For those of you who attended the MiiR / ODW event this past summer, and had the time of your life, you can now relive every moment through pictures, and watch the documentary Beyond the Bottle which we screened that night.  It’s all right here in this post.  If you weren’t able to attend, you can still look too… just don’t expect to find yourself in the pictures.   If you didn’t attend and are really mad at yourself for missing it, ROAD TRIP!  We are doing it again this coming Saturday, November 12, in good ol’ Boise, Idaho.  Here are the event details and location.

I will be showing my Liberia prints again, as well as doing a silent auction.  The goal is to raise money and awareness for the ODW Horn of Africa Relief Fund.  There will be food, drinks, beats by DJ Domestic, and a screening of the documentary Beyond The Bottle, which I recommend watching if you want to find out more about the clean water crisis.  Hope to see you there.

The following event photos are by my good friends Gabe and Ashley Rodriguez, who are living legends and one of Seattle’s top power couples.  A very big thank you goes out to them for documenting this incredible night. Check out Ashley’s recipe and photography blog Not Without Salt, and Gabe’s photography site GabrielBoone.

Things are moving along at a pretty good pace now.  Over the past couple of months, there were a few setbacks which held things up for a while, but it looks like we are in the home stretch at this point.  The last few windows were supposed to arrive today, but didn’t, which was a bit of a bummer.  I felt like a kid at Christmas waiting for those dang windows, but hopefully they will arrive tomorrow.  Maybe Santa got stuck in the chimney or something.  Who knows.  There is actually going to be another window on the front where the large area of wood siding currently is, so once that is in, it will look quite a bit different.

I am really happy with how the wood siding turned out, and I love the stain.  I went to great lengths to find that stain color, and even worked my way onto several construction sites before I finally tracked it down.  It was worth the extra effort though, and turns out it was one of the colors we thought we hated when we were going through small color swatches.

Hopefully the windows will arrive tomorrow, and I will post more pictures when they are in.

No one ever said fashion comes easy, and unfortunately Isla had to learn that the hard way.

Possibly the greatest portrait ever.  Apparently Herbert sat for this portrait right after he stole some candy, and planted a whoopie cushion.

Found on a wall at Seattle Central Community College.

This is the cover of the current Seattle Weekly featuring my portrait of John McKay.  We had some difficulties scheduling this one, and it went right down to the wire.  Thankfully we were able to get some time with John the night before the issue went to press.  I really like this picture.  It is a simple portrait, but there is so much about it that makes it fun to look at.  His eyes are bright and focused, as if he is looking right at you.  One eyebrow is slightly raised giving him a a strong sense of confidence, and maybe even a bit of mischeviousness.  The subtle tilt of his head, and parted lips seem like he is either about to say something profound, or even start laughing.  I never get tired of photographing people, and I love that I learn something new about expression, emotion, trust, interaction, light, and timing every time I take a picture.  As much as I always feel the need to try something different, I don’t think I will ever get tired of photographing faces, because there is always something new to see and learn.

You can read the corresponding story on the Seattle Weekly website here.

I added a couple of new images to the Liberia section of my website.  Check em out.

Thank you to everyone who wrote in and asked the fine folks at FRAMED to do an interview with me. It was very flattering to get the call to do this, and fun to spend the day with Melissa and the whole crew. I am blown away by what a great job they did with this video from top to bottom. They actually made me look somewhat respectable, which is no small feat.  In about 15 years, when Isla is an unruly teenager, I am going to make her watch this video, and then I will look her in the eyes, and say, “Respect”.

I know that 36 minute ticker may scare some of you, but I got several comments and emails today from people who said they didn’t plan on watching more than three minutes, and ended up getting sucked in and watched the whole thing.  Hopefully that is incentive enough to press play.  Even if you only have time for three minutes.  There are no axes, or wood carving in this video, but there are a couple of pretty funny moments with a (Spoiler Alert!) karate master.  Which reminds me, I am really excited you get to meet some of my creative companions who pop up in the video as well.

As always, thanks so much for your interest and support of my work.  It means a lot to me, and thank you again to FRAMED!

I shot this fun, quirky portrait for Condé Nast Traveler to go with an article about the crazy new gadgets people are using to avoid all kinds of germs and illness while traveling.  I couldn’t even tell you what half of this stuff does, but I like how the image turned out.  I’m bummed we didn’t get to shoot the SkyRest Travel Pillow, but there is only so much room for ridiculous travel paraphernalia in one picture.  Enjoy, and remember to always fly safe.

Photo Editor: Nelida Mortensen
Model: Rachel Elizabeth / TCM Models
Stylist: Kristie Gamer

Last week, I woke up, checked my email, and received an email from my friend Mo at charity: water with a link to this video. At first I was confused, and thought it was some sort of mistake or general video for a bunch of people. But as it played on, I realized they made this video for me. Wow! That is some kind of amazing thank you. Last year, I gave up my birthday to raise money for clean water through charity: water, and that is what they are thanking me for in this video. I know hand-written thank you notes are all but dead, but when you get a thank you note, it means so much because of the effort that goes into it. After thinking about that, I realized that maybe a video like this could be the new hand-written note. I think a video actually takes more time and effort, and it was a really fun surprise. Thanks for the video, Mo and Josh! And Happy 5th Birthday, charity:water.

If you don’t understand the flannel shirts, axe, or the lumberjack references, they are spoofing my promo video The Woodsman which you should definitely watch.  It’s worth 1 minute of your time if I do say so myself.

A lot has happened since I last posted about our backyard office, including the most dramatic change in the construction process, the framing.  Going from a concrete foundation to the complete structure of the building is a pretty crazy change, and it was so exciting to finally see the outline of what it will actually look like.  We have been dreaming, talking, and planning this thing, but seeing it in person is so much better.  All the framing happened in about three quick days, and since then, they have finished the plumbing, roofing, and electrical.  We are waiting on inspections at this point, and then on to sheet rock and insulation.  I’m not holding anyone to this, but it sounds like everything could be done in about 4 weeks.  Even though this has taken a lot of time and energy as far as making decisions on our end, Nichelle and I were both just talking about what a fun process this has been.  I know a lot of people hate the idea of going through construction or a remodel, and inevitably things do come up from time  to time, but we are lucky to have a great contractor who has made this whole process super smooth and easy, and has allowed us to have a lot of fun so far!  It’s fun to wake up each morning and see who is out back working and what changes are taking place.

Previous post in this series: Backyard Office: Concrete Foundation