Documentary Wedding and Lifestyle Portrait Photography - Seattle Tacoma Olympia Portland

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The End. Or is it just the beginning?

Thank you very much for visting this blog. :)  But it’s over!

Since I’ve teamed up with Erin in both life and business we decided to phase out this blog and create a new blog, a place for us both to post our adventures - it’s here:

www.billerin.com

We also share portraits here:

www.modeportraits.com/journal

And we share weddings and engagements here:

www.modeweddings.com/journal

I hope our passion shines though to you - we love what we do - and we love the customers that make it possible.  So thanks.

~Bill and Erin

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Icy Bloom

I went out this morning into a cold clear morning to catch some ice before the sun crested over the house and began to melt the backyard.  These icy flowers caught my eye:

Canon 5D mkII ~ 100mm macro ~ 1/3 sec ~ f22 ~ on tripod

We don’t get a lot of crisp, clear, 20 degree mornings in Olympia, it makes me smile when we do.  I would have taken some more, but it was cold! - and I’ve got tons of work to do today.

~Bill

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Hope

If you own a business or are in business and you don’t read Seth Godin’s blog, I ask: why not?

His post today on Inauguration Day made me smile: link

What marketers actually sell

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First blush with the Canon 5D mkII

I can has more megapixels?

Yes, 21.

And HD video too?

Yes.

Cool.

Overall, I’m super impressed with the new 5D, in many ways it’s an incremental refining of an already amazing camera.  They added weather seals (not the bomb proof seals of the 1D series, but good enough for light rain), an AF-ON button and AF micro adjust.  The menu system is upgraded and so is the LCD.  All good things.

The ISO range is amazing, and the new Auto ISO feature is the most flexible and functional I’ve ever used (either Canon or Nikon), it even takes into account the focal range of the lens being used in determing shutter speeds in AV mode.  Cool.

A test shot (Straight out of the camera JPG, resized and mild sharpening for the web)

Canon 5D mkII, 200mm f1.8L, 1/800th, f1.8, ISO 400, 21 megapixel large jpg

The whole image:

The 100% crop:

I’ll post some video and some more thoughts soon.

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A walk on the beach

I’m in Oregon right now visiting with my grandparents.  My grandma broke her ankle and they’re struggling to maintain a routine in their life that allows them to stay in their home.  It’s been stressful for everyone.  This morning the sun is shining and I just got back from a nice walk on the beach - this really is a stunningly beautiful place.

Thanks to my friend Shawn Reeder for inspiring me this morning with his beautiful work.

A few images from my walk:

technical notes: I took the Canon 5D, 100mm macro and 16-35mm f2.8L II - I often use a fairly high ISO for macro shots to allow a higher shutter speed and minimize camera and subject shake.

This is their ‘front yard’

Thanks for looking - go for a walk, wherever you are, it’s worth it.

~Bill

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East Meets West in NYC

My friend and awesome photographer Jason Groupp hosted a one day workshop at his Manhattan studio on Tuesday.  The day was co-taught by San Fransico based destination photographer Gene Higa, listed as one of the worlds top ten wedding photographers by Pop Photo magazine.

Erin and I decided at the last minute to go to the workshop and also check out the Photo Plus Expo at the Javits Center in Manhattan.  We got plane tickets and a hotel reservation just a couple days before we left. (!!) Jason recommended the Belvedere Hotel and it was perfect, just 3 blocks from Times Square, we walked to lots of cool sights.  Manhattan is another world, even the short buildings are 10 stories, the taxi drivers really are crazy, the sights, sounds and smells are intense!  We got in Monday afternoon and took a taxi into town from JFK - had dinner at an Italian place in Hells Kitchen and then headed to Jason’s studio for a pre-workshop meet and greet.

At the workshop on Tuesday we spent half the day talking business and then headed out to shoot.  Jason had lined up two sets of bridal models (they were great to work with!).  We did two shoots, one in the afternoon where I was carrying the cameras and Erin was working the lights and one after the sun went down in Times Square where we traded off and I worked the lights while Erin shot.  It’s always a little crazy shooting with a large group of photographers but we got some fun stuff - check it out:

These are from the night shoot with Erin shooting, the first one is down in the subway with one of the subway cops.

I love this one! Great job honey.

Here’s a shot of the instructors and the models - great job and a huge thanks from both of us!

We spent all day Wednesday seeing the sights and doing SO MUCH walking! It’s such an amazing city. We started with a bus tour through Times Square heading south, we got off at Macy’s and did some shopping (we both needed warm hats, it was cold on top of that bus!). Macy’s is more than 2 million square feet of shopping (ya, I said million)… Then we got back on the bus and rode it to Greenwich Village. We had lunch and walked through the campus of NYU and then walked 40+ blocks back up to Times Square for a drink at the Hard Rock Cafe. After that we walked to the Rockefeller Center, rode the elevator up the tower and took in the view from 68 stories up. After that we took a horse drawn buggy ride through Central Park and back to the hotel. After all that we headed to Jason’s famous yearly party. He had over 200 photographers from all over the country at his studio - it was packed - we got there a little late (about 10pm) so it wasn’t super crammed but there were still lots of people there - it was fun to catch up with people I’ve met before, meet new people and get to introduce Erin ( ).

Here are a few pictures from our sight seeing:

Times Square from the top of the bus

The Bus Tour Guide - a character for sure

It’s good to be home. But we didn’t even come close to seeing everything, we’ll just have to go back.

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Family Portrait - Rainier Beach - Seattle

I’ve had the pleasure of doing fall family portraits for my cousins in Seattle for several years now - It’s fun watching the kids grow and seeing how different (and how alike) they are from year to year.  Check out few of my favorites.

Lilly

Summer

Jared

Addy wasn’t too thrilled about having her picture taken - sometimes that’s the way it goes, but that’s the beauty of my style of photography, I capture who they are on that day.

The whole group:

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Mode Portraits Featured in the Olympian

I got interviewed and photographed for a feature article in today’s paper on outdoor senior portraits.  They wanted to know all about our new business Mode Portraits and how kids can get amazing senior photos without being confined to a studio.

A big thanks to Erin Lindstrom and her family for agreeing to have the newspaper photographer come along for her session.  AND a big thanks to Karla Heinitz for giving an interview about their experience with Mike’s pictures earlier this year.

Cool huh?

Snippets from the article:

…Mike Huttula had no question about the perfect place for his senior high school portraits: the Lost Lake property where he spent many summers growing up.  ” …. He really, really wanted to have them taken out there,” said his mother, Karla Heinitz. “They turned out awesome - really, really good. …. “It really was (worth the price),” she said. “I like these a lot better.”. …. Cawley and Hautala said they encourage seniors to bring several outfits - including their favorite - as well as hobby, music or sports items. For example, because Huttula plays football, some of his photos show him throwing the ball. …. The goal, they said, is to capture who the subject is at this time of his or her life. …. Huttula’s choice is not unusual. Area photographers say getting out of the studio is an increasingly popular way to go for senior portraits. In fact, Mode Portraits was born of the concept. …. “We just started a business called Mode Portraits focused on senior portraits and on that trend - more creative, less traditional portraits,” said Bill Cawley, who runs the venture with fellow photographer Erin Wheeler. …. He said new technology allows his team to do higher-quality work outside. …. From a senior’s perspective, shooting outside lends itself to more creative options. …. “There’s a bigger opportunity to get the personality into the picture,” Cawley said.

Here’s a picture of the article - He got my good side!