs in the school before they move to middle school. Each kid can bring an object that they think best represents them. 

Like every photo shoot my real job is not taking photos but getting them comfortable in front of the camera to try to get an authentic photo of them, this is a little easier with kids than adults, but it still takes a lot of stupid jokes, a little salty langue and lots of fun. We do each kid in about a minute, and I love doing it. I had a client in the studio last week for another photo shoot, and she mentions to me that I took her daughter's photo at Adams a few years ago and it is one of her favorite photos she has. I love hearing shit like that1 

I have told Mr. Abrams and Mr. Williams, I will keep doing it as long as I know one of the kids in the class I have friends who have kids in Kindergarten at the school this year so will probably be doing it for another 6 or so years. Enjoy!

Bonus photos below: Regan comes to help me every year. She likes to go back to Adams and see her teachers and Mr. Abrams was one of her all-time favorites. I take a photo of her each year when setting up to check the lights this is her in 6th, 7th and 8th grade.

Time to start posting on this Blog again

I have had this itch for a while to start posting photos and writing some stories about the work I am doing. I like to look back and see how my work has changed, improved, or if I am slumping, which happens. Writing is hard for me, I always worry what people will think or if I will say the wrong thing and offend someone. Ask any editor I have ever worked with, my spelling and grammar are subpar. If you do find my blog I hope you enjoy the photos, get a little insight into what I do and please forgive my spelling. 

A little about this photo: This is my oldest daughter Riley, she is a senior and graduating from Corvallis High School this year. We took this photo in the ceramics room at CHS. Riley fell in love with ceramics when she took a class in 9th grade (by the way it was a class me and my wife made her take) I tell people that she loves ceramics like I loved photography when I was her age. She will be attending Western Oregon next year studying Art

Omaha Game 1

The College World Series is an incredible event, the fans, atmosphere, the baseball, all top notch. Game one Oregon State vs Cal State Fullerton did not disappoint. Beavers get down early battle back and pull out a 6-5 win. Next game Monday night. Go Beavs

Omaha Day 1

We left rainy Eugene early Thursday morning and arrived in very hot Ohama Thursday afternoon. Today the the team had there first practice and first look inside TD Ameirtrade Park. ESPN and media interviews and autograph session for fans. Here are 10 of my favorite photos from our first two days.

Omaha Bound

What an incredible season it has been so far for the Oregon State Baseball team, and I am lucky enough to get to watch it unfold from the top of a dugout. I love baseball and I love photographing it. Baseball is hard to shoot. If you are not paying attention you miss important plays and important moments. I missed plenty during the Regionals and Super Regionals, but here are a few of the photos I like from the last two weekends. Now on to Omaha! Go Beavs

OSU vs California

Here are a few behind the scenes images from Oregon State's big win over Cal Saturday. Great game and a fun fun day. Go Beavs!

Satchel and Nisha Wedding

I first met Nisha about 8 or so years ago when I did portraits of her family. About 5 years ago I photographed her sisters wedding, so It was great get together whit them again for Nisha and Satchel's wedding earlier this summer. The wedding was held over three days, and most of the time I had no idea what was going on, but I was touching, colorful, fun and exhausting. I had a wonderful time celebrating with the two of them. Enjoy!

Oregon State vs Boise State

First off, my wife has demanded that she proof read my post before I post them. If you came here to laugh at my bad spelling and run-on sentences, you are going to be disappointed. Saturday was a beautiful day for football in Corvallis, warm with a slight crispness in the air and blue skies. The game started fast and good photos were abundant. The second quarter was rough, but I spent most of it in the new Terrace shooting photos. Beavers came out in second half ready to play hard and made a game out of it. Beaver fans who did not come back after half, you missed out. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the game. Enjoy. Editors Note: Please don’t judge my wife, it’s very difficult to edit my grammar and she does her best.

Oregon State vs Idaho State

It had not rained in Corvallis for at least two months, first home football game of the year of course is rains all day. I did not bel That's ok Beavers won and the new locker room is awesome the Terrace was a great addition to Reser Stadium. Mounted a camera on the goal post to shoot the players running out of the new locker room. Was not great but something different, me and Ryan will keep working on that the rest of the season. Side note that no one will care about but me and Ryan, I rented two  wireless transmitters for my camera's Nikon WT-5A and WT-6A and transmitted 103 photos during the game to Ryan who edited, cropped, toned and sent out. We had a few kinks but it worked pretty great. 

Behind the scenes with Oregon State Gymnastics

Here is a short behind the scenes time-lapse of my shoot earlier this week with the Oregon State Gymnastics team. One of my favorite things I photograph is the marketing photos for the Oregon State teams. The student athletes are great to work with, I get to be creative and try new and different things. In the video you will see team photos, head shots, and then individual photos of each gymnast. Thanks to Ryan Gardner for assisting on the shoot and setting up the time lapse.

Beavers vs Gophers College Football 2016

    Here are my thoughts and a few images of my trip with the Oregon State Football team to Minnesota for the first football game of the 2016 season. As we did last year when we went to Michigan, we flew out two days before the game to get adjusted to the time zone. We stayed in downtown Minneapolis so I got to explore the city a little. It is a pretty cool city reminds me a lot of Portland in the way the city looks and feels. I made it to local breakfast spot Al’s Breakfast, a little tiny hole in the wall breakfast place near the Minnesota campus, on Wednesday morning and it was a wonderful experience. You can see some photos here.  

    The game was pretty exciting and the Beavers was not over until the last minute of the game. This was the second Big 10 Stadium I have shot in and it was a great. The stadium was almost full, the fans were into the game and they have great traditions. The Beavers are going to be a much improved team this year and a lot better then many people think they will be. I am excited for the rest of the season. 

Here are a few of my photos from the trip, Go Beavs!

Oregon State Football Portraits

With a new football coach and staff at Oregon State a lot of things have change from the Mike Riley era. One is media day. I can't remember the last time Oregon State had one. I had a bunch of photos I to shoot. Team photo, group photos of each position group, group photo of players and coached from their home state and each player in uniform. I had help from Ryan Gardner of Visual People and Kallie Hagel, a Philomath High School student who is job shadowing me. We set up a mini studio in the concourse of Reser Stadium. I shot everyones head shots earlier this summer, so what football wanted was three photos of each player. One smiling, one with a football, and the last photo whatever the player wanted to do. It was a blast, the players had fun with it, we flew through the photos, shooting 100-plus players in under two hours. 

The big one is coming →

I remember photographing Chris Goldfinger a while back and talking to him about earthquakes, I came home and told my wife Shari about how scary it is to think about if the big one hits Oregon. I tried to remember all the things he was telling me and every time I head to the ocean he is in the back of my mind. Today when I saw this story in the New Yorker all over Facebook and Twitter, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one I don't really think it will happen in my life time but it is scary to think about.  

Alex and Laura at Union & Pine in Portland

Laura and Alex came as referral from a wedding I did last year in Portland. I love Portland and don't shoot as many weddings there as I use to so I was jazzed to photograph them. The wedding was at a great event space called Union and Pine on the east side about 5 blocks front the Willamette River. Laura and Alex wanted photos on the riverfront, I wanted photos in the very urban industrial area and the location made it very simple to hop in my car and in less then an hour we shot them and the wedding party in three different locations and were back at the venue with plenty of time to spare before the start of the ceremony. I love the look and feel of the wedding very PDX and modern.

Kari and Roarke's Corvallis Wedding

Every photographer worth their salt has a few strips of black gaffers tape with them at all times. I use it to tape down cables, hold something in place, make shift band-aid, etc etc. At Kari and Roarke's wedding we found a new use. One of the groomsmen pants were too long, and we needed a quick fix before the ceremony. Roarke jumped in, used an iron and gaffers tape to fix the problem. The little stories like that are what make every wedding unique and wonderful. Here are a few of my favorite images from there wedding.