A Taste of Portland for Feast Magazine

Did a tour of tasty, tasty places for simply scrumptious Australian Food and Travel Magazine, Feast.  This required some intense research, i.e. eating everything I could get my camera on.  The adventure included, but was not limited to:

Bollywood Theater - Ace Hotel - Portland Saturday Market - Mediterranean Exploration Company - Clay Pigeon Winery - House Spirits - Olympic Provisions - Portland Airport -Tasty n' Alder - Raven and Rose - Pepe Le Moko - Pok Pok - Tidbit Food Farm - Tilt - Yard House - Ace Hotel - Saturday Market

Now go forth and feast.

AARP's Sandwich Generation

Spent the day with Janet Martinez and family for a story for AARP.  The story is about the "sandwich generation" adults bringing up young children while also overseeing the care of their aging parents.  Janet, a TV producer, was a joy; funny, honest and open about the balancing act of shuttling her daughter and mother through their daily activities.  After shooting she entertained me with a beer and stories of working on Lifetime Channel Movies.

Alpaca Fever - Latin Magazine

I will go on record as saying that alpacas are adorable.  They look like llamas, walk like camels and act like cats, curious and lovable, but not necessarily affectionate.  Now the reason I have such first hand alpaca knowledge is because The Latin School of Chicago, a co-educational independent day school for students in k through twelve, recently hired me to shoot a profile and the cover for their Alumni magazine.  The man of the hour was '59 alum Barry Bolewicz, who raises Alpacas and sheep at his EasyGo Farm in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Barry and I had a great time tromping through the fields as I snapped away and asked endless alpaca-related questions.

Me: "How long have you raised them?" "Have you ever eaten one? What do they taste like." "What do you use them for?" "There are alpaca shows? That is crazy."

Barry: "More than 20 years." "Yes. Gamey chicken." "To stud, for fleece, and to show." "Yes." "No."

Photographing the alpacas reminded me a bit of dating.  If I ignored them, they would look at me with great interest and immeasurable cuteness.  But as soon as I would get near them or try to approach, they got skittish.  Probably worried that I was about to press for a LTR.

But luckily all of us were able to work out our commitment issues, the weather held, Barry smiled (eventually) and I spent the day surrounded by adorableness.

Discover Portland

Me and Ava Gene's restaurant have found ourselves on the cover of the DiscoverPORTLAND Guide.  Doesn't everyone look so dang happy in this picture? My images from Lardo Sandwiches, OX Restaurant, and The Nines also made the cut of Portland fabulousness. Leading the world to realize we are just a town of non stop eating and drinking.

Whenever friends visit the first question is, "Where for brunch?" and the second is, "Where for Happy Hour?"

At least we all have our priorities straight.

Artslandia - Crafting Their Reality

I guess it shouldn't come as any surprise that a town bursting with creativity should have such a plethora of performing arts.  Singing, acting, dancing, Portland is well, bursting, with it.  And for this year's Artslandia Performing Arts Guide, NashCO got up close and personal with quite a few of them.  We decided it would be cool to craft behind-the-scenes looks for each of the groups we photographed.  Which sounds so easy, right?  Notice I said craft, not capture. Turns out, creating images that look happened upon is a hell of a lot harder than just happening upon them.  But then again they are lit a lot better too.  I think I could literally feel my brain working at each assignment: location scouting, art directing, people directing, and then of course, actually pushing the shutter.  Let's just say this project taught us a lot about how to bring an editorial vision to life.  Turns out the answer is gesticulating, lots of gesticulating. And duct tape.  And bourbon.  

Acorns, More Than Just Squirrel Snacks - For NPR

I first met wild food expert John Kallas through a friend several years ago.  That is how I found myself up at 6am on a Saturday morning at the Oregon coast, digging for steamer clams. John has a year-long calendar of events that pit you against nature and have you come out the well-fed victor. Classes with titles like, "Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate," "Sea Vegetables of the Pacific Coast," and most recently, "Acorn Pudding." So with adventures like that, you can understand why I've been dying to do a story on him. Now just needed to find a wordsmith and well, a publication. Ah, technicalities. Luckily the plucky Deena Prichep was able to supply both and got National Public Radio's The Salt to come along for the ride. We spent the day watching, shooting and interviewing as John took a group of folks from Acorns to Pudding. Apparently this involves lots of grinding, lots of leaching and lots of sugar.  The result was warm, sweet, and porridge-like.

Those squirrels had no idea.

Going on Vacation with the New York Times and Oregon Wine

Did you know that Southern Oregon is a wine mecca?  Yea, me neither until I got a call from the New York Times to spend a few days trolling around Ashland, OR hitting the Rogue, Applegate and Umpqua Valleys.  Lots of warm and wine filled welcomes at Kriselle Cellars, Cowhorn WIne, Quady North, and Troon Vineyards.  Liz Wan at Serra Vineyards, even left the gates open so we could sneak in after hours to get a little sunset action.  And for all those "Glampers" out there (glamping is luxury camping, fyi), Willow-Witt Ranch is a wild, wonderful off-the-grid mountaintop farm with three canvas tent and some quite photogenic goats. Dancin Vineyards has an amazing menu, chickens, and even a fish pond where carp as big as your head will eat from your hand. We were even lucky enough to hit some riverside music and picnicking at Red Lily.  People always joke that my job is like going on vacation.  Well, sort of.  It's actually just like photographing other people on vacation.  Which is still work, but work to feel grateful to have. Especially when there's a delicious bottle of pinot at the end of it.

Portland Corporate Portrait - Lawyer Robert S. Banks Jr. for the NYT's

Popped over to the Banks Law Office to photograph Robert S. Banks for a New York Times article.  Robert was a great guy, and even thought to bring a prop to the shoot (his tres chic Coach brief case).  The tone of the article was pretty serious (his client unsuccessfully opposed the removal of her complaint against her former broker whose regulatory file included 41 customer complaints and a job termination!) and so we needed his vibe to match.  Luckily, he seemed to have the tough lawyer look down.

Willamette Week's The Finder, in Print

Ah The Finder.  Willamette Week's annual guide to all that is irreverent in Portland.  Free in the warmer months, you can now get them for 5 bucks at Powell's.  In it you can find tourist-worthy things like, best drinkable dirt, best gypsy cemetery, best survival kit, and best Tarantino set.  I love assignments where my shot list includes things like tire swings, and urban goats.  If you look really closely you can see my better half, Christopher Onstott, making a cameo in two of the images.  It's like a post-modern Where's Waldo.