Good to be Home

Wanted to post some recent images of our little girl. She's developing more and more each day. Right now she's really into eating her hands, giggling and playing with anything in sight. Her smile is beautiful, she's getting more and more curious about her surroundings (and our cameras), and is extremely vocal. She's also starting to get quite a little attitude :)

Asia = Conquered

Well, our travels through Asia are over and I couldn't be happier to be home and with my beautiful girls (man, I missed them). Over the last two weeks we pretty much traveled every way imaginable: 747, small crappy Indian planes, first class, coach, bus, motorcycle, train, subway, taxi, rickshaw (motorbike taxi), ox & trailer, and loads of walking. And surprisingly enough, there was only a FEW times during our trip that I thought I would die... Indian drivers are NUTS :) In all, India was an amazing experience and very eye opening. It'll take me quite some time to process everything that happened - but I'm looking forward to it. Thailand was a real breath of fresh air after our time in India. We stayed in Bangkok for several days and I appreciated every second of it.

Although Bangkok is basically like NYC (huge, tons to do, and massive buildings), my favorite part of it was when we explored the city via small wooden boats. We cruised through the canals and witnessed some very peaceful life on the river. Also, at 3am when we were heading to the airport, I saw a dude riding an elephant through the city streets... that was sweet. I would go back to Thailand at the drop of a hat and want to explore it more in the future. I just loved it.

We also flew into the small international business hub called Singapore (a tiny Island nation off the coast of Malaysia) and it was insanely beautiful, clean and modern. It's 200+ square miles with close to 5 million people living on it. We stayed there for two days to recoup at the beach and hotel before our long travels home. It reminded me a lot of Honolulu, Oahu minus the rugged terrain.

To learn more about the trip to India and why we went, please visit the emote360 blog. I'm thankful to be home. Thank you all for your prayers during this trip. God really protected us and watched over all our production gear. There were many situations that were on the verge of quickly "going south", but thankfully did not. I believe that was the power of all of our prayers - so thank you very much.

India Updates

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that our media team made it safely into India. For updates on our project, please visit the emote360 BLOG. We'll try and update it every couple of days.

To India with emote360

Well folks, I'm off to India for two weeks, and Courtney & Joelle are heading back to SoCal to kick it with friends and family. So we'll be out of touch until the 27th or so. (If you need to contact us, do so by emailing Courtney at courtney@garyachristenson.com). For those of you that don't know, I'm co-founder and art director of an organization called emote360 (www.emote360.com), it's a 501c3 non-profit production company that creates media for other non-profits. Three of us from emote360 are heading to India to make a documentary film about an organization called Harvest India - follow our trip on the emote360 blog. This expedition is just one of the many exciting trips that emote360 will be a part of this year. God has blessed us so much and it's a dream come true to use my gifts in this way. I'll be the documentary photographer for the emote360 media team. The imagery I capture will be used for promotional materials that I design for Harvest India (website, print collateral, DVD menu & design, use in the documentary film...etc). Please pray for safety while traveling and while on the ground in India (I'm sure you are aware of the conflicts that are happening over there).

For more detailed information on our trip please visit this LINK on the emote360 Blog which explains the purpose of the trip, the intense schedule, the funding needs and various ways you can help. Currently, 90% of our project expenses have been financially met with NO solicitation thus far (which is amazing and we’re extremely grateful to our big donors that made it possible for us to purchase tickets and get over there to capture the media we need), however, we’re still needing to raise $6,000 to help offset the projects total cost (post production of the final DVD). Please consider partnering with us to finish raising the support we need to create this documentary for Harvest India. Tax-deductible donations can be made by CLICKING HERE.

Any donation over $25 will receive the final DVD that we produce - as a Thank You Gift. With over 100 people visiting this blog on a daily basis (plus the traffic on the emote360 blog), it wouldn't take a large sum from each person to complete our fundraising efforts. Thanks for your consideration in helping emote360 help other nonprofits.

We'll be back blogging in a few weeks. Keep it classy America.

Wedding Albums

Just got more albums back from our printer! One 11x14 Bride & Groom Album and two smaller Parent Albums. We stankin' love these things, and are still convinced that this is THE BEST way to display photos. They're so style-ee & b-e-a-utiful, and it definitely gets a crap load of attention... just like our daughter - we'd pretty much describe Joelle that way too :) Have a great weekend everybody!

Client: OLC

Just finished up a BRANDING overhaul on a natural resources company called Oregon Lumber Components. The vision for this logo was a mixture of a few concepts:

1) Traditional Values meets Forward Thinking - Since they've been in the industry for several decades now, they wanted something that would show their heritage in the industry, but also help establish themselves as leaders for the future of earth-friendly wood products. So I brought in a fresh green & charcoal color scheme, accompanied with a serif font that give a "foundational" look to their logo. And then I created an icon that shows "forward thinking" and "conservation of natural resources" through recycling their products (round it goes).
2) Eco Friendly - the main product they produce is a massive collapsible shipping container used for food and liquid transportation on a world market. This shipping "box" is better on the environment than their competitors products and it's completely recyclable once the product has been used).

Overall, OLC is a really innovative company and I think the new brand accurately represents who they are and where they are going in the industry.

Portraits: Wilkens Family

We had the pleasure of taking some portraits of the Wilkens family over the holiday. We ventured out of town on a super chilly January afternoon and loved every second of it... it was seroiusly chilly vanilly. Sidenote: Check out how well everyone's spine is aligned with thier bodies... seriously, take a look... not a bone out of place :) ... Jim is actually a chiropractor (and a darn good one at that), so I had to throw that one in there.

Friends & Family of the Wilkens, SIGN THE GUESTBOOK to be notified (via email) when they release all their photos from this session online.

Saint Dee-a-go

We just arrived back in Bend, OR after THE longest day of flying /slash/ sitting in airports... but at last, we are home. Joelle received 7 gold stars for flying so well, it was her first time... obviously, she's only 3 months old. And she spoke her first word while on the plane, we swear we heard her say "pharmaceutical" :) Anyways, we seriously had the best holiday in SoCal with Courtney's side of the family. We introduced Joelle to the beach (which she wasn't really a fan of), did some "polar bear club" surfing, played Wii, spent New Years with Court's 93.5 cousins (who are seriously the raddest), and just had lots - o - quality time with Court's immediate family (G-pa, G-ma, Bryce and Shaun). We appreciate our family and feel so loved by them. In a few weeks, Court is flying back to be with family while I go to India. Lots to look forward to in Oh Nine: International travels, vacationing in Maui, the potential of buying a house, watching Joelle develop, shooting more photos in various states and countries, and helping out more non-profit organizations... Happy New Year Everyone!



Trying to get Joelle in on some Wii... she loved watching.

Four generations of beautiful-ness