Fair warning: this post contains a few more photos than I usually post. If there’s one thing I care about more than anything at a wedding is capturing the moments that tell the story & reflect the memories that carried the day. If that requires a few more photos than usual for a blog post, so be it. Weddings are emotional events—not only for the bride & groom, but for their friends & family as well (sometimes even for photographers). I dare you to look at these photos & not feel the love from this wedding day. That starts with a bride who is probably the happiest person I’ve ever met.

Plus, I get to start the post with one of my most favorite portraits I’ve ever made. Ever.

I’m excited to bring you the wedding of Samm & Nathan which took place on a (rare this year) beautiful spring day at the amazing Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane. I think you’ll notice the sweet & overwhelming emotion of the day that I felt fortunate to see & be able to capture with my camera. I had a blast during their wonderful day, beginning to end. Congratulations, Samm & Nate.

**For the best viewing experience, open up the first photo & use the left & right arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the photos.**

Here’s Lindsey & David’s engagement session we shot in downtown Spokane. We had a blast getting these shots. At least I did, & they said they did. That’s good enough for me.

**For the best viewing experience, open up the first photo & use the left & right arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the photos.**

Amber & Alex got to participate in one of my favorite activities recently for their engagement photos. I call it the “jump in the car & drive in that direction” photo shoot. To be honest we knew we were heading in the direction of Liberty Lake, but beyond that, we didn’t know where we were going. I really love the excitement of looking for a spot to shoot when it’s somewhere I’ve never been before. Fortunately we found some incredible locations that I’m sure I’ll be going back to regularly.

First off, I have the best clients. I don’t know why I’m so lucky. I love hanging out with these couples & getting to know them. Amber & Alex were no exception. We were laughing the whole time & I can’t wait to shoot their wedding!

This photo shoot had it’s share of wildlife. First there were some deer running around us while I took the photo on the walking bridge. Then we got to watch the osprey hunt over the lake. Then a dragonfly landed on Amber’s shoulder. Then we made our way to the ‘forest’ & there were bats, owls, & mosquitoes. I didn’t do so well with the mosquitoes—not sure where the bats were on that one. Then while editing photos I saw an eyeball of something reflecting back at me. Not sure what it was, but it was some kind of animal watching us (you can see the orange dot in the last photo about 150 pixels to the right of Alex’s shoulder). Creepy.

For photographers: The forest shots were shot with 2 lights, an AB800 8′ up at camera right & a Nikon SB600 at 3′ about 25′ behind A & A pointing at the trees. Some adjustments made in LR. None in Photoshop. The best thing is that the final photos look exactly how they looked in my head.

Generally I’m a perfectionist when it comes to photography. I need to have low noise, a perfect exposure, precise depth of field, extra sharp focus, balanced composition, and true color.

Sometimes though, it’s nice to switch it up.

These were still taken with my Olympus DSLR and macro lens but the photo I took was looking down at the viewfinder of my 1950s Kodak Duaflex II camera (Through the Viewfinder or TTV photography) that I bought on eBay for $1. There’s something to be said for a photo that’s imperfect in the right ways. There is extreme blurring and imperfect vignetting around the edges. The color is a little off. There are specs of who knows what in the middle of the photo and lots around the corners. Sometimes it’s tough to get the horizon line straight. Yet, with all of those things, a beautiful picture is still possible.

Art isn’t necessarily about perfection . It’s about a feeling or moment. And that can be a lot easier to catch with TTV photos. Sure I can take any perfect photo and muck it up in Photoshop. Add a border, give it some dust and texture, desaturate the colors, blur the edges. And at times I’ll do any of those things to a picture. Still, there is a certain sterility to those images. But there is something to be said for the unpredictability that can come from changing things up.

It can be tricky to get things just right on these pictures because I’m holding and trying to line up 2 cameras with a cardboard tube between them and attempting to compose the shot backwards (the viewfinder shows the image in the lens backwards). But I really like these so I’m sure I’ll get better every time I drag out the Kodak.

Click the thumbnails to see larger.

#28 Warm/Cool Bench

For some reason I’ve recently been drawn to the contrast between warm & cool colors.

Here are a couple of abstracts I shot with my iPhone.

#23: Light Grid

#24: Butterfly Shadows

Here are a couple of abstract shots. I thought both of them had great compositions along with some really interesting colors.

#21: Pavement Armour
#22: BBQ Grease

#20: Spring Horse

Abstract Sunrise

#13: rusty wheel

#11: Tilt Shift Toy

One of the defining features of tilt shift photos is a small depth of field (lots of blurring) that makes photos of a large scale look like toy models. I kind of took that in a different direction here. Oh well, it’s funny to me. Reagan laughed at it too.

#12: Abstract Bokeh

Bokeh is the term for out of focus objects in a photo (usually the background). With my normal camera it’s pretty easy to accomplish. With an iPhone, with it’s automatic focus, it’s a little tougher. I had to trick the camera in to focusing on the background so the foreground would bokeh nicely. I’m really happy with the result.

The sky has been filled with these great clouds all day. Then as the sun was setting, it bounced off of these clouds dramatically. Shot through the car window at 35 mph.

#10: Dramatic Clouds Pola

#9: Found Rothko.

This photo’s colors, textures and composition reminded me of the work of one of my favorite painters, Mark Rothko. I’ve added a photo of a Rothko painting (on the right) to illustrate why I see similarities.

Click to view larger.

#5: Columbia River Gorge

Not really happy with one of the stitches, but it was tough to see because the sun was shining directly on the screen, and I like it overall.

#6: Westport Bowl

Good times.

One of my personal heroes in the world of photography is Chase Jarvis. He’s one of those rare people who can make you simultaneously want to quit because when you measure yourself against them you end up at the 1 cm mark of the 35 foot tape and help you get inspired because they are so creative you just think, “Why didn’t I think of that, I want to try that!”

He also spends a lot of time on his websites promoting general creativity in addition to stunning photography. It’s easy to get the feeling that it just so happens that he chose a camera as his tool of choice and he’d do just as well painting watercolors or producing music.

That said, I’ve decided to steal one of his creative exercises for myself.

A while back Chase made a goal to upload at least 1 photo per day to Facebook and Twitter. His reasoning, which is compelling, is ”The best camera is the one that’s with you.” I love my iPhone. I go nowhere without it. It’s always there even when my Olympus isn’t. As much as I love my Oly, it’s tough to take a great shot with it when it’s not within my reach.

I’ll follow his same rules. Namely, these photos will (with the exception of the first one which I am posting with this entry) never have seen my computer hard drive. They will come straight from my iPhone, and be processed using only native iPhone apps—no Photoshop (this first photo still follows that rule).

I think the motivation in doing this is to keep my eyes looking. Any person who spends time in a creative field spends time thinking about that ever elusive monster of creativity. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and only “turn on” my creativity when I think I have to, like when I’m shooting a client or sitting in front of my computer working on a design. Already in the 2 days I’ve been trying this I see myself creatively thinking more often. My eyes are open to what’s around me waiting to inspire me.

I’m sure I’ll have dud days. That’s a part of life. But the idea is to deal with them and do something better the next day. It’s about being prepared to find inspiration wherever it may be, not just where you expect to find it.

As usual, comments are welcomed and encouraged.

#1…

Daily iPhone Photo #1: Ice Cream Truck