Halle's Smooooth Words o' Wisdom » photography

More Oregon Business Magazine covers

Halle — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:51:34 +0000

In the past 2 years Oregon Business Magazine has used 3 of my photographs on their covers. My last post was about the January 2010 cover and included here are 2 from the recent past. It’s always a thrill to be on the cover especially when it’s unsuspected as was the case with the portrait of Craig and Seth the founders of Toonlet. The NE Portland building that served as the background was recently demolished. It had some cool street art that I miss:

Why I always ski Superbowl Sunday

Halle — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:12:37 +0000

For one day this season we were ok with El Niño. Superbowl Sunday. Chris and I had a surprisingly good day skiing der Hood. We ditched the car in Govy, stuck out our thumbs and the first car up Timberline Rd. obliged. The clouds lifted and the snow up high was as good as Hood snow gets.

A Winsome Smile

Halle — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:00:53 +0000

We met this local lady in Tygh Valley New Year’s eve day. This is the only photograph that survived the day. The reason? I uploaded it from my phone via a Flickr Tweet. The rest of the photos and my phone rest at the bottom of a pond. The reason? New Year’s Day my dog Jane fell through a crack in the ice and the phone was lost to the pond during her rescue. Jane made it as did I. The phone didn’t and won’t be fetched from the pond until spring. We are lucky. Phones are replaceable. Good ‘ol dogs aren’t.

Some days are made for studio photography…

Halle — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:34:37 +0000

…but often, those are the days that are most fun to work outside.

Big thanks to the Miller family for being game and for the Multnomah Falls café au lait.

Tygh Valley

Halle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:04:03 +0000

Saw this after breakfast last weekend.

My Stylin’ Stylist Darlene

Halle — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:30:26 +0000

Darlene cuts my hair. Shaves my head is more like it. Seven bucks a whack. I give her a 10 and she keeps the change. She’s been around Portland awhile and each time she whacks me(my hair!) I am reminded of a bygone era. An era that’s fading fast. We have a shoot scheduled for December which is part of a project titled Voices of Et Cetera. I’m really, really looking forward to it.

hoofing it or hooving it

Halle — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:16:40 +0000

One of my favorite things about Mt. Hood Ski Bowl besides the lack of lines at the upper bowl chair, the WPA era warming hut and the overall friendly vibe is the proximity of Mirror Lake. Enough said.

The Hummingbirds Are Alright

Halle — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:32:56 +0000

The feeder outside our kitchen window froze solid during the last arctic blast. The Hummingbirds seemed to protest by chirping loudly and incessantly. Food must be scarce for them this time of year so we attempted to regularly thaw the feeder and place warm sugar water in it from time to time.

Main St. Oregon

Halle — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:50:20 +0000

Darryl is a longtime Tygh Valley, Oregon local. I photographed him in his garage for my portfolio and to see if a mag would be interested in this subject for an upcoming story on how ‘main st.’ Oregon is faring during these economic doldrums. Greed induced implosion is probably a better description than ‘doldrums’ actually.

Behind An Editorial Portrait

Halle — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:05:09 +0000

When you know in advance that you’re shooting in a large modern art gallery the stress of making an office complex cubicle look interesting fails to manifest. Location means tons in real estate and photography.

For this portrait of Elizabeth Leach I gave myself a challenge before even entering the gallery: I didn’t want to shoot the dealer with any of her current exhibition. The story is after all about the dealer and her business and not necessarily her stable of artists.

The first spot to catch my eye was the storage room with its long tall row of paintings, drawings, and prints that reminded me of photographs of delightfully crowded old school Parisian salons and art galleries.

EJ stood in for some tests and we had things just about right in this one.

For the 2nd shot we used Elizabeth’s ginormous office door with Hap Tivey’s light sculpture maquette in the background.

Ouch! That’s what a first exposure without any tests can look like. To make things look better the gridded spot’s power was dialed down, extra diffusion in the form of a hampshire frost gel was added, the spot was pointed more to the right so as not to hit the wall so much, and EJ took a few steps back to leave the door in the frame.