Happy Birthday Bruce!

Today is Bruce Forster's birthday! We didn't do anything to celebrate it and I am the only one in the studio. Troy went to learn how to cook Indian food in Mosier (go figure) and Bruce is out helping Ginny with a laser paper cutter. So that leaves me, Amaren. Don't get me wrong, we got him presents so we didn't ignore it completely. But, I did give Bruce a huge lecture on social media and how I am going to master it in the next few months. Probably not the most fun thing on one's birthday, right?

This is Bruce Forster

Let me ask you a question. When you are piddling around on peoples' sites that interest you, what are you most curious about? I mean, is it their content (like, what the site is there for) or is it their About page? I mean, seriously, when I find a photographer I like, say this Portland wedding photographer, You Look Nice Today Photography, I am most curious about what that photographer looks like! What is that? I mean, I love their photography but since I don't know their name, I am even more investigative when I peruse their site. Am I the only one here?

We are busy busy here in the studio (well not at this exact moment, per se, but...) shooting portraits and constantly throwing content on the Viewfinders Photoshelter site! Just in the last couple of days, we have uploaded all our contributor's photography. They are not live yet but soon to be! Really looking forward to receiving some new stuff too.

Make sure to take a look and get some stunning Pacific Northwest shots. This is honestly the most beautiful part of the country...beach, mountains, and desert all within a 2 hour drive radius of Portland. What? That's amazing!!

Boarding. Not Boring.

Bruce Forster, the head honcho here at Viewfinders, is not the type of guy you'd expect to see at a skate park (unless you were in trouble and he was your angry dad coming to pick you up). No, we usually find him out in the high desert of Oregon and Washington in a helicopter photographing wind farms, or knee deep in soot getting a compelling shot of a coal mine. Bruce never ceases to surprise me when I arrive at the studio and he sits me down to show me all the graffiti photos he snapped over the weekend or the Erotic Ball he attended at the Crystal Ballroom.

Now, let's get this straight, Bruce is no skateboarding photographer...well, at least he doesn't call himself one. But, for someone who doesn't know anything about skateboarding or the culture surrounding it, he sure does know how to make it look good. And, if you think about it, skateboarding and riding in a helicopter both fall into one similar category, they're exciting, extreme activities.

An old, hip friend of Bruce's, Larry King (not the one on TV), was the first to turn him onto these "other" cultures including skateboarding and graffiti art. These ways of life are different from Bruce's everyday world and, as a compulsive shooter, feed his need to capture.

Photographing skateboarders is not an easy task. Knowing the exact moment to shoot a trick can be, well, tricky. Sometimes it's all about whether or not a skater lands it right. For a first time, Bruce did these skaters justice. Look for more from Pier Park Skate Park and Tigard Skate Park in the next week on our new (and very much progressed) website.