Skater Paul Rodriguez at the Dew Tour in Portland, Ore.

I have to admit, I had never heard of Paul Rodriquez until I shot the Dew Tour. The only skater I'd heard of to that point was Shaun White and Tony Hawk. I know that's really lame, but I just don't follow the sport. I've never skated in my life. I found out right away this cat is famous in the skating world. A bus load of mostly women (girls?) and boys followed him through the crowd asking him for his autograph after he won. I followed him into the portable NBC Sports studio and shot him waiting for the live television interview. The producers herded the fans into the studio and prompted them cheer on command. The whole thing was surreal. One thing for sure though, what these guys do on a skateboard is nothing short of magical. They have courage and skill beyond my comprehension.

Pickathon, Happy Valley, Ore., Aug. 6, 7, 8, 2010

Not much happens in Happy Valley. Perhaps that's one of the things that makes it happy. However, the one thing that does happen, is the best American roots and indie music festivals on the face of the planet. It's called Pickathon. Let me tell you, I've shot countless concerts and music festivals ranging from U2 to Willie Nelson. I can tell you this is the most generous, most laid back, photo friendliest, musician friendly, kid friendly, beer loving, camping friendly event of any kind I've ever covered. There's a refreshing lack of rules even while there's hundreds of volunteers on hand to enforce the ones they do have. The volunteers really just try to be helpful. It's only about a half mile from my house. I can hear it from by deck. I rode my motorcycle down there and parked next the back stage. Best yet, all my favorite people are there. Photographers Tim Labarge, Torsten Kjellstrand, Jamie Francis, Tom Patterson, Faith Cathcart, Ian Malkasian, all cover it for PIckathon. With Tim LaBarge large and in charge, they do a great job. This year I covered it for The Oregonian. This is what I saw.

PDX Pop Now!

I spent a few hours poking around PDX Pop Now! at Rotture in southeast Portland. I met some cool people and heard some great music. This is what I saw. I just noticed that all but one photo was shot with a 50mm lens. The other was shot with a 24mm lens.

Update: Building New Galleries

I haven't posted much to my blog these days for a couple reasons. For the month of July I've been shooting and editing video. I have shot stills on two assignments that needed stills as well. And, there's another assignment that I can't talk about or post photos from, but I'm very excited to share when I can. In the middle of all this, I was messing around and changed my Graph Paper Press WP theme. This sounds like a no big deal but it ended up being a huge undertaking. In the process I decided to use SmugMug as my photo hosting site. This also caused a huge amount of work to get photos uploaded and organized.

I've finally got the bull by the horns and feel like my website and the corresponding portfolio galleries are coming together. So, please stick with me here, I'll posting more soon, especially when football season cranks up.

Vale Rodeo in Eastern Oregon

< I went to the Vale Rodeo with the intention of photographing the suicide race. I certainly did that, but it since it was over in in about 3 minutes, I shot the rodeo both nights as well. I had a great time. Everyone was friendly and open to being photographs. I full run of the place. While the weather didn't cooperate, it did make for some interesting images.

Airpocalypse Makes Beautiful Music on America’s Got Talent

I photographed these cats at the America's Got Talent auditions back in February in Portland. It was a rare assignment when I brought Cole along to help me out. I shot still and video. These guys were hilarious and I thought then they had a shot. Sure enough, they made it on the tube and passed judging.

SmugMug Test Post

Thisl is a test post of a smugmug gallery. It contains some recent images from the first half of 2010.

NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

Here's a few snaps from my four days at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Sports Illustrated Leading Off

I shot this at the Oregon State Track and Field Championships and it ran double truck in Sports Illustrated.

The Portland Timbers Seen Through a Canon 800mm/5.6L IS

I'm currently testing a Canon 800mm/5.6L IS lens and a Canon 1D Mark IV camera. I shot this Timbers game at ISO's from 2500 to 5000 as the light changed. I was very impressed with the focusing and handling ability of the lens. It's is a large and long, but not that heavy. I think a 400/2.8 is more difficult to handle. I especially like the reach from at the goal. What it was perfect.

Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Here's what I saw walking around Bourbon Street in the middle of May, 2010. See a video that describes how I used Aperture to adjust the first image.

First Place Doesn't Suck

It appears I won first place in the Photo Portfolio category of the Society of Professional Journalists contest. Here's the link:http://www.spjwash.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/spj10_awards.pdf

Oil Spill from the Oregon perspective

Here are some of the photos I shot in the Gulf for for the oil spill last.

Manazanita story pubished in MIX Magazine

I think it's always interesting to see how editors and designers choose to use photos I was assigned to shoot for them. I didn't shoot the cover, but I wanted to show what the magazine looks like. But, I think they did a good job with the inside pages and used the right photos. After the photos of the pages you'll see every photo I submitted to them. They chose from this edit. I had no input on what I thought they should use.

New Video: Advanced Adjustments Video with Thomas Boyd

Sample from the Thomas Boyd Aperture 3 Advanced Adjustments Video from Mac Creative Network on Vimeo.

I just released a new video on maccreate.com. I've posted a sample video above. You can buy it on the maccreate.com store if you like.

Lighting at 7000 feet

Craig Mitchelldyer had a crazy idea. He wanted to lead a lighting workshop at Silcox Lodge on Mt. Hood. He called it "Lighting at 7000 feet". I was crazy enough to help. I shot video and stills, I asked Fred Joe to help and he was crazy enough to follow me. I must say though, I thought it worked out great for everyone. We all learned a lot and everyone made some great photos. Timberline Lodge even sculpted some jumps for the snowboarders. The food was even good. This gallery shows the still photos Freddy and I shot.