People & Portraits

Komuricon Portland 2009

Thought I’ve never considered myself a portrait photographer, I love photographing people. Fortunately, the times I’ve been asked to do something like a portrait, I’ve had the freedom to keep out of a studio and capture folks where they belong and feel like themselves.

Still, my favorite way to get people pictures is by lurking in the background and capturing candid images. Candid, according to the Oxford Dictionary means “truthful and straightforward; frank” and I try to stay true to that. It can take a long time to get to know someone, but that first impression you get from an initial glance can stay with you.

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Travel & Places

funny statue from japan

Traveling has always been one of my favorite things to do and the same goes for the photography I do when I’m doing it. Everyplace has stories to tell. Sometimes they reveal something truly unique to a place and its culture. Sometimes it shows us how much we have in common as members of the human race.

With all due respect to filmmakers and videographers, I think photographers have a certain advantage here. Those tiny slices of time we capture can tell as much and sometimes more than a longer shot or scene. These brief images can be what we remember most about a place or event there. I love finding and capturing those little slices.

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Sports Portfolio

track event

In terms of approach and equipment, sports photography is its own ballgame (so to speak). For the major city dailies, sports has its own photo staff. For the papers I worked on, we had to do it all. Along with spot news (fire truck chasing), it became my favorite thing to do. Though I’ve done some pro sports, I find school sports to be a lot more exciting in a lot of ways. There is a certain kind of energy in the air that I just don’t feel at the pro events.

But like a lot of other photography, there are stories there to tell, moments of victory and heartbreak, as well as little dramas and sometimes comedies on the sidelines. Personally, I can’t get enough of it and I am so happy being back into it.

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News Portfolio

Jimmy Carter's first town meeting

When I was in college (about 1969), I needed to find a way to pay for film for my camera and chemicals for my darkroom. On a whim, I walked into the office of the local weekly paper a week after one of their regular photographers left and they let me try out. A year or so later, I was freelancing for the regional daily and wound up with a regular weekend and summer gig when I was in school and was hired full time after I graduated. Now I’m back, doing schoolboy sports (see my Sports Portfolio) and a few other things for a chain of local weeklies here in Oregon.

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Event Portfolio

Dance West Performance
Dance West Performance

Covering events is far more than lining up folks for the requisite group shots, podium photos of speakers and showing (or making it look like) how well attended the event was. Like everywhere else, there are stories at events and I try to find them. Even speaker photos and groups can show the mood of the event if you do them right. I cover these as I did in my news photography days and always have my eye out for the telling image.

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