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Lava Lake | Nature Photography | Bend, OR
This last weekend, a bunch of my friends and I went camping at Lava Lake in the Cascade Mountains. The stars were shining so bright from our campsight that the next night we went to the lake at around midnight while I snapped this long exposure of the stars. Here’s the fun result! Enjoy!

Trip-Around-The-World
Well, its officially 12 days before my husband, Nick and I leave for our adventures overseas for 3 months! January 21- April 17! Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, South Africa, Mozambique, Argentina, and Cost Rica!
One of the reasons we are going to the 9 different countries we are visiting is, of course, photography! I am so excited to photograph the different sceneries and people groups- and even teach photography in Cambodia! Wow- chance of a lifetime! Another main purpose of the trip is to serve others less fortunate! We are teaming up with multiple different organizations to volunteer our time, services, and help wherever we can! That will include everything from loving and playing with children who have been orphaned in South Africa to volunteering our time and labor to help re-paint an orphanage in Thailand, to just being eager, willing people to serve others ! We couldn’t be more excited! Jesus said in Galatians, “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” and that’s what we intend to do – Show Jesus’ love to those who otherwise might not know what it’s like to be loved. I will continue posting pictures and stories of our time overseas and hope to be able to stay connected with whoever wishes! Also, if you are interested in booking Paula Watts Photography for assignments, please feel free to email me at paulawattsphoto@yahoo.com and we can discuss bookings for projects in April!
Casino Photoshoot California Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
The logistics of a professional photoshoot for a casino might surprise some of you. You might see a nice image like this one in an advertisement and think “oh, the photographer caught a nice moment”. For this image, we had a very tight shooting schedule and had a few images/angles/setups we needed to accomplish before the salon opened for the casino customers. We needed to photograph the inside areas first so we had a very early call time that morning. The last image at this location was this image.. the models exiting the salon as if they just had a wonderful time at the spa, pampered, happy and on their way.
Between the salon manager still needing to run the front desk (answer phones, etc) and setting up lighting against a very specular and reflective background (can we say marble facade, glass doors and glass waterfall feature), we had to act fast and we had to act well.
This final image is the culmination of my assistants sneakily hiding lights, moving lights in different areas for multiple exposures, having the hotel manager duck behind the desk while on the phone, the models moving 2 inches “pretending to walk” and give multiple facial expressions and looking at multiple exit locations, and finally blending the best of all of those scenarios in one.final.image. Sigh. Phew. And on to the next.
A solid take away… when choosing a professional photographer, don’t underestimate their working knowledge of tight shoot schedules, a great team, and pro knowledge of lighting for every scenario.

The Blacksmith Restaurant
If you haven’t been to the “new” and improved Blacksmith Restaurant, I highly recommend checking it out! I had the privilege of photographing the new look and its nothing short of Beautiful! New bar, new lounge, new seating, and new bites on the already fabulous menu by Gavin McMichael. For more info, go to The Blacksmith Restaurant.

Tower Theater
After being gone for so long, coming home to Bend makes me really appreciate sights and places that before I took for granted… like the Tower Theater. So, last night, I decided to stop and take a closer look and even snap a few shots for the ole’ stock portfolio.
Here’s one I liked.