FS|Photographers

The snow keeps falling here in Portland. Here’s a shot of Stella as the first flakes came down!

Our first stop on our road trip last month was in Bend for a photo shoot with Josh & Stephanie. We will be photographing their wedding in Central Oregon later this month, and are looking forward to being on the sunny side of the mountains! They chose to meet in Drake Park, and we are glad that they did. The weather was definitely on the chilly side, even for early October in Bend, but we all ignored cold fingers and numb noses and had a great time. We loved all of the different aspects of this park–it is a great place for a variety of settings and the fall afternoon light was gorgeous!

If you are a faithful reader of our blog, you will have noticed a serious lack of content during late summer and early fall. Rest assured, we are still taking photos! We have had the opportunity to work with a lot of amazing couples this summer and are excited to share the images with you, however late they may be in arriving to the blog.

Brandi and Kyle were married in Portland this September, with one of the most unique ceremonies we have ever experienced! I’m sure if we lived in Las Vegas we would see this a lot more, but this just happened to be our first time shooting with Elvis as the officiant. “Elvis” was actually a dear friend of the bride and groom and not some impersonal impersonating imposter! This wedding was full of funky personal touches, emphasizing their amazing personalities. Kyle and Brandi put a lot of thought and planning into making their day a wedding like no other. Thank you for making us a part of it!

In the lobby at the Avalon Hotel & Spa.

Kyle brought these crazy 3-D type glasses for the guys. I love the way they reflected the light from my flashes! Not to mention the super-agent-spy-cool vibe they have going on.

The ladies walk along the waterfront on their way to the ceremony in downtown Portland.

They decided to combine their last names: Stone-Chilla. Has a nice ring to it. Shown here in Blade-Runner-esqe font.

Elvis preps for his big debut.

The ceremony started with a touching song by the King, accompanied on guitar by the groom.

Kyle also played and sang his own song as Brandi walked down the aisle.

Following the ceremony, we had the opportunity to walk around downtown with the couple for more photos. Which, of course, included a ride on the MAX!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/19/ST2008101901990.html

As an Independent, I have long admired Colin Powell for his centrist Republican politics, statesmanship, and prudence as a military leader & soldier. His endorsement of Obama  is just what America needs to see. Lets get away from all this misleading talk of Obama being a “socialist” and look towards the future of building our country’s strength and reputation with solid leaders more focused on America’s overall success rather than partisan politics.

After 3 weeks, 6 states, and over 3,000 miles of driving today is the second time we have seen rain. The first was last night as we camped in the Redwoods of northern California, and today a storm is pummeling the Southern Oregon coast as I write this huddled in the van with an awesome view of some rough surf. We have been lucky to experience different stages of fall throughout the west with beautiful weather! Today’s storm not only welcomes in the month of November but marks a decided change in the season. We will be home this afternoon, so this is my last “official” blog post from the road. I will definitely be posting more photos after we have settled back in and I can get to editing all of the 1700+ images we have!

To see our route, drag and zoom the map above. By my calculation (and google’s), we will have traveled about 3,500 miles in the last 3 weeks. We have really enjoyed the relaxation and sense of discovery that the road provides. Below is a small list of trip highlights we compiled while driving yesterday:

• Early fall snow on Steens Mountain, OR
• Spontaneous cattle drive on the highway
• Listening to Coyote’s howling under a full moon in Nevada.
• Hearing the hoot of an owl outside our tent bouncing off canyon walls at dawn.
• Clear view of the milky way and other stars at night in Utah & Arizona.
• L-O-N-G Arizona sunsets (including over the Grand Canyon).
• Sunrise hike through Bryce Canyon.
• Finding and soaking in a hot spring in a ditch in the Nevada desert.
• Finding numerous ancestral puebloan ruins on a dayhike, and scrambling over slickrock ledges to get a closer look.
• Seeing a herd of wild burros and horses.
• Driving the winding road through Jerome, AZ at dusk.
• Fall colors in Oak creek near Sedona, AZ.
• Cooking various meals over the fire, such as polenta with mushrooms, onions, sweet peppers and buffalo sausage; fresh picked corn on the cob; and fire-roasted chiles.
• Lots of seafood in CA and OR: scallops, fish tacos, sturgeon, smoked tuna, calamari steaks.
• Dodging a falling tree branch after a wind gust blew through our camp under the redwoods.
• Almost stepping on a rattlesnake while wearing sandals. (mere inches–no joke!)
• Visiting old friends and soaking up the sun in Southern CA.
• Beachcombing anytime we were close to the ocean–finding a bunch of minature sand-dollars was Joelle’s favorite.
• Driving the Big Sur coastline very slowly at sunset.
• Seeing Stella run, jump, climb, and explore every area we visited.

Of course, what would a trip log be without the obligatory road-trip self portrait? Here we are at Bryce Canyon.

Downtown Ely, Nevada.

Tempting price on those Margaritas! Unfortunately, I cannot report on their quality as we still had a few hours of driving after taking this shot.

Our camp this morning.

[click photo to enlarge]

Can you find the tent? Hint: look for yellow. Clicking on the photo to make it bigger will make this a lot easier! (It is worth seeing large even if you aren’t into playing this little game.)

After a chilly-yet-beautiful pre-wedding shoot with Josh & Stephanie in Bend, we hit the road for Eastern Oregon and the quest for solitude. There is something completely relaxing about driving into vast, open space, and that was exactly what we were looking for. Our first night found us headed towards the Steens Mountains. The Steens hold a huge amount of Aspen groves (fairly rare in Oregon), and we were hoping to glimpse some fall color. It turns out that we were greeted with snow instead! It was really cold camping at about 8,000 feet, but it was worth it to experience snow in October! Plus, it added wonderful texture and contrast to the fall landscape.

 Looking west into Lake Creek Canyon at sunrise.

An aspen grove at the bottom of the canyon.

After one night up in the Steens, the desert sun of the Southwest started sounding better and we decided to head towards Nevada en route to Utah. A few hours into the drive, Joelle startled me when she noticed a mirage of cattle seemingly stampeding toward the car. This turned out to be our favorite moment of the day, and the cows were not stampeding, but were being driven to a new pasture down the highway! We did pull off the road in time, however, and gave our regards to the cowboys as they passed. Pretty crazy for a state-highway!

Here they come . . .

. . . and there they go.

We are super-excited to be hitting the road for a little rest, relaxation, and adventure! We will be out through the end of the month, and the loose “plan” is to head to the Southwest (Utah, Arizona), on to San Diego to visit friends, and then take a long leisurely drive all the way up the Pacific coast back to Portland. We will be posting as much as possible along the way, so stay tuned on our Adventure page for all the updates!