I think one of the most rewarding things about being a photographer is seeing your work in action. I recently donated a few images to PDX11 to use on their website. This small grassroots organization wants to ”put Portland on the global map as the place to go when looking for software talent and investment opportunities.”

Well I certainly hope these shots help them do that. And with support from the Portland Mayor’s office, EMMA, IBM, Intel, Hopworks Urban Brewery, and many more, I think they’ll be drawing lots of creative and smart people to Portland. After all, it is one of the greatest cities to live and work in the US.

Here are some more screen shots from www.pdx11.org designed by the über-talented Matthew Johnson of Arutai Studios.

Man, do I love shooting food. I love it almost as much as eating it. And I feel really lucky because there’s no shortage of truly great food in Portland. In fact, the most difficult thing about food here is deciding what to eat. That’s why this story by Allison Jones was so great to photograph. It’s only a small sampling of the food choices here, but these 10 dishes were all so good that I would shoot this story over again in a heartbeat.

The tricky part of this shoot was getting everything to go together in layout. Jason Blackheart’s art direction was key in dealing with the various angles, shapes, and sizes of food. His goal was to keep it simple and about the food. We decided early on that we couldn’t shoot this in studio, but wanted to make it look like it was. It was going to be too challenging to set up a traditional table top setup inside all these restaurants, so Jason’s solution was to go light and shoot everything on white foam core. To keep the lighting consistent, we always shot with natural window light coming always from the right. My processing did the rest and the spread looks fantastic. One of my favorites this year.I also really enjoyed meeting the chefs and restauranteurs who I met during this shoot. Every one of them was incredibly generous with their time and with their food. Thank you to all of them.

Now get outside, grab a Portland Monthly, and use it as your guide to some truly awesome summer food.

PS: Not to pick favorites, but that LGBLT with pickled asparagus by Bingo! Sandwiches was the bomb. Get it only at Portland Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.

If you’ve never been to Portland, you might not know of the copious amounts of houseboat communities. For this cover story for Oregon Home magazine, I got to visit three communites in the area. Each one was very different with it’s own set of character and charm. One common thread between them all, really nice people who love being on the water.

Oregon Home was one of those magazines I’ve always wanted to shoot for since moving to Portland. When Jon Taylor Carter (of Bend Living fame) took over as art director and called me in, I jumped at the opportunity. As my first shoot for them, I pulled out all the stops to make a summer story look bright and happy, even though we shot in typical overcast and drizzly March. With a little bit of luck, timing, lighting, and Photoshop,  we got some great shots that went into these spreads. Enjoy and pick up a copy today!

(*Couple shots are not mine: 2nd spread, 2nd from the left. Sidebar, 3rd spread (but man, do I want to shoot that place!))

It’s finally sort of becoming summer around here. Still have cool temps, but at least it’s stopped raining every day. We had something like 14 inches of rain between April & May. Our average is 7 for that same time period. On the bright side, all our plants and garden are very happy this year.

Here’s some snaps from the backyard yesterday.

The May 2011 Portland Monthly is out and there is a great feature story I shot of Andy Ricker’s place in SE Portland. Ricker, the restaurateur responsible for Pok Pok, Ping, Whiskey Soda Lounge, and, Pok Pok Noi; has one of the coolest bachelor pads I’ve ever seen. Designed by Andee Hess of Osmose, the space has a ton of character and truly reflects Ricker’s personality and esthetic.

Check out Amara Holstein’s article on Portland Monthly’s website to hear what I mean. Better yet, get off your butt and go pick up a copy of the magazine right now. Jason Blackheart art directed the shoot and did an amazing job with the layout. Here are the rest of the spreads PLUS the shots by themselves.

Very excited to share this next shoot. Ground Kontrol is one my all time favorite places to go in Portland. It’s an arcade filled with old school classics and also has the biggest pinball gameroom in the Pacific Northwest. Every time I go, it’s like a fountain of youth and makes me feel like a kid again; stoked to have pocket full of quarters and plenty of time to kill. After 5pm, the arcade turns into a bar and then you can rack up some high scores while sipping on some tasty microbrews. Oh yes, it’s a lot of fun.

If you’d been to the old Ground Kontrol, you may have remembered it as a little divey and very blue. There was no place to sit and hang out once you ran out of quarters. And I won’t even mention the old bathrooms. In addition to making the whole space cooler, the remodel also added a whole new seating area without losing any of the games. Win Win!

So many talented people went into making this Tron inspired remodel happen. Led by Emily Knudsen and Jessica Helgerson of Jessica Helgerson Interior Design, the “concept for the space was to try to blur reality a bit and turn the space into something that felt a little less real, almost like stepping into a wireframe drawing in a video game.” The Pac-Man / Mrs. Pac Man tile work in the bathrooms was laid out by Erik Trexel of Level Plane Tile & Stone. Brad Lackey of Lackey Construction was the general contractor. A lot of the work was also done by Ground Kontrol owners and staff.

With so much creativity and energy, I was really excited to photograph this project and I proud of how these shots came out.

Click Here to Buy Prints, Downloads, and Usage Rights of these photos!

First tearsheet of 2011 and it’s goody! I actually shot this house in December of 2010 on a really crappy weather day. It was looked like night when we showed up and was raining really hard. Fortunately, by the time we were set up and ready to shoot, the rain lifted and clouds got brighter. Using long exposures and fill flash from my monolights, I was able to create the bright and sunny look on what was a pretty typical Portland winter day.

I’ll share a little secret with you: I actually prefer shooting interiors on cloudy days. Sunny days are a pain in the butt because the windows get too hot and I usually have to photoshop them in later. All these shots were single exposures.

For you interior design lovers, it was another fabulous project by the talented Jessica Helgerson Interior Design. They’ve just launched a new website and it features a lot of my work I shot for them over the past few years. Check it out!

Here’s the rest of the feature that ran in the February 2011 issue of Portland Monthly.

This is, hands down, my favorite shot I’ve taken this year. Brilliantly art directed by Willamette Week’s Carolyn Richardson, when she pitched the concept to me, I knew it was going to be a good shot. But she really went above and beyond in getting this organized so we could shoot something something truly awesome. I pride myself on being a photographer that works well with others and this collaboration is proof positive.

Shot from the balcony at Clyde Common, the North facing windows brought in beautiful natural light which I kicked back with reflectors at the end of the table for fill. The dark wood floors contrasts so well with the lighter wood table. And the food looks deliciously amazing. The gestures and outfits of the models add elements of style, class, and chic. It feels and look likes what it’s like to be in Portland right now.

Here are some behind the scenes shots shot by my trusty assistant Justin Tunis. Also, there’s a funny animated GIF of the whole shoot the WWEEK crew made.

I love my job. I love the work I do and I love the clients I work with. And every shoot is fun because of its inherit challenges: technical, logistical, creative.  That being said, I love shooting personal work and it’s not often you get hired to shoot personal work for a commercial client.

That’s just what Owen Jones & Partners asked me to do for their client Prometheus Real Estate Group. Though I have shot architecturally for Prometheus, art director Craig Skinner and producer Michelle Majeski wanted me to approach the little life moments that happen around the Prometheus properties. To get a variety of feelings and mood, we shot in Portland, Seattle, and the Bay Area of California over the course of 4 days. In the end, I delivered 75 shots for their image library and 4 still life shots that are being used on the home page Promethues’s website.

The shoot was a huge success and a lot of fun to do. Prometheus was so happy, the even blogged about it on their website. Here are some of my favorite shots from the shoot.

Seasonal Still Lifes

The second part of the shoot was series of four still lifes that represented the four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. It’s just subtle enough that you wouldn’t guess it right away.

It’s been pretty busy summer here at LB Photo. Some great editorial work is coming out soon, but in the meantime I thought I’d recap some recent commercial work.

The Works is an amazing contractor and remodeler based in Portland, OR. They’ve been responsible for making some of the wonderful glamourous interiors designed by Jessica Helgerson come to life.  They recently hired me to shoot some of their own work and it was a pleasure to photograph. Here are some of my favorite shots from two shoots we did this summer.

Portland Tudor Remodel

This total remodel of a Portland Tudor turned out fantastic. Just the right amount of modern in a classic styled home. This house was for sale, but it sold quickly after we shoot it. You snooze you loose!

West Hills Addition

I really enjoyed shooting this classic remodel of a mid-century home. The cool tones of the bathrooms really went well with the warm tones of the rooms. The dusk shot was one of the best of the year, too.