2008 Is a Wrap

The bathroom has been left in stasis.

Out With the Mold...I mean "Old"

Well Happy New Year everyone. Hope the holidays were great for you and that 2009 is even better.

The bathroom saga continues:

Black Mold Bathroom

So the bathroom ceiling started leaking sometime Saturday morning. I discovered it at 5:43am, because the cats were being all kinds of weird. Some handyman guy came in with the landlord today while Kim and I were at work and they left a mess and a hole in the ceiling.

They're supposed to come back on Wednesday to fix things - hopefully the leak included. Here is a photo of the hole and the black mold hiding inside.

Tilt-shift

I've taken quite a few photos for work lately and here are some I did of swim lessons and the rock gym with a photoshopped Tilt-shift effect.

Winter Storm 2008

Well it has been snowing in Portland for awhile now. Below are some pictures of the progression starting Saturday night around 5:30 pm until today at 9:00 am (and it is currently still snowing).

Family Visit 2008

So I've been shooting more bikes for Veloforma and working on the guide book for Carver Bouldering and I've also recently been to NC and back visiting family.

Below are some shot from that trip. I didn't get to shoot what I wanted, because we were stuck in the house while it proceeded to rain over 2 inches in 2 days. So I did the "gold chair shoot" in the living room at my Dad's house and a small group shot outside at my Mom's.








The next photo is the set-up for the "Gold Chair Shoot." Canon 580ex reflected out of a closed down umbrella and a Vivitar 285hv behind the chair hitting on the curtain for background separation. Various family members took turns holding the white t-shirt to add a little bounce fill.

OK...I've been real busy.

1st thing - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINA!!!

Since last we spoke, I've done two photo shoots at work, been on vacation, did a product shoot for Veloforma and I've also done a ton of layout/design work for them as they were getting ready for Interbike. Not to mention my day job and working with Becky, who is awesome, on our group's intranet site redesign project.

First up was a shoot for an Aqua Exercise class for work. This was three flashes with one in the water on a stand (thanks to Dan for making sure it didn't fall over or get wet). 2 Vivitar 285HVs coming in at the sholders/back (wrapped in plastic bags) and the 3rd on a stand with homemade beauty dish (Canon 580EX).

The room underneath Chris (guy in photo) was used for text (finished sized was 2ft x 3ft).

The next photo is for a Flu Shot Promo still in production. The models are my boss's boss, Woody, and the nurse is Charlie.

I personally think it was too hot on Woody's shoulder, but he was in a hurry and just had to roll with it.

The next three are of two bike frames and one complete bike. I shot these last Thursday at around 8pm. Did the post, laid-out the postcards the photos went on and burned a disk at the bar for Duff, the owner. We were there until about 12:15am.




The bikes are really nice and I was really glad Duff asked me to shoot them. He was a little nervous about the complete bike, the Mille R, falling over while I was shooting it. But it was being solidly held-up by some chunks of PVC pipe and duct tape. The Mille R is a completely custom carbon fiber bike made with T1000 grade carbon (almost exclusively used for the military and aerospace). Please check them out if you are looking for a really sweet ride: Veloforma.

Last Week was the Kids Triathlon at work

I spent most of my time at the finish line taking photos. The range of emotions on the kids' faces was what one would expect from adults after finishing a full length Triathlon.

Staying Busy

I went to Zack Arias's One Light workshop two weeks ago and learned a lot of stuff about off camera flash. Thanks Zack.

THat is Zack on the left talking about how the light was going to hit Shannon.


Below are some other photos I took during the class of Shannon (from above) and Parrish.

Playing Photo Shoot

I'm working on learning off camera flash things and I finally have the ability to fire two flashes, with a third flash in the wings waiting for a remote.

Since learning requires experimentation, my dear readers, you will probably see a lot of pictures of me. This post you get two of me. The first is a self-portrait using the camera's remote.


The second one Kim took in the backyard and we have titled the claw. It was her favorite.


My favorite from last night was this one of Kim in her hoodie.



Spencer out

Kim is Awesome

Sometimes I'm an ass and you know, that's just the way it is and will be. I think it is just human nature. But Kim has and is being very supportive of my desire to get better with my photography. Se even tolerates me stopping her while she is flipping through magazines and going, "see that catch light there . . . they probably used a big softbox to camera right."

And she will even stand-in while I am trying some new lighting technique. So thank you.

Halloween Early

I've started working on some political-themed Halloween costumes. This one is the "Right to Bear Arms" - self-portrait.

The Little Tug that Could

For Kimmy.

Here is the Little Tug working:

Fifth of July

So of course we went out and watched the fireworks around the house last night. We had fireworks just across the river at Oaks Park. The photo above is from that show. The next one is also from Oaks Park, but the smaller explosion is from a show farther down the river.

There was also a firework display downtown PDX, that we used to have a great view too as well... but that was before the South Waterfront development. I was shooting photos from just in front of the park bench they show on their home page. The photo below shows what our firework display looks like now.

Thanks PDC.

One Month

Since my last post. Sorry about that. The summers get busy. I have been taking some photos and hanging with some different people. Kim and I were at the Strid farm this past SAturday for a very fun shin-dig. Knut from Paella Works was there to provide all of the cooking entertainment and goodness in the largest saute pan I have ever seen. He said he has one that can serve 120 people. THe food was gorgeous and great tasting. Thanks to Julius for hosting.

I also have one stock photo up at PhotoShelter Collection. It is the snail from an earlier post.

Hopefully I'll get some more approved.

Leavenworth May 2008

Was out climbing with some friends between the raindrops in Leavenworth a week ago. 

Here's the proof:

Cruising the Rail in my sneakers

Avery focused on Podracer

Mindy hanging on Toto

Davidson channelling the devil on Podracer

Kim demonstrating why it is called the Footless Traverse

Morning Commute

I sometimes walk along the Willamette River on my way downtown to get to the max on my way to work. Yesterday I passed the rush hour on the river.

The Small Things

With the rising gas prices, I have been walking and using Trimet to get to work for the past couple of weeks. The really nice part of commuting to work this way is it gives me a chance to take in the nature that can be found on the sidewalks and the sides of the roads.

I got to check this little guy or girl out the other day between rain showers on the walk to work from the Max station.

lighting

A couple of photos actually taken with an off camera flash.  They are from the same boulder at Carver called the Wave Boulder.

The first is of my very lovely Kimmy on a problem called Objection, V3.  It would make a good shoe ad for Five Ten. 

And this one is of the very photogenic Pirate Reverend Carl on Legal System, V2. The bare flash creates some hard shadows, but gives a skateboard mag look to the photo.


I'm using a Canon 580EX flash on manual and hand held with a Nikon D40 for the photo capture.

Cheerwine - WooHoo!

So we went to breakfast on Sunday morning at his really cool, but tiny place called Pine State Biscuits. And even though they cost $2 a bottle, I finally found a place that has Cheerwine. The whole experience was being in Portland the only way you can be in Portland, but experiencing a little bit of the old home state of North Carolina.

And then we went out and bouldered at Carver - guide coming soon!

Carver Bouldering

Jered Bernert and I have been working on a guide for Carver for quite awhile and we are actually almost done. Here is the overview map that Jered drew by hand and I tweaked and converted in Illustrator.


I'm not going to give any timeline for this guide to be out at your local gym or shop because so many things can delay it. But it s on its way.

There are over 300 problems at Carver and they need you to go out and scrub them.

spencer out

Illustrator Work

I got really busy doing some work for my buddy, Mark Duff. He is manufacturing really nice bicycles. His company, Veloforma needed team kits, so I got to do all the layout stuff for them. Below is a sample of the short sleeve jersey and the shorts. I also did a skin-suit, sleeveless top and a long sleeve jersey.


You can keep up with more news at Veloforma's Blog.

AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D

I got a new camera lens last weekend. It is the AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D.

Here are a couple of fotos I took the 1st day with it. On my Nikon D40 it is a manual focus lens - so that adds a bit of a challenge.


That is Ryan on his mandolin's maiden voyage outside the apartment and the next foto is the Pirate Reverend Carl.

Portland Oregon at Night

So I've been busy working on some things for my friend Mark Duff, owner of Veloforma. One of those things was the decal set for the Ironclad Team Bikes, which Duff has some fotos of on his blog. I've also been working on the layout for the Veloforma Team Kits (jersey, vest, shorts and skinsuit). More on those later and at my real job i've been getting to take a lot of fotos for a brochure/booklet thing I am working on for a coworker.

I am really psyched with taking pictures right now and because of all the work stuff I've been doing I hadn't made the time for personal things. But the weather in Portland has been fantastic, so I went out tonight and got a couple of decent shots of downtown PDX. Here is one.



I hope to post some fotos soon using off camera flash. For inspiration I regularly read David Hobby's stuff at Strobist and Joe McNally who is a Nikon pro and an expert with flash work who shares his knowledge freely.

Happy Birthday Kim!

I have been on a vacation from the blog and I will try and be better, but that's not why we are here today.

Today is Kim's Birthday...WOOHOO!

And this post is here because I shutdown the Birthday Blog because I didn't have time to walk and chew gum.

So over the weekend Kim did a Birthday Challenge that was really hard for her and made me sick. Crazy. She didn't post hers at Birthday Challenge, but here is what she did:

Ran 31k, biked 31k, climbed 31 boulder problems, drank 31 oz of wine and ate 3.1 pieces of cheesecake (well probably more than that the cheesecake was really good). So great job Kim!

You can Pownce if you want too

After another look at Pownce with fresh eyes, I deleted my profile. I just don't feel cool enough. It was a way to gather you friends from all of your other profiles around the net - not my scene so I left.

I am however very stoked about this site Strobist which is all about off camera lighting set-ups. I hope to get back to taking more photos and putting them up on the old blog here soon. I have been using my camera quite a bit, but for work. Soon I will be able to take more non-work stuff.

Spencer out

Pownce

I just signed-up at a site called Pownce. It looks pretty cool, but I dpn't know much about it yet. It feels llike a more grown-up version of MySpace without all of the clutter. Basically you can create a group of friends to send notes, invites, pictures, files, etc. to either one at a time or as a gang.

I'll see how it works, but if someone else signs-up, then you should be able to find me - my username is spencerwilliams.

I usually find cool thigs like Pownce from Clicked. It is an awesome little info blog that I check daily, but usually only updates 2-4 times a week. It is worth checking to at least feel like you're connected to web trends and other news that is fire-storming across the net and it is ahead of the "real news" curve most of the time.

Have a great day.

Routesetting

A group of us started routesetting for the PNW regional championship yesterday. The comp is for the ABS and should be fun to watch and a little extra work for the setting crew.

Normally the setters get to relax day of and watch the climbers on the fruits of our labors. This time we will also be a pit crew - changing out problems between categories. So the problems will start at one grade and get harder as the day goes on and the categories work through them.

The format will move quickly and should give the spectators a better understanding of how routesetting works and what happens, normally before the comp.

Yesterday was a 9a - 7p day and who knows about today, but at least the problems getting easier to forerun.

I'm setting with Molly Beard, Mike Helt (routesetter.com fame) and Bob Dolan.

Good fun for all.

Spencer out

Seattle - passive aggressive?

Last year we were in Seattle and in my walking around in the downtown areas, i happened past this little sidewalk embedded marker:



I don't remember which office building it was in front of, but it gave me the impression of being invited over to friends house when your kids to play. One minute things are going great and the next it is time for you to leave, because you offended your friend's limited 6-year old sensibilities.

So one day, some Seattle folks are going to be walking to work - down this sidewalk like they always do M-F and on this Tuesday in the future - some guy is going to be standing behind that little triangle enforcing its threat.

Silly, eh?

Side note: Is only the area of the triangle covered in the threat?