Fashion Show

On Wednesday night if you weren't in the OSU Alumni Center you missed out. The department of fashion design put on an BREATHTAKING runway fashion show that was just so much fun! My job for this shoot was to document each garment, so I had to sit at the front of the runway and make sure I got a quality shot of each outfit.

The slideshow isn't really creative photography, but just sit back and enjoy all of the amazing designs produced by the graduating Seniors in the program.

The program was led by Instructor Marianne Egan, who I might add, has some custom wedding dresses that will be appearing on this blog shortly. If you are interested in having a custom wedding dress made, keep watching the blog, and I will put you in contact with Marianne.

As you scroll down you'll see some getting ready pictures then click play on the slideshow, and afterward you can look at the grand finale and awards.

FYI Senior Designer Jennifer Hagedorn won the award for most outstanding design!

Sunday Night

Sunday nights are good for blogging. After spending the day with my family I feel refreshed and ready to look at the week ahead. Tomorrow being Memorial Day I wanted to share a website that I came across the other day.

World Press Photo has put together an amazing site of their 2008 award winning photographs. The Photos are accompanied by the photographers explaining the background of each photo and how it has affected them. Besides seeing some amazing photography, you get the chance to hear some amazing stories.

The Photo of the year is of an American Soldier in Afghanistan, and the interview explains how the soldier and the photographer are now connected. AS we pause to remember fallen soldiers, I can't help but think of the importance of the photographers who enable us to remember those who have fallen by capturing their images forever.

Take a look and listen on this site. It is pretty powerful.

Anyone want to go to the beach?

Hey for all of my brides out their that haven't gotten their engagement pictures taken care of, I will be in Newport this Saturday, and would love to do an engagement shoot on the beach. I usually charge more for my travel but since I'll already be on the coast this one would be free. Give me a call if you want romantic engagement pictures on the beach at sunset!

Fashion Shoot #2

In preparation for the end of the year fashion show at OSU, I wanted to get a few more fashion shots before the real deal. I really liked the variety of dresses on this shoot, and the grey dress at the beginning and end of this slideshow was awesome to photograph because it was so flowing and added a lot of movement to the pictures. I'd love to shoot a wedding dress that could move like that!

If you are interested in seeing more of the amazing designs from OSU's fashion design program, come to the OSU Alumni Center at 7pm on Wednesday May 28th and check it out.

The Youngs

The last few weeks have been so great. Not only has the weather been absolutley beautiful, I've had a chance to shoot so many different kinds of photography. First it was Leah and Billy's wedding, then the Obama event, then Bill Clinton, then I did another fashion shoot which I will be sharing next week, and now the Young Family.

The Young's hired me to shoot some relaxed family portraits which was a nice change of pace. With their three adult children home for the weekend they wanted to capture themselves where they feel most comfortable, at home. Make sure you watch the slideshow to the end because my favorite pictures are there. One of the Young's favorite passtimes is to spend time quality together over a cold beer. I love these pictures at the end because they are totally relaxed and just enjoying each other's company.

O yeah, I shoot weddings too.

With all the political campaigns running through Oregon, I haven't had time to post a really fun wedding that I shot on May 3rd. Leah and Billy were married in the Bay Area a few Saturdays ago. Leah is a friend from high school and it was such an honor that she had me come all the way from Corvallis to shoot her wedding.

It was interesting shooting her wedding because one of the things I pride myself on is being able to show up at a wedding and blend in like an old friend with a nice camera, but at this wedding I really was an old friend with a nice camera. As I started out I found myself really nervous! One thing I really enjoyed about the wedding is that in Oregon I'm used to a lot more trees, and there weren't a whole lot of trees where we were shooting so I feel like the situation pushed me creatively.

Ok ok here are the pictures. Don't forget to press the play button!

The Other Clinton

Wow. Two blog posts, two pretty influential people in American politics. Bill Clinton swung by Corvallis yesterday and stopped at Lincoln Elementary. (where Kara used to work)

So of course I had to grab my camera and take some pictures as well. It was fun because I knew so many people in the crowd. I''m still an Obama man but whenever you get a chance to take pictures of a former president you've gotta jump at it!


Sara Gelser, state representative, gets a little fired up.


Dan Kamerzelt and Kevin Skillings are coworkers of mine. They are funny guys!


An adoring fan holds Bill's autobiography. I bought this book for my dad, who is a Bill Clinton fan. I read most of it too, and found it pretty intersting.

Mr. President

Ok here is the story. On Thursday I got a call from Mi Gente magazine to shoot Barack Obama's campaign stop in Eugene on Friday! I was SO excited! First, how often do you get to take pictures of someone who will likely be the President of the United States? And second, I really believe in Barack Obama, and he is who I will be voting for in this election.

Anyway, it was an amazing event. I got to work around the other media. At one point I could have shook his hand but I decided to keep taking pictures instead... It was AWESOME!

My pictures will be featured on the cover of Mi Gente, which is a Spanish language magazine that circulates quarterly throughout Oregon. All I can say is that it was an honor.

University of Oregon giving an "O" welcome.


U of O's head men's basketball coach Ernie Kent prepares to present Obama with an honorary Ducks jersey.


State Representative David Wu takes the stage.


State Representative Peter Defazio warms up the crowd.


These next few need no caption. You know this guy!

Big Big Big News

I have a ONCE IN A LIFETIME shoot today. All I can say is check this blog tomorrow because it is going to ROCK! I'm SO excited!

High Schoolers are honest

Do you want to know how you are doing at something? Ask a high schooler. I have the privelege of working with 100 teanagers who really like to tell me what is on their minds every day. Some recent comments include: "Wow Mr. Becerra, your bald spot is getting bigger every day." and "Hey Mr. Becerra that is a really ugly shirt."

Today I got a very interesting comment. During a discussion on creativity I was explaining that I used to participate in a program called Odessey of the Mind. It was a program intended to foster creativity in k-12 sudents. One of my students yelled, "Becerra you've been holding out on us, this is so interesting, you should blog about this kind of stuff and your blog would be a whole lot more interesting."

So basically he was saying my blog is boring. I have to agree latley I haven't been a faithful blogger and I apologize. I'm going to make an effort to share more personal experiences on the blog and keep it a little more entertaining.

So in the spirit of sharing, and since we are talking about high schoolers, I thought I'd post this picture I took of one of my classes. We were talking about how to pose groups and that photographers often pose larger groups by posing smaller groups first and trying to make small triangles that connect together to form one big triangle.
After looking at how Annie Leibovitz used this technicque to photograph various covers of Vanity Fair (like the one below) my students begged me to recreate a similiar style with them. We all ran outside by the dumpster and came up with this shot. I like it, but, I just got say Annie I ain't!