The Blaine Franger Photography Blog

Gifford Pinchot, Mt. Adams - Dirtbike ride

2008-09-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday was an incredible day! I went on an all day dirtbike adventure with Jerry Justus. At almost 70 years old Jerry is in incredible shape and more active and healthy than anyone I've ever seen at that age. I believe he's been riding motorcycles all his life... so his knowledge and experience with them is just phenomenal! Jerry has been super kind to teach me a few of his tricks and share some advice, which I've appreciated soo much. This is only the second ride I've done with him but I look forward to many many more. As he said on Sunday- "I don't plan on stopping anytime soon"

We started at 8:30AM when we loaded my bike onto the trailer and headed across the Hood River bridge to Underwood Washington where we picked up Jerry's long time friend Nik. It was my first time meeting Nik but it didn't take long to realize Jerry has great friends because Nik was super nice and fun to talk with. Small world story- Turns out Nik is a retired photographer and when I asked if he had heard of Brooks Institute of Photography he's like- "I graduated from there in the 70's!" (or maybe 60's?? I can't remember)
So Nik and I had a lot to talk about when it came to photography and techy stuff of course, haha.

This was my first time riding the Gifford Pinchot National Forest area so I was glad to have someone in charge like Jerry who knows the trails really well. I would have been lost within minutes by myself!
I think all in all we went either about 45 miles or 75... I know it's a big difference but I can't remember which one!

Anyway enough talking. I brought my Canon 5D along with my 24-105mm lens in my backpack so here are a few photos I took along the way. Sorry no action pics... haven't figured out how to make that happen yet. Riding while taking photos is impossible.

Driving up with the bikes in back

Jerry sharing some awesome dirtbike stories while driving

Our parking spot

First part of the trail you ride through thick forest and then come out to a clearing with this incredible view of Mt. Adams

Quite a few riders up on top. I was definitely the minority having a Honda bike. KTM's seem to be the most popular for this kind of riding!

My "new" 2005 Honda CRF450X... only my second ride on it!

Jerry checking out the map during a lunch break. I forgot to pack a sandwich so Jerry was nice to give me a granola bar.

A few gorgeous views of Mt Adams. There are amazing trails all throughout those trees!

Jerry and Nik checking out the map during lunch.

Since Jerry and Nik were in charge of the map I picked yummy huckleberries while they were navigating the route. :)

A really huge cliff that the trail passes right by. See Jerry and Nik?

Lots of trees!

Nothing better than a fresh huckleberry shake after a looong day's ride! You can get these from a little sandwich shop that's located at the Trout Lake Chevron station. MMMM

These next 3 photos are the view from Nik's beautiful house on the bluff of Underwood, Washington. All I can say is WOW. I told Nik and his wife if I had a view like that I'd never leave home. They agreed it's hard to ever leave it. Mt Hood is towering above the Hood River Valley looking directly South, with of course the Columbia River dividing Oregon and Washington states.

Mt Hood and the west side of Hood River

This last pic shows a boat pulling a water skier, it was so quiet up there I could hear the boat cruising on by. Paradise! It's a new personal goal to own a piece of property up there before I die... Just if I had a million or two burning a hole in my pocket, haha. :)

Can't wait for the next ride Jerry and Nik... thanks!!

2008-09-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately! We've been keeping super busy catching up after shooting 11 weddings in the past 8 weeks!

But you can also blame my lack of posting on my newest purchase, a 2005 Honda CRF450X. It's quite an amazing bike!
I rode 70 something miles in the Mt. Adams wilderness yesterday with a couple dirtbike friends. Amazing time! I'll blog more later... for now here is a pic of my new friend!

Gotta run we're off to hike on this beautiful day in Hood River!

About time Canon!

2008-09-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

It's finally announced... the Canon 5d MarkII!

This camera was over 2 years overdue... and while I've been super happy with my 5D's for a long time, they are getting old and tired. The new 5D will be a welcome addition to my arsenal of cameras. :)

Some awesome new features:
-21.1 Megapixel sensor (full frame of course)
-ISO 50 through 25,600!
-Full HD Video and sound capture at 1920 x 1080 resolution for up to 4GB per clip
-Live View Function (silent mode shooting in Live View)
-RAW and SRAW1 (10 MP) / SRAW2 (5 MP) (awesome for weddings)

Somewhat disappointing:
-3.9 frames per second capability. This camera should be faster, no doubt!
-Same old 9 point autofocus system (slow)

At only $2,700 this camera is an amazing deal. The original 5D was $3,300 when it first hit the market!

The reviewers are saying this camera will have the finest and most detailed files of any consumer/professional camera to date, including the 1Ds Mark III which costs $8,000! The reason being the updated DIGIC IV image processor along with the 21.1 megapixels which is same as the 1Ds Mark III.

My biggest complaint: They don't shipping until end of November!

Read more here

Also announced was the Canon 24mm f/1.4 L II USM lens (version 2)
I've been wanting to buy this lens for a long time... glad I didn't buy the version 1 right before this one came out. I think I'll pick one up now!
Read more here

I can't imagine using the 5D MarkII @ ISO 25,600 with a f/1.4 lens... thats got awesomeness written all over it.

Save $15 on Lightroom 2 update!

2008-09-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

For all you photographers using Adobe Lightroom, you probably know that the Version 2 beta recently expired so you're forced to either pay 100 bucks to upgrade or use Version 1.
I got quite used to using the Version 2 beta myself so didn't really have a choice whether to upgrade or not. I logged onto the Adobe website to pay $100 to get my new version 2 serial number and noticed the "Promotion Code" box. Whenever I see one of these I visit a super sweet website called Retailmenot.com. Retail Me Not has saved me hundreds of dollars on online purchases by finding random coupon codes, it's so cool!
Anyway I was doubtful there would be a coupon code for the Lightroom upgrade because it's so in demand, but sure enough there was! Save 15% on the upgrade which is like 15 bucks. It's so simple, just thought I'd share and try to save you 15 bucks!
Check it out!

The new Canon 5D!?

2008-09-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Canon has been taking FOREVER to update their 5D model... and just about every Canon shooter is getting super sick of it because as of right now Nikon has some better Pro/Midrange cameras out like the new D90 that shoots in HD video too (super cool).

But recently everyone is talking about this "Destined Evolution" teaser that Canon released on their website(s).
Check it out here- http://www.canon.com/moon/en/
Also here and here

What does this mean!? I personally think it's going to be the 2 years overdue replacement of the 5D and it's going to blow away everything Nikon has put on the market and will put on the market. Just my thoughts... :)

Whatever it is... can't wait to get my hands on it!

A fun day caving on 8-29-08

2008-09-03T01:38:00.000-07:00

A fun group of friends/family went for a little adventure last Friday out at the Ice Caves near Trout Lake, Washington. Holly had a hand drawn map of some secret "undiscovered" caves that nobody knows about. We surprisingly actually found them after tramping around in the woods for a while. The caves went back super far! We walked in one lave tube cave for a good 45 minutes before we came to the end. At some points we were on our hands and knees squeezing through because they got small and tight. Good times.

I took only 2 photos with my Canon 5d, the rest are digimon snapshots.

Holly took her caving seriously... one piece suit and everything.

Me hunkered in one of the small sections.

Amos chillin

Me chillin

Lindsey and Bethany getting through a small section

Afterward we had a campfire in my parents backyard complete with hot dogs, chips, and schmores!

My brother Colin dominating some greasy chips (interesting beard eh?)

I love lots of ketchup & mustard on my dog

Amos also blogged about the adventure here

Now better tasting!

2008-09-03T01:03:00.000-07:00

I bought 2 boxes of Post "Banana Nut Crunch" and noticed this when I got back home. "Now Better Tasting!"

What's up with that? Does the box on the right really taste worse? And what did they add to the cereal in hopes of making it taste better!? (probably more sugar!)

Random thought of the day...

Dominican Republic Time Lapse

2008-08-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

One night on our recent Dominican Republic trip I stayed out late and shot some night photos with the full moon out. The clouds above the water were moving so much I had the idea to do shoot this time lapse. Kinda forgot about it until we spent 10 hours of flight time from Punta Cana to Newark to Portland. I played around with the images in photoshop and did 4 different versions of the original version (seen first). Ya it's pretty trippy and acid trip-ish but I made it under the influence of nothing but pure bordeom. :)

Dominican Republic Time Lapse from blaine franger on Vimeo.

and the winner is...

2008-08-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Number 2! I was dead set on #1 but Bethany was set on #2, and thats what triggered this whole post. I'm a sucker for clouds too (like many) but I hated the "not enough action" feeling of the shot. So, with all the input, #2 seems like a better choice.

Thanks everyone for soo much help on that. :) That kind of feedback was so nice! I sent in all 12 images last night and now they want 10 more! Back to the drawing board!

Here is the final version with some adjustments that I sent in:

For anyone curious, this is Jon Schwartz (Blue Water Jon) who is a total pro at kayak fishing. He's got a website, video, and lots of crazy stuff! Check out his website here.

I need your help!

2008-08-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I was contacted by Rangefinder Magazine and they are doing a feature on my photography for the "young guns" issue. I've never been featured like this before, so it's really exciting. The interview and article is all finished but now I'm trying to pick a group of 12 images that shows what I do. 12 images!? OUT OF 12 MILLION! Haha. It's quite hard to narrow down, to say the least. Thanks to Bethany she has laid down the smack and just picked a bunch of images for me...
So, we've mostly narrowed them down but I need your help asap on this one!

These 3 images were obviously shot at the same time, of the same subject, but they are quite different at the same time. Which one works the best for you? You can share why if you want, but if not, just say 1, 2, or 3! (from the left of course)

PS- You don't need a blogger account to leave a comment, just say anonymous or type in your name

Thanks!!!

click to see it full size

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...