Fun weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...