Over the past year, the five of us set out to document and illustrate the cycle of food at the Oregon Food Bank, a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating hunger in Oregon. Each of us took a different approach photographically and literally went from farm to table to highlight every aspect of where the food comes from and where it goes. The body of work that we’ve created will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank to be used in their marketing and promotional materials.

25 selected photographs from the project will be on display as large-format prints for one night only on January 21, 2010 at Venue Pearl. Details below:

When: Thursday, January 21, 2010 from 5:00-10:00pm
Where: Venue Pearl – 323 NW 13th Avenue Portland, OR 97209

I would like to personally invite you to come to this special exhibition. Please feel free to bring a guest and pass on this email. The event is free and open to the public. Music and refreshments will be provided. You’re encouraged to bring a canned good donation for the Oregon Food Bank.

I’d also like to thank our sponsors, Pro Photo Supply, Venue Pearl, House Spirits, Pushdot Studio, and Rogue Brewery. Collectively, they are providing prints, rental, refreshments, and a space for the event. Without them, we would not have been able to put on such a wonderful event.

For more information, visit http://www.photo-force.com/

For a sneak peak of the photographs, go to http://www.photo-force.com/2009/12/oregon-food-bank-preview/

Also, Click here for a PDF flyer to print off and put up in your office or school.

Hope to see you there!

Another noteworthy tidbit about last year, I only had 12 clients the whole year. So, my core clients kept me in business through that rough patch known as The Recession of 2009. I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to them and look forward to many more shoots in 2010!

Without further ado, here’s one shot from every shoot last year with some commentary.

Portland Monthly March 2009 Best Breakfast Cover Feature

A lot of people asked me how I lit this. Well, the truth is I didn’t. I shot this hand held at arms length, auto-focus on, under stained fluorescent lights during the lunch rush at Fuller’s Diner. It just goes to show that the best light is often the one you know how to look for.

This was lit, however. We actually did this shot on location at the Original Pancake House. It’s amazing how many people eat pancakes for lunch. The place was jammed with the business crowd when we showed up around 1pm on a Tuesday. We had a little 6ft corner to work from and the left side light was actually coming in from outside shooting through a window.

Portland Spaces April / May 2009 SpaceMakers

This was the second time I photographed Stephanie Sheldon-Nevarez. She owns this great vintage store called Noun which I shot for the April 2008 Portland Monthly. Here, I photographed her home for Portland Spaces. Stephanie and her husband, Thomas Nevarez, have some amazing vintage pieces in their home. They also had a pretty cute cat.

Travel Portland – Tryon Creek State Park

Shot this hiking shot for an edition of Travel Portland’s quarterly magazine which is produced by the same folks who publish Portland Monthly. Small world. The couple in this shot are my friends Grace and Michael. They totally rock.

Glamorous Four Square by Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

Jessica Helgerson is an incredibly gifted interior designer. Every project I shoot for her is a true joy and I always get some portfolio worthy shots. This four square remodel is just incredible. To see all the shots, click here.

DLR Group – Happy Valley City Hall

Happy Valley, OR is really becoming a boom town. DLR Group was tasked with building a new city hall that would grow with the town.

Portland Spaces – Isaac Drake and Seth Truby

I don’t typically shoot outdoors in full sun. But the story for this shot was about the fence and these two neighbors. In order to get create a natural and sunny look, I bounced a strobe into a huge reflector to create a soft fill. It’s shoots like these that I wish I shot more behind the scenes stuff. Maybe that’s one of my 2010 resolutions.

Portland Spaces – Summer 2009 Furniture Designer Feature

Ken Tomita (above) made this bookshelf (below). Cool shoot to do a portrait and the product in the same day.

Portland Spaces Summer 2009 Cover Feature – Interiors & Designers

This was one of my favorite shoots of the year. Portland Spaces profiled three different interior designers. Here I shot the home of Nike designers Michael Shea and Kelly Tweeden.

This private residence was designed by Joelle Nelson and Allie McGory of Maison, Inc.

Andee Hess of Osmose designed this space for the 937 Condominiums in the Pearl District as well as one private residences there.

There are lots of shots from this 3 day shoot. To see them as they appeared in the magazine, click here.

Lane Powell – Portland Armory

I waited for well over an hour to get all the little bits of people walking by. All toll, this is a composite of 5 different shots.

Northwest Golf – Gear

This shot was inspired by Jill Greenberg’s lighting style, except I added my own punchy crisp flavor to it.

Portland Monthly May 2009 – Prêt-à-Portland

We shot this colorful clothing feature on black to make the it really pop. Has that neon quality almost.

Surround Architecture – Rebound Joint Center at the Rose Garden

I have a funny feeling the Blazers are here these days a lot more than they want to be.

Surround Architecture – Keen Corporate Headquarters

Keen shoes are my absolute favorite for work. I can wear them all day and my feet never get tired. So, I was stoked to go to their headquarters to shoot their new design room. Someday, my new shoes may have been concepts on these desks.

Jason Blackheart – Portrait

Helluva an art director and very good friend. He now is the main man in charge at Portland Monthly. We’ve done a lot great work over the years and I owe a lot of portfolio shots to his skills and guidance during shoots.

Mahlum Architects – Sue Buel Elementary

This is an amazing school designed by Mahlum. These common areas serve as impromptu classrooms that can quickly be reconfigured to suit whatever the teachers need for the day.

Inside Design International – Private Residence

This soothing master bathroom was designed by Kim Hagstette. I really love the color palette used in the space.

Imbibe Magazine – Summer Beer Feature

I had fun with this one. I wanted to to what happened when you shot beer bottles with a ring flash. The distinctive wrap around look of the light is just so cool. It really made everything so edgy. Plus you get that cool shadow line. Click here to see the rest of the shots.

Portland Monthly July 2009 – Rivers Cover Feature

This is Sam Drevo of eNRG Kayak. The nicest guy you ever met and an amazing athlete. We shot him on the banks of the Sandy river at Oxbow park for Portland Monthly’s feature on Oregon rivers. This shot ran on the cover.

Northwest Meetings & Events – Crisis Managers Story

Portrait of Cathy Mason, an event coordinator with expert knowledge in managing an event during a crisis. She knows how to handle anything that comes her way.

NBAA – Fagan Profile

Oddly, this shoot was the first time I left Oregon for a shoot all year. A very cool gig, I flew out to Minnesota to document a member company of the National Business Aviation Association. We shot portraits, employees at work, pilots on planes, even an ethanol plant. Too much to feature here, but I really liked this shot.

Bergren Rameson’s Paper Project

A good stylist can really make your job easier. An amazing stylist gets you phenomenal images. Check out all these shots.

Portland Monthly August 2009 – Eat + Drink Opener

The Original is a “dineraunt”. They have hot dog flights and pie. So tasty!

Parliament Design – Interiors

These guys are so cool and their space is absolutely amazing. They’re also one totally kickass design firm. I had a blast photographing their workspace. More coolness here.

Portland Monthly August 2009 – Cornershop

Designer Modi Soondarotok owns IDOM, a fashion boutique specializing in “sustainable designer apparel, accessories and objects for today’s fashion forward woman.” Cool clothes and green sensibility = Win Win!

Atwater Place – Exteriors

I would not been able to get this shot digitally a year ago. Canon came out with a 17mm tilt shift lens this year and it’s the only lens wide enough with enough movement to shoot a building this big so close. It’s one of the sharpest lenses they make, too

Atwater Place – Lifestyle

This is an excellent example of how being multidisciplinary can get you gigs. Not only did I shoot all the architectural shots for the Atwater, I shot all the lifestyle shots, too.

Gourmet Magazine October 2009 -  Pok Pok’s Khao Soi Kai

This little shot had a lot of mileage. Shortly after the issue came out, Gourmet announced it was ceasing publication. Saddened by the news, I made a blog post about it and tweeted about it. Within a few hours, I was contacted by the local NPR station, OPB, for an interview about being in the last issue of Gourmet. Pretty cool! Though, it actually wasn’t the last issue. November was. Mea Culpa.

Mahlum Architects – Pacific University’s Gibson Hall

I try to make these motion shots look easy and spontaneous. The reality is that it takes dozens of tries to get the right amount blur. Timing, shutter speed, angle of subject, and their velocity all have to work together at the right time to get something decent. What’s decent? You know it when you see it.

Mahlum Architects – Thurston Elementary School – Springfield, OR

I sort of remember elementary school. I remember dark hallways, funky smells, and dirt playgrounds. Things have definitely changed for the better thanks to architecture firms like Mahlum. They won some awards from this shoot.

DLR Group – Ashland Elementary School System Renovations and Additions

Again, I’m so impressed by how much better school designs are. DLR Group had three awesome projects for me to shoot down in Ashland, OR. The three day shoot took a lot planning and coordinating. We were chasing the sun from to school to school to get the best light. I don’t think we were ever at one location for the whole day.

Portland Monthly November 2009 – Cornershop

Pamela Baker-Miller is the co-founder of Frances May, a very cool and hip fashion boutique in downtown Portland. This shot was all available light. Kind of tricky to to do, but a good tripod and patient subject gets you results that you just can’t light artificially.

DLR Group – Happy Valley City Hall Round 2

The mountain lodge feeling of the structure fits nicely in the valley setting with Mt. Hood in the background.

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design – Overton House

I love to cook and kitchens are always my favorite rooms to photograph. Another incredibly stunning remodel by Jessica Helgerson and I’m not the only one saying it. This shoot was just recently featured on über-popular design blog Design*Sponge.

DLR Group – Mountain View High School Addition

I love this shot. We had was massive cloud cover all day long. I knew I wasn’t going to get much of an exterior shot during the day, so I decided to wait for a dusk shot. I’m so glad I did. The sky broke right at sunset and some of the most beautiful cloud patterns and colors rolled in like magic. It was right place, right time perfection.

Portland Monthly January 2010 – Branch Science Feature

The bulk of my shoots this year have been architectural, so it was nice change of pace to do this environmental portrait of scientist Steve Strauss. Steve’s research into genetically modified trees that make better paper pulp could reduce deforestation. However, GMOs are a touchy subject. The trees in this grove have been attacked multiple times by eco-terrorists. Pick up a copy of Portland Monthly to read more. I also shot some genetically modified products for the story…

Did you know the US makes 26 million notes of currency a day? The genetically modified ingredient: cotton. Each greenback is 75% cotton and 79% of US -grown cotton is
genetically modified. The GM cotton costs less to grow and uses less pesticides.

NBAA – Atlanta Aviation

Another shoot for NBAA and getting some really good stuff from these gigs. This trip we shot at Coca-Cola’s and Home Depot’s private hangers. We also went to the DeKalb Peachtree Airport for some general shots. I took over 1600 shots over the three day trip.

Oregon Food Bank – “Setting the Table” Pro Bono Project

I’m really excited to announce this project. What initially began as a friendly get together of colleagues, has morphed into a photographic collective know as PhotoForce. With four other photographers (Brian Lee, Daniel Root, Steven Scardina, and Stuart Mullenberg), we set a mission to be a creative force for hire and a creative force for good.

This year, the five of us shot a collection of images for the Oregon Food Bank. The theme of the shoot is “Farm to Table” and each of us tackled various elements of the OFB operations in our own unique styles. For my part, I shot volunteers processing bulk foods into smaller portions at the OFB headquarters.

On January 21, 2010, we’re having a large format exhibition of 5 images from each of us. Twenty-five images in all and printed by Pro Photo Supply. The show will be hosted at Venue Pearl and I would be honored to see you there. Click here for more information.

DLR Group – Oregon State University’s Women’s Basketball Locker Room

Last shot from the last shoot of the year. The Oregon State University’s Ladies Basketball locker room is fricking awesome. Despite being in the basement, the space felt open and bright. I can imagine it’s a great place to be before a game or even kicking back after practice. In case you’re not familiar with Oregon State, their mascot is the Beaver. Go Beavs!

So there it is: one solid year of work. Looking forward to keeping up the momentum in 2010.

Contact me if you want to get something going.

Here’s the deal. If you want to talk me up or talk up my client, I don’t mind if you use my photography in a bloggy editorial kind of way. I just want a heads up. If you take my photography to promote yourself (even if by bringing traffic to your website where you sell products or services), then we have an issue. These photos are my intellectual property and are protected by US copyright law. All rights reserved means I decide how and who uses the images.

If I just took your car to run some errands without asking you, you’d probably be upset. Sure, no harm was done to your car, but it’s your property and you would like to know where it is. You’d probably want me to pay some gas money, too.

I feel the same about my photography. People, innocently or not, just lift my images all the time to promote themselves. In some cases, this is could be a very bad thing. For example, say someone said negative things about my best client and used my photography to prove their point. This puts me in hot water with the client and could even be interpreted that I provided the images to them to slander my own client. Thus, the reason I want a heads up before you use my images.

Hope you understand where I’m coming from. I’m not trying to be a jerk, I just am trying to look after my business. After all, I do this for a living and I can’t eat a photo credit.

• AIA Southwest OR Chapter Peoples Choice Award
• AIA Southwest OR Chapter Peoples Colleague Choice Award
• AIA Southwest OR Chapter Honor Design Award
• AIA Portland Chapter Merit Design Award
• IIDA Portland Chapter Honor Award
• IIDA Portland Chapter Juror Top Award

And here are the shots that helped win all those awards.

Mahlum’s press release below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 20, 2009

SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DESIGN WINS FOUR  AIA  AWARDS

Mahlum, in association with Robertson/Sherwood/ Architects, has won three awards from the Southwestern and Southern Oregon chapters of the American Institute of Architects for the design of two eco-friendly elementary schools in Springfield, Ore.  The design also received a Merit Award from the Portland Chapter of the AIA.

In  bestowing  the 2009 AIA Certificate of Honor award for design of Thurston Elementary and Maple Elementary schools, the jury panel paid tribute to the contrast between “elegant refined wood detailing” in the public spaces and the large-scale exposed tilt-up concrete panels in the classroom wings.  It also applauded the integration of sustainable features, responsiveness to the scale of the students themselves, and the use of wood-framed glass walls that allow the outdoor learning gardens to flow into the building.

In addition to the top Certificate of Honor, the schools received two other awards from the AIA SWO  chapter – the People’s Choice Award voted on by several hundred visitors at a display during  the Eugene Celebration in September and the Colleagues Choice Award voted on by chapter members.   It is unusual for any project to receive all three awards from one chapter. The Honor Award is given, on average, every three years – it was last presented in 2005.

Targeted for the equivalency of a LEED Silver rating, both schools make use of natural day lighting, passive solar heat, displacement ventilation that allows classrooms individual access to outside air, and bioswales and landscaping that control storm water runoff.

The design team relied on a “kit of parts” approach that uses elements that can easily arranged to fit the topography of the sites.  Construction started on both schools in May 2008 and was completed in September 2009.

The schools have sloped elevations that parallel the surrounding hills and are divided into five distinct parts – three solid elements that respond to the scale of the hills and two transparent public zones enclosed by wood-framed glass walls that connect the entry, library and commons to the courtyards.

Thurston is sited in the middle of a long narrow site that slopes up to provide a natural amphitheater at the entry.  Maple is sited to create a community park around a grove of existing trees.

The Mahlum team responsible for the project included Diane Shiner, AIA, principal; Rene Berndt, AIA, project designer, and Amy Noe, IIDA, interior designer.  The local architectural team from Robertson/Sherwood included Jim Robertson, AIA, and Dave Guadagni, AIA.  The contractor was John Hyland Construction, of Eugene.

Springfield Public Schools, with 11,000 students, is located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley within the City of Springfield.  Thurston and Maple are two of 16 elementary schools in the district.  Funding for the two replacement schools was made possible by a November 2006 bond measure.

Founded in 1938, Mahlum is an architectural  firm of 100 people with offices in Seattle and Portland.  The firm is committed to creating enduring

architecture that enriches the human experience.

#

CONTACT:

Bill Strong
Mahlum Architects
206-441-4151

or

Monty Dennison
Dennison Communications
206-264-1468

Please join me this Sunday, October 11th for a hands on Architectural Photo Tour through the Pearl District of Portland, OR. This workshop is part of the AIA’s 2009 Architecture & Design Festival going on all of October in Portland, OR.

Pro Photo Supply is donating use of Canon and Nikon cameras with wide angle tilt-shift lenses for hands on experience on how to photograph architectural exteriors. You’re welcome to bring your own camera and lenses, too. I also recommend bringing a tripod.

The three hour class will be a walking tour starting at the AIA Center of Design at 403 NW 11th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97209

The cost of the class is $25 and all proceeds go to the AIA.

Click here for more information and to register online.

Khao Soi Kai. Yum. Thanks Pok Pok! Thanks Gourmet!

Here’s an outtake, though I would hardly call it that:

UPDATE

Shortly after posting this, I was contacted by April Brear of OPB for a brief interview about being in the last issue of Gourmet. Neat!

If you’re an artist, you should protect you work. Via: http://www.dontscrewus.org/

Shot while waiting for the Steel Bridge to open crossing from East to West.