We've moved!

Please pardon the delay in notifying you that we have moved our service and are now providing blog updates, custom imaging articles, and some amazing art galleries to view and say things like,"oooohhhh", and "aaaahhhh".

Please come visit our new site: www.brettandbeverlyblog.com

We may revisit Blogger at a future date but for now we'll be a one-blog sort of couple.

Thanks, and we hope to see you soon at our new site!

I'm ready to step up, which imaging program should I buy?

I'm getting a very regular question these days. It's a question that excites me and frustrates me all at the same time. I'm excited because the question means friends and acquaintances are not only enjoying photography but they are also realizing they have a friend who might know a thing or two about the subject. So why does it frustrate me? Despite my experience, despite my recommendations, they are still going to go out and purchase Photoshop, get ridiculously frustrated, and then begin to enjoy their new newfound hobby less and less. And then they feel like I'm not doing my part in teaching them everything I know in two questions or less. I do try, I swear!

Please keep in mind that I've been a Photoshop user for 16 years, the skills I am able to utilize in MY images has come from a long, challenging learning curve. I'm always happy to help friends with advise and with an edit or two, but lately I feel like I'm just being taken advantage of with freebie image modifications: So take the advice I'm about to give or just learn to take better pictures that don't require editing, that part is up to you.

That said, the question I'm hearing on a regular basis these days is...

I'm ready to step up to the next level, what application should I buy? 

For anyone reading my above grumpy rant and the following question, "the next level" refers to any level above whatever free app came with your system. Could be iPhoto, could be MS Photo, doesn't matter. The person asking the question wants to do more with their images than red eye reduction and using the magical Enhance button. Good on ya!

Not surprisingly, the next level is NOT Adobe Photoshop. It's not even Photoshop Elements, the dumbed down version of Photoshop. In fact, stay away from Adobe. Adobe's level and THE NEXT LEVEL don't even exist on the same planet.

The software you want to buy is... On One Software Perfect Photo Suite.

On One Software is not only the next level, it's a wonderful collection of photo tools that not only make photo editing a lot of fun, the learning curve is practically nonexistent. Plus, the suite of tools can be very affordably purchased individually, most for $99 a package.

If you're going to buy individual packages, my recommendation is to start with Perfect Effects 3. It's a very fun application that allows you to apply global "enhancements" to your images that really can instantly spice them up in a click or two. Plus, you can layer effects on top of one another to utilize many enhancements over the same image.

Next on the list of individual packages is Photoframe 4.6 Pro. This package has hundreds of cutting edge photo "frames" to surround your latest works of art with hip frame effects. There's not much more to the package than that, but the scalable frames are incredibly well done and I've seen many beginners really enjoy what a bitchin frame can do for their image.

The last package I'm recommending tonight is Perfect Portrait 1. This photo tool is all about skin tones, beautiful eyes, and sparking teeth. Portrait work is seriously difficult stuff in Photoshop and takes a long time for newbies. Perfect Portrait 1 though does much of that heavy lifting for you in mere seconds. Believe me, in the skin tone and blemish arena, it's well worth it to use an application that does the nitty gritty work and leaves your sanity and free time in the evening intact.

OK, that's my recommendation for THE NEXT LEVEL. More flexibility and power than the free stuff you got with your PC but not the end all, all frustrating app that is Photoshop. Plus, the entire photo suite package above is still LESS THAN HALF of a version of Photoshop. 

Full disclosure: The links above go to Amazon and if, God willing, you make a purchase, I get a very, very, very small commission. If you prefer to skip the links and buy from the source then please go to ononesoftware.com where you can purchase and download the entire photo suite. 

Rhododendron in SE

This is one of my first HDR images at the Rhododendron Garden in Southeast Portland. While the flowers are finally blooming and coming to life now that Spring is make a half assed attempt to overtake Winter, I prefer this shot in black and white to demonstrate the cool structures. The bridge deserves to be called out as I'll bet even in it's super cool state it takes a back seat to the well planted and meticulously maintained property. I'm looking forward to return trips in the near future as Spring will be in full bloom in the next couple of weeks. If it stops raining, that is!  

Motion of the Ocean

Thought I'd upload an image I was playing with last night. In it's color state it's a rather cool image. The sand golden yellow, the water has a rather dark hue even on a brightly lit day. It had potential. I'm really not sure why I had to make it a darker, more contrasty, maybe a little more sinister image. Maybe I'm in a dark mood? Maybe I like the contrast between the water and the sand? I'm not sure at this point. What made me even take the time to play with this image though was the motion, the movement from, in my perspective, left to right. The dark water and the dark hill all flow together in a funnel towards the monolith and then pour right out the side of the image.

I cropped it from it's original ratio since there was a lot of sky in the image that wasn't doing much for it. Now I'm not so sure.

Finally, the heavy contrast and lack of detail in the shadows reminds me of film days of the past, where in broad daylight that detail was sacrificed for properly exposed images. Plus, the monolith certainly seems more intimidating in its darkened state. Cool. 

A Random HDR from the High Desert Plains

I picked a random HDR to work out tonight just for the fun of it. This was taken last winter on the high desert plains of Oregon near an on-the-verge of ghost town called Dufur. We actually really enjoy Dufur even though it has an odd vibe about it. The Balch Hotel is there and it's one of the coolest hotels we've ever visited. Three floors, no elevator, half the electrical outlets are original installs from somewhere around 1910. But still, what a wonderful place to stay for a night or two!

So this particular structure is an old schoolhouse that has been abandoned for nearly 100 years. It took us hours to locate it too. It is, as you can tell from the surroundings, in the absolute middle of nowhere. The winter wind was blowing, the air was so dry you could feel your uncovered skin crack, but as far as we could tell there wasn't another human being within 30 minutes drive in any direction.

While the structure had been maintained by one or two caring folks over the years, the inner walls and internal structures had collapsed. The outside looked surprisingly strong though, which wasn't a big surprise. Many of the abandoned structures Beverly and I have come across in the Oregon desert are surprisingly well preserved. We attribute this consistently preserved nature to the incredibly low average humidity of the Oregon desert. Without the mold normally seen in the low lying river valleys  west of Mt. Hood the wood stays healthy and strong for decades. Maintained or not, we abided by our policy to never enter these structures and happily explored the landscape in the bitter air.

One day we'll head on back to the plains, probably as soon as Autumn rushes by as it's threatening to do in Oregon this year. Once the colors leave the Gorge we'll head east to the nearly always colorless plains for even deeper exploration of Oregon's hidden past. 

Beach Weddings can be brutal!

We're hitting the tail end of another couple of weeks of post-wedding post-production. It feels good to be nearing the end of our last wedding of the 2011 season with deliverables on the verge of complete.

This was our first wedding on the Oregon coast and the environmental conditions were less than ideal. While we were thankful it wasn't pouring rain on us, the wedding was scheduled when the sun was still rather high with strong light and strong contrast. Depending on the direction we were shooting we'd have to change techniques by up to four stops. This lead to a lot of quick retakes since setting cameras on any sort of auto-exposure in starkly opposite lighting would have yielded unfavorable results as soon as you changed directions. For instance, setting a camera on shutter priority and shooting into a strongly backlit scene guarantees the subject will be underexposed when the meter shuts down prematurely. With the sun to my back though shutter priority would work fine, albeit with very small apertures like f16, which is not my ideal setting for portraiture. Like I said, a tough day to shoot a wedding.

Regardless, we made our adjustments throughout and still managed to walk away with many, many, many keepers. Like always, we wish we could have captured more, but that pesky thing called time doesn't relent for the most expedient of shooters.

I'm looking forward to posting some more work on this blog of non-wedding related material soon as well. The smell of Autumn is in the air and the gorge is calling our names, it's time to pursue bronze colors, photograph leaves in a downward angle rather than up to the branches, and capture nature headed towards its inevitable winter slumber. And then, the darkness of winter will be around us once again! Ugh. =)

HDR: Here for the long haul

In case you're not in tune to the photographic realm these days, HDR has taken center stage as the technique of the future. HDR, if you've got time to say it in the proper long winded fashion, High Dynamic Range photography is the process of smushing several differently exposed images together and using the combined tonalities to create one amazing image. Or an image so amazingly fake people wonder if you drew the picture in the dark with a felt pen on the back of a cat while it cleaned its ears.

At this time HDR requires specially designed software expressly made to combine those tonalities and present the user with a myriad of output possibilities, all generally more impressive than the three or more images you fed the software. Also at this time the effort to properly utilize the software and further refine the output image to even more amazing levels with a tool like Photoshop takes far more time than the average user is willing to spend. This, of course, will all change as photography businesses everywhere are sniffing the profit to be made by making HDR possible with nothing more than the press of a shutter button. Then HDR will be mainstream. At first its inclusion will command an extra $50 for that model camera; But within two months it'll be another standard feature like a lens or the Program setting. What will make it special at that point will thankfully be the same thing that made it special before it took the expressway to mainstream: the photographer.

Knowing what to point the camera at, how to compose an exceptional image, understanding the parameters at play and how to adjust them, still requires a talented individual behind the viewfinder. So while HDR is certain to go mainstream and be just a shutter press away, the likes of the image above will still be produced by a select few with the know how, and more importantly, the investment of time to output and refine the results of the technique of the future. Even when it's the mainstream of now. 

Cannon Beach, Oregon: On a Perfect Morning

Beverly and I drove to the coast on a random Saturday recently only knowing their COULD be sun and there MIGHT not be howling winds and there was LITTLE chance of it dumping buckets of rain on us. As luck and nature would have it though we showed up to pleasant coastal splendor Oregon is just not typically known to have in store for visitors. Granted, the surf was flat. FLAT. So this old surfer was a tad grumpy. Otherwise though, perfect. I drove Beverly to the south end of Cannon Beach and we found the beach had changed a lot since we visited last. Seems a late Spring/early Summer storm had deposited an extra six feet of sand along the south shore, which also created a large inlet where the water managed to enter at the base of the smaller monolith along the south beach. Not only that but the winds and light rains created amazing ridges on the beach surface. While it wasn't surfers paradise, it was certainly photographers paradise. We spent the better part of an hour working all over the sandbar until our coffee filled bladders demanded we shift our attentions elsewhere. Still, I can't recall walking away with more quality beach scenery than I shot in that hour.

Sometimes you stumble across nature at its finest. As Galen Rowell, one of my all time favorite photographers, used to say, "f8 and be there".

JENNY & DAVID'S WEDDING RECEPTIONUrban Studio, PDX

Beverly and I are far more accustomed to shooting our collective load at the wedding ceremony, revving up with fast hydration and a powerbar, then powering back in with mustered energy to begin the reception anew with fresh vigor and enthusiasm. There was no ceremony for this event, just the reception. We were fresh and ready for what felt like should have been a round two for our photographic day. At least we were fresh!

Jenny hired us to photograph their reception at Urban Studio as they had a rather small, family wedding in Maui a few weeks earlier. We were available and willing to cover that event by the way, we just weren't asked to cover the event. Whatever. I'm not bitter.



BTW, a brief plug for Urban Studio: 
Urban Studio is located on SW Davis St. and 10th. It's a sizable two room, multilevel establishment with some hip but basic furnishings. There's a sizable bar in the middle capable of servicing three sides so there never seems to be a big wait for beverages. The space is pretty basic which also means it's super flexible. There's even a couple of movable walls to lend angles and ambience to the rooms depending on the venue. Lastly, the staff was superb. Smiling, polite, professional. Great event staff. I'm looking forward to future venues in the space, it's got tons of photographic potential. 

The event got off to a slow start as some invites had 5:30 as a start time, others erroneously said 7:00pm. That was OK, 5:30 starts tend to be somewhat empty since everyone is still ending their summer Saturday activities, showering, driving into the city, etc. A mild beginning meant we could work on some pics of the fine cupcake spread, glassware, framed family pics, etc. Plus, the warm afternoon light filtered perfectly between the diffused white curtains. The room was filled with warm light and pleasant chit chat. We rotated through the staff and got a couple hundred candids as folks mingled, hugged, and caught up with each other. The lighting was so enjoyable and we had time to play around with different techniques, shooting with backlit subjects, front lit, side lit, you name it. We had time and they didn't notice we were there. 

It almost feels like cheating as a professional photographer when the subject is stunningly beautiful. Really, it was not challenging to make Jenny look good, we just had to decide which angle of beautiful we wanted to capture. I'm also sure Jenny is the social glue of her friends and family. She effortlessly rotated amongst the crowd, smiling, laughing, embracing, she's a social natural. 

Jenny has few demands but getting pics of her with her grandmother topped the list. Luckily we got at least a dozen really good instances of them together. The warm room light was a big blessing for these pics too, for candid portraits I don't think the light gets better. 

Once the party found its stride the dance floor came to life with all ages and style accounted for. It was fun to watch some older songs, ok, oldies, begin to play and another generation would bully onto the dance floor and dominate the middle with dance moves long ago learned. It's just fun to watch many generations of a family enjoying each other as much as this family and friends enjoyed: it was an honor to cover Jenny and David's special day. Even if it wasn't in Maui. 

Please check out our photographic collection featuring weddings, landscapes, urban decay, and more! www.brettandbeverlyphotography.com

AMBER & LARRY @ SKAMANIA LODGE, WA

We had the privilege of capturing Amber and Larry's special day! Although we were bracing for rain, it turned out to be a gorgeous July day in the Columbia Gorge. It was perfect weather for the perfect outdoor ceremony! This was a phenomenal couple to work with - Larry and his boys weren't camera shy one bit (except when doing the "boy band" pose in front of the ladies), and Amber and her bridesmaids were absolutely stunning and willing to work the camera!

A glimpse of this year's tulip festival in Woodburn, OR

We went to the tulip festival yesterday in Woodburn, OR with a friend and wandered up and down row after row of blooming tulips. I highly recommend checking this spectacle out before the blooms fade in May, but bring your mud shoes or you'll be sorry!

More from Garibaldi

Josephine Young Memorial Park, Oregon

This inlet has hundreds and hundreds of stumps lodged in the sand. At high tide they're all but invisible except for a few on the shoreline. We call it the graveyard. At low tide it's a lot of fun to explore. At high tide you work with what you were given to work with!

"The Three Graces" in Garibaldi, Oregon

We have always driven past this area but this time we stopped to check it out. We will most assuredly be back, hopefully with better lighting!

Newport, Oregon

We recently made a trip out to Newport, Oregon. If you're into fishing boats and brewpubs, this is the coastal town for you.

Kite Flyer takes 1st place in "Celebrating Oregon" category of the Oregonian!

I'm pretty excited for the April 17th Sunday edition of the Oregonian newspaper! This image, taken at Cape Kiwanda in Oregon, was taken last year on a typically freezing summer day at the beach. I love that this girl is wearing sandals and a warm winter coat! Kids don't feel the cold, do they?

Yaquina Bridge, Newport OR

This is a view from under the Yaquina bridge in Newport, Oregon. We were there last weekend for what seems to be the last of the sunshine for the next week! About 20 seconds after I took this picture, it hailed! Just another spring day in Oregon...

The absolute latest image I've worked on, which unfortunately was days ago. Life is speeding up towards the end of this month and I'm letting it manage me rather than how I prefer life to go. Luckily there's an extended weekend looming in a couple of days, hopefully it will give Beverly and I time to reset, reground, and get creatively juiced up again. Maybe some surfing too...

Testing blog post