HQ Photography Blog

Puppy / Baby Love

hqphoto — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:46:05 +0000

Kona, our goldendoodle puppy dog giving our almost 8 month old daughter, Kylie, puppy kisses and lots of love! They love each other so much!

John and Becky Wedding

hqphoto — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:48:46 +0000

John and Becky got married in the Rose Garden area of Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington. It was a beautiful afternoon with a wonderful event. They got married on September 17, 2011.

Arrielle and Mason Wedding

hqphoto — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:06:49 +0000

These two got married on November 22, 2010 in Seattle, Washington. It was a magical night as there was snow falling from the sky all night long. After the ceremony we went over to Pike Place market to take photos with the lights and the snow.

Palm Trees, Blue Sky, and Black Sand

hqphoto — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:54:02 +0000

On the Big Island in Hawaii, you will find this black sand beach. I love the contrast in this picture with the blue sky, green palm trees, and the black sand. According to wikipedia “Lava, erupting onto a shallow sea floor or flowing into the sea from land, may cool so rapidly that it shatters into sand and rubble. The result is the production of huge amounts of fragmental volcanic debris. The famous ‘black sand’ beaches of Hawaii, such as Punaluu Black Sand Beach, were created virtually instantaneously by the violent interaction between hot lava and sea water.”

I believe I was at the Punaluu Black Sand Beach in this photo.

Goldendoodle Puppy Doing Tricks

hqphoto — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:00:24 +0000

Kona is 1 year and 3 months old in this video doing a wide variety of tricks. She is very smart. Some of the tricks she does include crawling, playing dead, rolling over, counting, sitting up, and peek a boo.

Mandy and Colin – August 21, 2010

hqphoto — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:55:37 +0000

Here are a couple photos taken from Mandy and Colin’s wedding this past weekend. They got married at Tumwater Falls Park located near Olympia, Washington.

More to come!

Wedding Photography Image Suggestions

hqphoto — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:32:36 +0000

If you are a photographer just starting out with wedding photography and are looking to get an idea of certain shots to take at weddings, the list below will give you a good start!

Bride shoes with the bride’s dress in the background
Groomsmen looking tough as they walk towards the camera
Group formal with the bride and groom in the middle and men on one side and the women on the other
Bride with each of her bridesmaids
Groom with each of his groomsmen
Walking group shot in line (You can tell them that the only rule is to not look at the camera. Have them look at each other while talking about what they are going to do at the reception.)
Have the bride and groom take a walk
Have the bride and groom sit on a bench and chat

This list is just an idea to get you started. There are tons more possibilities out there. Be creative!

How to Take Silhouette Photographs

hqphoto — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:06:13 +0000

Silhouettes make some of the most beautiful pictures. They are great because they give the picture a sense of mystery and leaves part of the image up to the observers imagination.

In simplest terms, to take a silhouette photograph you need to put the subject that you want blacked out in front of a bright light source. Then you have to make sure your camera is taking the light reading and setting the exposure from the brightest part of your picture.

Take a look at the picture to the right. This picture was taken during sunset with a rock hill and a bird blackened out. Even though you cannot see details of the bird, you can still tell that it is a bird by the shape of the black area.

Steps to take for photographing silhouettes:

Choose a subject that will stand out at your when blacked out. A strong, recognizable shape will make the silhouette more interesting.
Turn off your camera’s flash. If you were to use a flash, it would defeat the purpose of a silhouette as it would light up your subject in the foreground, thus not blacking it out.
Use a bright light source for the background. Sunsets and sunrises and great for silhouettes.
Take your light reading. Remember to expose the picture from the lightest part of the picture.

Big Red Sun

hqphoto — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:04:40 +0000

Last night the sun looked amazing! It looked huge and very red compared to normal. I’m located in Washington State so I am not sure if the whole world saw the sun the same color that I did because I heard that the wildfires in Canada made the sun look the way it did last night. Whatever made the sun look like this, sure made it a sight to see!

Multnomah Falls

hqphoto — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:35:10 +0000

Multnomah Falls is one of the most popular waterfalls in Northern Oregon State. It is located along the Columbia Gorge area of Oregon were there are over 77 waterfalls on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. This is a great area to visit waterfalls because all 77 of these waterfalls are within 15 miles of each other!

Multnomah Falls is located on Larch Mountain and plummets 620 feet. It is the 2nd highest year-round waterfall in the United States. The flow of the waterfall is usually highest during the spring and winter seasons. This photo of Multnomah Falls that you see to the left was taken during January so the water flow was pretty high. As you can also see in this photo, there is a bridge in front of the falls in which people may hike up to and continue hiking on a trail that reaches the top of the falls.