Shelly + Todd = Wedding

On last Friday I photographed a wedding of two incredible people Shelly and Todd. They got married in The View Point Inn in Columbia Gorge. We were very lucky to get great sunny and warm weather that day after the entire week of cold and rain. Flowers and decorations were provided by Carolyn S. Kilfoil from Canova Design. She also decorated a wedding cake.

Shelly and Todd looked very happy and so much in love with each other. Todd is a super nice guy, very funny and easy going. He was so happy to see Shelly after his long trip to Europe. They very smiling and laughing all day.

The View Point Inn provides incredible view on Columbia Gorge and we were able to catch beautiful sunset that day. Congratulation, guys, on your wedding. It was my pleasure to photograph you that day!

Check out a slide show of 113 images (about 3 min):

*** SLIDESHOW ***

Here are some of my favorite images of that day. If you see horizontal images cut off, just maximize your browser to increase the viewing area.

I like how Shelly looks in profile:

 

Beautiful bride:

Handsome groom:

 

 

Great couple:

 

Beautiful flowers provided by Carolyn:

 

and a cake decorated by her too:

 

 

A dragonfly has a special meaning to Shelly’s family and it was an important element of the cake decoration:

 

We had a beautiful sunset that night:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like how happy they are during their first dance:

Tanya + Ivan = Engagement

This last Saturday, I photographed an engagement session of Tanya and Ivan. A day before, we rescheduled it for next weekend, because of the weather: it supposed to be raining that day. But Saturday morning was very nice and it was promising a good day. So, I called Tanya and Ivan and asked if they still can do it. We decided to do it at 5 pm at Water Front Park where Ivan actually did propose to Tanya. When we got there, the light rain started and we had to hide under the roof of World Trade Center. So, we took a few shots there and when the raining was over, we went outside to grab a few more. By that time, Tanya and Ivan were pretty comfortable in front of the camera and we had a blast! You can feel and see a lot of emotions and love. Check out a few of my favorite shots and don’t forget about a slideshow:

*** SLIDESHOW ***

 

 

 

The Lord Is Risen!

I want to wish Happy Easter to all of my friends, family and clients!

Ukrainians used to celebrate Easter by preparing Easter Eggs and painting then in red color, or decorating then with artistic ornaments, backing traditional Ukrainian Easter Bread and preparing a variety of different cookies and meats. Then all of it was placed in a backed and taken to church to be blessed. After church, all family was getting together to celebrate this one of the greatest holidays of the year. Every one greets each other that day by saying “Christ is risen!”.

Blessing of Easter baskets:

You might don’t know that Church in Ukraine keeps the old calendar, which has 2 weeks difference from the current calendar and because Easter is a floating holiday each year, the difference in calendars puts this holiday apart each year. But sometimes the date of Easter matches in two calendars like it is this year. Then it becomes a double joy for us, since we are able to celebrate it on the same day with our family, friends and relatives who are back in Ukraine.

I wish you all the best!

Christ is Risen! God Bless!

Quote of the day…

I like coffee. No, I LOVE coffee. When you want coffee, you think Starbucks. Today was one of those days, when I stop by local Starbucks to get my cup of doppio espresso. And those guy’s at Starbucks had a great idea of putting quotes from different people on coffee cups. So, after I had my coffee, I looked at the cup to read what was written there, and this quote made me think for a second, and then I decided to share it with you:

“Achieving a true success is being yourself… I am different and proud of it!“

- Raul Midon, Musician.

New products: Picture Frames

I am really excited to start offering a new line of picture frame products available for clients. They are hight quality picture frame kits, which include everything you would need to mount your print:

• Moulding (the frame itself). Solid black wood (semigloss) gallery style picture frame profile. Completely assembled.

• Mat board. Snowflake white with black core. 1/16 inch thick. ACID FREE museum-quality preservation pre-cut mat board. Actively protects from air born pollutants. Reduces yellowing and fading. Free of ground wood and lignin. Fade and bleed resistant. Conservation quality mat board.

• Mounting board or frame backing. 3/16 inch thick archival ACID FREE foamboard. Outperforms all other acid-free foamboads as it traps and neutralizes external pollutants and removes harmful chemicals. Lightweight and extremely rigid with smooth white mounting surface.

• Acrylic glazing. UV Filter/Non Glare Acrylic. More optically pure and lighter weight than glass. Acrylic glazing offers 98% UV filtering to help protect artwork from fading, yellowing, and brittling. Surface is etched to reduce the glare allowing the artwork more visibility in difficult lighting conditions.

+ complimentary hanging kit, which includes plastic coated hanging wire and wall protection bumpers.

Those products are available right now at my online store (http://clients.theoleksandr.com), which is also accessible from the front page of my web site http://theoleksandr.com. Picture frames can be purchased separately or along with prints. Just add them to you shopping cart. It is super convenient one stop shopping opportunity, since you don’t have to worry about frames to fit your prints any more, especially, when you order prints of non standard sizes like 8×12 or 10×15. Those sizes allow you to have non cropping prints but it is really difficult to find frames for them in regular stores. Besides that, now you don’t have to worry about preserving your prints – all materials used in those frames meet the requirements of storing photographic work.

So, from now on, when you order prints from your event, scroll down a page a little bit and you will be able to see the line of recommended products for that particular print size.

Have a nice day!

1000 visitors and counting…

I am really excited to tell you that my blog reached first 1000 visitors in about 3 mounth today! Yey! That at least one visitor per day was checking on my blog. (Thank you, Mom! ).  Also, I have about 30 email subscribers who like to be updated and receive news by email. Thank you for beeing with me! I really appreciate your support! So, if you are not subscribed yet and would like to stay connected, look at the right column and click Subscribe by Email  link and enter your email address. It is super easy to do and you will be able to receive new articles from this blog right into your mail box. Emails are delivered only once a day, even if there are several new postings.

Besides emails, there are several other ways to stay connected. You can use your favorite RSS reader. I prefer http://www.bloglines.com. It is online RSS news reader, which lets me keep track of about 80 other photographer’s blogs. Once you open an account and add your favorite blogs to your subscription list, you can check on them from any computer which has Internet connection at home or at work. And you subscriptions are always in sync.

A few days ago, I added a new widget to my right panel, which allows you to chat with me if I am available, or just leave a message if I am away.

One note about viewing horizontal images here. I you see horizontal image chopped off, just make your browser window wider or maximize it and you will be able to see it. It shouldn’t be a problem for 1280×1024 resolution screens.

And if you like some image or want to leave a comment, please, do so, by scrolling down to the end of an article and clicking comments link. I would like to hear from you. It would encourage me to do more every time.

Thank you, again, for reading my blog. Stay tuned!

Tulips Fest in Woodburn

On Sunday we went to Tulips Festival in Woodburn, OR. It was lovely sunny day. I spend the whole afternoon with my son taking different rides having fun on slides, swings, and playing with water.

I have to admit, that there were a lot of photographers that day. The flowers were just beautiful, blooming at all their best. If you can hold a camera and know how to press a shutter, you should go there. Pro Photo Supply organized a Photo Contest “Catch the Color”. The winner gets Canon Rebel XTi Digital SLR Camera as a Grand Prize. Not bad… By the way, I had know idea about the contest until I arrived there. But I had some ideas in mind how I would approach photographing flowers that day. I wanted to try something unusual and think “outside of the box”. So, I decided do not use any macro lens to capture little details nor trying to capture a flower as it is. Instead, I wanted to play with different colors and create some abstractions. The images below are total experiment. I captured them by Canon EF 70-200mm 2.8 IS L lens @ 200mm. All blur and movement were created using the lens, zero Photoshop. Should I submit those images to the contest and win Rebel XTi? What do you think?