Congratulations, Sarah and Justin!

At Fritz Photography, we love to tell quirky wedding stories.

The pleasure of photographing a wedding on a sunny Saturday in January was only topped by the fact that the bride and groom were Maria and Junior.  She’s a beautiful, thoughtful planner, and he’s a soft-spoken, fun-loving policeman.  (You’ll notice the police-themed garter belt, below–one of Maria’s many thoughtful touches.)

Add to that the fact that they were married in St Mary’s Cathedral in Mt Angel, Oregon: one of the largest, loveliest cathedrals in the Portland area, with lots of natural light.  And then we got to spend the evening at Salem’s new Conference Center.  Mind you, when I hear ‘conference center,’ I think: blank walls and 80′s carpet.  Not this place.  It’s brand-spanking new, and really a beautiful space.  The foyer alone is awe-inspiring with its 3 stories of glass windows letting in all the natural light.

Their large wedding party was a lot of fun to work with, and the day was as full of laughter as it was beautiful.

Here’s how the day unfolded:

We love telling love stories like this.  Visit our Portland-based wedding photography website to see more!

Tim and Monica have a great story about how they met.  They both went to Notre Dame together, but didn’t actually know each other at the time.  Later on in their studies, at a different school, they ended up meeting.  Then they ended up both landing the same residency together in California.  And now they’re married.

Other wedding vendors that helped make the day amazing included Andrea Hoyt of August Veils, and Brian Smith of Mobile Music DJs, Dayn Arnold of Dayn Arnold Media, as well as the fantastic wedding coordination crew at Oregon Golf Club.  Thanks to everyone for your great work on Tim and Monica’s wedding!

{Portland,OR} – January 24, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce Fritz Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Fritz Photography was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

Fritz Photography is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes  the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Fritz Photography for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that Fritz Photography is one of the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able  to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012!

Doesn’t that lady have one of the best smiles in the entire world?  That’s my wife.

Some of my favorite work involves photographing children in orphanages.  These kids have had rougher lives by age 4 than most of us have in a lifetime.  So having a day or a week to play with, talk with, encourage, and photograph them is a blessing.  I love to make them laugh.

These photos are taken at Love In Action, a home for orphaned, abused, and homeless children in Chapala, Mexico.  My good friend Summer Phillips (below) lives and works there, and it’s been an absolute pleasure to support her this week.  She works so very hard for these kids in an orphanage that is regularly understaffed and underfunded.  But she loves it, and she makes a difference.  A big difference.

I’d encourage you to support Love in Action.  You can visit them on the web at www.loveinactioncenter.org.

Some of my favorite photographs of myself involve me being strangled by kids.  I have photos like this from all over the world, and they make me smile every time I see them:

Visit Love in Action’s website (soon to be revamped with my photographs, and a new site design), and support them with a donation: www.loveinactioncenter.org.

At Fritz Photography, we love to tell wedding stories.v

We love creating model portfolios and model test shoots, in Portland, Oregon, and around the world.  (See some of our work with model portfolios on the Florida beaches.)  We photograph for modeling agencies and private models; models we’ve photographed at the start of their careers are now working models in New York, Los Angeles, as well as Portland.  Contact us today to schedule your modeling photography session!

On a simply perfect summer day these beautiful friends came together with their nearest and dearest to celebrate and share their love at Lakeside Gardens in Portland.    The bride was stunning in pin curls and orange roses while the groom did his best blue steel (he says he doesn’t smile much…but I came to find out that’s kind of a fib…).  When he’s happy he smiles a ton.  And he was very happy.

It was a honor and a joy to share your wedding day with you… blessings and happiness in your new life together!

~Gretchen

We love to tell love stories.

www.fritzphoto.com

I had a great time photographing Hayden Richardson’s senior photos in the October sunshine this past week, in Northeast Portland.  Hayden’s a lot of fun to work with and talk with, and has an interest in photography, among other things.  And man, did we luck out with the perfect fall weather for a senior portrait photo shoot!

I love photographing senior portraits.  See more of my Portland senior portrait photography on the website!

Blue Sky Gallery (Portland, Oregon, www.blueskygallery.org) has selected photographer Fritz Liedtke’s series of rare photogravures, Astra Velum, for a solo show in November.

November 3-27, 2011

Opening Reception: First Thursday, November 3, 6-9pm.

Public Artist Talk: November 9, 12pm.

Astra velum is Latin for “veil of stars.” Liedtke has aptly chosen
this phrase as the title of his striking and intimate portrait series
of freckled women and girls. Each piece is a hand-printed photogravure,
a historic printing process which offers a depth and luminescence
in the resulting image unmatched by any other photographic print-making
method.

“While many people view freckles as an aberration or blemish,
I find them enchanting, unique, even exotic.  More than once,
while photographing for this series, a model thanked me for making
something beautiful out of what they often viewed as a flaw. . . .

“I’m also drawn to the tactile nature of a photogravure.
The papers used are often handmade, with a texture meant to be felt
with your fingertips.  The ink embedded in the paper also gives
texture to the image itself.  For these reasons, handmade
photogravures seemed the perfect medium for a series which, at its
essence, explores the beauty of surface textures: human skin and its
freckles and scars, like a thin veil of stars.”

Fritz Liedtke has been photographing since he was a child. At 13, with
his father and their turquoise Datsun B210, he chronicled their
travels across the United States with his Kodak 110 Instamatic; they
covered 35 states in 31 days, washing suburban cars along the way to
pay for their travels. Today, Liedtke is a professional photographer, author,
and educator, and enjoys traveling the world, camera in hand.

Blue Sky Gallery shows less than 2% of the photography it considers, and is pleased to have selected Liedtke’s rare photogravures for a solo show.

View more of Liedtke’s work at www.fritzliedtke.com.