Senior Portrait: Logan in Corvallis, Oregon

Here are a few images from my senior portrait session with Logan here in Corvallis.
He's on his high school lacrosse team, and it was a treat to photograph him in his lacrosse gear. I had fun trying out different processes on the lacrosse shots, here are two of my favorites from the session.

Travel Photography: Large Format Trip to Southern Idaho

Here are a couple of shots from my trip to Mackay, Idaho. It was a great time, using my large format camera to capture images from the White Knob Mine area. I hope the film turns out alright! It's always delicious anticipation to have to wait until you develop the film to see if you got the shot!

Baby Portrait: Cailyn in Tacoma, Washington

Last weekend I had the great pleasure to photograph 3-month-old Cailyn and the rest of her family in Tacoma, Washington. What a cutie! She's a lively, vivacious girl and was a real trooper and stayed awake for several different set-ups. So we got a nice variety in her marathon photo session.





Even the strongest of us need a little cat nap along the way, here Cailyn catches a few winks in her beautiful mother's arms.


And of course we had to get some photos of big brother...



I love the delicate little way she held her hands...


And this final shot I've added a bit of grain and color effects to accentuate her delicate features.

PSA Gold Medal Won for Best Monochrome Fine Art Black and White Print!

I'm so excited I just had to share, I just found out I have been awarded a PSA (Photographic Society of America) Gold Medal for Best Monochrome Print in the PSA-sanctioned International Exhibition of Photography at the Oregon State Fair!

The print is titled "La Cigale Homage." It's an homage to one of my favorite photographers, Frank Eugene, based on his photogravure, "La Cigale," made in 1900. Frank Eugene's work is representative of one of my favorite periods in photographic history, the Photo-Secession movement which promoted photography as fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. I have a detail scan from my print here. Sorry it doesn't show the whole print, I scanned the 11x14 print on a small scanner--I wasn't expecting to post the image but was just sending the scan by e-mail to the model.


I also won an Honorable Mention Award in the same show for the following print, "Uncaged," which is a sister image to the one above. This also shows just part of the whole print.



Both prints can be seen at the International Exhibition of Photography in Salem, Oregon, during the Oregon State Fair, August 28-September 7, 2009, in Cascade Hall.

Update: For those friends and family that are in the area and are interested in attending the awards presentation ceremony, it will be held from 7-8 p.m. on Friday, August 28th, in Cascade Hall.

For those of you who might be curious about technical details for the two prints:
"La Cigale Homage" and "Uncaged" are both silver emulsion prints made on Foma Fomatone MG CLassic 542 Chamois paper--a warm-tone, triple-weight, variable contrast paper on a cream-colored rough-textured, matt, fiber base. They were both developed in Amidol paper developer (mixed from scratch), and toned with a pre-sulphiding sepia method (as outlined by Tim Rudman in his book, "The Photographer's Toning Book: The Definitive Guide.")

Sadly this particular paper has been discontinued, it is no longer available on the rough texture which gives it its charm. It is still being made under the same name, but only on a smooth paper base.

Special Promotion: Senior Portrait Photography Packages 2009-2010, Corvallis & Albany, Oregon

Three senior portrait packages are available ranging from $100-$300...

call me soon to book your shoot!

Senior portrait packages include the basic shoot package items (below) plus:

• 1/2 hour to 3 hours shoot time with photographer
• 8 free wallet prints (a $15.95 value)
• $50-$150 print credit
• 1-3 web resolution digital file copies of your print choice (fully retouched)

Time with photographer, amount of print credit, and number of digital files depends on which package you choose. Contact me for more details about each package.

Basic Shoot Package Items:

• a preliminary meeting so we can discuss your shoot
• local travel
• image processing
• proofs (either online or 5x5" hard copy prints)--I provide a secure, password-protected website for you and your family and friends to view ("proof") and order prints

Want more print credit for final prints than your package contains? You can purchase additional print credit before and until time of shoot for a 20% savings off normal print prices. (For example you can prepay $80 for print credit and use it to order $100 worth of prints at your leisure.)

Buescher Friends & Family: Memorial for Claude, 1990-2009

We are sad to announce that on July 29, 2009, our cat Claude passed away. He was 19 1/2 years old.

Like his Persian ancestors before him who ruled the royal houses of Europe (Claude is Himalayan which originated as a cross between Persian and Siamese cats), Claude ruled our house with dignity, love, and a bit of mischief thrown in for good measure. He will be missed. Herein I share snapshots taken throughout his very long feline life.


Here's Claude as a kitten, sometime in late spring of 1990:



Claude with his sister Sierra (front), and adopted big brother, Berkeley (middle):



Berkeley took his "big brother" status to heart, always loving and protective:



Claude as a "teenager":



Claude as a "young adult":




Anyone that knows Claude knows this pose all too well. Conor and BJ Bradford would throw coins on Claude's tummy and would see how much change would disappear into Claude's tummy fur before he'd get tired of the game and get up. I think the most was close to $5.00 in change!



For a time Conor and I lived in an apartment where we couldn't have pets, and Claude and Sierra went to live with Conor's parents (while Berkeley went to live with Conor's brother and sister-in-law, Brendan and Lisa). The snapshots below are from Christmas at Conor's parents--it was either 1994 or 1995:




We eventually got a house of our own, and Claude came to live with us again. Not long after this we added a new member to our family, Ruthie the Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix. At the beginning they didn't get along AT ALL. But after awhile, they became tolerant of each other as can be seen below:



For fun Claude memories, I would be remiss if I didn't include our Christmas magnet we sent out one year. Claude would brave the most gross indignity for love of his humans!



I'm a bit superstitious, and one of my good luck superstitions is that whenever I get a new piece of photographic equipment, the first shot taken with it has to be of a pet. Claude was my model for many a piece of equipment. A selection from these shots is featured below:










These last two images I had taken just one week before Claude passed, not knowing the end was coming so soon. I had prepared them with my usual photo business logo border for posting to my blog and hadn't quite gotten a chance to post them when Claude passed. I add them here now as part of his memorial. He was handsome to the very end. I miss him so much. Thank you for indulging me this long homage to our cat, he was a significant part of our lives and his passing leaves a huge hole in our hearts.