A friend’s daughter suffers from CP and every year her parents throw a party and silent auction to help support the outrageously expensive therapy and treatments. I had the opportunity to shoot this year’s Frannie Fund event and had a great time. It was my first time shooting in months and the cob webs were definitely there, but I managed to make a few interesting images. Here are a few takes from the the night in black and white for fun.

An image I made on my phone last week made me realize that now, more than ever, I need to be photographing. After I finished working for the Emerald I began to think about what my next steps in life would be. I seriously considered pursuing photography as my main career option – however, after some time an opportunity in architecture presented itself and I have been with Group Mackenzie in Portland since October. I went months without shooting a frame. I sold one of my camera bodies. I even contemplated giving up photography completely. I thought that from here on out I would focus on becoming an architect.

In my final year of school I was incredibly fortunate to have so many opportunities. Almost every day would include working in studio on my thesis project, socializing with other photographers and shooting assignments for the Emerald. Between my long-term architecture project and daily exercises in the fast-paced world of a daily newspaper my creative outlets were satisfied. In my professional career thus far I haven’t had nearly as many opportunities to see short-term projects through. When I made the picture you see to the left the feeling of finding the story in a photograph returned. The sun would go away, the laughter could turn into work-related discussion and the beers would be empty, but I found the moment I wanted to capture. So here I am, back on the wagon – or off – trying to balance architecture and photography. It feels good.