We took the Metro to the Louvre, so I didn’t see this entrance staircase until I was leaving. It’s really a pretty incredible feat of engineering. The spiral staircase floats around a column that doubles as an elevator and connects the outside courtyard to the belly of the museum. Definitely go in this way if you ever go to the Louvre.

I think I like this shot of it better.

As you may or may not know, I’ve been a PhotoShelter customer for several years now. I love their service. It is, by far, the BEST way to show proofs to clients and deliver high rez finals. It also easily fits in to my digital workflow with Lightroom via a plugin, so using it saves me tremendous amounts of time and energy. Time and energy that I now spend focusing on my business, rather than mundane tasks that waste countless hours like creating Adobe web galleries, FTPing files, or (cringe) burning DVDs.

Every job I’ve delivered since 2010 is online high rez. Not only can my current clients redownload their images at any time, but I can quickly share and relicense available images to new customers. As a bonus, it also serves as an offsite backup in case something every goes terribly wrong at my office (knock on wood).

Anyway, when Lauren Margolis of PhotoShelter asked me to do in an interview about my architectural and interior photography, I jumped at the opportunity. I was totally flattered and I think the interview came out really great. Click the link below to read it on PhotoShelter’s blog:

Architectural Photography: Just Like Playing Tetris…Right?.

I finally got to visit the Louvre on our most recent trip to Paris. The museum is huge and holds an incredible collection of art, I barely scratched the surface of what’s there. I did get to see some of the famous works including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Seeing those was quite an experience on their own.

This shot is from inside looking through the Louvre Pyramid. A trick I learned from shooting with my iPhone is that you can put small camera lenses in places you don’t normally go with bigger cameras. I literally stuck the lens right under the base point of the Pyramid and shot upwards.

These next few blog post will highlight some of my favorite shots I took on my afternoon there. All these shots were taking with my Lomo. And don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed if you want to keep up with the blog from the comfort of your own RSS Reader.

Thank you to all my clients for making this year so great. You all are a truly a pleasure to work for and I look forward to many more projects together.

Also, thank you to all the stylists, models, assistants, art directors, photo editors, art buyers, and marketing directors I’ve worked with this year. The success of all these shoots wouldn’t have been possible without your collaboration.

Finally, a special shout out to Justin Tunis and Daniel Cronin for being two excellent go to assistants. Thank you for your hard work, your professionalism on set, and being easy to travel with. I’ll be calling you soon.

Once in a while, it’s fun to get outside your comfort zone and shoot something totally different than you normally do. Case in point, this beautiful floral feature I shot for Portland Bride & Groom’s Winter/Spring 2012 issue.

Art Director Samantha Gardner approached me with the concept for this shoot several months before we shot it. The shoot was scheduled for October, so we decided to go with a studio shoot so we wouldn’t have to worry about the weather. She wanted a hard, high key, quality to the lighting to emphasize the bright colors of the floral arrangements. Shooting on white really added to the pop and I love how clean and crisp the images came out.

For you lighting geeks out there, I basically used a beauty dish on a Profoto for my main light. I would use a few fill cards here and there as well.

This kinds of shoot takes a lot of helping hands. Here are all the credits that made this shoot a success.

Art Director: Samantha Gardner / Portland Bride & Groom
Model: Natalie Morris / Option Model and Media
Hair/Makeup: Celena Rubin / Option Model and Media
Assistant: Justin Tunis
Location: Newspace Center for Photography
Flowers: Geranium Lake, Fleur:ology, Old Town Florist, Sammy’s Flowers
Clothing: Holly Stalder, Macy’s, Kate Spade, Lazaro, Cristin Jewels

An interesting feeling happened to me while I was in Paris. It’s a little hard to describe, but I just wasn’t feeling my camera. I was enjoying being there and the first day or two I had fun shooting. But very quickly, I realized I wasn’t enjoying lugging around a body and three pro lenses (or about $6000 worth of gear) all day. I wanted to lighten up. Take it easy. Relax…. I needed something simple. Plus, my 5D MK II is the camera I use for “work” and I was trying to be creative in a non “work” kind of way.

In researching where we were staying, I discovered that a Lomography Store was only a few blocks away from our rental apartment in the Marais. Lomography Stores sell all kinds of toy cameras including Holgas and Lomos. I have a Holga, but was never that stoked on it. It’s a little too toyish for my tastes. I like cameras that don’t have light leaks

I had read about the Lomo LC-A+ a long time ago and really wanted one. They’re not too hard to find, but I never wanted one at the same time that I could buy one easily. Walking in to the Lomography Store, the right impulse buy happened at the right time and I knew this was the camera I wanted to shoot for the rest of my trip.

This camera is pretty basic and it’s not fussy at all. It’s really fun to shoot. One of the funnier things about shooting film again is every so often, I’d catch myself chimping after I clicked the shutter. Old habits die hard.

Anyway, these next couple Ides of May posts will be all Lomo and all film. Thanks for looking.

As you may or may not know, Lauren and I took a little trip across the pond to Paris and London last month. Going in November, we were expected cold and rain. Instead we were treated with blue skies, sun, and even some warm days. Over the next week or so, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite shots.

This view is pretty famous and if you’ve ever been to the Trocadéro, you know exactly where this spot is. There’s a famous black & white photo from this same vantage point that’s used on a postcards at every gift shop you go to in Paris. The problem is that when you go there now, tourists are everywhere.

I really wanted to isolate the statues, the building and the Eiffel Tower, so that’s why I choose to shoot at this cropped angle. Just below the frame are literally dozens of tourists taking snapshots of the Eiffel. I wanted something a little calmer.

Side note: as an experiment, I’m going to post this image on Facebook and Google+ to see what gets more reaction.

I am beyond excited to share with you the good news about my first major photo contest win. For the 1st Annual PDN’s Objects of Desire photo contest, I won in the Food & Still Life category for this sizzling shot of bacon. The shot, art directed by Michael Novak, was originally taken for Portland Monthly as part of a breakfast feature story.

This was my first major photo contest win and I am really proud to finally make it.

To see my shot online and the other winners, go to www.pdnobjectsofdesire.com/gallery/winners2011/

I am huge in Germany. Just kidding, but I am pretty stoked to have the cover feature for the November/December 2011 issue of 20 Private Wohnträume. The magazine picked up the photos I shot for Jessica Helgerson of this Mid Century Remodel in Portland. It’s been one of my favorite shoots and the work from it has definitely been instrumental in getting my career where it is today. It’s nice to see them live on again in print. Below are the rest of the spreads. Enjoy!

Saw this on A Photo Editor and thought it was so well done I wanted it on my blog. The first few minutes are golden in explaining how much to charge.

My only critique is that he’s basing is Cost of Doing Business on number of work days (250) but most photographers don’t shoot every business day. I shoot 50 to 75 days a year, so my CODB is much higher than his example.