joel bock photography blog » Fall

feature: bella umbrella.

Joel — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:17:16 +0000

I just found out from one of my favorite couples, Abigail & Thomas, that their wedding was featured on Bella Umbrella’s blog. You can check it out HERE. We figured it was going to rain for the wedding, so Abigail & Thomas looked into spicing up the wedding with some fun umbrellas. Although the wedding was in Princeton, NJ, they found this stellar umbrella rental company based out of Seattle, WA. And I have to say that although the day turned out to be perfectly blue, the umbrellas were totally amazing and added a lot of fun to the photos! Here’s one of my favorite parts of the wedding where they decided to stop at the amazing Bent Spoon for some amazing gelato! You can check out the rest of their wedding HERE to relive all the fun!
Besides, the ice cream, a couple of the groomsmen hooked up a game of checkers on the park’s stationary chess board, using acorn caps and acorns. Brilliant!

design time: wedding albums…and more albums.

Joel — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:05:17 +0000

That’s about all I’ve been working on the last couple days! Here’s a couple spreads from Thomas & Abigail’s wedding, which if you didn’t catch their photos the first time around you can right here. I have to say, Fundy Album Builder is probably the best investment I’ve made for album design! If you’re a photographer and looking to save some time and still have custom options at your creative disposal, check them out. I’m now getting 20-30 page albums done in around 1-2 hours. It’s a beautiful thing!

portland wedding: chilling at the nines.

Joel — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:36:33 +0000

Here’s a quick revisit to a fall wedding I haven’t posted much on. I was shooting with Mike Long at the Secret Society, and the below shot was at the Nines. And congrats to you Mike for getting to shoot Animoto’s new marketing photos!

grayce’s senior session: oregon coast destination.

Joel — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:27:14 +0000

This shoot was a blast, especially as we were shooting on location in Rockaway Beach, OR. Since Grayce is also my cousin, the whole family, Cherice, and I had a blast running around to different locations and enjoying the coastal breeze. Congrats Grayce!

tricia & gilberto: a school house wedding.

Joel — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:35:42 +0000

Not long ago I had the chance to be a part of a dear friend’s wedding. It was held outside of Newberg at a little camp called Tilikum, where an old school house became host to this lovely and intimate wedding. Here’s a few of my favorites.

The pillow used for the rings was made by a very good friend, and I have to say it was very beautiful hand work.

At one point Tricia sang a song she had written (below), the old room made it sound all the more amazing.

Tricia & Gilberto, thanks so much for inviting me to be a part of your day!

murray family photos.

Joel — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:55:57 +0000

Well, this post has been a long time coming, as will be a couple more this week! My dear friends, the Murrays, have been more than gracious in their patience, and I’m stoked to finally post photos from our session. The Murrays have good times together, and it was fun roaming about George Fox’s campus with their kids, a soccer ball, and a lot of smiles. Thanks friends for a fun afternoon!

Loved this shot (above), and it didn’t hurt that the creek was chock-full of fatty crawdads!

I have to say, Henry is quite the stud (above). With blue eyes it’s hard to go wrong.

Again, soccer is a huge part of the family. Nathan is top-notch, and his kids are following suit (even Henry!).

I have to say this was a really fun time, and I’m grateful to get to photograph so many awesome families! Shout out to the Murrays in the comments!

the guys. portland wedding.

Joel — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:04:10 +0000

Here’s a couple more photos from Tim & Alicia’s wedding of the guys that I shot for Mike Long at the Secret Society. Loved the feel of the light in this room.

abigail & thomas. princeton wedding. destination.

Joel — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:51:02 +0000

Yaaaah!!! This wedding was STELLAR! I have really enjoyed every wedding I’ve photographed so far, but this one takes the cake in terms of sheer fun! Thomas and Abby, you rock!!! So, to prep you all for this long post, I had to scale down the selection count as I was near 200 with my original count due to waaaay too many awesome photos. So here’s what it boiled down to as we rocked the streets of Pennsylvania and New Jersey!

As we began in PA we had to trek it to Princeton, and so a trolley was enlisted (below)! It was pretty sweet!

I drove ahead to hook up with the fellas, and we had some fun in the apartment before the trolley rolled up.

I was totally digging the columns for the “first look”! (below)

Our next stop was the location they had their first kiss…(below)

Alright, I love these two shots. From the top, the umbrellas that Abigail ordered from a place in Seattle that rents vintage umbrellas really added amazing flavor to the shot, nice job Abby! And below…all I can say is that I had turned to walk toward the next destination after the above shot was done, only to turn around and see the wedding party beginning to do what you see below! Gotta love it when people get spontaneous!!!

The feet were a bit cold…

One of the groomsmen took to soliciting…

The below sequence was amazing, as they wanted to grab some ice cream from a great local spot where you can grab gelato, called the Bent Spoon. While the bride and groom grabbed ice cream a couple groomsmen hit the park for a game of acorn checkers (bottom right).

I got lucky with the above shot, as I was passing by to take a different photo and happened to glance over and see this…(above)

That’s right! They had the “Love” statue built for them out of ice! (below left)

The above two shots were great! The kid on the left was really as intense of a dancer as it looks, and he went on dancing for a LONG time!!! On the right was Abby’s response. And I don’t usually post photos of myself, but Abigail and Thomas insisted on a photo together and I loved it, so here it is! Thanks you two!

In closing, the day was awesome! Even down to the fact that the car on the right was mine! We realized they didn’t have a car to get to the hotel a few blocks away, so I had someone grab mine and I drove them myself! I hope you two are really enjoying life together, and enjoying the Jersey winter! Thanks for all the laughs!

nelscott reef 2009 competition. lincoln city, or. surfing.

Joel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:06:42 +0000

The day got an early start. Trucks pulled up towing wave runners. Surfers suited up. The tide slowly began to creep in.

Surfers were watching the waves, sporting life jackets for the big waters.

We got setup on the hill, ready to see our first Nelscott competition. The fog began to burn off.

The wave runners were pushed and pulled into the break by teams.

The shore break was fairly large, so a bit of maneuvering was required to get out to the reef.

But it was worth it when they did…

Marc (below) and I had fun taking turns at the lens, shooting video and stills.

And then the winners dropped in.

Not a bad day for the Oregon Coast. Looking forward to next year already.

road trip. berkeley part II. fresno. yosemite.

Joel — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:48:20 +0000

Second night we chilled with our good friends the Chapmans in Fresno. We had fun at a local park, eating some amazing Ethiopian food, accidentally taking their frisbee when we left (sorry! we’ll, mail it =), and drinking tea and coffee over a great game of Squint. We started the next day with some famous Chapman coffee cake (famous because it’s supposed to be eaten with milk!), then headed out for the bay area only to change our mind and make a detour to Yosemite on the way. We’d never been, so it was a lot of fun and amazing to see what John Muir and many others advocated for, and Ansel Adams visually captured forever.

Espen got to picking up leaves and pretending they were a camera, then would take our picture. Very creative! (below left)

Half dome (below left) and Yosemite Falls (below right) were both amazing to see. It really is hard to convey the sheer size of these rock faces. They literally shot up out of the valley. It was like Smith Rock on crack!

Although a short trip, it was definitely worth it! We’re looking forward to returning in the future for a longer duration as there was so much potential hiking and photo taking. If you’d like to see some more our good friends the Macys took some photos on their trip last year, you can view them here. More photos on our road trip tomorrow!!!