>Table Rocks, Medford, Oregon

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Nature Conservancy Acquires Land at Table Rocks near Medford, Oregon - Images by Thomas Boyd
Read the story here.

>Gourmet Loves Portland Waffles

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Gourmet Loves Portland Waffles - Images by Thomas Boyd

For my third Gourmet.com contribution, I shot the Waffle Window on Hawethorne Blvd. here in Portland. It was even documented on this blog and showed up on The Oregonian reddit feed.

For photographers out there, I wanted to give a hats-off to picture editor Ryan Schick at Gourmet.com. He's the best New York photo editor I've ever dealt with. I know aphotoeditor.com gives great feedback to photographers on how they should conduct themselves with photo editors, but I have to do the same for photo editors in the form showing by example on how a great photo editor conducts business.

First off, Schick sends complete but short emails with upbeat language. He sends the corresponding text that will accompany the photos. He follows up quickly with feedback and requests for changes. He'll call immediately with questions or answers. He's appreciative of the work. Things happen quickly and with purpose. Time is not wasted with obtuse language.

And, while I'm on a roll with the unsolicited back-slapping, I have to say, I love the way Gourmet Magazine and Gourmet.com uses photos. The sophisticated art direction on Gourmet.com surprised me with the use of diptychs and mixing color with black and white. The photo selection was spot on. I was delighted every time with they came up with.

I love that they take the time to ask for alternate processing or feedback on how the photos will be used. I just feel like the photo treatment has been first class. I hope their editors appreciate what their doing it as much as I have.

>Rudy Fernandez's Alter Ego Thanks Bruce and I

>I get get Google Alerts on my name and this is one of the strangest instances I've seen so far in the alerts. There a blogger out there that posts as if he were the Portland Trail Blazers Rudy Fernandez. In his latest post, he thanks Bruce Ely and I for the photos we shot at the Blazers Nuggets game.

Well, Rudy, you are welcome.

>The Portland Trail Blazers Rally

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Trail Blazers Rally - Images by Thomas Boyd

>Portland Trailblazers Beat the Denver Nuggets

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Last night Jamie Francis, Bruce Ely, and I shot the Portland Trail Blazers beating the Denver Nuggets at the Rose Garden. This win gave the Blazers the home court advantage playing Houston in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. After I dropped Bruce off I heard on the radio that fans were already setting up camp at the Rose Quarter to buy tickets at noon the next day. Bruce went down and shot some photos. He posted them on his blog here.

>Too Late for the Paper

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This happened too late to get it in the paper but it made it on Oregonlive.com gallery here. This a was a great game and I'm really glad I was there. It's always a privilege to see such great athletes compete like this. The Portland Trail Blazers Brandon Roy and the Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant are great players. I'll be shooting the Blazers game on Monday when they play Oklahoma City and I'm looking forward to shooting Kevin Durant. The last time I've seen him play in person was when he was in college.

>Little Bad Dog

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Tucker the Chihuahua-mix whose mother was rescued from a puppy mill, backs down Junior, an American Pit Bull (an apparent Oregon Duck fan, as dog lovers rally at the Oregon State Capitol, Mon., Mar., 30, 2009, as his owner, Terri Rise was there to support the Oregon Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, pending in the Oregon House. The bill would limit the number of dogs at a facility and establish standards for breeders. Junior's owner, Alan Rebo, was just walking by and stopped to listen...Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

Audio Slideshow

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The Oregon School For The Blind May Close from Thomas Boyd on Vimeo.

This is an audio slideshow that I shot and recorded at the Oregon School For The Blind in Salem, Oregon. Read the story here.

As the business moves more and more to video with the new DLSR's that shoot moving images, I still like the the good old fashioned audio slideshow. I think it gives power to still photography. The bottom line is that love still photography and I really don't love video. Audio just makes photography better. Ironically, the only reason I didn't shoot video was that I loaned out my Canon 5D Mark II to Bruce Ely so he could have it on his two game Blazers road trip. But, I'm kind of glad it worked out like that.

I shot the photos on Canon 1D Mark III cameras with a 16-35II/2.8 lens and a 100/2 lens. I recorded the audio with a Marantz digital audio recorder. I used Aperture to edit the stills, Soundtrack Pro to edit the audio and Final Cut Pro to make the video.

Round Two of Gourmet.com

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I've two shoots for Gourmet Magazine Dot Com in two weeks. Here's the latest.

This is a super cool little Japanese restaurant called Tanuki. The chef poured me two of the most incredible glasses of sake I've ever tasted. The only sake I'd had up to that point was the jet fuel variety. This was a like a bouquet of roses exploding in my mouth. It was more akin to wine than moonshine. It was multi-layered, nutty, fruity, floral with a very nice rice after taste. I really need to buy a bottle of that stuff.

If you're ever in need of dinner while roaming around Northwest Portland, give it try.

Click to see a photo I shot for Gourmet.com

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Check out the Gourmet.com and see how they used my photo of the Doug Fir Lounge. It's a very nicely designed website. Oddly, it's a Newhouse company which also owns The Oregonian and Oregonlive.com. I wish they'd send some of their web developers over to build a new Oregonlive.com from scratch. It's badly needs re-engineering. I liked the site and photography so much I subscribed to the magazine.

Go Zags!

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In four days I shot four practices, and eight games in two cities to finally see the best game of the week when Gonzaga beat Western Kentucky at the Rose Garden. It was a total blast and I can't wait until next year when Mark Few takes the Ducks to Final Four! Okay, maybe not, but you never know.

Craig Mitchelldyer's Lighting Workshop

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Tonight, Craig Mitchelldyer put on a free lighting workshop for photographer's and aspiring photographers in the Portland area. It was a huge success with over 50 shooters showing up and also the benefit of great weather. It was really nice seeing some old friends and meeting some new Portland shooters. To see more photos click HERE.

Gourmet.com

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I shot the Doug Fir Lounge for the Gourmet.com. I'll post the link when it becomes active.

Lack of Posting

>Sorry of the delay on posting new content. We had a family health crisis that has now straightened itself out and we are now in the process of moving into our new home. So, unless something really interesting falls in my lap, I won't be posting anything for a few more days.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden's 500th Town Hall Meeting in Eastern, Oregon

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Sen. Ron Wyden reached a milestone Tuesday when he held his 500th town hall meeting in Oregon, but he decided not to say much about his chances of joining the Obama administration. Wyden was in the Eastern Oregon town of Fossil for one of the regular meetings he has held since becoming senator 14 years ago. Click here for Katy Muldoon's story.

From iPhone to Hasselblad

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From Blogger Pictures

Since I had a chance to use a $40,000 39-megapixel camera for a Portland Trail Blazer game I thought it would be cool to post the a super high resolution photo right after a super-low resolution photo. It took me a awhile to get the hang of using the super heavy 50-110 zoom lens, but I eventually got the feel for the manual focus ring. While this is a great basketball photo by any means, I still like the wide angle of view without wide angle distortion you get with DLSRs. It's also interesting to know that when this image is opened in Photoshop it is about 111 megabytes. I was also hooked up to the strobes and lost a lot of images thanks to my Pocketwizards not firing.

Oh well, it just an experiment anyway.

iPhone Snap from Hawethorne Blvd. in Portland, Ore.

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From Blogger Pictures

I was walking down Hawethorne today with Carrie and the kids and three of these performers came strolling through. Apparently, they were promoting some sort of performance on the upcoming Friday at the Someday Lounge. Since I only had my iPhone with me I whipped it out and took a few snaps. This is the best of bunch. It looks surprisingly well.

Newport Oregon Video

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Newport

This is my very first 5D Mark II video. Oregonian staffers Kraig Scatterella edited it in Final Cut Pro, and Lynne Terry did the narration. It's highly compressed for the Oregonlive.com website so the true quality of the video isn't visible. If it were good enough, I'd host it on Vimeo.com, but for now, I'll just move on. It was really just an experiment.

5D Mark II Wedding Video

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Wedding Video - 5D Mark II from Craig Mitchelldyer on Vimeo.

Craig Mitchelldyer and I shot stills and video with our Canon 5D Mark II. We learned some lessons while doing it both in shooting and editing. My biggest regret was using a 24-105 f/4 IS lens in such low light. The ISO jumped up in the 3200 range and some of the low light shots had a too much noise in shadows. Next time I'll use my 24/1.4, 50/1.4 and 100/2 lenses.

I am pleased that we were able to document the wedding with minimal intervention and shoot it in a documentary style. I wasn't sure it would be possible. The next challenge is figuring out what a couple will pay for something like this. The video is just over four minutes long but the labor involved with editing is significant.

The Old Armory in Cottage Grove

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The Old Armory in Cottage Grove from Thomas Boyd on Vimeo.

This is a short audio slideshow from a ceremony discharging the 100-year-old Cottage Grove National Guard Armory. It's still has the ramp into the basement where the horse stalls were. Read the story here.