I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season! Many blessings to each of you and your families!

Cheers,

Brian

Finally!!! Yes, finally I’ve been able to get my website back online. It’s been down for a few months and I was able to change the domain name and relaunch the webiste. The new site is www.sopke-photo.com. Next up is the process of updating some of the images and adding new content. I’ve also begun selling my photos through Etsy. You can find my items by clicking here. You can also find links directly to these sites here on the main page on the far right hand side of the page in the links section of my blog.

Check them out and let me know what you think!

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

Brian

A new experiment with a black backdrop for shooting flowers. Let me know what you think of the results.

Tomorrow is the final First Friday Artwalk for 2009 in Troutdale. I will be set up at the Amish Workbench Furniture Store. I have several newly framed pieces to show including one of the old Lewis River Railroad Bridge. This is a great opportunity to see the work of local artists and perhaps take care of a little holiday shopping at the same time. Hope to see you there!

Happy Holidays!

Brian

This Saturday – November 28th – is the Heritage High School Holiday Bazar at Heritage High School in Vancouver. I will have my booth set up there. This event is a benefit event and all proceeds from the event go to the Heritage HS Class of 2010 Drug and Alcohol Free Graduation Party. The show is from 9:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday November 28th at Heritage High School – 7825 NE 130th Avenue, Vancouver, WA. This is a great chance for you to get a jump on your holiday shopping without the hectic crowds at the mall.

Be sure to stop by my booth and say hi. And as a blog-show special – if you mention my blog, I will give you 20% off of your purchase.

Hope to see you there!

Brian

Tomorrow (Sunday 11/15/09) I will be showing my work as part of the American Cancer Society Holiday Craft Expo Event at the Jantzen Beach Red Lion Hotel from 9-5. This great event is for an even greater cause and I am honored to participate. Much of the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. To get to the Red Lion take I-5 to the Jantzen Beach Exit. The hotel is just east of the freeway. Make sure to stop by and say hi. I will be raffling off a framed print at the show.

This past Wednesday I had the rare opportunity to ride along with the crew of the Weyerhaeuser Landfill Train that runs out of Longview, WA. Ed, Steve and Harvey were super friendly and the experience was fantastic! The line is very scenic and runs through the middle of nowhere and is mostly inaccessable except by rail. Thanks to Zach and the crew for arranging this fun ride.

A couple weeks ago I was up at Pittock Mansion in Northwest Portland. The weather was still sunny, great for photography. After taking a few obligatory skyline photos, I focused my attention on some of the colorful flowers that surround the mansion. As I was shooting the flower in this photo, this bee flew in right on cue and landed on the flower, did its thing, and flew off. I was surprised with the great results of this impromptu appearance of the bee.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Several things have happened in the last month plus since my last post. The biggest change is that my old computer decided to make an untimely crash. Thankfully, between having saved backups of all my photos onto both an external hard drive and to CD’s, and being able to recover some things from my old computer, I am glad to report that I didnt’ lose anything critical. The other “good” that came out of the crash (if you can call a crash “good”) is that with moving everything onto a new computer, I ended up with the opportunity to upgrade from Adobe Photoshop CS3 to Photoshop CS4. I am thrilled with the upgrades that Adobe made. I am also really enjoying learning to use Adobe Bridge for viewing and sorting my photos. Next is getting my website updated and back online.

Until next time…. Cheers!