Documentary Wedding and Lifestyle Portrait Photography - Seattle Tacoma Olympia Portland

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Napa, CA Photography Conference

I spent last weekend in Napa and Sonoma California with a bunch of cool wedding and portrait photographers. This is the second year in row we’ve gotten together to hang out, take pictures and learn from each other.

The drive down took me 12 hours, basically sun-up to sun-down. The mountain pass as you go from southern Oregon into northern CA was sun and snow covered ~ basically a beautiful drive.

The sunrise as I was pulling out at 7am:

Mt Shasta through the windshield at 75mph:

I stayed in Sonoma with my new friend Trevor Meeks, photographer and pilot, he has an awesome studio in the middle of the wine country and let me crash on the floor.

A few behinds the scene shots (click image for a bigger view):

Night shooting; everyone got out their off camera lights and pocket wizard channels were overloaded!

So instead of using my flashes, I opted to shoot with my favorite low light lens (200mm f1.8) and get the mood of the street lights rather than the flash. I think it worked out.

There were also some kids posing…

Again, just lit by the fluorescent lights from a nearby bank parking lot.

We also had a chance to visit a couple beautiful wineries and work with some great ‘models’ (really friends and clients of the local CA photographers). What a treat! The first day I was a group leader, so I spent more time working with other photographers than actually shooting, I still got a couple shots I like of our model Kayla (who is actually a makeup artist from Sacramento — correct me if I’m wrong). Kayla had never modeled at all before (sorta like most of my clients, lol) and did an amazing job ~ Thank you Kayla!

The second day, Sunday, I had more time to shoot and our ‘models’ were all dressed as brides and grooms. Fun and relaxed bridals and couples portraits were the order of the day. These are the types of images that are hard to get on your wedding day when their is a tight schedule and lots of other demands. So doing a fun bridal after the wedding is an awesome idea, no stress and not a big deal if the dress gets a little dirty.

a few more:

A big thank you to everyone who came out to model and all the photographers that volunteered there time to help organize the event. I really enjoyed it ~ again.

Looking forward to next year.

~Bill

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Denny Heck ~ ‘Our Times’

Last night Erin and I had dinner with our good friends Eric and Tara and then went to see a show. Denny Heck’s performance was both captivating and informative. Denny has been involved with WA state politics for a good long time and shared our state’s political history from his own unique perspective. All of the procedes from his performances are going directly to his favorite charities. I took a few pictures that he’ll be able to use for promotion.

Good friends and good food ~ nothing better

(click an image to make it bigger)

Then we went from the restaurant downtown to the performance at the Capital Playhouse. It was very dark in the theater, so I was pushing my fastest lenses to their limit to get these shots without using any flash. Sorta like the lighting you might find in a romantic candle lit wedding ceremony ~ fancy that.

It looks like he’s looking right at me, but the lights on him and the darkness where I was meant that he couldn’t see me at all… In fact he said in an email today that he didn’t see me taking pictures at all… Ninja Bill.

Here is the response from Denny to the first couple images I emailed him:

Wow, Bill, just Wow! Thank you! I was completely unaware of you taking photos . . . as was Paula. Wow! Thank you.

Doesn’t get much better than that. Thank you Denny.

Overall a great evening, and although I didn’t actually get to meet Denny in person, we had to leave right after the performance, I’m looking forward to doing just that in the near future.

~Bill

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Business Bootcamp - Seattle

Erin and I spent the last 3 days in class learning all about the business of photography from Liana Lehman. Liana is certified by the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) to teach accounting and business skills to photographers… not an easy task, teaching business skills to artists is something akin to herding cats into an orderly formation… We spent 22 hours in class in two days and I found myself constantly thinking “Can’t we just go take some pictures now?”

So yesterday, on day 3, as a reward, we did just that. Here are few quick images of our new friends: classmates, teacher, and the resident dog Kiesha…

Liana glances up from her computer…

The whole group looking over Liana’s shoulder as she edits some images and shows off her famously simple workflow.

Kristin smiling as I sneak a headshot with the long lens.

We all took turns getting headshots taken by Liana. Erin and I got ours done together too, I can’t wait to see those and post them in the bio section!

A crazy scene with a bunch of cooped up photographers shooting each other…

Erin and I both hit it off with Julie Watts, she’s able to talk motherhood with Erin and old cars with me (we both own quirky Porsches).  I got a bunch of good pictures of her, she’s expressive and fun so it was easy…

On Tuesday night the whole group went out to dinner at Jai Thai in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. We had a blast…

Just a few more of the group, I wish we’d had better weather and more time so we could have gone outside and done some more, but it was cold/rainy and several people had to leave quickly to go to the airport and/or beat the traffic home. Erin and I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Seattle shopping and hanging out, so we didn’t beat the traffic, but that’s OK.

And last but not least, Kiesha, the dog that made sure we all stayed awake by running around the house and barking loudly at random intervals…

I’m so glad we both went, it was money and time well spent…

~Bill

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7/7/7 wedding slideshow

One of Theresa’s relatives just ordered a couple copies of the DVD slideshow from their wedding on July 7th, 2007 (biggest wedding day of the century, maybe ever). That was such a special wedding, there was so much love and nowhere else in the world I would have rather been. Pretty much every photographer I knew was at a wedding that day, but I think I got the best one. Watch the show to see what I mean…

The biggest ingredient wasn’t the money they spent, but the love they shared. I wish them the best and I’m happy to call them my friends now.

~Bill

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Lacey + Curtis ♥ the wedding

Lacey and Curtis live in Texas, but are both from Western Wa. Curtis is a helicopter pilot in the Army and Lacey is a teacher. What a beautiful ceremony they had! Everyone had a great time, the food was awesome and there were tons of little details that made the whole day really special.The black and white theme was super cool and carried throughout ~ from the many jars of candy to the monogrammed gift boxes for each guest.

It was my first event at the Lake Union Cafe and I can’t wait for more, The place is beautiful and the staff is amazing, even fixing a mishap with the cake (!!), highly recommended, truly an awesome choice for a special event. The very talented Joe Yamada entertained with solo piano, DJ and kept everything on track as the MC.

Enjoy the pictures, and if the spirit moves you, leave a comment

Thanks for trusting and including me on your special day ~

~Bill

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Christmas in Wenatchee

For the last few years we’ve had our family Christmas here in Olympia, but since my sister is working for Sears and couldn’t get any time off we all went to my parents house in Wenatchee this year. The weather was perfect, sunny for the drive over on Monday, snowy on Christmas and then sunny again yesterday for the drive home ~ Perfect!

Here are few pictures ~ and if you want to see a few more, click the slideshow below

All our stockings in a row on Christmas morning

I drove my grandparents new Lincoln Towncar over ~ traveling in style!

Tara and ‘Tissy the cat’ looking dramatic ~

My mom is very happy with her new purse, good job Ken!

My Grandma Cawley with her stocking and princess crown (she said it was incorrect, she’s the queen, not the princess, lol)

A house full of photographers ~ I caught my uncle Gordon with the camera down…

It was great visiting with my grandma Barbara ~ she’s doing great for 83!

Slideshow:

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Megan + Dwight ♥ the wedding

Megan and Dwight live in New York City and have family spread out from the east coast to Hawaii. Megan is from Puyallup so it made sense to meet here for their wedding celebration. An intimate affair with their close family and closest friends, they celebrated in style at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville on Friday. The ceremony, performed by a family friend, was very touching The only bridal party attendants were Zoe the flower girl and Lola their cute little dog.

To see some more, click…. Continue reading this entry »

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Facebook ~ Myspace ~ Twitter ~ Oh My!

Social networking online is fun…. Check out my links, add me, say hi…

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=539125608

Myspace: http://myspace.com/billcawleyphotography

Twitter: http://twitter.com/billcawley

I just signed up for Twitter, so I have very few contacts on there so far… feel free to stalk me… (and don’t be surprised if I return the favor!) update: I just added my twitter feed to this page in the right hand column –>

Last weekend I went to Spokane for a holiday party, it was nice to see old friends and relax for a couple days. The weather on Snoqualmie pass was a lot better than I expected too. I was keeping close tabs on the WSDOT reports on my iPhone. I made such good time on the way back I stopped in Federal Way at Trader Joe’s and got some yummy dark chocolate and wine to surprise Erin with.

Here is a shot I like of my friend Dave playing his guitar on Saturday before we headed to Shawnia’s house for the party. Shawnia had a dead battery in her Honda so I got to use some of my now rusty mechanic skills to replace it for her.

It occurred to me that it’s been 10 years this month since I moved from Spokane to Olympia… Time flies. I’ll post some more pictures from my trip in another post soon

~Bill