Sandy Chamber of Commerce celebration

Last night was the Sandy, Oregon Chamber of Commerce 60th anniversary bash at the Resort at the Mountain in Welches, Oregon. The theme was "Casino Royale" and there was gambling (everyone was given funny money to cash in for chips), drinks, dinner, raffles, and dancing.
I volunteered my time for this event for taking prom-style portraits. I need to be more careful volunteering for stuff. My studio mates and I signed lease at a new studio on Broadway (Portland, Oregon) and started the moving process on Friday. We spent two days prepping the new studio for paint and moving things around, so I was already exhausted. Then, I had to run home for a quick shower and change of clothes, collect my gear, and boogey on down to Welches to set up. I only had about 45 minutes for everything, including finding the room, dragging all of my bags, saying hi to everyone, then setting up and fine tuning lights. I completed the setup just in time for the first victims- er, clients.
This was a quick, down and dirty setup, and the final product for everyone was an inkjet 4x6 print in a display folder. The proceeds went to the Chamber of Commerce. I met a lot of interesting people throughout the night, including the winner of the "Youth Citizen of the Year" award. The photo included in this blog is her and her mother.

Mourning for a lost friend

I wrote a little while ago about my 11 year old lab mix, Daisy, having cancer. Well, sadly, she lost the fight and has left us. She was the first dog that my wife and I had as a family and we are all very sad. After about 6-700 bucks worth of shoes and other things around the house (including a leather couch cushion) when she was young, she was a great dog.

So here's to a great 90 lb lap dog and loved friend. This is one of the pictures I took of her about a week before she died. She loved to play with spray bottle mist. I would spray just a little water on her nose and she would rub all over the ground and rub her nose. I didn't actually have to spray it. I could hold a spray bottle and make a spray sound and she would do the same thing. Silly pup.

I know, some people say she was just a dog, but she was a big part of our family and will always be remembered as such. You are entitled to your opinion, as long as you know that it is wrong.

Daisy Lou Gill
10.31.96 - 2.4.08

I got a new Lensbaby 3

So, I got a Lensbaby and finally had a little time to play with it. First, I wanted something fun to shoot, so I thought "My motorbike could be fun." Then I realized that I hadn't run the engine for a little while, so I should run the motor for a while. Then I realized that I hadn't been riding in a while, and I was outside without a jacket and wasn't shivering. I took a few shots of the bike, then packed my camera and headed out for a ride, stopping when I saw interesting stuff. 60 miles and 5 stops later, I got home and checked my stuff out. I got a few shots that were fun (included).
The little road trip satisfied my motorcycle craving, but didn't satisfy my Lensbaby need. My wife was taking a little catnap on the couch (it was about 6), so I decided to torture her a bit by setting up on the floor right in front of her and got focused, put in the aperture disk, then started painting her with an flashlight. Here is one of the resulting images. She will probably forgive me for posting candid photos of her sleeping, right? <----concerned husband, heheh.

Day in the snow

So, my oldest dog, Daisy, was given 1-3 months to live after cancer was found throughout her body. What do you do when life gives your dog cancer? You go play in the snow!!!!! We didn't want to sit around all weekend moping, so we took the two mutts up to the mountain to play. Daisy has always been a huge fan of snow and water. She and the other dog found a creek next to the meadow that we were playing in, and went for a swim. I was freezing bundled up on land and they were playing polar bear before we even knew there was liquid water in the area.
For those of you who are wondering, Yes- I am one of those guys who treats their dog like a child. Daisy is 11 and we've had her since my son was 5. Most of his memories involve her eating shoes or barfing on his rug and lots of playing in water.
So, here are a couple of pictures from the day. One is of Daisy chilling in the snow. I ended up blowing out the snow so there would be detail in her black fur. I know a lot of people like to see texture in snow, but when I set my exposure, I got what I wanted.
The other picture is Daisy sitting and watching her idiot brother catching snowballs in the air.

NEW SITE!!

BALLYHOOphotography.com has been rebuilt. I am pretty excited about the new look of the site. I figure -new year, new site design. I posted it about 8:45 pm on Jan 17, and I'm sure there are bugs, but i clicked around it, and am very happy with it. If you read this, email me and let me know what you think. I'm still learning this crazy html thing.

Back in my day, it was all film and paper and chemicals. You could destroy your liver with the fixer. Those were the days. Now I have to destroy my liver by other means. Man..... I guess it's going to have to be Jameson or Bushmills. Decisions, decisions. HA!

Oh ya, the Hawaii pictures will be coming soon. I had to put them on the backburner. I had planned on taking a ton of pics, and writing off part of the trip as a business expense, but I only took a couple hundred pictures, and will only keep a few dozen of those. I will be good and call it a vacation.

Keep an eye out, I will actually be updating this periodically. I got a new Lensbaby, so expect some postings of that. I’m having fun dinking around with this. THANKS LENSBABIES!!!!

Christmas gift to me!

So, Kauai.....
This is what I got for Christmas this year. A 4 mile hike that ended up being 2-6 inches of mud. What a blast. The only problem was getting back down. These simple sandals are kind of a bummer when your feet are slick with mud. I spent as much time adjusting my feet in the shoes as they kept slipping and rotating. The temperature was right around 80 degrees and the views were spectacular.
We planned to go snorkeling for the morning, but the waves were up and the beach we planned to go to had a really wide riptide. No thanks. I do love that island, though. We stayed in an elcheapo hotel, so internet service was only available further into Kapaa at the coffee shop. Nothing like sitting at a coffee shop petting the cat while my son got his fix of WOW and we got our caffeine buzz.
Every day was low 70's for the low and 80 for the high. Makes you kind of forget why you enjoy living in the Great Northwest. These muddy feet would not quite feel as good in the low 40s...... yikes!

More pictures will be coming as I edit them.

Holidays are here!

I am out of here. Expect some pictures here in the near future. I will be shooting some night shots on the beautiful island of Kauai, in addition to underwater shots. The last time we were on the islands, the whales sang to us while we were snorkeling off black rock. That was my straight edge purple dragon. I don't think I will ever have that cool of a time snorkeling, but we shall see.
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