Weekend-o-Wine

This past weekend, my girlfriend turned 26. Actually, on the 26th of March my girlfriend turned 26 making this her “golden birthday.” I was admittedly unfamiliar with this notion of a golden birthday I was born on the first of July making my first birthday “golden.” I’m sure it was a good one. Despite my ignorance, I was able to get the take-away…. this is a bigger deal than the average birthday. So after a lengthy planning process, I had a weekend of celebration planned. 

Last Friday evening, we kicked off the festivities with an old fashioned surprise party full of friends and family. Which was a blast. The reaction on her face was priceless. True and total shock. As she moved around to mingle with folks and get her obligatory birthday cocktails, time ticked by. When it approached 9:30 I suggested that she finish up so that she could go home and pack. She looked confused (as I hoped she would). I then informed her that we’d be going to Portland that night in order to do a chauffeured tour of the Willamette wineries. She was excited – again, as I hoped.

All of this is stated as a way to set up the photos from the weekend. We stayed at The Nines in downtown Portland, and enjoyed a very relaxing weekend. The wine tour and the hotel were brilliant backdrops for photos. Even Heather continued to experiment with the camera. 

-Elldub

Sample of my photos:

   

 

 

Sample of Heather’s photos:

Photo Safari With Heather

 

For those in the know, I’ve been with a wonderful woman now for over 7 months. We met while I was photographing her sister’s wedding and since, she’s seen me take thousands of photos. Being a creative person herself (especially with fictional short stories) She tried her hand this weekend at photography. I loaned her one of my DSLRs, helped with the settings and post-production, but the composition, focus, etc. is all her. Not too shabs .

We started taking photos before breakfast with some friends at Seattle’s Portage Bay Café in South Lake Union. Despite the long wait, we all stuffed our faces before Heather and I roamed the city for photos. Despite her vast experience as an iPhotographer (one who takes artistic photos with their iPhone), she hadn’t really ever used a DSLR. I started her out on AUTO and Aperture priority. My hope is to eventually get her to shoot manual in RAW. Baby steps…. baby steps. I think she loved testing her more critical eye to look for things that normally might go unseen. She also worked hard to grasp some compositional elements and had some success as a couple of her photos demonstrate things like vanishing point, and the rule of thirds.

She seemed to have a good time during the shoot, but it remains unclear if she has any interest in the post-processing work. Thus, I don’t think I need to worry about her being with me in order to steal my trade secrets. Imagine if that were the case. She’s be disappointed to learn that there aren’t any . SEE HER PHOTOS BELOW

 

-Elldub

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HEATHER’S PHOTOS

Jack & Addy

 

What a fun morning this last Saturday. It was a beautiful preview of the Spring to come. The air was relatively warm, the sun was bright and shining, and the city of Seattle was very picturesque. An excellent backdrop despite the direct late morning sun.

Although the photo shoot with Sarah, Addy, and Jack was cut short, I think we managed to sneak away with a few keepers. We’ll likely have another shoot in the near future.  

Take a look, comments are appreciated, and if you’d like to have some photos taken of you and/or your loved ones, you know where to find me.

 

-Elldub