A bare almond tree during winter
in the Languedoc Region of France

If you are an artist in any medium, you should check out "Empty Easel" online. This wonderful resource is filled with all sorts of helpful and interesting information pertaining to art.
There is a newsletter you can sign up for, as well, so you get regular previews of what will appear on the site during a particular week. Here's a link to the site: Empty Easel

As always, our photography can be viewed and purchased here:
Etsy Shop
Fine Art Photography
Flickr

Oregon Ballet Measures 49 & 50

How's this for a spooky Halloween castle?
Chateau de Menthon St Bernard, Haute Savoie, France
Images on this blog may not be used for any purpose without written permission

As our November 6th election nears, the television and radio ads are sending us enough mixed messages to make our heads spin.

Measure 50 has to do with taxing tobacco and using the money for children's health care. That sounds like a good idea. Then, you hear the conflicting ads, and both sides seem to make valid points. One argument against the measure claims that we already have a program for children's health care in place, but it hasn't been effective due to disorganization and/or apathy. Why not, the ads ask, get the existing program working, rather than adding new taxes? We can't help but be suspicious of those ads opposing the measure, though, because the fine print reveals that they've been paid for by tobacco giant Phillip Morris. Plus, the ads in favor of the measure are supported by the cancer and heart associations, who you would hope have the public's best interest in mind.

Most of the ads against Measure 50 place great emphasis on the fact that it would make an amendment to the state constitution, in order to make sure that all of the funds would go to kids' healthcare and would be untouchable by politicians for other purposes. The actors in the ads pretend to be so appalled by the fact that the constitution would be affected. Right, like people would rather leave children without health care than, gulp, amend the state constitution. How lame. Nice try, Phillip Morris.

Measure 49, on the other hand, involves a property owner's right to develop land. It supposedly makes changes to a prior measure that passed a year or two ago, which opened the door to increased development. Again, hearing the opposing views, it would seem both sides are right. This one will probably take some serious reading to decipher. The voter information pamphlet looks like War and Peace. It's got about fifty pages of microscopic type, most of which is undoubtedly very dry subject matter. The thing is, you hear land owners giving sob stories of the possibility of losing their family farms if they aren't allowed to develop the land as they please, then you hear the other side saying that these people are really just hoping to cut subdivisions through the middle of the forest. Given the fact that our state has sort of pioneered restrictions on urban sprawl, this is a touchy issue. We're not looking forward to reading that exciting pamphlet, but it looks like we'll probably have to in order to make an informed decision.

On a lighter note. . .our photography can be viewed or purchased here:

Fine Art Photography Website
Etsy Shop
Flickr Gallery

Picture Frames - To make or not to make?

Japanese Garden, Portland Oregon
Images on this blog may not be used for any purpose without written permission
Prints may be purchased on Etsy

When people buy a framed image, do they really care what type of frame it's in? That's a question that's been on our minds lately. It takes great time and expense for us to make our frames by hand out of solid oak and we sometimes overhear customers discussing how they might be able to frame the image cheaper if they just buy it matted. Obviously, the question at hand pertains specifically to photographic prints, as it's unlikely someone would want a painting to be framed on the cheap.

This past weekend, we got a little unsolicited feedback when one of the people who bought a framed image specifically mentioned that she'd been attracted by the fact that our frames were noticeably higher quality than what she'd been finding elsewhere. Well, that's one vote in favor of our woodworking. We're still considering offering our prints in both our handmade oak frames and some less-expensive production line frames, as well, though. What do you think?

What is Fine Art Photography?

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, Oregon

"Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.” Ansel Adams


There has long been much debate about what constitutes "fine art" photography and whether or not photography is even "art" at all. The foregoing quote by Adams sums up how we feel about the images we create and our role as "fine art" photographers. In our opinion, any photographer whose primary goal is to capture images that are beautiful or interesting to look at is by definition a fine art photographer. After all, creative, conscious decisions are made during the process (such as composition, lighting, choice of subject, choice of camera and lense, etc.), much like a painter chooses what materials to use and which details to include or exclude in a particular work. To us, it is this creativity and emphasis on aesthetics that distinguish "fine art" prints from other forms of photography (technical, legal, medical, etc.) Our goal isn't just to accurately document what something looks like, but, also, to create something that people will truly enjoy looking at for years and years on their home or office walls.

Which brings up another quote by Adams:

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”

Prints of our images can be purchased here:
Fine art photography
8 x 10 prints on Etsy

First Thursday in the Pearl District

Snowy scene at Timberline, Oregon

Last night, we sold our photography at the First Thursday artwalk in the Pearl District. After hearing one dire weather forecast after another, Mother Nature had mercy and it didn't rain, so we were pretty relieved about that.

Our favorite sale of the night was to an adolescent boy whose parents let him chose images to decorate his room. The kid seemed to really have an eye for what he liked and didn't like. Extremely quickly he matched two images together that were very different subjects, yet the colors went well together. Then, he asked his mom for her opinion. She agreed with his choices, which were the "cloud mountain" shown above and the shot of Wizard Island at Crater Lake, Oregon, shown below. All in all, the kid made very tasteful choices. We were really impressed by this kid's artistic sensibility and we asked ourselves if he developed this on his own or if one of his parents had an artistic background. At any rate, it made us proud that, with infinite possibilities, he chose our work to decorate his room.

Crater Lake, Oregon

Visit our website: fine art photography
and our Etsy shop: photographic prints

Fall Colors Are Here

The leaves are a' changin'! Along with the arrival of cold, wet weather, we're starting to get fall colors around town. Last year, it was difficult to photograph the beautiful trees because they took so long to change in the mild fall weather we had. Shouldn't have that problem, this time around. If we can just get a day or two with some sun breaks, we're going to go get that shutter clicking! This is a shot of a Japanese Maple that we took last year.

Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon

Prints available on Etsy : Japanese Maple
or our own website: Colorful Garden Prints