Mandy was a delight to watch as she married her Marty in the low golden light at the temple… incense in the air.
From there to their lovely house full of friends… the kind of intimate, relaxed party everyone likes… a little prosecco, a little pie on a sweet and simple June day.

A grateful nod to Francoise Weeks for her always glorious floral work ~
Great food and fine, friendly service by Sassafras Catering ~
Top notch cupcakes by Sugarcube ~
Mandy’s delicious dress by Elizabeth Dye ~

Where to start? Tricia and Dave came to Portland from sunny Palm Desert to get married in our beautiful Lan Su Gardens. Tricia came into the day like a house afire… she wanted to go to as many Portland spots for pictures as possible. Given the window of time we had, she scaled it back to some interesting spaces that we could walk to on the way from The Nines to the Garden. We stumbled across The 24 Hour Church of Elvis… for 50¢ you can get married there… you just have to push all of the right bright buttons and answer the many questions on the screen. It was a lot of fun to watch! From there to the Chinatown Gate and on to Voodoo Donuts and The Paris Theatre… honestly, it was a marvelous carnival mix… we all came away smiling. As we walked, a pedicab driver offered us a free ride for the remaining two blocks… all of this was just the beginning of a great celebration.
Luckily, the rain held mostly until the end of the ceremony and the rabbi didn’t seem to mind that they were already married in the eyes of Elvis.

A lot of credit for this day goes to the vendors… they made it work even when the skies opened…
Dave made an interesting contribution… he designed four Saketinis for the party… the reviews were good!
Vibrant Table ran the show and fed everyone a lot of really great food.
Page Winograd also of Vibrant Table, did her floral magic, even incorporating some of the family’s antique fans.
Finales made a series of delicious cakes… inspired by henna tattoos.
Takohachi Taiko entertained the diners with a fascinating drum ensemble.
Swingline Cubs got everyone up and dancing.

“Memory is the thing you forget with.”

– Alexander Chase

April 24th was a fine day to get married… a little cool and breezy… just the kind of Portland day you hope for in the Spring. These two are new to our city and have completely embraced it… I think they will be a good addition. In their first meeting, Betsy made it clear that she wasn’t looking for the typical details shots… no shoes or lingerie fluff for her. When I got to the hotel, she very carefully arranged her watch on the lilacs in the room… then she put it in the pocket of her marvelous dress.

Betsy and Alex made the old fashioned choice to not see each other before the ceremony… it required a little fancy dancing to keep them from running into each other at the Art Museum but we had the ever talented Molli of Bon Soiree keeping tabs on them. These two hired a veritable dream team of vendors and it made for a great run… Vibrant Table staged the room and catered a great meal. Page, also of Vibrant Table, designed the lovely floating tulips. Eric Wright, Portland’s consummate music man, had the dance floor jammed and jumping all night!

It always seems to go by so fast… even with all those watches. ;0)

“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”

   ”It’s about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.”

… at least that’s what they tell me. Well, I have to say that this month has been completely outta control so the blog has been wishful thinking at best.

I made the mistake of cleaning my windows on one of the early sunny days… everything was fine until I stuck my head out of the skylight and got a good look at my south roof. After a minor panic attack, we started the process of getting bids to replace the roof. This one has been on since 1981 so, yes, it was time but I thought we might be able to wait until this summer. Not so much. Now we have to wait for the lovely spring weather to clear so the guy we hired can come do the work.
Of course, in anything like house repair, one project always leads to another. ;0)
Last Saturday Opera Boy smiled as he handed me an electric drill and a flat bar… I spent the next few hours prying the first part of the old front porch off of my house. Apparently, we have decided to replace it. And then comes the paint. Sigh.

Meanwhile, March 13th was the 10 year mark for my Mom’s death. I had planned to run a beautiful little photo essay about her but the further I got into the process of scanning old photos, I realized I have a lot to say. Dad’s 20 year mark comes in May so I am thinking I might wait until I can do them both some justice.

This one is from their wedding in July, 1950… Grace H. Benson married Allan B. Bosworth… he was just out of the Navy and she was still in. They look happy to me and so very young.

To be continued…

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

New Mexico was a game changer in my life.
In 1994, I stashed most of my ego into a back pocket and signed up for a workshop in Santa Fe… it was a little rough for a very short time. My photographic education was completely homespun to this point. My parents were both serious photographers, if not full time professionals… they had vision and enthusiasm to spare but technique, in our small house, was limited. So I brought a bit of a chip to this class and discovered, to my delight, that I was in a crowd of my peers… we were all there to fine tune a thing we already knew.

Long story short, I found that a solid week of photography and photographers was a balm to my inner skin… no phones, no real housework, no outside life… no contest.
The textures and light that make up Santa Fe and it’s near neighbors were a healing time to me and they return to tease my mind on many a grey day here.

My teacher that amazing week was Kent Barker. Out of Dallas at the time, he was subtle and easy to talk to… a sweet sense of humor, his work was very strong.
He took us two hours north of Santa Fe to his friend’s art gallery in Tres Piedras… a hot pink adobe schoolhouse sitting all by itself on the Taos Mesa.
Imagine 18 photographers, 10 white dogs and a stormy afternoon sky… it was like a dream.

New Mexico pulled me back for many trips in the next seven years. I went until I couldn’t afford to go again but I am not done.
My camera will dance under those wide skies again some day.

My lucky life has more of this in it… the oddities stumbled upon. Seems as if I spend a great deal of time working at the computer for other people these days and I miss the sense of adventure… maybe chance is what I should call it.
I need to grab a little more time for me. That’s a given.

This particular scene is on the way into Santa Fe… right there on the side of the road. Seems that the owner/artist has a blow-in insulation company and he has crafted all of these life sized foam creatures in the yard by his house.
I passed by it a couple of times before I drove up to the house to ask permission. I am pleased to share the planet with all sorts of people. ;0)

The massive crab on the Governor Hotel used to show up every summer in the ’90′s… it was a promo for Jake’s Grill and I was always amused to see it up there. Well, one day I got serious and went downtown on a mission. Having waited too long on a few other things in my life, I was determined to make sure I showed up for this one.

My favorite personal film for the longest time was Kodak’s Infrared… all of the images in this post are that flavor. For all that digital has made reasonable progress, they have yet to bring this one to the table. I will keep my fingers crossed.

The Pterodactyl in Pioneer Place was a real surprise. I wish I had taken note of the artist’s name so that I could give proper credit here. It had a full, articulated wing span and I left out the beautiful wings and their supporting structure in this picture because I needed it to be more organic somehow… in film I didn’t have the chance to leave out the shiny metal rods. Makes me wonder how I might shoot it today since I have more tricks up my photographic sleeve?
Makes me wonder if that is a good thing…

I do believe photographs should be honest and I will try to keep that promise to myself.