A Weekend OFF!

Life has been pretty crazy the past few weeks so I'm happy to report that there will be no new photos this weekend...unless they're of Sofia!

Thinking Ahead

A few weeks ago I had a couple book me for their August 2008 wedding. That is 16 months in advance! I'm amazed at how organized many brides are. I'm also honored that couples feel so confident in my work that they are willing to book me that far in advance. It makes me want to give them everything I've got creatively, so that they know that their time and money were well spent.

Barb and Jake

One of the trends that I'm seeing more often is for people to have their bridal party pictures taken before the ceremony. This is a great idea! It allows for the time after the ceremony to be dedicated to friends and family and not your photographer.

This new tradition has created "the moment" where a bride and groom see each other for the first time on their wedding day. Most couples like to take a few minutes to just talk quietly and be with each other until the craziness that is their wedding day really begins.

Barb really wanted to capture the moment when Jake saw her for the first time so I just kind of hid out of the way and captured his reaction as it unfolded. These first pictures are from their "moment", and the last few are some of my favorites from their wedding day.

I Love Portland!

Thank you Kirsten and Chris! Being based in Corvallis, I shoot a lot of engagement sessions in some pretty beautiful areas. There is an abundance of great natural settings to take pictures in all around me. So when Kirsten wanted to have her session in Portland I was really excited to get some more urban shots.

Portland is photographers' heaven! There were so many cool structures to shoot in I could have stayed there all day. Here are a few of my favs.

This weekend was great. I shot Brent and Nancy's Wedding in Lebanon on Saturday, and while it was a lot of fun it was the most difficult lighting situation I have ever encountered. The Church was beautiful inside, and all the lights were turned off except for emergency lights and some candle lights. It gave a beautiful romantic feel in person, but it was so hard to light everything because our eyes are much better at processing low light levels than a camera sensor. The building only had one window so we couldn't use window light, and the building was surrounded by parking lots so outdoor shots were out of the question.

The great part was that the difficult lighting really challenged me professionally. It made me push my creative limits(and the limits of my equipment) and use the dramatic lighting that was available. We came up with some great shots! Of course having a bride and groom that were as in love as Brent and Nancy, made all the technical stuff fade into the background. These two were made for each other!

Also they had a great wedding coordinator, and Brent's uncle Loic who is a professional photographer helped out a ton, making my job a lot easier.

I'm reallly excited because when Brent and Nancy get back from their honeymoon we'll be headed to the beach for a trash the dress session. They'll get all dressed up in their wedding gear and run around on the beach at sunset! I'm stoked!

Putting Sofia to Bed

This is really hard. We are trying to teach Sofia to sleep through the night. Last night we tried the Ferber (spelling?) method. Basically we set Sofia in her crib and told her that we loved her and that she had to learn to sleep alone and then we left. She cried and cried and we would come to her every 15 minutes to tell her that we lovd her. It was soooooooooo sad. =( I went in her room this morning and she was just sitting there with a blank stare on her face. She didn't even smile or reach for me. Man this is killing me! It is the saddest thing when your daughter cries. The tough part is I know that this is what she needs. She needs to learn how to put her self to sleep...especially since we have another baby on the way. Yup another one!

In my job at the high school I hear a lot of students complain about their parents, or other teachers or school rules and it is so funny because a lot of times they just don't see how those authority figures want what is best for the students. I used hate that cliche "This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you." but now I really think that sometimes it is harder on the parent or the teacher to ground their child, or give a student a failing grade or let their 18 month old daughter cry herself to sleep.

I know I sound really old right now...I guess fatherhood can do that.

contact down

After this last website update, I must have accidently deleted the contact information on my site! I'll be able to fix it tonight. In the meantime, if you need to contact me you can email me at chris@becerraphotography.com, or by telephone at 541-908-0776.

Singing in the Rain!

This weekend was great. Sarah and Scott, are a couple from Bend and paid for Kara Sofia and I to come shoot their engagement pictures over there this weekend. They hooked us up with a nice room and then were great subjects to take pictures of. They are by far the earliest engagment session I've ever shot. When I told them that the best light is at sunrise and sunset they chose sunrise! We got up at 6:30 to catch a beautiful bend sunrise but it was rainy and cloudy!!!!! These two were so into each other and had such a good time that they didn't even notice.

Seniors

Part of my non-break break last week was experimenting with some Senior portraits.
I'm thinking of jumping into that market...
I was really pleased with the results, what do you think?

Busy week

So this is the first day back from spring break, and I'm thinking I need a break from my spring break. During the break I shot a wedding, an engagement session, a senior portrait session and rebuilt my whole website....I'm exhausted!

By the way the engagement session was great! Julia and Dave were so fun and into each other that it made taking their pictures easy. We went to the coast to do the shoot, and while it was sunny, it was freezzzzzzing! These two kept it pretty steamy though...as you can tell..

Photo Restoration

A friend of my has been getting into photo restoration lately and asked if I'd post some of his work...so here it is before and after.

If you would like to have some photo restorations done, you can contact Brent Frazier at bnfrazier@msn.com or 541-883-2074.