MAGAZINE EDITORIAL WORKSHOP W/1859 MAGAZINE + Joni Kabana

by Leah Nash on 03/07/2013

Have you ever wanted to pick up the phone and hear a request from a magazine, sending you out on assignment? Do you wonder what it is like to to create images that are edited by an art director and then viewed by thousands of readers that help tell a story about a place and its people?

Well now you can have that chance! Join me and Joni Kabana as we guide you through an actual assignment given by 1859 Magazine. You will spend Friday afternoon learning how to approach subjects, create compelling composition, tips on lighting and how to fulfill expectations of an assignment. Then it is out onto the streets Saturday shooting per the magazine’s specifications, followed by a joint critique and editing of all of the images on Sunday.

Images will then be uploaded for 1859 Magazine’s creative director to choose which images will run in their print magazine and online website. Participants whose images are selected for publication will be paid for their work!

Date:            March 8 -10, 2013
Time:           Friday 7pm – 10pm, Saturday 8am – 6pm, Sunday 9am – 6pm
Location:   Kabana Studio 17 SE 3rd Ave., Portland, OR
Cost:            $450

Limited to 12 participants, so sign up early!

UPDATE: This workshop has one spot left! Please send an email indicating your desire to attend, and we will let you know if there are spaces available.

Read about Powell’s… In Swedish

by Leah Nash on 03/03/2013

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter contacted me to photograph Portland’s world renowned bookstore, the ever fabulous, Powell’s. As a girl who spent a lot of her youth at the library, Powell’s gives me that same warm and inclusive vibe. Maybe it is that slightly used, cozy smell, which the guy in my photo below seems to be drinking in. Or maybe it is the homeless people. Regardless, Powell’s is one Portland institution that everyone can agree is pretty amazing. And just one more reason I love this city. And Sweden agrees! Or at least I will assume so, because, hey, I can’t read Swedish.

Farm to Table at Noble Rot

by Leah Nash on 03/01/2013

Hung out at Noble Rot, the restaurant above the city and their kick ass rooftop garden, which was totally amazing, as was the weather. Chef and owner of not only the restaurant but the best rock star name ever, Leather Storrs, gave me a tour. Then he picked our lunch from the roof, got to cooking and I fought writer Lynne Curry for the spoils of our labor. Or rather of his. But whatever.

Miracle on 135th Avenue

by Leah Nash on 02/25/2013

I come from a family of educators and so I know, yeah, those summers off look like a pretty sweet deal, but teaching is hard. So it was a real treat to photograph a positive story about education for Willamette Week. Visit the cafeteria of David Douglas High School and you feel like you are at the United Nations, 55 plus languages bounce around amidst chocolate milk and tater tots. But it seems like they make it work.

On Assignment – Portland Monthly – What I Learned in School

by Leah Nash on 02/14/2013

There is nothing like spending a few days back in high school to make you take a little stock in your life. As I creep up on my 20 (holy crap) year reunion, I think back to that time, fondly I guess. But I am also struck by how much cooler kids today seem. Do I blame the internet? Cable TV? Back then couldn’t see and didn’t know too much past my own town and these kids can access the world in their pocket. Does that make them happier? More worldly? Or more weighted down? Things definitely seem a lot more complicated now, then they did back in 1993. If you are feeling the need for a little teenage angst revisited, check out the world of Lincoln, Catlin Gabel and Century High School, which I shot for Portland Monthly Magazine’s February issue. (read the story online here)

Tim Gallagher will punch you in the face with his designs.

by Leah Nash on 02/01/2013

Tim Gallagher is the mad scientist of designers. He’s pimped out Snoop Dog’s Playstation3, had brass knuckles made for a client, and has an office space that includes a soccer field, a pool and a skateboard ramp. Plus he let me photograph him with a bedazzled skull for 1859 Magazine. I want him to adopt me. Just for a little while. This is where I write nice things about my trusty producer, Christopher Onstott, who took this picture of our lighting setup.

Asian Students Help U.S. Religious Schools Prosper

by Leah Nash on 01/24/2013

Private U.S. high schools, particularly religious schools, are enjoying a tuition windfall from high-paying Asian families eager to give their U.S. college-bound kids a head-start through enrollment on U.S. campuses. A few months ago I photographed students at St. Mary’s School in Medford, Oregon for the Wall Street Journal story about U.S. academies luring a growing number of Asian students. It is such an interesting mix of cultures, religious school with Communist students, and irony that seems to work for everybody though. I was also struck by the fact that so many Chinese are clearly now wealthy enough to send their children across the globe and pay $49,000 a year for tuition, room and board (it is worth noting that locals only pay $12,000). All with the hopes of getting them into a US college where the acceptance rates are much higher (even Ivy Leagues like Harvard!) than any college in ultra-competitive China. Want to know more about this fascinating two about a clash of cultures and countries? Read the full story here.

Eat and Drink – OX – Portland Monthly

by Leah Nash on 01/14/2013

I had the pleasure of photographing Argentine-inspired Ox, One of Portland’s newest and hottest restaurants for Portland Monthly’s Eat and Drink section. Anytime I can shoot a portrait when someone is holding an ax, I’m pretty stoked. Luckily, Ox husband and wife owners Gabrielle Quinonez Denton and Greg Denton seemed to share my sentiment.

Stuffing the pages of MIX, with Compote

by Leah Nash on 01/10/2013

I love any job that involves stringing hand-made snowflakes and drinking bubbly. Thanks to MIX Magazine I got the chance to spend a holiday brunch with the owner of Compote Cafe, Shana Lane-Block. I arrived early to photograph Shana cooking and found myself pitching in on the holiday festivities which included taste testing, wardrobe consultation, and decorating. It is always a treat to be invited into someone’s home to share in their merry making, especially when it tastes so good.

On Assignment – Wall Street Journal – Crabbers struggle with late starting season

by Leah Nash on 12/29/2012

The day after Christmas in Newport, the docks sat full of idle boats, as crabbers from northern California to Washington waited for inspectors to give them the go-ahead to fill their holds with the meaty Dungeness crab, the jewel of Oregon’s seafood industry. I joined Wall Street Journal reporter and old skool music junkie Joel Millman on a trip to the coast to report on the crab season. For the second straight year, the eight-month crabbing season is starting late, after inspectors determined that crabs along a stretch of Washington coastline needed more time to get to ‘meat’ size. The gods of sunshine and of reporters that have to work on holidays took pity on us and we had some gorgeous weather and some very tasty seafood (I had clams, not crab). See the slideshow online at the WSJ.com

Marriage, it’s not just for straight people anymore.

by Leah Nash on 12/10/2012

The WSJ called and asked me to shoot all the gay marriages that are sweeping across the fair state of Washington thanks to Referendum 74. So heartfelt to see couples together for 30 years or more (and with grown kids in tow) finally being able to make it legal. You’ve come a long way baby! And I did almost cried, I admit it. Thanks to Equality Southwest Washington for organizing many of the weddings.

MIX Cover Shoot – Bar Snacks

by Leah Nash on 10/29/2012

I recently photographed Portland’s newest hipster wine bar Sauvage for the October MIX Magazine cover story about bar snacks. Let’s hear it for male hand models! As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of all things bar related, I was also happy to be able to locate the best smoked trout board in the city. You wanna know where to find the best deviled quail eggs in town? Then read the story here. Ok, so maybe they are the only deviled quail eggs in town. But still damn tasty.

It’s Hip to be (Portland) Squared

by Leah Nash on 06/13/2012

May 19, 2012 marked the first ever ASMP Portland Squared event. Forty-nine Oregon photographers documented one square mile in Portland, the epicenter being the Willamette River and the Burnside Bridge. I first came up with the idea when I was drunk at an ASMP holiday party. ASMP stands for the American Society of Media Photographers, basically a professional organization of photographers with the goal of advocacy, education, community, and beer drinking (ok I added the last one).

I join the Board of ASMP Oregon last year when they were in dire need of vaginas, ahem, women, to be on it. ASMP Oregon does a great job of getting amazing speakers to their events (though I am requesting a moratorium on baby photos, I don’t care how famous you are). However, being the touchy-feely kind of girl I am, I wanted an event that was a little more community oriented. One where I get to look at, admire and be jealous of pictures taken by my peers, rather than spending hours in front of the computer in my leopard print robe, like I normally do.

Since I knew I would be crazy the day of the event, and wouldn’t have much time to shoot, I decided to portraits and go with a theme. Around 3am the night before, stumbling home from another assignment, I had a flash of inspiration (I always have my best ideas when sleep deprived)….mustaches! Who doesn’t love a mustache? And since one of the categories for the event was Portlandia, I thought it was perfect. This town is filled to the brim with mustaches, and those that don’t have them, I’ll give them one or will make one. And viola, art is born.

I spent the day wandering around and attacking people who either had facial hair or who looked damn cool. I got turn down only once, God bless this wacky town where people are up for anything, including wierdos asking them to to pose with green mustaches. I shot the whole thing with my trusty 50mm 1.4 which allows/makes me get in all nice and tight to my subject. One guy even said to me, “Uh, I didn’t realize you’d be so close…” as he pressed closer to the wall.

Thanks to all the good sports who took part in the project and thanks to all the fab shooters who took part in the inaugural experiment that was PDXSQ. Good thing the body forgets pain or there would be no chance of a 2013 version. Not that it wasn’t an amazing event, but man, organizing those things is work, and I’ve already got a full time job that doesn’t pay much.

You can see all the winners and read more about the event here plus, you can read another article about it in The Portland Tribune. Ken Hawkins put together an amazing video that summed up the day so well, that really you should just go there now. Really, right now. Oh, and here I am below with a little mustache action myself.

Newspace Artistic Wedding Class at Urban Studio

by Leah Nash on 04/06/2012

A few weeks ago I had the honor of teaching a wedding class through the amazing educational nonprofit, Newspace Center of Photography. The two-day workshop, The Artistic Wedding, which I taught with the incredibly talented wedding photographer Lauren Brooks, was focused on giving folks both the business and artistic side of shooting a wedding, complete with gorgeous models, beautiful bouquets, and champagne.

Throughout the weekend I kept joking that it takes a village to teach a wedding photography class! This special hands-on class turned out to be a huge success but only because of all the amazing and generous people that donated their time, energy and special talents. Nanielle Travers was our make-up artist extrodinaire, and made our brides and grooms look even more dashing then they normally do. European florist Francoise Weeks created two unique and beautiful bouquet for our brides to model during their photo shoots. Rockstar photographer Inger Klekacz volunteered her time to make sure things ran smoothly (and I stayed caffeinated) and intrepid lighting artist and photographer Eric Cable made a guest appearance to give the class a demo on lighting reception and wedding spaces.

And what a space we had! Urban Studio in the Pearl District is a simply delicious contemporary event space for weddings, events, really just any fantastic party you can dream up (I attended another event there recently involving booze, art, and pancakes, but that is another story).

All-in-all it was a great weekend, even the weather knew not to mess with us, giving us some lovely light to capture our brides and grooms. Images from the day can be seen below courtesy of Eric Cable, workshop attendee Raina Stinson, and moi, or at least my alter ego, LWedding Photography.

20120304_ArtisticWeddings_001 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_010 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_013 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_031 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_053 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_063 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_071 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_084 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_087 20120304_ArtisticWeddings_093 L1004930 L1005065 L1005086 L1005157 L1005167 L1005177 outtakes Leah and Lauren-5768

Catching the Snowflake

by Leah Nash on 11/04/2011

So you may or may not know that this year I received a grant to photograph 5 people with Asperger’s syndrome. Asperger’s is a form of high-functioning Autism (ever heard of Temple Grandin?) mainly characterized by difficulty with social interactions. They also have a tendency to fixate on certain topics or objects like scoreboards, or Ancient Egypt, or Steve Jobs. But now I’m just teasing you with hints of what’s to come, and that’s not fair. I will say that I have spent the last ten months with a group of some of the most interesting people I have ever had the pleasure to come across. I can’t say enough how grateful I am to my photo subjects who have given me their time, their energy, and their privacy. Letting someone with a big, no-nonsense-looking camera into your world is never an easy thing and they all did it with grace and heart.

Want to see more? Well the lovely folks over at Street Roots have offered up a home for this labor of love. Street Roots is a non-profit newspaper that deals with issues of poverty and social justice. You know those homeless folks outside of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods who are trying to sell you a paper for a buck? That’s the one. The project is basically running from Thanksgiving until Christmas, with three print editions showing up on November 25, December 9th, and December 23rd. In between, two photo slideshows with some amazing first-person audio accounts of life with Asperger’s will be on the Street Roots website, look for them December 2nd and 16th.

I also have to give a high-five to RACC, the Regional Arts and Council Culture. They are the money men behind this project and it’s a pretty amazing thing to have an organization in Portland dedicated solely to the funding and advocacy of the arts. It’s like we’re in Europe or something.

Photo Editor Mike Davis and Graphic Designer Maggie Gardner round out my list of Thanks Yous in this Oscar speech.