joel bock photography blog » Friends

out and about: oregon fly fishing.

Joel — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:18:02 +0000

In my spare time (i.e., 4:30am in the morning!) I like to get outdoors. Today I traveled with my friend, Bryan Rupp to the Wilson River for some fly fishing. It was an amazing morning, with perfectly overcast conditions, complete with Brook Trout. Here’s Bryan letting loose on the river.

Here’s yours truly (thanks for the photo, Bryan!).

family portraits: five rock ranch, oregon.

Joel — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:07:23 +0000

All I can say is that the location was amazing, and the family (and good friends!) were way too much to photograph! We hit Five Rock Ranch for some Sunday afternoon Mother’s Day photos, and what ensued was a lot of laughter and snapshots. It’s always fun to see families enjoying one another, which was very self evident for these folks. Happy Mother’s Day Lois, and thanks for letting us capture your beautiful family! Get ready for A LOT of photos…

photo riot! a different kind of photo booth.

Joel — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:42:15 +0000

That’s right! We officially kicked off our photo riot booth at Twin Rocks Friends Camp this last weekend for a fundraiser we were shooting. And it was a riot! Here’s one from the day that cracked me up. Our dear friends, who are expecting, really got into the spirit of the booth. We’ll be posting more soon!

foreshadow: oregon family portraits.

Joel — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:56:34 +0000

I had a blast today with my good friends out at the 5 Rock Ranch. It was a brilliant day, and we had a lot of laughs and fun taking photos around the area. There was a great Stetson hat, along with some stellar cowboy boots that I can’t wait to show! Here’s a quick one before the full post:

remodel: new home.

Joel — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:20:12 +0000

I have to say that owning a home has been a blast so far! Yes, it is A LOT of work, and the list of projects only grows by the minute. But when you have great folks around to help you with those projects (thanks to all you who’ve been able to so far!) it makes for a MUCH more enjoyable experience. Russ is with Eden Homes & Design, and has been a close friend going on almost 10 years now. We went to work on this project yesterday and got the door in (though you can’t see it here). I wanted to post this picture for a couple reasons, while also expanding on why I’m starting to include more personal photos.

1. I feel like with my aim to be “professional” my blog has taken a turn from it’s original intent: to be a creative outlet outside of “work”, while keeping folks posted on what I was working on.

2. It’s fun to show photos, but I always appreciate getting to know the folks behind the lens. I used to post more photos of Espen and other daily occurrences, and anticipate that this will progress once again. My overall goal is to not make this the “Joel Bock” show, but to give some foundation for readers to understand my perspective and approach to what I photograph.

3. As it’s easier to look at a photo rather than read everything the blogger has written (I confess, I am just as guilty of this as the next reader!), I want to speak things that are important to me via my images, thus alleviating that task to a degree.

Which brings us back to this photo. My friends and family are important to me. They make me laugh, think more intentionally about how I live my life, and are an immense support and encouragement. I love how this photo captures my gratitude for all that. And thanks, Russ, for working on the house with me – don’t forget to send me the invoice!

leah: graduation.

Joel — Sun, 02 May 2010 07:07:47 +0000

That’s right! Our good friend Leah just graduated, and we had a stellar time celebrating at their place tonight. Here are a few pics (incorporating my new Ray Flash) of the gathering. Congrats Leah, you’re awesome!

When I first arrived on the scene and put the Ray Flash on, I’ll admit people weren’t really quite sure what was going on (above). At least it was better than when people used to joke about using a Gary Fong light dome as a Tupperware for snacks during a shoot (no longer using these, by the way). But finally they started warming up to it (below)…

Above, Leah’s awesome sister Hannah bringing some flowers for the graduating lady, who donned her cap for the below photo.

And to finish it off, after the above photo Espen wanted to take a picture as well, and this last photo is what he took. What an amazing kid! Who’s son is he anyways?!

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!

eden homes and design: architecture.

Joel — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:17:29 +0000

I had a blast this morning with my good friend Russ, of Eden Homes and Design, photographing the AMAZING work they did in remodeling a bathroom, hallway, living and dining room into an additional bedroom and living space, complete with custom cabinets, new bathroom layout, and too much to add on to this already long sentence! I’ll post more photos later, but for now here are two shots, one of the new bathroom shower (stellar!) and another of cool window light falling across the french doors that lead into the living room/additional bedroom. For a greater look at what they have done, either visit their website HERE and go to the portfolio section, or if you’re in Newberg go down to Chapters Books & Coffee and see the remodel the did to the bathroom.

taking it to the polls: photo contest.

Joel — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:35:48 +0000

I recently entered this photo from the Pender’s family photo session into the Professional Photographer magazine cover contest. Although it has no effect whatsoever on the actual decision of the many judges, you can stop by HERE and cast a vote if you’d like to support the cause for fun (and I think they say you might even win a canon camera just for voting!). If you never saw the Pender family portraits you should catch up on a fun time HERE.

feature: ChampagneNW

Joel — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:39:53 +0000

For those of you who are dealing with some “great” weather for photos right now, stop on by ChampagneNW’s blog to see some suggestions of fun ways to utilize the elements, including a photo from a wedding I shot that gives a great example of utilizing the elements. Here’s another image from the same wedding that gives you a glimpse of what we’re talking about. If you want to see more of their winter wedding, check them out here.