You can find the gallery here and you can find a link to my weddings home page here. Here are a three of my favorite pictures. I love the unscripted moments before and after the ceremony. I find that they tend to be the most revealing. That’s not to say that the there aren’t nice moments during the ceremony. Click images to see larger versions.

Before the ceremony with bride and flower girl at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle

And another photo

The bride with her bridesmaids just before the ceremony at Alderbrook Resort in Union, Washington

And the last one

The breide and bridesmaids after a visit to the hair salon in Poulsbo

]]> http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/03/2009-wedding-gallery/feed/ 2 http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/03/vigil-for-susan-cox-powell/ http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/03/vigil-for-susan-cox-powell/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:29:33 +0000 sbrashear-editorial http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/?p=91 On Saturday I covered a vigil in Puyallup marking four months since the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell. I can’t imagine having a family member go missing. It’s one thing to lose a loved one, it’s another to have no idea what happened to them or not know where they are. This is the second vigil for Susan that I covered and each time the Cox family has been very gracious to me and to all those in attendance. I am amazed by their strength. Last month, they started the Susan Cox Powell Foundation, which can be found here. Before they have any closure themselves, they start a foundation to help the families of missing persons. They also have a Facebook page with more than 45,000 members here.

The first  photos is from before the vigil started, when the dark blue sky still balanced with the sky a bit. I try and shoot with as much available light as possible especially in a situation such as a vigil. I try to be as unobtrusive as possible, which when carrying cameras is nearly impossible.

Candles illuminate the faces of people attending a vigil for Susan Cox Powell

Here is another photo from the vigil. A moment of reflection for members of Susan’s family. They are illuminated by flood light and the candles.

Members of Susan Cox Powells family including her sister, brother-in-law, aunt and grandmother during the vigil.

Next to her apartment in Santa Cruz was a drive-in theater, which on the weekends hosted a flea market where my grandmother rummaged finding things she thought her friends and family wanted or needed. She also was a dumpster diver, finding things like a new leather jacket with jammed zipper. If she thought someone could use it she took it. When we visited her, she always had a box or several boxes of stuff depending what family we might see before she had the chance. When she visited our home, she was always busy with some chore or another. Constantly. She always had a stack of clothes for me to take up stairs. She had an energy that didn’t stop.

She always thought of her family first. She was always so proud of me. For what reason, I have no idea. Every time I saw her she reminded me of that, unabashedly. Probably the same as many other grandparents, but she was my grandmother. She survived a rough life, but that didn’t diminish her kindness and her love.

Aside from her unconditional love I will miss her apple pie, for which there was no recipe. Everything from scratch. No measuring cups. Every time she came to visit, every time she saw me, she had an apple pie for me. I know it is cheesy, but there was nothing like Grandma’s apple pie.

Below if a picture of my grandmother with my Aunt Kathy on Christmas Eve. I know I have a better picture of her, which I will post when after sort through my negatives and scan. I love you Grandma and I apologize for eulogizing you a post. You probably wouldn’t have wanted the attention. No worries. I don’t think any reads this blog anyway.

Grandma Brashear

]]> http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/03/rip-marie-brashear/feed/ 0 http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/02/getting-caught-up/ http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/02/getting-caught-up/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:10:22 +0000 sbrashear-editorial http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/?p=59

Supporters of Healthcare Reform in Seattle

In the spirit of getting caught. Just thought that I would post a few photos from an assignment last week. I shot demonstrators outside the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. Demonstrating is right up there with drinking coffee as a favorite past time of Seattlites. This one though was a bit smaller, perhaps because it was in the morning or because it was raining. Some were members of the tea party, protesting healthcare reform in the form of a public option and the other contingent were supporting healthcare reform. Why the Westin? Mr. Vice President ‘Smilin’ Joe Biden was in town to attend fundraiser for Sen. Patty Murray on his way to the Winter Olympics. It was a private event and no photographers were allowed, so I made pictures of the Veep and then had to wait for him to leave. Note to self: don’t park so close to the hotel were the Veep (or any such person is staying) if I want leave in a timely manner. First the picture of the supporters of healthcare:

and a photo of a protetor, who at one point claimed to be Al Gore.

An Obama pretestor in Seattle Friday Feb. 12, 2010.

]]> http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/02/getting-caught-up/feed/ 0 http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/02/every-244-days/ http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/2010/02/every-244-days/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:07:03 +0000 sbrashear-editorial http://www.smbphotography.net/blog/?p=17 I just finished making this blog live with links to it on my site and some other architectural tweaks (fixing links and photo galleries), which, of course, took me way too long and, of course, as so many things in my life, is a work in progress. It is my hope to blog more often than every 244 days. It is my intention to subject unwitting viewers and gluttons for punishment (return viewers) to some of my work and some of my ramblings from recent assignments, adventure or otherwise gratuitous use of a camera.

It is my hope to post pictures more recently than nine days ago, which segues to this picture from the first flight of the Boeing 747-8 freighter last Monday. After Boeing’s largest plane took off, the media, including myself, were shepherded inside the Boeing factory where we transmitted images and stories on some crazy fast Internet connection.

Below seattlepi.com photographer Josh Trujillo and aeropace reporter news gatherer Aubrey Cohen work colloborate high above the jumbo jets on the production line.

Aubrey Cohen, left, and Josh Trujillo collaborate near the Boeing 747-8 production line in Everett, Wash.

In addition to posting pictures from past assignment, it is my hope to post a gallery of photos from weddings that I photographed last year as well as a robust wedding photography FAQ; hopefully answer some of the questions and concerns imagined by me and those that I frequently hear while working with brides and grooms regarding wedding photography. Oh yeah and I hope tweak the styles.

Either Freddie Ljungberg is superhumanly fast or I drink so much coffee that I can induce camera shake at a shutter speed of 1/1000th of second. I prefer my first supposition though. My camera was momentarily possessed. This is actually a product of two images composited by my camera. I’m not  even sure how to make the multiple exposure function possible. Here are the two images full frame:

Note: The above image most like loaded correctly. Just a small strip at the top is all there was. The rest of the frame was black.

And the second:

All the other images from the game are fine. Here’s to hoping that shutter isn’t dying.