Smith Rock Photographs in Black and White

In September I traveled to the Bend area with my kids and my Mom. We had the opportunity to stay at Eagle Crest Resort for the weekend. The resort itself had wonderful amenities, but of course we wanted to make it out to see Smith Rock which is a destination for rock climbers and hikers traveling to Eastern Oregon. The sheer cliffs are quite dramatic and create a fun photography destination as well. These two photographs I decided to try out in black and white and ended up really liking them even though they lose the blue sky and orange rock color.

We were there right in the middle of the day so contrast was really high and although it was sunny, since it was September, it was a quite cool day. I look forward to sharing some photographs of us at the top of those cliffs and of a climber descending from Monkey Rock, which was hard to believe (to me) they could ascend in the first place. 🙂

Black and White 8 Week Photography Challenge: Final Week

This is my final post for the 8 weeks of black and white photography I challenged myself to do. I actually enjoyed this challenge and may try and keep up with more black and white photography to continue to challenge myself.

Have a great week!

Black and White Photography Challenge: Week 7

A few weeks ago I was scoping out a location for a portrait photography shoot in Portland and was taking photographs along the way to help more create a map of where I would be able to place people that would have a nice back drop.

Of course I ended up finding a patch of Butter Cups (anyone else think of the Princess Bride everyone you see Butter Cups) to photograph. 🙂 I don’t often turn my flower photographs black and white because a lot off what I love about flowers is the color they have, but since I am trying to do more black and white I decided to just try it out. I used my Samsung phone to photograph this time and used the app Snapseed to edit it.

This park, Gabriel Park, in Portland was lovely and has lots of opportunity for great photographs as well as tennis, baseball, skate boarding, and a short hike. I had no idea Portland had this park, but it is really quite lovely. Of course Portland is wonderful for all of the rally great packets of wilderness and parks that it has.

Check out my week 6 black and white photography challenge while you are here and feel free to join along and post a black and white photograph a week for 8 weeks. I only have one more week to go, but I would enjoy seeing what others post. 🙂

8 Week Black & White Photography Challenge: Week 4 Fern

I was very fortunate to be taken to do some of my favorite things for Mother’s day this last weekend. I started my day running with a friend. After my run I met my family for brunch. They stood in the 45 minute line before I arrived so I could just and sit down (maybe the best part).

After brunch at La Petite Patisserie we walked down Alberta street to Salt and Straw ice cream where I tasted each of the May flower flavors. I ended up getting a half scoop each of salted caramel and dandelion sorbet with wildflowers. Yummy!!

Next we wandered up the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge and bipassed the usual stop at Multnomah Falls to go to Horse Tail Falls, Ponytail Falls, and the Oneonta Gorge. It was beautiful and I want to go back on a really warm day and walk up the creek in the gorge to see the gorge from another perspective. The hike was just short of 3 miles and made a loop. There are plenty of off shoots that we can go back and explore some more another day.

So my only mistake was not charging my camera battery the night before, oops! So my photography this week comes from my phone.

I always love the way the ferns hang off the cliffs surrounding a waterfall and waterfalls you can walk behind offer a good view. I changed this one too black and white, but you can see the original colour and more from this trip at my Instagram account (a live feed should be on the right if you are on the nonmobile version). Or search for me, my user name is livelovecreatebehappy.

I have definitely been feeling the challenge of trying to see photographs in black and white before taking a photo.

Enjoy the rest of your week! 🙂

8 Week Black & White Photography Challenge: Ballerina

Well I had hoped I would get another one of these ballerina photographs up this week and I am, but am squeaking in under the wire.

This is another photograph where the ballerina was jumping (I wish I knew the terms for the different poses and jumps), I definitely caught this jump midair. You can see my previous ballerina post here.

This photograph was taken on the east side of the Portland Waterfront near OMSI. There were some people drumming giving us background rhythm and bicyclists and runners (including Sasha Roiz from the NBC show Grimm, the girls were actually whispering to each other, wishing they could take a photo with him) passing by us with some frequency. It was a gorgeous day.

These ballerinas were just perfect subjects to photograph and the light was amazing. The thing that is great about doing a shoot like this one is the lack of pressure, which does not mean there is a lack of anxiety, and the chance to try things out and learn with out feeling like I am letting anyone down. I feel like I learn something every time I shoot, but when I do something that is new to me I grow so much more. I know that next time I photograph something like this I will change things up and that I will always have room to grow.

I had so much fun photographing these lovely young ladies and they have said they are willing to do another shoot which would be amazing. Maybe next time we can get the cast of Grimm to come pose with them. 😉

Check out week 1 and week 2 of my black and white photography challenge, and feel free to join with me and post your own each week. I would love to see more black and white photography.

Weekly Photography Challenge: Motion

A couple weekends ago I was able to follow along with another Portland photographer Gina Neal to photograph three ballerinas in a couple of Portland locations. We started at this green house located at the Pomarius Nursery in NW Portland.

I have to confess my camera has been acting up and this space was difficult for my lenses capabilities, but it was a lot of fun because everything these young women did was beautiful. Hopefully I will get around to posting a few more of the photographs from this day, but for now this one seemed to fit my needs for the weekly photography challenge motion. It could go along well with my 8 Week Black and White Photography challenge as well, but I am hopeful that I will add an additional photograph from this day to cover that one.

I hope you are having a good week.

Black and White Photography Challenge: Week 2

These succulents are spreading rapidly in the rocky area outside my house. I brought one little tiny one up from my mom’s garden a few years ago. They had planted themselves in her yard so I figured they should do okay in mine.

I was correct. They are a great addition to the garden, turning that area from rocks for practicality to a little show case of succulents.

I think I have also photographed these succulents every year, but I don’t think I have ever posted them in black and white before.

This year I used my phone to photograph these little plants and then used a photography editing app on my phone to make them black and white and do any adjustments to them so they would be ready for week 2 of 8 of this mini photography challenge.

I hope you will join me in the challenge, and post a link back here so I know you are and can visit your posts. 🙂

Click here to see week one of the series.

Black and White Photography Challenge: Week 1

I have been noticing recently that I don’t do a lot of photography in black and white. I find that most of the time when I turn a photograph into black and white I like it better in color so I revert back to the color version.

I decided I need to challenge myself to choose a few photographs to share in black and white, so over the next 8 weeks I want to challenge myself and you to share one black and white photograph a week.

Feel free to come follow along and to link back to each weekly post with your share for that week this will automatically add your post into the comments of my post. I am tagging this 8weekblackandwhite and 8weekphotochallenge so add that to your post as well.

I hope to see lots of black and white photograph in the following weeks so I can grow myself in this area. 🙂

Welcoming the New: Newborn Photography

I was thrilled to hear that my sweet cousin, his wife, and son welcomed into their family a new member last week. I had just finished editing the maternity photographs I took with them about two weeks ago when I heard she was born.

This last week I was pleased to take some time to both visit and take photographs of this new little girl.

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Have a great weekend! 🙂

Bridge Over Foggy Water

A couple months ago my husband took my daughter to work at his Family Law Firm for the day so I took the time to go photograph the Saint John’s Bridge that was disappearing into the fog. These are the photographs I took while visiting the Saint John’s Bridge. When I arrived it was not as immersed in fog as I had been hoping, but over the hour I took getting to the edge of the river to photograph the bridge at a different angle, the fog got thicker.

I made the decision to turn these photographs into black and white photos even though the bridge has a distinctive green finish and the grass was a beautiful color. I just felt like they conveyed the mood a little better in black and white.

I hope you enjoyed them. 🙂 It was a nice calm afternoon for me. I have been really enjoying the large amounts of fog we have had this year, but I am feeling very ready for spring now. 🙂 Also my daughter thought it was the best thing to get to go to work with her Daddy. 🙂