Archives : Portraits

A Humble Tribute To A Great Man: Dr. Sidney Drobnes

So often this blog is about the start of your wedding journey; this is a post about the end of a life-long marriage – the marriage of my grandparents.  Last weekend, would have been the 70th anniversary (YES, that’s 70 years of marriage) of my grandparents.  Sadly, my grandfather, Dr. Sidney Drobnes, passed away at 98 just a few weeks ago of natural causes. My grandmother, at 93, offered a lovely tribute to her husband and life partner to a large crowd of family, friends and supporters.

My grandfather was humble gentleman – a Jewish, American medical student in Germany from 1933 – 1938, a neurology psychiatrist that always put his patients first, the youngest of a family of seven children, a father that secretly gave treats and gifts to my mom and uncle, a quiet man that always had a punch line and a laugh when he did speak, a world traveler that found joy in life experiences, a hobbyist photographer that traded his old Leica for his first car, a lover of the arts and humanity that spread through to me.

He was a man that was well loved.

Man I have good genes….

Wendy Roe

My 93 year old grandmother – Ruth Drobnes

A stream of supporters and welcome hugs…

…and many introductions to the family.

My uncle, Bill, known for his emotions flowing, did a great job!

My mom highlighting stories, world trips and sharing fond memories of her father for those that didn’t know him as well.

My grandmother won’t like this shot…but I love her staring off as my mom reads her stories.

A tear here and there….

My grandfather’s long time, 30 year work partner at the VA hospital giving a beautiful toast.

2010 Holiday Card Contest Bride + Groom Doggie Portraits, Bend Oregon

It’s that time of year again – jingle, jingle!  This year we decided to use our ever faithful bride and groom models, Miles and Dizzy.  They were also ‘hired’ for our 2008 Holiday Cards and it went over so well, we decided to do a little variation on the theme.

Miles and Dizzy posed again with bowtie and veil, just as happy as can be (we didn’t even have to bribe them with treats surprisingly!).  What can we say, we love our doggies   They’re 14 and still as cute as can be.

What we need from YOU:

1) Review the top 6 images below and choose your FAVORITE.
2) Write a blog comment, include your name and the image # of your favorite.
3) Complete this task by this *SUNDAY, Nov 14th by 12 NOON.

Majority wins!  Thanks for your participation

Happy Holidays,

B + W

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A Bend Family Fall Portrait with Kelsi and Best Friend, Angus

A good friend, Kelsi, called me up recently in tears as her dog, and best friend, Angus has been having liver trouble and it didn’t look good.  She realized she didn’t have any really good photos of the two of them and wanted to know if we would do a family portrait.  With fall colors in full rage, we set out to take Angus on a brief hike and follow the Deschutes river by Meadow camp in Bend, Oregon.  Having two dogs of our own, Miles and Dizzy, we understand the connection between ourselves and our favorite pets (Idiosyncrasies and all).  I hope Angus is able to pull through – he’ll forever remind me of a gangly teenager, connected at the hip to his mother and always drooling   We love ya Kelsi – all the best to you and I hope these images bring some smiles as you walk by them in your home of the wonderful dog that is Angus.

United Way Advertising Campaign Photoshoot In Bend, Oregon

I recently had the opportunity to do some work with United Way Of Central Oregon for a new ad campaign they were working on.  My friend Jeff Coffey’s who runs a cool streaming multimedia business called StreamiT http://www.streamitmedia.com/ offered to let us do the photoshoot over at his studio.  So with the help of Mark Quon www.quondc.com who would be the art director on the project we began working with the  volunteers who would be modeling.  All the volunteers on this project have helped United Way in the past so this made it real fun for everyone.  Having friends with children always seems to help at some point and in this case Jeff was able to call his two daughters up to join the fun and I was also able to get my friend Tracy’s two daughters as well.  I was amazed at how the three families of girls automatically were able to “act” as though they had know each other for years and the photos really show this!  In the end, we got amazing images and had a blast doing it.  Oh, why is the background all white, (for the most part)?  We shot against a green screen that allows the graphic artist to choose the color of the background, (preferably white).  I’m not a big fan of this but hey, I don’t get the opportunity to make someone levitate often!

Laurel Brauns And Her Band the Sweet Harlots

Here are some images from a shoot I did last Saturday for a Bend, Oregon band called the Sweet Harlots.  We had a lot of fun conceptualizing on a look they could use for promotion and even though it was fairly cold out, the energy was flowing.  If your in Bend this January the 28th come check them out at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in the Father Luke’s room from 7 – 10 p.m.  Hey, it’s free!

Here’s what Chris Dahlen of Pitchforkmedia.com and Paste Magazine had to say about the Sweet Harlots most recent album, “Laurel Brauns can do the siren singer-songwriter thing, casting her sterling voice into songs about wide skies and maze-like hearts. She brings to bear all of her Celtic and indie influences on her haunting new album where cellos and dark finger-picked acoustic guitar all but surround you with the ghosts of the by-gone characters the songs speak of.”

You can also check out more band info, including samples of some songs at:  www.laurelbrauns.com

Holiday Card Portraits, Mt. Bachelor – Oregon

Now that all of our fine friends and family have received their holiday cards, we can finally reveal the candids from this shoot!  These holiday portraits were shot up at Mt. Bachelor at early October snow.  Our beloved dogs, Miles (Davis) and Dizzy (Gillespie) became the models for our annual holiday card and boy did they show off their stuff.  Below are some of the funny moments and the finals from the shoot.  Dizzy sure makes a perfect bride, doesn’t she?  Enjoy!

Our friends/family card ‘winner’ (shown above)

“STAY!”

How cute is that?  …this was the runner up.

Our Business Card Winner (shown above)