Choices, Choices

The other day I had a photo shoot on the beach here in Portland. After completing the work I was there to do, I shot a few more images, just for fun. Play is often the best way to learn and grow as an artist. Sometimes I create portraits just to have some new images to play with, to try things on in post-processing. It's like a painter making sketches, toying with ideas and colors and lines. You refine your ideas, you test your pallette, you learn some things. And sometimes they're good.

Here are a few that I have been playing with. Sometimes it's hard to choose which ones to show, so I thought I'd show a bunch.

















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Trash the Dress in the Columbian

The Vancouver, Washington newspaper The Columbian just published an article on the Trash the Dress phenomenon, and included an image and quotes from me. You can read the article online. It's a lot of fun to photograph people doing something crazy with their wedding or prom dress (or any dress, for that matter), and also fun to be interviewed about the process by the local press.

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Trash That Dress

Earlier this week, one of my July brides wrote and asked me an interesting question. She said she was looking forward to portraits on the wedding day, but wondered if, after the wedding, we could take some photos that didn't treat the wedding dress like a precious object. She had found a website promoting such things, and I was intrigued. What a great idea. Usually people just stash their dresses away; instead of stash it, why not trash it, and have some fun along the way?

So I thought I'd get a little practice. Why not do the same thing for a high school senior's portraits? A dress is a dress, and usually you do everything you can to keep it clean and dry and looking great: avoid the Portland rain, the mud, the wine spills. Admire the water but don't get in past your toes. Forget all that. Let's have some fun...

So I did. My friend Natalie volunteered herself and her dresses, and we spent a couple hours pushing the envelope. What a good sport she was! She was cold in the water. But I think the results were worth it. (Of course, I can say that, since I wasn't the one in the sand, dirt, and water....)

I'm still not convinced that just getting a dress wet constitutes trashing it, although the water was cold and chlorinated and a little slimy. And the dress was custom made. But there's room for to push the trashing limits. Even though I already tend toward uncommon portraiture here in Portland, my high school senior portraits may never be the same. I hope so. If there's a category of sports titled Adventure Sports, then perhaps I'll start calling my portraits Adventure Ports.... I'm trademarking that.









Have any interest in a Trash the Dress photo shoot in the Portland, Oregon area? Wedding dresses, high school seniors, bored moms are all welcome. Give me a call. Could be fun.