Doh! This was suppose to post today, not yesterday. Mea culpa. Anyway, I love the very warm tones from the last shots of the day. Nothing better than a late summer sun. Sad to see it go.

And so concludes my little photo series of OBRA bike racing at PIR. If you’d like to see all the shots I took, click here to go to the LB Archive gallery.

Here’s Kevin again going for it along the S bank on the west side of the track. That sun flare is real, BTW.

In racing, there’s only milliseconds between you, another rider, and wipeout. Fortunately, nobody hit this the day I was there.

Today I’m starting a 6 days of shooting in a row. Each day is either for a different client or in different location all over Oregon and Washington.

When it rains it pours!

I have a very busy week coming up, so not much time for commentary. I like this shot though. A rider ahead of the pack. No crowds cheering her on. Just sole determination to push herself and stay in the lead.

A strong metaphor for life in general.

Kevin (who you might recognize from my wife’s blog post or from Portland Bride & Groom) is the kind of guy that does everything to the max. I respect that. As a chef, he’s incredibly talented and passionate about food. As a cyclist, he likes to push out hard and the lead first few laps, immediately creating the pace for the rest of the race. It was cool to watch him make the the other riders work to keep up.This strategy works well for his other teammates, because it gives them a chance to save the energy for sprints in the final laps.Many times during the race, I saw Kevin first before any one else. Consequently, I got a lot of shots of him. I had a hard time deciding which one of these from the start of the race I liked the best.

3… 2… 1… GO!

This is Aaron getting in the zone before the race. He’s a pretty big deal, in case you didn’t know.

Earlier this week, my buddies Kevin and Aaron invited me out to watch them race at PIR. I’ve seen bicycle races before, but never on an auto race track. The idea is so cool, I just had to go. It was fun to watch and even more fun to shoot.

With late summer sun and open skies, I got some really intense shots of the guys flying around hairpin corners in packs of riders only inches apart. I’ll be posting my favorites over the next several days and then putting up everything else in the Archive.

I think the racing bug bit me, too, while I was there. I totally want to ride now.

Whole new photo series starts today. Stay tuned for some 2 wheel racin’ action!

I’ve decided to officially bring back my daily photo blog (Ides of May) as part of this larger blog/site/archive/thing. Most importantly, I’ve imported all the old 400+ photo posts and comments from the ides-of-may.com domain and put them here. I’m also (slowly) uploading high rez versions to my Photoshelter Archive, so if you see something you like, you can buy a print, digital download, or a even commercial usage license.

My goal for now is to post one photo Monday through Friday. I have enough in the archives for about a month, then I’ll  go out and start shooting personal work again. I need to warm up the old creative transistors.

Looking forward to some photo walks with this beautiful lady.

PS: here ↓ are some icons for you social media addicts.

The August 2010 issue of Portland Monthly just came out and I am really excited about this tearsheet from it. This custom built modern home, nicknamed Harpoon House, designed by Matt Kirkpatrick and Katherine Bovee has only 704 square feet of livable space. Shooting was really cool experience because it felt much larger than that. It also made the shot list really short. I think the high ceilings and big windows really helped the space feel open. It’s amazing what you can do with good design.

Matt and Katherine did a fantastic job making the most of their 2500 lot, as well. The house is only 16 feet wide and 28 feet tall and that leaves space for a garden plot and a small yard. And the upstairs bedroom has an outdoor space with a green roof. Smart and eco-friendly. I’ve included an outtake that didn’t run in the magazine after the rest of the tearsheets.

Funny story about this doughnut: I was on assignment for American Airlines in flight magazine, American Way, and part of the assignment was to shoot Voodoo Doughnuts. I was trying to shoot an interior of the downtown location, but it happened to be during Spring Break. The place was totally mobbed and had to wait in line for 30 minutes just to get inside. If you’ve never been to the downtown Voodoo Doughnuts, it’s about the size of dorm room. Getting a clean, travel-esque, interior photo is nearly impossible when the place is empty. It was just ludicrous to even try with the place packed shoulder to shoulder with high school kids.

I did what I could and then asked for a couple doughnuts to shoot as backup.This shot is the one they picked to run and I’m really happy they did. I mean, look at this thing! This shot makes me want to go to Voodoo Doughnuts every time I look at it.

And yes, I did eat it after I shot it. It was sooooo worth it.

p.s.: Props to PhotoShelter for creating their rad WordPress plugin. So if you like this shot, you can buy a copy of it by clicking on the photo. Word.

Took my first crack at shooting video this past week. I’ve been toying around with the 5D Mark II’s video mode since I got the camera last year. It was neat, but I really didn’t have much interest in it

I’m starting to believe that fate exists. About five and half years ago, my wife and I were visiting Portland to decide if we wanted to move here from Virginia. Both of us love eating out and breakfast is one of my favorite meals. If we were going to relocate to Portland, it better have a good place to go for eggs, waffles, and pancakes seven days a week.  Looking through a tour guide, Besaw’s had exactly what we were looking for and so we went. It was absolutely delicious and we knew then that moving to Portland was going be alright.

Around the same time that we were having our first Portland breakfast, a young woman named Cana Flug had just become the new owner of the 105 year old establishment. Already famous for its breakfast, over the next five years, she breathed new life into the restaurant and grew their dinner scene into one of the best night spots in Portland.

Then through an interweaving thread of shoots, people, and connections, I get a call from Cana looking for new photography of their food and dinner scene. I can’t tell you how excited I was. I love this place and I love their food and it was truly a joy to shoot. Hope you enjoy the photos and if you’re ever in town, go to Besaw’s. Go three times, because everything is so good there.

Hope you enjoy these photos as much as I did making them.

If you happen into any local hospitality destination, you might see the above shot I took for Travel Portland. Art Directed by the incredibly talented Thomas Cobb, this slick city tour guide magazine really stands out. I know we keep them in our house for years to show out of town guests what all the great activities there are to do in the Portland area. I was really excited to shoot the cover for it and also this cool spread below.

Now, both of these shots have a lot going on. The Streetcar rolling by. Models chatting and strolling across the sidewalk. Cyclists all cruising by on my command. My timing had to be spot on because of all the moving objects and the need for negative space for copy. You’d think I would just use Photoshop to stitch the elements together later. But in one of these shots, I tweeted a little while ago that I nailed the perfect shot in one take.

Can you guess which one? First right answer gets a signed 11×14 print of their choice.

I’ll post a follow up in the comments below.

This is great example of when photos going viral is a good thing. For about a month, it seemed everyone in the world was stoked on Parliament’s office space. I lost track of the number of blogs it went up on, but some of the big ones were Design*Sponge, Graphic-ExchanGE, and Contemporist. This led to some job inquiries, stock requests, and even publication. The shots ran in Korean architecture magazine Interiors. A very slick glossy magazine and I was really excited when the printed copies came in the mail yesterday

Here are some more tears, if you happen to not live in Korea.

Nice double truck!

More shots of Parliament’s World Headquarters here.

Art Directed by Chris Erickson
Styled by Bergren Rameson

I really liked how this feature shoot came out in the January 2010 issue of Portland Monthly. Art directed by Michael Novak, the two of us first drove down to Corvallis, OR to photograph OSU scientist Steve Strauss in his grove of genetically modified trees. The trees in the above shot have been engineered so that can be made into paper easier which creates less waste and uses less chemicals in the processing. The trees, though, have been attacked be eco-terriorists and Strauss has certainly had to face a mountain of criticism from peers and pundits alike. It’s a great story and you can read it here on Portland Monthly’s website.

We then shot a series of everyday things that are genetically modified but you would never know it. Mike suggested the products be shot in a clinical sterile way to emphasize the scientific angle of the story. I like how they contrast to the outdoorsy shot of Strauss.

*note: I did not shoot the cat. Apparently our cat isn’t genetically modified, but she’s still very special.

Mmm… bread. Read more here.

As long as you have Adirondack chairs and can feel the breeze on your face.

It’s been a busy week here at Lincoln Barbour Photo. A great shoot yesterday, two shoots next week to get ready for, estimates and portfolios going out the door, my bookkeeping is way behind, I even have some web projects needed to get done yesterday. Not complaining, mind you, it’s a very nice change from last year. I’ve got some other posts in draft mode, but I don’t think they’re going to get done today.

But I wanted to post something. So, I’ve decided to make Fridays a links day. Every week, I pick up a lot of great photo business information on various blogs, social sites, etc. Instead of hoarding all this great knowledge, I thought I’d share what I’ve learn and then we can discuss them in the comments below.

• On Photoshelter’s Blog, I read about “8 Ways To Get More Work From Existing Clients“
• Vincent Laforet wrote a great post about the new Zeiss cine lenses with HDDSLR mounts. I haven’t enjoyed shooting video because accurate focus is so difficult on the standard AF style lenses. But these lenses make me rethink the whole video game. We’ll see…
• Knowing how to take a photograph is half the battle in commercial photography. Knowing how to take a photograph that gets someone’s attention may require scientific research. On PSFK, a great read on how Campbell Soup’s used neuromarketing to redesign their labels and you can see how it influenced their food photography.
• Black Star Rising is a great blog. They consistently post a great variety of marketing tips from photographers of all genres. I thought that these eight questions are something every photographer should ask themselves.
• The ad agency of the future will affect all commercial photographers. A very thought provoking read about how ad agencies should change is here on What Consumes Me.
• Finally, since Photoshop turned 20 this week, here’s a little humor on the invention of Photoshop from my very favorite online comic Achewood.

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy those Rolos!

It was really great to have my brother and his wife visit us last week. We did a Portland style “staycation” with them and visited all our favorite spots around town including Cupcake Jones. Absolutely beautiful and delicious cupcakes that also make for especially pleasing photo subjects.

Now it’s time to get back to work. Got a lot on my plate (so to speak).