Lincoln Family

We had the best time with the Lincoln Family yesterday (the fam's in town for Mike and Tasha's wedding this weekend - so we took the op to get some family shots). Their interaction with each other was LOADS of fun to capture! We're really looking forward to visiting with these fine folks again this weekends!

Ah, Brother and Sisterly love... takes me back :)

Sarah & Brandon: e-photos

We had an awesome e-session with Brandon & Sarah this last week, and we're really looking forward to their wedding in September! What a b-e-a-u-tiful couple! Stunning really! On this particular day, it was overly sun-shiny (real word :) google it) so we took the opportunity to do some experimenting with light... don't worry, we got the regular solid shots we always get, but had a blast getting creative and working with the sun - reflecting if off of shop windows, shooting right into the intense light, getting some sweet flares all over the place... just throwing all rules out of the window and coming up with some fun and creative imagery! Brandon & Sarah, you guys are fun, romantic and so in love! Thanks for letting us capture those things, and thanks for spending the afternoon with us! We really enjoyed our time together!

To view more photos, visit our website and navigate to "Your Images" Type in the password "Sarah" (case sensitive). Enjoy.

Art Book is HERE

The ART BOOK(s) has arrived in all of it's glory. Its sitting in huge boxes waiting for its release date... July 20th - in the evening. The Art Book Reception is going to be sweet! We're going to be highlighting various contributers, displaying the original art pieces from the painters, sculptors, and photographers. We'll also have some open-mic time for the folks who wrote poems and short stories. As well as open-mic for some of the musicians who entered lyrics. Looking forward to celebrating... it took a long time and lot of work to get this puppy done! Facts: 189 pages & 36 featured artists ...

Courtney's Harp Site

Court's Harp Website is up and running (90% complete - just needs some tunes). Next week she will be in the studio recording some music for the site, so look for that in the next couple weeks. Check it out at: www.courtneydchristenson.com

The Belly!

Many of you have been asking for some belly shots of Courtney and "Baby Christenson"... so here's a few shots now that there is somewhat of a belly to show (it's been pretty unnoticeable up until the last 2 weeks). "Sweetness Fact of the Day" is that I (Gary) felt the little baby kicking last night for THE FIRST TIME... unreal! It's actually happening... consider my mind BLOWN! At this point we're pretty confident that "Baby C" is a GIRL. The baby was being very difficult when we were at our last doc appointment trying to find out the gender of the child, so we're waiting a few more weeks and then we'll find out for sure. But we're banking on a beautiful little girl... can't wait... October 26th is the date when craziness happens. Keep us in your prayers.

SoCal Wedding: Linda+Trav

We just returned from La Jolla, CA for Linda and Trav’s wedding! Congrats guys! The day was absolutely breathtaking! Everywhere we turned was a fantastic photo op. Combine that with a beautiful bride and stunning groom, and BAM!, great imagery happens! Along with the wedding we were also able to get some much needed beach time with the Keating family. Court couldn’t surf with her belly, so I surfed enough waves for all three of us :) We flew into Bend late last night and in a few minutes I’m off the Portland for my best buddy Brendon Wiksell’s wedding! Looking forward to not shooting a wedding, and just being apart of it for a change. So here’s to a busy wedding season! Below is an image of Linda and Travis’ true behavior shining through on their wedding day! This is the power of two photographers on a shoot. Two different angles capturing the same moment! What a downright FUN couple to be around. Looking forward to hanging out with the two of you again real soon!

Wanna see their SLIDESHOW: CLICK HERE and navigate to "Your Images". Type in the password "Linda" (case sensitive) and you're there! Wanna ORDER PRINTS: CLICK HERE

The Harp

Courtney is in the midst of launching her harp business (and her website), so we did a little photo shoot with her and her harp to get some content for her new site... which is coming soon! We decided to ditch the signature “Harp Look” – you know what I’m talking about: the braided hair, the white flowing dress, in a field of daises in the middle of some enchanted forest with fairies and elves running around. So instead, we went for a little urban feel to set Courtney apart from the competition and to show her true roots of “style & freshness”. How beautiful is my wife?! Seriously! She’s 6 months prego in these pics too… A-freaking-mazing!

Golf Photography: Tetherow

Just wanted to share some golf photos I recently did for LJ3 Media Group at Bend’s newest golf resort… Tetherow. It was loads of fun shooting this interesting course, but definitely challenging since I’m used to shooting human beings and interacting with them… I could only interact with that golf flag so much… “work it golf flag, work it”

Branding: PRB

For some reason I hardly post my designing on this blog (which actually takes up most of my work week - business has been great)... it always seems more interesting to post photography and personal stories... but just incase there is anyone out there who appreciates some design, here's a concept I came up with for a client called Pacific Resource Brokers. A clean, modern approach to the Natural Resources Business. As I was researching their competitors, they all had the same "look and feel" - Rustic & Rough. With their business plan in hand, I decided to focus in on a few key words that they used to express the way they want to do business: "Forward Thinking, Earth Friendly, Clean, Modern, Fresh...". I think this logo, color scheme and brand package captures who they are and is accurately geared toward their target market... they thought so too!

We're heading to California tomorrow for a wedding and to visit friends and family. Courtney is going to eat at ALL the places she's been craving the past view months that Bend doesn't have - like "Rubios", "In N Out", "REAL" mexican food, "Rockin' Jennies"...etc... and I will probably gain some "sympathy" weight during this trip :( But hopefully will surf it all off before we come back to Bend. We'll keep you posted on what's happening in Socal through this blog. LATER.

BIRTH: Oliver Blue Dykstra

GREAT NEWS! Oliver Blue Dykstra was born early this morning. Here's his stats: June 14th, 2008, Bend OR, Room 152, 1:30am delivered, 20.5 inches long and coming in at 7lbs 8oz ... he is a happy and healthy little guy. What an unreal experience. So many emotions mixed with so much joy. Great job Randy & Kristin, you guys made all the right decisions and are truly blessed with this baby. Thanks for letting us share this unforgettable experience with you. Here in about 4 months, we'll be journeying through this same situation ... good thing we have more time, b/c we're definitely not ready yet ;) Neither of us have ever been apart of anything like that, so it was a good introduction of what's to come and what we can hopefully expect - A successful delivery! Oh, we had our doctors appointment yesterday and our Doc thinks our baby is a girl... not completely sure... 50/50 ;) But I think we're going with it. Any ideas on girl names?

If you want to see more of the Dykstra delivery, visit our Photography website (CLICK HERE) and navigate to "YOUR IMAGES", Type in the password "Maternity" and the delivery photos are towards the end of the maternity shoot... the complete package :) Enjoy!

CD / DVD Designs

Just finished up with a few antioch CD / DVD designs: "Antioch Guest Speaker Audio/Video" discs, "Kids Minsitry Music Vol 2", and "Mother Kirk Sermons Series" (on the importance of the church). All good stuff! For some reason I've really been into textures, stickers and a certain kind of roughness in most my designing this week. Next week, I'll probably go back to a more clean feel... but who know these day...

Man Trip 201

In 2007 we had our first official Man Trip, and this year we decided to try and do multiple trips that were both "Burrly" and "______" (fill in with manliest word you know). So this trip some fellas and I ventured out for the weekend to hit up the famous Salmon Fly Hatch on the Lower Deschutes River and catch some trout on the ole fly rods. The first day was trout-less, but we had a great time hangin' out, camping and cooking. We thought we were a bit early for the fly hatch, so we decided to head back to our local spot on the Upper Dechutes River and put in the drift boat for the afternoon. The minute we did so, massive thunderstorms started rolling through the area and it was a torrential downpour for several hours! However, in the middle of this rainstorm is when I hooked the fish of the trip! Finally! And then the weather broke and it was a beautiful evening! I brought home the trout to my gorgeous wife, who was stoked I finally brought back a descent enough sized fish ... we cooked and ate it ... delish ... fulfilling my role as "Hunter/Gatherer" :)  End of Man Trip 201.

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