We [still] Heart Bend

Yup, we still heart Bend, even if it refuses to be summer! We had some uber-fabulous friends from Maui over at our house for the long weekend (Casey & Mele Butler - who recently moved to the Portland area), and the crazy thing is that we didn't even get one picture with them during their visit! Bum deal! We had a killer weekend though... hicking around, eating out, doing a Deschutes Brewery tour, catching some concerts, and all the while wearing our winter jackets :( It's been down in the 50's and a bit raining. But hey, that doesn't stop Bend-ites from getting out-and-about and having some fun. We were able to catch The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab for Cutie (shown in pic) all in concert this weekend at our outdoor amphitheater in the Old Mill District (Bends new "hip-kat" place to be).

Our house is only a few blocks from the Old Mill so we were able to walk to all the weekend "happenings". In doing so, we ran across our favorite little creatures... "Yellow Belly Rock Chucks", or some mights say "Marmots". There is a whole "gaggle" of them here in Bend. We actually have 2 of them that live behind our house on our property and constantly watch us (and we constantly watch them). They are actually cute and cuddly...but rather large! Don't let the photos trick you... they are bigger than house cats! Anyways, that's our crazy weekend! Good Times, Great Oldies... Kool105

Maternity - "Oliver Blue"

Courtney and I were able to do some maternity photography recently with our good friends Randy & Kristin (she's do in a month - having a boy named Oliver Blue). These two have an incredible story! In short: they're newly weds, moved here right after their wedding, didn't have jobs, no insurance and found out they got pregnant on their honeymoon! In addition to that, Kristin finds out she has cancer and is seeking treatment! It's been a real testimony of faith and we feel honored to share life on a weekly basis with such extraordinary people!

PLEASE visit our photography website for a slideshow gallery of the photos we took for the Dykstra's Maternity Session:

CLICK HERE and navigate to "YOUR IMAGES"

Type in the password "Maternity" and enjoy the show.

Warning: some photos are kind of "revealing", but don't worry, Courtney took all those photos :)

Mums-Day

We went down south for a surprise visit to "The Christenson" side of the fam - in honor of Mums day. It was GREAT to get out of town and to just have some fun with the fam. We did a little "Guitar Hero" action... never played it before, but it was really entertaining! Here's some photogs of an evening rocking out with our nieces and nephew!

Austin, TX - Engagement

Introducing Jessie Woods & Craig Gipson! Their wedding date is August 9th (in Laguna Beach, CA) and Court & I will be there capturing it all! What a fun, romantic, cute, energetic couple to shoot for engagement photos! I had such a great time with them Monday afternoon & evening! I flew out for the afternoon and spent about 4+ hours running around Austin photog-ing up the place! What a great city... such character! First we went to the Botanical Gardens, then to the University of Texas (Jessie just finished Grad School and Craig is prepping for the BAR - they are both HUGE Longhorn fans), then we went to the capital building to finish off the shoot. Afterwards they took me out to celebrate Cinco De Mayo at this rad little "TexMex" place with a live mariachi band. 10 hours later I flew back to Bend. What a great quick trip! Congrats Jessie & Craig! Thanks for letting me get a sneak-peak into your life together! Your love for each other is inspiring ... you are an outstanding couple!

The Art Book Event

This Sunday evening marks the ART BOOK EVENT, where we will raise awareness (and hopefully some fund-age) for the publishing of the Art Book and it's partnering network we created called "LAB" - short for "colLABeration". The Art Book is antiochs tool to begin connecting local artists together. Come and find out more information about the Art Book and LAB.

The DL: Sunday night, May 4th, 7-9pm at the Old Mill Marketplace. Address is 550 SW Industrial Way, Ste 44 ... Bend, Oregon of course... Wine, Food, Live Music, Art Book examples (that yours truly designed), voting on the cover and some art presentations will be a-happening! See you there!

Oregon Beach House

We just returned from a stellar weekend at the Oregon coast. We stayed at our friends beach cabin right on the water just north of Tilamook... the best news was that the coast was absolutely beautiful! Clear skies and warm! Yah, who would have thought! We were prepared for the rain and cold but were delightfully surprised the whole weekend. We made the trip with the Parlas (Anthony, Heather, their baby Samantha) and the Fithes (John, Jamie, their puppy Aspen) ... and then there was the two of us ;) Once we have our baby we'll fit in a bit better with most of our friends and their kids / dogs. It was so good to spend time and reconnect with the Fitches and Parlas. It had been way too long!

Although the trip was a couples get-a-way (well, semi-family get-a-way) the boys were still able to get a descent amount of surfing in on Friday and Saturday - thanks girls :) The surf was chest high, clean, and it wasn't that cold! The air temp was in the 50's and the water temp was high 40's. Still cold compared to good ole Maui, but totally doable! Oh, we also went to the Tilamook Cheese Factory... call me "old fashion" but factory tours are so interesting! I feel like an old man writing that, but the fact is that I enjoy finding out how things are made! Just look at those blocks of cheese! So weird!

Grandpa & Grandma Keating

Courts folks were able to come visit us this last week from SoCal! It was so good to celebrate the news of the upcoming baby and be genuinely excited for the little bugger inside Courtney. Dennis and Marsha are overly excited to be GRANDPARENTS (this is their first grand baby on the way) We had an awesome time with "Grandma & Grandpa Keating": snowshoeing, downhill skiing, eatin' out, playing games, catching a movie, walking around, making fires and having meaningful conversations. Dennis spoke at antioch this last Sunday on Psalms 42. Watch the videocast by CLICKING HERE... he spits truth! Well, we're off to the Oregon Coast for the long weekend with our good friend the Parlas and the Fitches! We'll catch you upon our return - with a story and some pics I'm sure.

Antioch Art & Music

The last couple Sundays, as we've been prepping for the art book at antioch, I've had my camera(s) at the morning service... so I snapped some photos of the music and art that we partake of at antioch on an average Sunday morning. Tom Monson & Lori LaBissoniere - above. Justin, Kim, Ian, Travis, JC and Shaun - below

Our Wedding Book

I surprised Courtney on her b-day and gave her a coffee table book with our wedding images (I wrote the story and designed all the layouts). Our photographer, David Hessemer, flew out from Maui for our wedding...amazing imagery! So I put his images and our story into a 40 page book and got it printed just in time for Courts birthday. The book is beautiful! The print quality and construction is superb! This is something that I offer to my photography clients...I take the pictures, design the books, and will even put your story into the design of the book (optional). Everyone I know hardly USES their wedding images after their wedding (even us), so this is a great way to show them off and keep them forever preserved! People LOVE looking through the book and reading our story! Everyone that comes over takes a gander at it and wants me to put their story & photos in a wedding book! Although it is an investment, it's well worth it!

New B.Cards

Got some new business cards in the mail today that will complete my new branding scheme... and I'm really excited about 'em! If you take a look at my website(s), blog, b.cards, quotes, invoices, marketing materials ...etc... you will see a uniform "look & feel." This is something that I stress to my clients - Consistent Points of Contact.

Oh Marriage!

We just got back from an antioch marriage retreat in Portland, OR. There was tons of couples and it was loads of cheeky fun! Here's a picture from the weekend - Disclaimer: some folks may find the image below disturbing...so divert your eyes and don't look. We were downtown Portland and went to the IceBreaker store (New Zealand based clothing store) and they had these sheep pictures with cutouts for your head...thus the following image...

Ooooop! :)

It is official, we're 11 weeks pregnant! Surprise SURPRISE! The story goes like this... We were informed of this shocking news on the 2nd day of our vacation in Maui. We were originally supposta be in Africa (but that trip changed (for the better), so we took ourselves off the team), and then we found a similar trip that was leaving the same day as the Africa trip, but it was going to Nepal to make a documentary on human trafficking (which we couldn't get all the funds together, so that fell through at the last minute). So the two trips happened without us and we couldn't go "save the world", BUT we were able to take an unrehearsed trip to Maui instead...which seemed ridiculous that God would let us go "sun ourselves" in Maui, but not let us go make those documentaries - which we would rather be doing anyways! It didn't make sense to us until the second day we were in Maui and Court took the test...well, three tests just to make sure! 

It was the perfect place to process this shocking news!... away from the day-to-day grind in Bend. It was PERFECT timing and we were able to get a lot of wisdom and guidance from our mentors and friends in Maui.  This baby was no doubt given to us by God, because we were using like three birth control methods to make sure it wouldn't accidently happen. But it did... So, we're still figuring out what this all means and what life will look like with a little baby ...we'll keep you posted! Check back often for updates on Gary Jr ;)  Play the ultrasound video below...

GOOD TO GO!

Alright folks, I finally have everything officially ready to go for my biz (well at least in my head). I "legitimately" launched my design and photo biz back in Jan and things are a-rocking! 2007 taxes are good to go (one of my arms and a leg will be mailed to the feds on April 15th:), my 2008 bookkeeping will be overly organized, and I have all of my websites in working order. If you go to www.garyachristenson.com you will see that I basically have 3 websites...to separate everything out. I have one for Graphic Design, the middle is a Blog (for updates on life and work), and lastly I have a new Photography site that's strictly devoted to my photo biz.

Let us pause for a second and take a look at my life right now.

Here's the quick rundown:

1) Married for 19 months, 2) work part-time at antioch as their Creative Arts Director, 3) run my own businesses (Graphic Design & Photography) in a different office across town, 4) helping launch a non-profit organization 5) just started a business venture with some friends - forming a Media Group - website is still under construction (it's a one stop shop for all things media (audio, video, web, photo, graphics, production...)) Sometimes I hate being an entrepreneur! And I still find time to have fun and travel! What a life...at least it's fulfilling :) Even if my bank account doesn't show so... Life is good my friends!

(re) Web

I just wanted to release the latest design I've been working on for the new and improved antioch website. Should be up in a few weeks! In January antioch outgrew it's old venue and moved to a larger venue for Sunday mornings (Summit), so before the big move I completely rebranded antioch. It was a lot of work recreating everything for their new look (logos, documents, print collateral, signage, banners...). But it's worth it! Everything looks fresh & clean, and it all has a unifying look and feel! This webpage is the final blow to their rebranding. I always tell my clients how important "consistent points of contact" are in their business and sometimes they don't really understand. Thankfully, antioch is all about consistency in how they look, operate, and communicate.

Visit: GaryAChristenson.com

Art & Community

I feel very fortunate to be apart of a community and church that really values artists and the work they do. Antioch values artists so much that they have TWO people on staff to drive the arts ministry...and the crazy things is that the church-plant is only a year and a half old. Some exciting projects and art shows are coming up that I can't wait to be apart of! The project I'm most excited about is the ART BOOK (yet to be named) that will be published this July featuring talented artists from the community (photography, visual art, written word, illustrations...etc).

Maui Recap

Well...our time in Maui has come to and end :(  We've decided that we'll return to the islands sooner than later. Maybe next fall or so. We really did have the best of times revisiting our old stomping grounds! This is goodbye...for now... Alo-freeking-ha! We'll catch you all back in Bend!

Whaaaaale!

David Hessemer took Court & I out on his boat this morning to get up close and personal with a bunch of whales! Whale season is in its prime right now. It's estimated that there are 2,000+ whales that come to the inter island channel of Maui. The calm water in between all the small islands surrounding Maui make for a perfect place to give birth to their little babies (which are the size of a VW van when born)! So the Humpback Whales travel from Alaska and gather down here in Hawaii from Dec to May-ish. It's quite amazing! They are an interesting animal, and there still is a lot of "unknowns" about the Whales life. What an experience to be so close to such a huge and remarkable creature! Feb is by far the BEST TIME TO VISIT the islands: 1) good surf 2) whales everywhere 3) it's not too hot 4) cheap airfare 5) great friends are all here!!! LOVE IT!

Meet Haleakala

Early this morning we took the long road to the top of the 10,023 ft volcano called Haleakala to watch the sunrise over the Hawaiian island chain. It was freaking early and freezing cold, but extremely beautiful! Shortly after the sunrise we had breakfast at Kula Lodge. This is the ritual we use to perform when we lived on Maui - back in the day... good time great oldies!

Maui Wedding

I had the privilege & honor to be the second camera for a wedding shoot in Maui this afternoon with renowned photography company Hawaiian Images owned and operated by David Hessemer (my mentor who lives and works on Maui). It was absolutely gorgeous outside and a great personal learning experience! Courtney was able to snap some photos of me in action for all you lovely people to see what a photo-shoot looks like from the other end of the camera!

Maui Take 2

We spent this morning enjoying the remains of a little North swell and can't wait for the nice sized South swell that arrives tomorrow! ...thanks New Zealand! In the above photos you can witness the infamous "Gary barrel stance", and "Courtney's stink-butt stance"...what can I say, our style is distinct :) we're always ready and looking for that barrel...even if it's a mooshy day. After the surf died we went to Paia Fish Market for some Mahi Burgers...a-freaking-mazing! The memories are just flooding back! We still have whale watching, scuba diving, and more surfing to look forward to! The sun is out, it's 75 degrees and we're ganna go get back in the water! Life is good my friends!