Music is a huge part of my life and like eating food and drinking water it’s something I try to do almost every day.  Since I was a kid I’ve made mix tapes and CDs and continue to do so with MP3 playlists.  I’ve set a rather low bar of making a new playlist for each season consisting of music I’ve been into or think would set a good tone for the time of year.  So, bare with me while I switch hats and change gears and share a little music to accompany all the visuals.

This playlist was inspired by the Sasquatch! Music Festival which happened at The Gorge in Washington May 29th-31st  Amos Morgan Photography attended Saturday & Monday using the civilian disguise “Amos Morgan”.  Using cutting edge technology he was able to discreetly take images using his phone.  Included with the playlist are some of those images.

The dust has settled and only half the prints and framed pieces remain!  The show was a huge success and I want to especially thank everyone who came out on the opening night crowding the gallery and keeping all the dull moments outside.  I was also so honored to have family and friends visiting for my sisters wedding from Boston, LA and Hawaii that made it to the show a few days later.

Here’s a photo my dad took of me while he was visiting.

A recent trip to Long Beach on the coast of southwest Washington proved once again that time off can help enrich the sometimes barren landscape of the creative mind.  At last that’s the takeaway so that I can convince myself to take a vacation again soon.  Amidst the kite flying-beach-combing-bbq-ing I watched the sky open up at night and had to take a stroll in the dark.  Night photography has been a passion of mine since my first photo class in high school and with the introduction of digital technology and the ongoing advancement of light sensitivity it’s literally a whole new world through the lens.  Here’s a couple of my favorites:

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Beach Grass at Night

Night Self Portrait

Note: the self portrait title comes from my shadow in the center of the frame that wasn’t visible until I saw it later on the computer screen.

I always look forward to hearing from Luxe magazine as their call means a new introduction to another one of Seattle’s amazing artists.  And this call was no exception.  This portrait request was for Meyer | Wells who design and build beautiful wooden furniture.  Seth Meyer, a master craftsman started the company with John Wells’ experience as an a acclaimed furniture designer.  Much of the material they use is local urban reclaimed wood, including perfect full grown trees, that for various reasons cities remove from private and public spaces.  Their huge shop is filled with beautiful natural light and super high ceilings.  Even though I am not a woodworker and without a doubt overlook much of the subtle elements of a shop, just standing in that space was incredibly inspiring.  The location we chose for the portrait was a hallway of various wooden planks that clients can hand select for custom designed pieces.  The collection and variety in that hallway alone would be enough to make most woodworkers drool.

John and Seth were awesome to work with, showing a great sense of humor and humility which made for some wonderfully candid shots.  They showed me some pieces that were in the process of being finished.  And seeing the richly stained and polished wood gave me a nice full circle vision of the approach that is their business.  I’ve said it before and I maintain that the greatest gift photography has given me is the intense appreciation of the time, patience and expertise that it takes for all people to competently perform any given job, task, or creation.

I celebrated my birthday this year with my friends at Frause shooting portraits for the Seattle Southside Tourism Association.  We shot four portraits for their Tourism Ambassador program to be used as posters for an upcoming event.  I was surprised at two of the locations with candled desserts and a chorus of “Happy Birthday”.  Thanks Deborah, Nathan and Christina!  It made my day and for a freelancer work can often be the best present of all ; )

We shot the portraits in Tukwila at the Southcenter Double Tree, Acme Bowl and the Museum of Flight.

The new year has started out in a grand way!  I am proud to announce that I will now be represented by The Drouin Agency.  Deborah is the founder and owner of the agency and is such a joy to work with.  She has an extensive background in the photo industry with 20+ years of experience as a producer, art director and most recently as a photo rep.  We will both be fielding calls and emails, but now I will pass most of them along to her.

Amos Morgan Photography just had a taste of what it’s like to live the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  Or, what it might be like to work for them at least.  I was asked to shoot on a Westport built luxury yacht for Everett based company Pacific Coast Marine.  They make the doors and hatches for ship builders all over the world.  And if you think to yourself what’s the big deal about a door, ask yourself what keeps the water out of your comfy state room when a giant wave swamps your bow in a huge storm.  The ship was impressive at 130′ and in perfect condition as it was about to be delivered.  The weather, however, wasn’t in perfect condition and I was tempted to act as a stowaway in hopes they would be cruising to sunnier climates.  I assured PCM I would email them photos from the new location when we arrived.  Alas, it was getting close to Christmas and I hadn’t done my shopping yet.  Next time…

I’ve been going through images this past week looking to update my site with new content.  As I go through the editing/ selecting/ processing and retouching process I usually listen to music or podcasts and sometimes I watch on demand movies through Netflix (I wish I got sponsorship for dropping their name).  I usually watch no brainer comedies or documentaries that are more about the audio than the visual, that way I actually get something done.  However, today I made the mistake of choosing “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” by Chris Bell.  It’s a documentary about steroid use in the states.  It’s very informative and does a great job at remaining neutral.

The mistake in choosing this for me is how much it captivated my attention and for 80 minutes or so I couldn’t focus on much else.  It brought up some great points and I couldn’t help relating it to what I was doing at that moment, retouching.  Essentially, I was applying performance enhancing techniques to my images.  The point of the documentary is that in almost every industry and thing we create we attempt to enhance said “thing” past it’s original inception.  The director wasn’t saying it’s a bad or a good thing, but that it’s ingrained in our culture.  That would be the entire business model of evolution I suppose…

For me it brought up the subject of authenticity and what that means.  I guess for me authentic is more about the intention than the result.  If McGuire or any Olympian said from the start “I used these performance enhancers because coffee and fresh fruit weren’t cutting it” I don’t’ think there would have been as much of an issue.  That doesn’t mean guidelines or rules get to be ignored, but perhaps if our judgment on such things weren’t so harsh people wouldn’t have to pretend unnatural was natural and the two could merge into one.  That being said, I admit I have and will continue to use performance enhancing techniques on my digital images and I will call them photographs.

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Here’s a photo of the lovely Seattle skyline straight out of my (old) DSLR:

And here’s how I chose to “enhance” the image:

I was honored to be asked by The Frause Group to photograph their client McKinstry Industries.  If you’re not familiar with the company 9and unless you’ve built a huge commercial building lately, you’re probably not) I recommend at least learning about their business model.  It’s pretty impressive and seems fit to weather any storm this economic climate could produce.

On a side note, maybe if we used something a little less threatening for our economic metaphor it would ease some of the pain.  Like beer for instance. The past year or so could be the Schmidt Ice time in our economy, but we are moving slowly towards Sam Adams and in a couple years we’ll be back to our fine selection of Micro Brews.  Just a thought Wall Street…*

Back to the job.  McKinstry is starting a project that can house small businesses while they help them plan and develop their ideas, appropriately called the McKinstry Innovation Center.  Frause is building a website and marketing materials for the Center and needed new photos of the workshop and offices.  I turned into a kid with his first camera in that metals shop.  There were so many fascinating scenes to shoot and details to capture.  When someone is working, especially with heavy machinery, they don’t always have the most patience to be photographed.  But, everyone there was super cool and willing to help out and participate.  That participation may have been due in part to a macabre interest in the tolerance of my skin and gear in relation to the constant shower of sparks it had to endure.   It was well worth it.  The shoot was awesome and it’s always a very rewarding experience to work with people at the forefront of their industry.  I wish them the very best in this new venture.

*I apologize if I’ve offended the sensitive nature of your beer tastes, if so I encourage you to come up with your own model for this economic pub.

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I recently got back from a trip to Alaska with Seattle branding firm Urban Influence.  We went up for a four day trip to shoot The Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.  I would love to say I spent most of the time snowmobiling and hunting moose out in the tundra, but that just wasn’t the case.  The hotel is huge and we put in some very long days without stepping outside.  The view from the restaurants 17th floor windows were amazing and I want to head back to shoot in the wilderness as soon as I can.  Besides being impressed with the beautiful mountains surrounding Anchorage, I was also wowed with the level of service and hospitality by the staff and the overall warmth of the people we talked to.  They say people either love it up there or absolutely hate it and these folks truly seemed to love it.  As for me… I’m not sure I’d live there full time but, I definitely felt like I was standing at natures door step and perhaps I did hear a faint call from the wild.  And then it was time to fly home.

Iphone East View

Iphone West View