I just finished editing photos from this fun California couple’s wedding up at Columbia Gorge Crest Winery. It is quickly becoming a popular wedding venue and there are some great spots for a wedding photographer to get those iconic bride in front of Mt. Hood photos. Click here to use the link to the slideshow.

Last Wednesday evening I met Nicole for her time in front of the camera for her senior photos. She was all nerves before the shoot and was worried about what to do. It’s true that it is harder that it looks. I guess part of being a portrait photographer is to make it easy for the client to relax and enjoy the experience. You can see from the photos that she had absolutely nothing to worry about.

I’ve started working on Tom and Abby’s wedding book today so here is one sneak peak of photos to come.

This week was amazing. There were so many sports lovers who came out to watch the best doing what they are good at. Saturday was the Big Air Kite Competition. I was going to only go for a couple of hours to get a few photos, but I ended most of the day up on the boat with my buddy Rod Parmenter who is an awesome filmmaker of all things sporty. We had those air crazed kiters jumping over us which made for some cool closeups at high speed…so I got some great pictures. Kiters were coming at us in both directions which made me wish for a helmet and 3rd eye on the back of my head. I just had a haircut few days ago and did not want to have it re-cut with one of the many fins on the kite board. I was ready to protect my camera gear with my body a couple of times when it looked like the kiter was going to join us in the boat. You can see more of the photos here

Last Saturday I photographed my first wedding at Gorge Crest Farms. It is in Underwood, Washington with an amazing view of Mount Hood with grounds specifically designed for wedding venues. Laura was a beautiful bride that was easy to photograph. This entire crew came up from California to enjoy our relatively new status as wine country and our drop dead gorgeous scenery. They had looked at Napa Valley, but chose what we had to offer instead in the Columbia Gorge. I will post more photos when I finish editing.

I’ve spend most of yesterday shooting and editing photos from windsurfing contest at the hatchery. It was fun to watch and take pictures of the best windsurfers in excellent conditions on the river. There wore many photographers clicking away all the great action. After about 9 AM you have to shoot directly in to the sun what makes it very difficult to get great photos. Here is a link to photos from the contest.

Friday afternoon I was photographing Tom and Abby’s wedding in The Dalles, Oregon until evening. Right after the wedding we went back to Hood River for the reception and were able to get few photos of the just married couple with Mount Hood in the background. Tom and Abby were excellent to work with. I photographed their engagement session earlier in the spring, so they were quite relaxed and not at all camera shy. The weather was excellent to have an outdoor wedding in the beautiful garden (there were lots of excellent backgrounds for the wedding photos). I’m always excited to see new places to photograph here in the gorgeous Columbia Gorge area with endless photo opportunities. You can see more of the wedding photos if you click on the client access and enter the gallery.

I’ve spend the weekend with America’s next top model and was able to photograph her in two short photo shoots. Well (not officially), she is my daughter Alyx and she always will be my Top Model. It’s not easy to get her excited about a photo shoot and get her in front of the lens. She is a teenager and is way too busy texting and listening to her ipod which leaves very little time for anything else. I have photographed her most of her life; so she is little bored with it even though I’m just warming up. Here are my favorite photos from my top model.

I’m still in middle of wedding book design from my first wedding of the season at the Columbia Gorge hotel. Here is one I’ve just finished. Looks like I’ll be on the water later today to take a break from the editing.

Here is a photo from my Friday photo shoot of a gorgeous condo in Hood River. As a photographer I enjoy photographing people alot, but I also love variety. Anything could be interesting and beautiful from the right perspective.