Continuum Photography: Life behind the scences

Apple Love

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:26:08 +0000

By now you probably know that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple computers has died at the age of 56. I had recently posted this photo on my Daily Mnemonic blog outlining my long history of Apple computers, from early days of green monochromatic simplicity, to our current complex yet elegant Mac Pro towers, and MacBook Pro laptops. There has never been a time in my life that I owned a computer that was not an Apple product. It’s what I grew up on, and while I’ve had my share of Windows experiences I’ve always been extremely grateful that there has been a viable Microsoft alternative. Over the years Apple has gone through some rough spots, and I can remember a time in the late 90s when Apple’s future seemed a bit uncertain. I cringed at the prospect of having to own a PC. It’s not that I’m an Apple fanatic, I have never been the type to get into the Mac vs. PC debate. Whatever works for you is fine by me, but from a personal standpoint what has always worked for me has been Apple. While it saddens me deeply that Steve Jobs is no longer with us in the physical sense, the spirt of his innovations are with us on a daily basis. From the sleek and minimal brushed aluminum keyboard I’m typing this blog entry from, to the iPhone that I will not leave my home without. Steve is with us. Thank you Steve for never giving up your dreams, for sharing your visions with us, and for inspiring future generations of creative minds.

- Josh

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
-Steve Jobs”

La Jolla Shores Photography & San Diego Photos

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:30:37 +0000

We had our pal Marc Rotse from Moving Picture Weddings in San Diego with us for an awesome photo/video teamup on a wedding at Orfila Vineyards in Escondido. The day before the shoot we roamed around the La Jolla shores area at the worst possible time of day for photos. Despite the harsh light, I did take a few photos that I like. We then stopped for drinks at Fred’s in Old Town, where Marc commandeered my camera for a photo of me in front of a margarita (which was amusing because I’m not a drinker), right before a bar fight nearly erupted. You’d think we were living the rockstar life. Finally we ended our night with an Italian feast with a couple of my best friends in the La Mesa area. The last photo is your typical California sunset.

- Josh

Portland Portraits | Katie

admin — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:33:44 +0000

Katie is one of our friends from Women For Success, the charity group whose events quite often appear on the Life blog. The first time I photographed Katie she was in her paint clothes with a breathing mask on, and covered in black spray paint. It wasn’t exactly the type of moment that typically gets the photo shoot wheels of my mind turning. A few months later the Beauty Bar event came around, and I got to photograph all of the ladies dressed up. Katie’s photos from that day were a standout for me, and it was obvious to me she was very photogenic. Convincing someone they are photogenic is not always an easy thing. I began suggesting to her that we do a portrait session just for the fun of it, but my suggestions were usually met with Katie flashing her big smile and laughing like I had just told the funniest joke ever. I’m not exactly sure when the concept of a shoot went from pure giggles to a viable reality, but during the last WFS event I was bugging her about it again and something switched in her brain. Suddenly the Katie photo session was a go.

I’m glad I was persistent in making this shoot happen. I think Katie totally rocked sketchy NW industrial Portland. Katie’s makeup was done by Courtney Rogers, who was able to work with us when we needed to move the shoot up a couple of days earlier due to a foreboding Portland forecast. Love, love, love these photos!

- Josh

Women For Success | 2nd Annual Volunteer Event

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:15:49 +0000

Women For Success held their Second Annual Volunteer Event at Dress For Success Portland a few days ago. First off I can’t believe how fast a year has gone by. It seems like just yesterday that we were there photographing the dressing room makeover. My how time has flown by. Not only have we photographed both Natalie and Crystal’s weddings, but we’ve attended quite a few other WFS events and have grown very close to these amazing women. This time around we had moved on to updating the look of a different area in the Dress For Success building, but it seemed like the extra year of familiarity we all had made for a lot more fun and zaniness as the night grew later. Everyone should be proud of how much they accomplished in that day!

- Josh

I had to be sure and document Megan’s tour of the facility to the new recruits.

I think this was about the time things started taking a turn for the weird…

Megan and Natalie’s life chains are officially bonded.

Part of the job that night was to sort through the hundreds of shoe donations. Natalie finds a rather interesting pair of boots to accent her Scripps College sweatpants. Nice look.

It’s okay, sometimes you can’t help but stare.

Phoebe’s shoe face was rather amusing.

Blake arrived in time to inspect the pizza, and Katie models a new hair style.

Make the 6′+ girl handle the top stripe measurements.

There were a few mini meltdowns, but we managed to pull it together for the final stretch.

Blake “helping” out.

Katie touching up the stripes. Megan touching up Katie’s touch-ups.

The stripes are actually pretty straight, the fisheye puts a curve on to everything.

The finished space!

Left to right: Katie, Julia, Natalie, Crystal, and Megan.

Portland Portraits | Jessica Hill Photography

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:35:26 +0000

Jessica Hill is one of my wedding photographer friends in Portland. I think I met her in early 2010 at one of those Wine Country Wedding Professional meetings. You know- those networking meetings. I knew of Jessica before I met her in person. I had stumbled upon her website when we were researching our Portland move, and was instantly impressed. In addition to being a great photographer, Jessica is also a savvy businesswoman, and if I had to describe her in a single word I’d choose “real.” She is sweet, lively, opinionated (in a good way), and passionate about what she does. All good qualities to have in a friend and artist.

It’s no big secret that I want to photograph everyone I know. If I haven’t taken a photo of you, I want to. It is however, somewhat intimidating to take photos of other photographers. With a photographer there is no secret or mysticism to the large piece of metal you have stuck to your face. Jessica also has no shortage of photographer friends who would probably enjoy taking pictures of her. So when she asked me to take some photos of her and her assistant Lindsay, it was much like the feeling you get when you’re 6 years old and you’re pulling up into the Toys R Us parking lot. Excitement! It took us awhile to nail down a date, but finally our schedules managed to align and we got our photoshoot.

I arrived a little early that day because I knew Kirstie Wight was going to be doing Jessica’s makeup. Kirstie has done the makeup for a couple of my senior shoots, and she is lovely- so I thought I’d pop in and shoot a bit of the getting ready. Now I’m not going to lie and tell you Jessica is easy to photograph. She’s unquestionably beautiful, but you usually only have about 20 seconds between her giving you a serious look and then completely spazzing out. It was definitely a great time, and even though Jessica only wanted me to shoot for a few minutes I managed to coax her into going a little longer. Thank you Jessica for giving me the chance to photograph you, and introducing me both to Kirstie and Lindsay. It was so much fun!

- Josh

Trillium Lake

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:25:19 +0000

The first time we attempted to visit Trillium Lake, it was apparently too early, and the road was closed. The second time we attempted to visit Trillium Lake we were able to drive down to the southern spot that has the best vantage point to see Mt. Hood, only it was cloudy that day, and the mountain could not be seen. This was the third attempt. The skies were not as clear as usual due to some forest fires, but I think I’m satisfied enough with the way these came out to at least not have to make a fourth attempt.

- Josh

OHSU View | Taking the OHSU Aerial Tram

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:45:08 +0000

Melissa and I decided to take a ride on OHSU’s aerial tram to get some photos of the view from the top of Marquam Hill. Obviously the view is pretty good, but there if there was a way to get up on the roof of some of those buildings I bet the view would be even better. Unfortunately the best spots that were accessible to the general public still had a tall treeline blocking a complete view of the city. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a return visit in soon with one of my OHSU contacts so I can get better access. In the meantime, enjoy a few of the shots I was able to get from the easy vantage points.

- Josh

Ashley Forrette’s First Annual Portland Photographer Summer Family Barbeque Event | Peninsula Park

admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:00:12 +0000

Photographers + barbeque = photograque? Generally I’m opposed to any made up words, unless of course I’ve made them up myself. The Portland wedding photography community has some really awesome members, so when Ashley Forette said she’d been lifting weights in preparation of having a really spectaluar muscle flexing barbeque, I knew it was a party we had to get in on. So a few photographers stepped away from our all day summer post processing festival to relax and partake in some universal summer traditions. I didn’t get a photo of everyone in attendance, sorry about that. Summer’s almost over people, maybe we should do it again before the clouds roll in? Look how much fun we had!

- Josh

Though a grill managed to arrive, none of us brought utensils.

Ashley’s secret guacamole recipe has been handed down for generations. Hope she doesn’t get mad at me for photographing the secret.

I don’t think I’ve actually photographed Lincoln’s face yet, but that is his camera zeroing in on the coveted Cheez-Its.

Then totally out of nowhere, Yasmin arrived!

Then she started to pretend that she wasn’t actually an accomplished model, and hid behind her beloved hummus.

Yashley.

As I mentioned before, Ashley has been hitting the gym HARD. Or perhaps I enhanced her a little with my awesome post processing.

Lauren on the left, Yasmin on the right!

Ryan in his normal state vs. Ryan viewed through a beer dimension portal.

Aaron proves that dads somehow tear pieces of bread better than anyone else.

High stakes lawn bowling.

Khajitchell.

A whole pound of pound of pound cake.

Aaron doesn’t have a photo site to link to, but he did get a kabob.

San Diego Comic-Con International 2011

admin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:57:30 +0000

The San Diego Comic-Con always draws a huge crowd from not just San Diego, but all over the country. They say it’s the largest comic book convention in the world, although nationalities of attendees are hard to gauge when half of them are dressed up like Klingons. I had been to the Comic-Con a couple of times in the late 90s before I moved away from San Diego with my friends Dan and Kiko. Kiko actually went from attendee to exhibitor with his involvement with Penny Arcade, which is a different story in of itself. One major thing has changed from my experience then to now- it’s more about media of all sorts than it is about comics anymore. TV shows, movies, video games, toys, sculptures, you name it. Everything kids used to be beat up and ostracized for thinking was cool, is now actually embraced by mainstream society. Of course the general public doesn’t always do the comic world right, like the first Punisher movie for example, or that thing they are trying to pass off as G.I. Joe… but I digress. It is indeed neat to see the things I was into as a kid brought to life. It was Melissa’s (or MrsMelMitch as I’ve been calling her since the advent of her new Twitter account) first trip to the Con , and she had been wanting to check it out for the last couple of years. Somehow a wedding always kept us away, but this year we made a point not to book anything on the weekend itself. We walked around the floor for a few hours in the slow moving mass of people wishing we had a rope to tether us together to avoid separation. It was definitely busy. All in all I think it’s fun to just walk around for a day, but if you are contemplating attending multiple days you really need to be attending some of the panels and not just wandering. It’s also a lot of people to contend with, so if you get claustrophobic you might want to reconsider. People were all very courteous though, and everyone who dressed up loves to be photographed, which worked out well for me!

- Josh

Portland Headshots | Leslie

admin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:22:38 +0000

A few weeks ago I shot some portraits of my friend Leslie in SE Portland. She mainly wanted a good image to use as her Facebook profile photo so she could participate in our July Facebook contest. We shot for about an hour, and I think we ended up with lots of great images. Facebook is obviously a dynamic part of how we all interact on the web with one another, but I’m always a bit surprised at some of the photos of my friends that wind up on there. Personally I’m committed to raising the bar a little. I’m sure I tend to notice these things more since I’m in the business of imagery, but the images on your Facebook are often viewed by hundreds of people, friends, family, acquaintances, and sometimes even employers. My suggestion to everyone (friend and photographer alike) is to considering eliminating out of focus images, or those that are over or under exposed. If an image of you isn’t flattering don’t post it (or de-tag yourself)! Everyone gets caught in an unflattering photo from time to time, but why put it online? And if you can, schedule a portrait session! It’s a lot of fun, and you might be surprised how good it feels to see yourself looking your best!

- Josh