I’m not really sure where to start in talking about Meaghan and Damon. So I’ll start with a partial list:

Meaghan is a Naturopathic Doctor and Acupuncturist, rock climber/surfer/dancer/athlete, Gyrotonics instructor. Damon is a banker who is going to ride from Welches, over Mt Hood via Timberline, to Hood River next weekend. They both work out at an exclusive gym here in Portland in which you have to pass a two week boot camp just to see if they’ll let you join. I’m barely scratching the surface here. They’re a pretty cool couple.

And they photograph well. We headed to Cathedral Park for a location engagement portrait session. Here are a few favorites.




Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me
  • July 21, 2008 - 11:54 pm

    Anonymous - Fritz!!
    Wow 😉 you are so talented! We are and our moms are, so incredibly excited!! On all accounts, the photos are awesome and the potential for the wedding photos is really a pleasure to look forward to.
    You completely get us! And we are all so thankful!!!

  • July 21, 2008 - 11:55 pm

    Anonymous - They are amazing…WOW! I cant stop thinking about them. There are too many to comment on but I personally love the individual shots you took of Meaghan.

    Can only imagine the wedding shoot!

  • July 28, 2008 - 9:44 pm

    Dede Zimmermann - Hi Fritz,

    I work with Damon's Mom Marie who shared the slide show with me. AMAZING work! Those shots are fantastic and I especially like the b&w one of them under the bridge with the ship in the back.

    Dede

The other day I had a photo shoot on the beach here in Portland. After completing the work I was there to do, I shot a few more images, just for fun. Play is often the best way to learn and grow as an artist. Sometimes I create portraits just to have some new images to play with, to try things on in post-processing. It’s like a painter making sketches, toying with ideas and colors and lines. You refine your ideas, you test your pallette, you learn some things. And sometimes they’re good.

Here are a few that I have been playing with. Sometimes it’s hard to choose which ones to show, so I thought I’d show a bunch.












Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me


Ever since returning from Europe I’ve had a dilemma: where to photograph?

Having spent time in such beautiful places as Provence, Languedoc, Paris, Yorkshire, Budapest, etc., the terrain here in Portland seems bland. The villages of Europe have such lovely texture and color–from the warm yellow stone in Languedoc, to the reddish hues of Russillon, to the castles and ruins of Slovakia–that the brick, concrete, and wood of Portland is old and uninteresting to me. So I’ve been racking my brain for other local locations, doing some scouting.

I’ve also been looking for new faces to work with. I love faces. I’m a face junkie.

Oddly enough, today I shot with a model I’ve worked with before, Tierra, in a location I’ve biked up to many times: Rocky Butte. And we did lovely work. The haze from forest fires made for nice light, too. I’m encouraged.

But I’m always open to great location ideas, so if you have some, please send them along.

Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me
  • July 10, 2008 - 4:29 pm

    Jessica - Ever been to Leach Botanical Garden? I love it there. http://www.leachgarden.org/pages/history.php Their web site has no pictures, but here are some: http://www.flickr.com/photos/judyandpaul/2592039872/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/shandra_lynn/2408459095/

    Also, somewhere down near the river there are a bunch of abandoned buildings that have been taken over by graffiti artists. If you’re interested, I can get specifics from a friend who’s been there. http://www.flickr.com/photos/papertreasure/2313249511/

    There are also lots of interesting spots (to me) along Highway 30 between the city and the bridge (abandoned buildings with foliage as the backdrop) – keep driving to Rainier and Scappoose and funky small-town Americana-ish buildings and structures abound. Oh, and then there’s downtown St. John’s too, which is its own little world.

    That’s all : )

  • July 17, 2008 - 12:30 pm

    Brian Friesen - Hmmm. A few places come to mind.

    -Mt. Angel
    -Oaks Bottom
    -Downtown Millwuakie (OR)
    -Parts of Oregon City
    -Various tall parking garages in Downtown Portland

It’s so fun to photograph the wedding of good friends.  Here are a few fun images from Jason and Breanna’s wedding from this past weekend, at Queen Ann Victorian Mansion, in Portland:


You just can’t pass up a combination of hair and light like this.

Are you looking for a Victorian Belle Wedding Photographer?  Contact us today; we would love to be your wedding photographers!

Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me


A few new portrait images I’ve been playing around with this week. My apologies to the beautiful model for the above image; it’s not terribly flattering, but I sure think it’s cool.

Something tintype-ish.

This line is for search engine placement.

Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me

I actually just used that phrase in an email to a customer: I dig the traveling thing.

Call me a Culture Junkie. It’s true.

Here are some fun numbers we came up with as we reviewed the past 3 months:

The Tally
Countries and the number of times we’ve visited them (colonies and enclaves listed separately):

  • England 2x
  • France 2x
  • Austria 2x
  • Slovakia 2x
  • Hungary 1x
  • Spain 3x
  • Gibraltar (Britain) 1x
  • Ceuta (Spain) 2x
  • Morocco 1x

Languages Used:

  • American English
  • British English
  • French
  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • German
  • Slovakian
  • Hungarian
  • Arabic
  • Italian

Modes of Transport:

  • Planes
  • Trains
  • Automobiles
  • Bus
  • Underground
  • Trolley
  • Ferry
  • Canalboat
  • Bicycle
  • Foot

Favorites:

  • England: Hiking the Yorkshire Dales
  • Paris: Hanging out until 2am over dinner with Parisian friends; Musee d’Orsay
  • Western France: Mt St Michel
  • Torremolinos, Spain: Sunshine and Birdsong in the Garden of Casa Nesca
  • Slovakia: Barbecue and Home Winery Tour
  • Hungary: Budapest’s Schezenyi Spa
  • Languedoc, South France: Hiking the countryside, Hill Towns, Wine and Pinochle, and the All Night Bird/Frog Serenade
  • Provence, South France: Hill Towns, Bories
  • Algeciras, Spain: The First Communion Parade
  • Morocco: Riff Mountains to Chefchaouen

Overall Favorite:
Getting to know people from all over the world (English, Welsh, Irish, Zimbabwean, Filipino, German, Dutch, Finnish, Singaporean, Chinese, French, Slovak, Hungarian, Moroccan, Nigerian, American, Canadian)

Things we missed most about America:
Plentiful public drinking fountains and free wifi

Thing that surprised us the most:
Squatty-potties in France

Thing that most annoyed us in Europe:
The exchange rate on the weak US Dollar

One thing we wish America would adopt from European culture:
The leisurely, multi-course meal, with more cheese.
Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me

I was hired by an agency in Morocco to photograph various properties and attractions for their marketing materials. The Mediterranean is such a beautiful blue, and the sky can be fantastic too. (Did you know that the name “Cerulean blue” comes from Latin caelum, which means sky?)Nonetheless, it’s been an off-and-on cloudy/rainy week, so we hit the right day for photographing here: sunny, with some interesting clouds, set off by that deep blue sky.





Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me

We wrap up our three months of travel this weekend. Our last new country is Morocco, where we’ve been this past week. It is, of course, different from Europe, especially in terms of navigating the Muslim/Arabic culture. But there are similarities as well, due to its proximity to Europe, and its history as both a Spanish and French colony. It has not been uncommon for me to speak in four languages (Arabic, English, French, and Spanish) in the same sentence in order to communicate with people here.

My preconception of Morocco as a desert country has been rocked by the cerulean blue of the Mediterranean, the astonishing glory of the Riff Mountains, and the quilted beauty of the rural agriculture. And while it is definitely a Muslim country, it is known for being both secular and moderate. It’s not Taliban controlled Afghanistan, that’s for sure. There is a confusing variety of costume here, especially among women. I see everything from western-dressed women in pants and blouses, to the average hajib-scarfed woman, to a full eye-slit-only black burka. (However, I saw far more burkas in Hyde Park in central London in one afternoon than I’ve seen here all week.) Add to that the striped outfits of the Berbers, the tasselled-hat outfit worn by water sellers, and the variety of overcoats (kind of like burlap sacks with pointy hoods) and hats worn by men, and it’s quite a fashion show. I wasn’t surprised to hear that the creators of Star Wars picked up many of their costume ideas here.

We took a drive out to Chefchaouen, a famous little walled city of blue-painted buildings in the Riff Mountains, and had a lovely drive through the countryside.








Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me
  • May 30, 2008 - 10:58 am

    Patty - What a beautiful place Fritz!! Thank you as always for your amazing photography. Great way to wrap up your adventures.


I’m in Algeciras, at the southern tip of Spain, right across the bay from the rock of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean from Morocco. For a few days, I’m photographing an intercultural arts exchange here, and it already feels like I’ve been with these people more than the 24 hours I’ve been here.

At one point, while photographing, one of the gals came in from plein air painting, and told us that a procession was about to start from the Catholic church a block away. So I walked over, and discovered a visual feast, which I enjoyed for the next 45 minutes. It was a processional of the children headed to First Communion, replete with marching band, officials, and a big shiny float.









Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me


I read this last week in the Michelin guide to Provence:

… St-Pantaleon’s Romanesque church is built out of the living rock and consists of three naves; the central part dates back to the 5C.

Surrounding the church is a rock necropolis, most of the tombs of which are child-size. This necropolis was most likely a sanctuary of grace; there are other examples like it in Provence. Children who died before they were baptized were brought here by their parents, they revived–according to the beliefs of the period–for the duration of a mass during which they were baptized, they then died again and were buried here.

Intrigued, I visited the site twice, since it was only 4km from where I was staying. The church was small, and the first time I went, in the evening, I didn’t even see the necropolis, but only the small cemetery with large, newer tombs.

The second time, in the morning, I found the necropolis to the side and back of the building. It is as Michelin described: graves carved right into the rock, a few adult-sized, but most the size of a baby.



Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me

And now for something completely different. As I’ve been editing, I just noticed I hadn’t finished my work from Bratislava. I found a few candid shots I liked, and thought I’d share them with you.




Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me

Gordes, Provence, France, is listed as one of the most beautiful villages in France. It’s too bad it’s overrun by tourists during the day. Apparently, movie stars have houses here as well.

I saw a photograph today from 1904 of the village, and it was considerably different. A hundred years ago, there were more buildings, but it was also quite shabby and decrepit. Today it’s interesting, to me, to explore and discover remnants of the old houses, the remains of which are carved into the sandstone cliffs and buried in the detritus of the hillside. As I looked through photographs from 100 years ago and more, I could still recognize doors and alleys and buildings that I had discovered while poking around this past week.

I’ve photographed it at several different times of day. This image is a favorite of the set.

Facebook Share|Tweet Post|Email Post|Contact Me
B r o w s e
F a c e b o o k
W e b s i t e