What a great looking family eh? And they did a great job. I just had the privilege of making a portrait of all forty two of them. I won’t say it was easy, but I enjoy a hearty challenge. The planning started well in advance, meeting with Mr & Mrs Chamberlain and then visiting their farm various times to layout and plan the portraits. I even chatted with a few of my mentor photo elders before photo day, discussing options and getting ideas. When the time came, I didn’t even have an assistant, but planning ahead made things come together almost perfectly.

I love a sunset portrait, but this is not a sunset and I still love it. Much of the family was coming from out of town for the weekend and due to schedules sunset simply didn’t happen. We planned for the light we expected to have and made it work using appropriate fill light in the foreground to balance the scene. After processing, the result was this beautiful portrait made round 9:30AM, followed by a few smaller ones to complement it.

I thrilled and thankful to God for this beautiful result. Mr & Mrs chamberlain were in today to make these final choices and I’ve started the final printing and framing process, preparing these for their walls. The primary portrait will be made as one of my sixty inch Heirloom Canvas pieces, and next two will be on thirty six inch canvas. I’m eager (as I’m sure they are) to get these on the wall. You can click any image for a larger view. Enjoy… Gav

Last night we went down to Wenatchee and headed to the river with Jayme and Brandon (I posted a sneak peak on their wedding last week). We took this wedding dress and cut it off at the knees, giving it a cropped jaggy look... Continue reading this.

by Gavin Seim: Midnight Seattle is an HDR photo I made of the Seattle Skyline. It went to the PPA International Print Competition this year and was awarded a Loan Collection merit. For those not familiar with PPA, this is a good thing. I’m told it will be be published in the international Loan collection book as well showing at Imaging USA 2011. This is the first year I’ve entered at nationals. I must confess, making the Loan Collection was really on my wish list. While this is the only of my four prints that merited, I’m still a happy, thankful camper. For those interested in HDR, check out my up coming HDR workshop on the Seim Effects site.

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing a super fun wedding for Jayme & Brandon. It was at the Highlander Golf Club in East Wenatchee...

- Click here to see the full gallery with all cars -

by Gavin Seim: I was asked by the organizers of the first annual Soap Lake Box Derby to come down Saturday and make photos. The city closed down the main street so that the many kids (and some adults too) could race these stunning little coasting cars down the hill. They call this soap box racing, but these cars are anything but mere boxes. They put a lot of work and craftsmanship into making these rides and they had a lot of fun racing them. Their hope is to make it an annual event.

These are a few favorites, but there’s many more. You can click the link above to view photos view every car and driver where you can find your friends and family and even order prints.

Facebook Photos: A web copy is free if you order any print. We’ll make up a nice web version and post it to the Facebook page, so you can easily share your photo with family an friends. Just email Gavin once you order. We’ll make them up and get them posted for you.

Stars of Coldest Night.

Amber Waves of Beer.

The Coming Darkness.

Here are my four State competition entries. It’s been a load of work, and yes I know I’m into black and white this year. The challenge with competition is analyzing your images in depth, attempting to determine how they’ll merit not only on an impact level but on a technical level. Choosing and prepping can be as hard as actually taking the photo. State and national competition judges are fussy, to put it mildly.

Just to explain the format you see here. In State and International competition you can only enter up to 4 prints in a year. They have to be on a 16×20 print, so if the image is not that size, you use the remainder of the canvas like a border (as you see here). Prints are judged by a panel of I believe four. You can watch from the audience, but they don’t know who made the image. They score from 1-100 (more about scoring elements here). 70′s is an average pro image. If you get in the 80′s it’s getting really good, and the 90′s is phenomenal. Occasionally someone makes a 99-100, though it’s not common. A 100 would be a perfect image (though I’m not sure there’s any such thing).

I’ll be talking about this more on the next Pro Photo Show podcast. I’ll see how these score. Then I’ll take the ones that do best (replacing any of they score low) and send them to the PPA International competition. Whether I win or not does not matter… Wait who am I kidding, I want these to take home every possible award and be better than anyone! Seriously though no matter where you place in competition, it’s a healthy exercise that forces you to challenge your skills. Whether I Do great or just OK, I gained more experience… Gav

Candid moments are still king. Those that know my style know I love bold cinematic scenes, but while the candid may not end as a large canvas on the wall, it’s no less valuable. This moment from Kristen and Neil’s wedding was probably one of my most priceless candid’s of 2009, but it needs a story. This is. Stephanie (who also happens to be Kristin’s daughter). What you’re seeing behind her... Continue Reading.

Read this whole post on the Seim Weddings Blog.

You never knew what will happen at a reception, so my motto is to be ready. One of my favorite things to do once the party is rolling, is to step get back with a long lens and just watch. This was a wedding in at the Spokane Club. I was standing on a chair on the sidelines looking for moments and the groomsman decided to just use the pitcher….