The Blaine Franger Photography Blog

continental airlines

2008-08-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Continental airlines has to be one of the worst out there right now... I won't even get into what they dished out to us on our last trip to NY (canceled flights for no apparent reason, canceling one of our tickets, putting us on different flights, wanting $1,500 to get things back as they were, etc). But with all that put aside and trying to forget about it, check out what they served up today. A smashed up crusty hard bread chicken sandwich with a side of 3 pieces of (canned) pineapple. Wow. I'm really not a picky person and I honestly try to see the best in every situation, but this was pretty bad. Anyway I hate ranting about anything on my blog so I'll try and find something nice to talk about now. :)

To our Hood River Friends / Family

2008-08-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

Can anyone pick up our 2 fat cracks (see below) at the PDX airport tomorrow at 10AM??? My mom was going to do it but she had to take a last minute trip to San Diego.
Continental flight 584 from Newark, NJ lands at 9:44AM. Let me know with a comment, email, or phone!

Blaine's first introduction to dominican republic beaches...

2008-08-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

was handfuls of topless women and men in the tightest smallest speedos you hoped didn't ever exist in this world.

Example:
(although I'm not sure if there is actually a speedo in there somewhere!)

Off to Dominican Republic!

2008-08-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

We're leaving in a few minutes and will be out of the office for the next week to shoot a wedding in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! Should be a good time! :)

Here is a pic of the all inclusive resort we're staying in! :)

40 lbs of fresh picked fruit!

2008-08-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Are berries considered a fruit? I never thought about it until now. Anyway. Yesterday Bethany, Bethany's mom (out visiting from Michigan), and I spent a good portion of the day picking raspberries, cherries, blueberries, and blackberries. YumYumYumYum. All in all we probably ended up with over 40 pounds of fruit, costing a total of $10.00. Only thing we had to pay for was the blueberries, they were $1.25/lb at a little organic blueberry farm (more like someones backyard) in Parkdale. Cherries and Rasberries were compliments of our wonderful friends Mike and Jackie at the Mt. Hood Bed & Breakfast. The blackberries are a weed around here in Oregon and they grow everywhere, and take over everything! People hate them, but man, their berries are wonderful.

A sampling of the pickings (there was more behind me):

And a few of the yummy deliciousness I've made so far:
Blackberry shake! (blackberries, vanilla ice cream, ice for texture, milk, soy milk, and a touch of my moms homemade blackberry jam)

Blackberry pancakes!

Smoothies! Blackberry, peach (also picked recently), Banana, ice, milk, homemade apple cider (also compliments of Mt. Hood Bed & Breakfast), flax seed.

Guess I liked the fruit so much I had have a photo with it?

What is your favorite of these 4? Raspberries, Cherries, Blueberries, or Blackberries????

Lightning in Hood River is always welcomed by Blaine

2008-08-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Late last night shortly after we got back from Portland we had the sweetest lightning storm that passed through Hood River! I LOVE lightning more than anything (well, a lot of things at least) and we don't get nearly enough of it here on the west coast.
I hopped on my dirtbike and headed up to the hills around our house... seconds after driving away quite possibly the brightest and loudest crack of lighting I've ever seen/heard went off, it had to be just feet away from us! Then it started to rain and hail in tropical size proportions... insane! I got seriously wet and had to take cover under trees (with the lightning going off all around, smart eh?) during the peak of the storm. Within 10 minutes it had passed right by and the stars were out. If my motorcycle was street legal I would have followed it East.
I ended up only getting one decent shot, but the experience was all worth it!

Check out lightning photos from last year here!

Taken from the Historic Columbia River Highway area, looking North. The bridge over the Columbia River is on the bottom left and the land is the towns of White Salmon and Bingen, Washington.

clustrmaps.lame.

2008-08-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

There are very few things I enjoy more than checking out how many red dots are on my Clustrmap on the bottom of the sidebar. Every time I get a new red dot in a new country, it's like Christmas Morning all over again. Actually, not really. I really only check it once every few weeks. Honestly. :)
Until a few days ago I was feeling pretty proud of my ClustrMap, it had red all over the place, I was feeling just a tad bit famous! But now, thanks ClustrMaps, you've erased my map and started all over again. Sweet.

Actually I really don't care about this at all. But seriously, it made me think. If I started a company that made little blog widgets that put red dots on peoples map, I would do everything in my power to make the system work perfectly so everyone could save and save their red dots. I mean really... if all your company did was that... how hard would it be to not erase everyone red dots!?
It makes me think about all the companies out there that basically do one thing, and they fall short of making that one thing perfect (or even just "well").
I was using something the other day (I totally cannot remember what it was) and I remember getting frustrated that the company had 1 (one!!!!) product total, and they couldn't even do it right. It was obviously flawed. It's like a photographer who can't shoot a photo, or a janitor who can't hold a broom, or a sushi chef who can't use a knife. Lame examples, I know. But whatever.

I'm adding http://whos.amung.us/ soon!

Anyway here is my red dots now...

And my red dots before...

(not really. sorry bad joke)

Fun weekend

2008-07-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome weekend! Saturday we photographed a wedding in Hood River that was super fun and bursting with energy. The wedding had us busy from 10AM till Midnight... long day! See more here.

Sunday we started off going to church for the first time in a while, since we've been out of town on and off for so long. After that we headed up to my parents house and I got out on my dirtbike for a super fun ride... while Bethany did the laundry... ;) Had a little bit of sandwich crust lunch (long story) and then headed off to go hike Beacon Rock with some new and old friends. A few weeks ago we met Amos Lanka who moved to Hood River to work at the amazing Summit Projects. Amos grew up on a cattle ranch in Nebraska. Awesome.
Anyway Amos is friends with Jillianne, who I knew in elementary school but haven't seen for like 10 years... so it's been fun to hang out and catch up with her again.
Also we met a new friend Parker Fitzgerald who is Amos' friend from Colorado. Parker just recently moved to Vancouver from Colorado, so hopefully we'll be hangin out with him often.
And of course my lovely wife Bethany joined along. :)

After the hike we hit up Full Sail Brewery for some dinner & brew. I actually wasn't hungry because I ate so many sandwhich crusts for lunch... so I had a "plate of beer" for dinner as Amos called it. haha. The photo below is a bit deceiving... Those are just little 4 ounce sample glasses... I did NOT drink 7 pints!

On the way out of Full Sail we ran into a man named Richard who is riding across America on his bike. He just so happens to be almost done with his trip, which started in New Hampshire and ends on the Oregon Coast. I offered him a place to stay and he gladly accepted when he heard he'd have his own bed and warm shower (his alternative was camping in someones backyard). Richard rode his bike to the ice cream shop while we all (minus Parker) headed up to our place for some original Nintendo action. Anyway we heard some great stories from Richard and I was really inspired to do a similar trip sometime in the near future. You can check out Richard's blog of his adventures on the road here.

And that was my weekend! Time to get back to work....

Oh ya, photos!
Beacon rock hike, looking west towards Portland-

Looking East toward Hood River-

Awesome switchbacks going up the huge rock-

Amos-

Bethany Parker Amos-

Amos and Parker smokin their pipes-

The group at the top-

My "plate of beer"

Richard Bowen-

Richard wanted a group shot for his blog, so I snagged one too-

my stomach hurts

2008-07-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

from laughing so hard! i don't post youtube videos often but this one just hit the spot. bethany sarah and I are laughing our butts off. enjoy.

a few snapshots of recent life

2008-07-19T00:36:00.000-07:00

Been so busy recently I've kinda neglected my blog... sorry! Just thought I'd post a few recent snapshots of life recently.

Ok serious, how does this happen?

Interesting poofy mullet in some airport.

Little kid having a total meltdown in the Newark Airport. His mom saw me getting the shot and laughed so hard.

Awesome dinner last night with family and good friends.

Bethany and I earlier tonight at a Gorge Games break dancing competition at Jackson Park.

Thats it for now!

timelapse from my bacony

2008-07-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

I've been inspired lately by my friend Chad. He makes super cool timelapse videos with his still camera, and always picks the most perfect music for them.
I've done a few before, but I want to start doing more! Here is one I did a few nights ago. Shot from right outside our bedroom door on the balcony of our new rental house (we have an awesome view!!)
1 frame shot about every 2.5 minutes. Started it at something like 4AM and stopped it at 11PM, so about 19 hours and 826 frames, played back at 15 frames per second. Its not the best one ever, but I have some good ideas for upcoming ones. :)

Sorry the first 20 seconds are pretty boring, gets better when the clouds roll in, then the sun sets, then the stars move!

Time lapse in Hood River from blaine franger on Vimeo.

RIP - Thoughts and Snapshots Blog

2008-07-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I posted on my Thoughts and Snapshots blog that it will be killed. It was quite impossible to keep 3 blogs somewhat consistently updated, so now this blog will be everything separate from wedding & portrait photography which includes my stock, commercial, and snapshot photography, as well as random life stuff.

All of Bethany and I's wedding & portrait photography will be posted to the Blaine and Bethany Photography Blog

If there is one thing I enjoy more than professional photography.. its seriously snapshot photos! Anyone who knows me knows that I never leave "digimon" behind and I'm taking snapshots of anything and everything.

A few snapshots from the past 2 months of my life-

post trip beard

chad in michigan, making us some fancy drinks

super good Vietnamese food in the ghetto of detroit

thai tea!

don't know what triggered this face

ikea shopping in 100 degree heat

office furniture in a boxes

this chair might be a little wide for bethany

dirt bike + mountains + photography = awesomeness

sarah testing out what it would be like at bethany's level all the time

setting up the office. new imac.

awesome dog

bethany's favorite grocery store aisle

zeke

beer happy hour at cebu

the family... minus linz, plus colins gf kristen

colin & kristen

seth & zeke

seth and me shooting

dad and me dirtbiking

linz's gifts from nepal

linz's friend from bangladesh (long story but super funny)

awesome dinner by grandma franger

linz tennis superstar

sweet ride san diego

grandma white and bethany with their sweet shades

del mar fair

auntie chris getting the sweet angles

mako shark

3rd year anniversary dinner, encinitas

sweet rooster fro

del mar fair again

good ol brooks friends at the hash house

sweet mid yawn shot of dad, again

random wireless signal searching in NY

chillin lakeside in NY

bethanys favorite on a hot summer day

more to come!

My image on ABCnews.com

2008-07-09T00:28:00.000-07:00

I rarely get to see where my stock images end up getting published and it's a bummer. Apparently I've had billboards in Australia and China, and magazine covers all over the world, but it's pretty impossible to track down the usage and find where it's actually published, so I never get to see it.
I shot this photo super quickly in Yellowstone National Park. Everyone was pulling off the road to see a grizzly bear and her cub. I thought the people watching was even better than the bear watching. :)
I just randomly came across this image on the ABC News website. Even though it's a tiny little usage, it's always fun to stumble upon something like this and see how my images are being used. Thought I'd share...

*Click Here* for the article

the bachelor life

2008-07-07T22:55:00.001-07:00

Bethany left this morning to visit her family in Michigan (I'll go on Wednesday) so I get to be a bachelor for 2 days. I's always fun to be a bachelor again for a bit (not too long though).
My dinner tonight says it all. Grilled cheese with ketchup (yum) or PB&J on toasted to perfection bread? Why not both? And throw in some chips & salsa and a Sam Adams. Thats what I'm talkin about.

Fourth of July and First Friday - Hood River, Oregon

2008-07-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

The town of Hood River takes 4th of July seriously. At 10AM there is a parade through the Heights that the whole town shows up to and/or participates in. Anyone can be in it... just hop on a bike, unicycle, car, rice rocket, truck, monster truck, harley davidson, dirtbike... or don't ride anything and walk... play an instrument, whatever... it's all good in the Hood. We enjoyed the last half of the parade with my folks (Bethany and I thought it started at noon so we were a bit late) and then had a pretty relaxing day. We finished moving into our new place, more on that later...

Anyway, 4th of July also happened to be First Friday of the month, another big Hood River event. So downtown was shut off to traffic and packed full of people. Lots going on. We actually didn't get to see all that much because we ran into so many friends we hadn't seen since before our big trip so we caught up with people and stuff. It was super fun.

When it started getting dark we headed down to the river to find our spot for the fireworks. It was a great show! I'm always surprised at how good the Hood River Fireworks show is for being such a small town.

I brought the camera to take some snaps, here are a few!

This band was from Lafayette, LA and was super good. Everyone was dancing and groovin out in the Horse & Hound British Pub parking lot. We got brats with banana peppers and sauerkraut from the hot dog stand that were super yummy.

Fireworks seen from the inlet area on the Columbia River. Hills in the background are White Salmon and Underwood, Washington.

A couple more fireworks shots...

Where the heck am I?

2008-06-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

10 points to first person who guesses where the heck this picture was taken!

Congrats Igor you were right! It was taken just a few days ago at Niagara Falls from the USA side. It's called the "Skylon Tower" and it is on the Canada side. I knew people would guess the space needle because that is first thing that comes to mind... but, if you've been to Niagara Falls then you would recognize this no problem. 10 points to Igor!

Lots of new stuff for Blaine and Bethany Photography!

2008-06-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited to finally announce lots of new stuff for Blaine and Bethany Photography!

1) Brand new website with all new updated images. http://www.blaineandbethany.com/

2) Brand new blog for Blaine and Bethany Photography. http://blaineandbethany.com/blog/

3) Facebook Page for Blaine and Bethany Photography. Check it out and become a fan! :)

4) Our new office in downtown Hood River, Oregon.

Check it all out at our first post on the new blog- http://blaineandbethany.com/blog/

Just an FYI- I'll most definitely keep posting to this blog often as possible for my own photography and random life stuff. The other blog will mainly be for our wedding & portrait photography. This blog has always been mainly focused on all my other photography rather than weddings & portraits.
I'm hoping to totally re-do my Blaine Franger Photography website within the next month or two as well. It's really bad that I have images on there that haven't been updated for 3 years!

The new blog and website still have some tweaking to do with colors and minor things... but please let me know if you have any positive or constructive feedback. Thanks!

quote of the day from my cousin Danielle

2008-06-23T23:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at a family BBQ get-together in San Diego my 9 year-old cousin Danielle had us laughing soo hard.
The subject of Chuck E Cheese's came up, and she volunteered her strong opinion on the place.

"Eww, Chuck E Cheese's! You know what I call that place? Chuck E DISEASES. All the kids running around that place all have snot coming out their noses, it's gross. The balls and toys stink. And that person in the mouse costume.... you never know WHO is in that thing! My friend had her birthday party there. I left."

A pic of Danielle just seconds after she said this... while were all dying from laughter!

on empty

2008-06-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

Anyone have a small fortune I can borrow, to fill my tank!? Holy cow... I can't believe what is happening with gas prices! Bethany and I flew to San Diego today, rented a car, and the first gas station we saw was $4.67 a gallon! I thought Oregon was bad at $4.15!

How much is the gas where you are???

US Open... Tiger Woods is insane!

2008-06-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

I've always loved playing sports a lot more than watching them, but man, yesterdays golf US Open was intense! Tiger is incredible. Everyone thought the underdog was going to take the win but Tiger recovered with a ridiculously sweet putt on the 18th hole to tie it up!
So now they are playing it off on the 13th hole right now. I've got so much to do today because we are leaving tomorrow for a 2 week trip... but I can't resist watching the action live on the bottom corner of my screen... Go to http://www.usopen.com/en_US/index.html and you can watch it live!

**Edit**
18th hole is done... still tied!!! Sudden death starts now!!

**Edit again**
Tiger won. Surprise Surprise.

Back in time

2008-06-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

If I want to remember something, I take a photo of it. It's just the way I think and function. Thats why I always carry digimon with me everywhere!
Sometimes for fun I pull out my old hard drives and check out back in time what I was doing, what I was shooting, and where I was in my timeline of life. I thought I'd blog a few pictures, and maybe do this more regularly on my blog...?

5 years ago on June 6th, 2003: Me, Taylor, and Natalie took a backpacking trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains for our nature photo class at Brooks. That was good times. Taylor got his truck stuck in the sand so we tried for hours to get it out, to no avail. So we slept there overnight and this dude rescued us in the morning. I named him desert Jack, we never got his real name. He was quite the character!

4 years ago on June 9th, 2004: I shot this for fun while I was going to Brooks and I lived in Santa Barbara. I set my camera on the ground, opened the shutter, and then drove the car to streak the taillights through the image. Kinda fun.

3 years ago on June 9th, 2005: I photographed rapper "Common" at the San Diego HOB for Risen Magazine. I was living in San Diego at the time, and was just 9 days away from getting married to the woman of my dreams! :)

2 years ago on June 15th, 2006: I was in Michigan visiting Bethany's family, and we went to visit the wonderful Pouget family in Canada. I took some photos of their adorable kids, including this one of their baby Cole.

1 year ago on June 4th, 2007: I was moving from San Diego to Oregon and driving with Bethany and my Mom. They were in a separate car, and I stopped to take photos of this scene.

Recently I've been hanging out with my buddy Seth who is visiting from Japan! Yesterday we ate some Mexican food, then drove around and got some pics of Mt. Hood. This morning we got up at 5:30AM and rode dirtbikes in the hills, and took some photos and videos. Good times. But I haven't downloaded any of those yet, so no pics yet!

Awesome deals for photographers!

2008-06-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Hey photographers,
Just thought I'd post this real quick, because if you need some new Canon stuff, it's the time to buy it! Wish I would have bought my new 16-35mm lens a couple weeks later, I would have saved $100! But you never know when they are going to announce these specials, so there is no use waiting around for them unless you have the time to.

I buy 99% of my photo gear from B&H Photo in New York. Great prices, good service, good website, fast shipping...

Special 1: Canon Cash Back (Instant Rebates... no need to send a bunch of stuff in and get a check 2 months later!)

Special 2: Sandisk Memory Card rebates

I just ordered 3 Sandisk ExtremeIII 8gb cards from Amazon for a total of $275.85 including shipping. I'll get a $160 visa cash card back for the rebate. That means each card comes out to $38 each. Cheap! A friend and I were reminiscing today about how our first 1GB card cost $400! Techie talk....

Happy Monday!

2008-06-02T02:08:00.001-07:00

For those of you who have a "case of the mondays" (line from Office Space, awesome movie) and are checking my blog at work... procrastinating from doing work, (you know who you are!) here are some more photos from my dirtbike ride Saturday evening in the east hills. To our family and friends around the US and the world... come visit us in Hood River! It's gorgeous here!

The yellow wildflowers grow everywhere in the surrounding hills, they are called "Balsam Root"

Mt. Hood at sunset

Mt. Rainier in Washington

It was basically dark when I shot this one. 30 second exposure, beautiful light!

out of the woods and into the light (cheesy title!)

2008-05-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of catching up to do with blogging! Bethany and I have been working on a project that is getting close to being done. We're really excited about it and can't wait to show everyone. I don't like to talk about stuff before it's finished though... so more news on that later.

Today was another absolutely gorgeous day in Hood River! When the weather is nice here, you can't beat this place. It's so refreshing and just makes you feel so alive... and struck with guilt if your inside working on a computer. I tried to sit at the computer and edit photos but that lasted about 10 minutes, all I could think about was going outside and exploring on my dirtbike. So yes, I ditched work and went out and played... 3rd day in a row. I've been staying up till 4AM to make up for it though. Living like a bachelor till Bethany gets back from Santa Barbara, tomorrow!

I was riding in a kinda new area today, the east hills. It's a bit further from home (10 minutes instead of 5) so I ride here less often, but the trails seem to be a bit better and more challenging. Anyway I was cruising along a trail through these gorgeous fields of wildflowers that were all different colors, then the trail led deep into the forest. Like, really deep! The trees were huge and thick, not letting any light through. It was so dark that my headlight was actually lighting the way for me, and it wasn't even close to dark or even sunset yet. So cruising along, climbing some big hills in the trees, then I see a clearing coming up... well, quite the clearing it was! I came out of the trees and was at the top of a mountain (I think the Mt. bikers call it "Puke Point" because the hill climbs are so gnarley), greeted by this incredible view of Hood River Valley, Mt Hood, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams, Mount Defiance, and even Mount Rainier in the distance. INCREDIBLE!!!

This is a pic of the forest, not the super thick part, so light was getting through here and it made a good photo.

This is me, dirtbike, and Mount Hood on top of Puke Point. I look huge and awkward because I wear a chest protector under my shirt.

This is Mt. Saint Helens at sunset... beautiful.

Lots more pics to share later, but it's 2:30AM and I have a really busy day tomorrow!

Lake Pukaki, New Zealand

2008-05-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

Bethany is out of town for a week visiting some of her good friends in Santa Barbara... so I've had quite a bit of time to get work done these past few days, and ride my dirtbike of course too.
I've also been looking through some of our trip photos... and wow... I have forgotten some of the places we went and things we saw!
Check out these 2 photos of Lake Pukaki (near Mount Cook) on the South Island of New Zealand. Can you say amazing???