Justin Woodward named finalist for James Beard Award Rising Star Chef of the Year

Castagna Restaurant in Portland, Oregon not only happens to be in my hometown, it is also one of the finest restaurants at which I’ve had the pleasure of dining.  One of many things in life I’m grateful for is the fact that my husband loves to cook and has quite a talent for making everything – from dashi to demi-glace, simple pastas or seared duck breast with peppercorn infused, poached pears.  Because of this, it’s very difficult to find a restaurant that can out-do what my amazing partner in life creates in our humble home kitchen.  Castagna is the only restaurant we’ve been to together where when we sit down, we prepare for the question that always arises, “how did he do THAT?”  The food at Castagna is art and is often celebrated, (and criticized), for the same reasons.  However, there is one undeniable fact – you can’t eat like this anywhere else West of the Mississippi and most definitely nowhere else in Portland.  The food at Castagna has amazing attention given to not only the quality of the ingredients, but also the beauty of them.  The service is absolutely world class.  The desserts, like this chocolate dish, are some of the best I’ve ever encountered, thanks to the pastry chef,  Eve Kuttman. Although I love the food scene in Portland, I’ve always felt that Castagna is in a class of its own.  This year, the chef Justin Woodward is receiving the recognition from the James Beard Foundation in the form of a nomination for Rising Star Chef of the Year.  Congratulations Justin!  Thank you for all of your creativity, hard work and the delicious, incredible food.

Executive Chef Justin Woodward of Castagna Restaurant. Nominated for Rising Star Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation

The dining room of Castagna Restaurant in Portland, Oregon

cherries, almond ice cream and birch

Cucumbers, salmon cured in cypress and yogurt

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The Galapagos with National Geographic Expeditions and Travel Photographer Susan Seubert

This year began with a remarkable assignment on board the National Geographic Endeavour in the Galapagos Islands.  The Galapagos are located about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador.  Being a National Geographic Photography Expert for National Geographic Expeditions is one of the highlights of my career as a photographer and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to travel to a variety of destinations with National Geographic and Lindblad.  This was my first trip to the Galapagos and I was fortunate enough to visit all of the islands where people are allowed to go ashore to hike and observe the unique landscape and wildlife that this remarkable archipelago has to offer.  Of course, the animals are the stars of the show, but these islands have a rich history, most famously tied to Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution.  The trickiest part of this journey was trying to absorb the immense amount of information that the naturalists provided both in the field and on board the ship and at the same time, concentrate on making pictures.  I’m just now beginning to edit some 20,000 images that I took during this 20 day adventure and have started to post some on my stock photography site here.  I hope to add more images regularly to my stock photography site, but for now, here are a few of my favorite moments from the expedition.  Thank you for visiting!

The National Geographic Endeavour, a ship that serves the Galapagos

A sandy beach at sunset with Galapagos sea lions on the island of San Cristobal

A newborn sea lion pup on a sandy beach on the island of San Cristobal

A colony of sea lions nap on a sandy beach on the island of Espanola

A solitary Galapagos sea lion on a sandy beach on the island of Espanola

Nazca Boobies nesting on Espanola Island in the Galapagos

A morning hike on Floreana Island, looking for wild flamingos

Marine Iguanas basking on the beach of Espanola Island

Santa Cruz Island, home to wild giant tortoises and the Charles Darwin Research Center

the fish market in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos. Brujo, a sea lion, hangs out and waits for scraps from the fishmonger

El Trapiche, a small, family run farm, sells small batch, organic coffee. Here, they are roasting the coffee beans

While snorkeling at Champion Islet we encountered some very playful sea lions who seemed to enjoy posing for the camera!

Please remember that all images on this site are copyrighted and may not be used in any form without express permission from Susan Seubert Photography.

Thank you!!!

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Susan Seubert in National Geographic Traveler’s Best Photos of 2012

Dan Westergren, the senior photo editor of National Geographic Traveler Magazine, has named his ten favorite images that were published in the magazine in 2012.  I am very proud to be included in this selection of photographs!  Last summer, I was assigned to photograph two of the ten Travelers of the Year for the magazine.  Both of the people happened to be in Honolulu, a quick, direct flight from my home town of Portland.  I shoot regularly in Hawaii because I’m based there for four months out of the year.  It was fun and challenging to try and create images that were not only interesting, but spoke to the identity of both nominees.  I blogged about the shoot in a previous post which you can read here.  Dan chose to select the image I made of Theron Humphrey while on assignment for the magazine for inclusion in the Ten Best Traveler Photos of 2012.  Thank you Dan and National Geographic Traveler for this outstanding honor!  You can see all ten pictures and Dan’s comments by clicking on the image below.

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Editorial Photographer Susan Seubert shoots Travelers of the Year for National Geographic Traveler

Earlier this year, I was sent on assignment by National Geographic Traveler Magazine to the island of Oahu.  Two out of the ten people who had been nominated for “Travelers of the Year” awards were in Hawaii – one as a visitor and another as a resident.  Travelers of the Year is NGT’s inaugural celebration of individuals who explore the world with passion and purpose.  I’m often already based in Hawaii,  but it’s such an easy flight to Honolulu from Portland that it was a natural fit.  The story is out now in the December 2012 issue of the magazine.  You can read about all ten notable travelers here.  My two subjects were very different from one another, but both were passionate about travel.

Linda Yuen is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met.  She’s well into her 80′s and still travels regularly.  She and her husband snorkel weekly at Hanauma Bay Park, a beautiful, protected bay on Oahu that is frequented by tourists and locals alike.  Linda and her husband swim a mile out from the beach once a week, help people who are visiting to identify undersea creatures and walk up and down the big hill to get in and out of the water. I get winded just thinking about it!  It would have been ideal to shoot there, but the park has very strict hours and we would likely have to get a permit, so we had to find a different location for her portrait session.  I thought that the best photo would be of her with her snorkel mask on, in the water.  She was so brave to agree to this!  Most women I know at any age wouldn’t be at all thrilled at the idea of appearing in a major national magazine in a swimsuit, but she was game.  I had location scouted the beach in front of my hotel the night before to see if it would work with light, water depth, swell issues, (I didn’t have a water housing with me), and we agreed that Sans Souci Beach would be the perfect place for a late evening shoot.  She and her husband not only like to swim there, they also like to eat dinner at the restaurant in the hotel there.  A perfect fit!  We had about 30 minutes of glorious light.  Her sweet husband acted as my assistant and held the extra camera gear while I went in the water with Linda.  She has such a beautiful smile and her face is full of life, so it was easy to get a wonderful photo of her.

Linda Yuen, one of National Geographic Traveler Magazine’s 2012 Travelers of the year photographed in the water on the island of Oahu at sunset

Theron Humphrey is a young man who self-assigns projects that take him on adventures with a purpose.  He was nominated for a project where he interviewed people from all 50 states.  At the time we met up he was on his 50th state – Hawaii.  We photographed him in several different scenarios, but my favorite location was one he had found the previous day, in a park on a hillside overlooking downtown Oahu.  First I photographed him on a swing.  This idea worked conceptually because he’s very much a free spirit and swinging into a seemingly infinite space seemed apropos.  The second location was just down the path from the swing, up on a tree platform. Theron gingerly made his way up into the branches of the tree and I followed and stood as far back on the platform as possible, constantly reminding myself that I could easily fall backwards and break my neck!  It was worth the effort even though it’s a more serious portrait. The gaze is straight at the camera and he’s out on a tree limb with no bottom in sight.  When you follow your heart to the extent that he does for his photo-based projects, you will end up out there in the world in new and challenging environments and, quite literally, out on a limb.

Theron Humphrey, one of ten National Geographic Travelers’ “Travelers of the Year”

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Photojournalist Susan Seubert in the New York Times: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hawaii

Earlier in October of this year, I was assigned a story by the New York Times to cover a piece that was both art history and travel.  What an adventure!  My husband and I live in Maui for four months a year, so it’s always great to have an excuse to head out and explore.  I didn’t know that Georgia O’Keeffe had spent time in the islands.  I was familiar with only one landscape painting of a waterfall surrounded by green cliffs by the artist, but I learned through the story that this painting was made by O’Keeffe after a visit to the lush Iao Valley on the island of Maui.  It was so much fun to try and see that area, an area that I’ve been familiar with for quite some time, through the eyes of Ms. O’Keeffe.  Although there was no missive to try and emulate what O’Keeffe painted, to try and see what she saw was a wonderful visual exercise.  When I started puzzling together the time of year she was there, it made sense that she may not have been as taken in if she had been there in the dry, early autumn as we were at the time of the assignment.  The waterfalls on Maui are fed by rainwater and currently the entire county of Maui is in a drought.  However, another more obscure painting of two papaya trees in the Iao Valley was equally daunting to emulate as she had superimposed the unmistakable shape of the tree on backdrop of that lush valley.  However, the majority of her time on the island was spent in the lush area of Hana.  The story is on the New York Times’ web site here, but I can summarize our experience of following in the footsteps of this great painter.  She had been commissioned by the Dole Pineapple Company in 1939 to produce two paintings promoting the pineapple company and was invited to Oahu to visit the plantation.  She was disgusted by the fact that Dole wouldn’t allow her to stay on a working plantation because it was considered, “unseemly for a woman.”  She immediately bailed on the project.  Kudos to Georgia!  Instead, after traveling around the territory of Hawaii, she ended up in Hana on the island of Maui where she created most of her paintings during this period.  These stories are well documented not only through letters to her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, but also by her unlikely Hana guide, a 12 year old named Patricia Jennings, who was the daughter of the plantation manager where O’Keeffe stayed in Hana.  Patricia is still alive and living on the Big Island of Hawaii.  The author, Tony Perrottet, interviewed Patricia and was able to put together a living guide to Georgia’s time in Hana and the places where Ms. O’Keeffee painted.  Those places are still intact and very visible to anyone willing to seek them out.  This type of approach to travel is wonderful – not only does one get to stand and see precisely the same thing that Georgia did, the writer incorporated other destinations including where to stay, what to eat and other useful travel tips.  For me, it was a treasure hunt.  Having visited Hana many times, I’ve never considered it through the eyes of one of the most important American painters.  Ever since my parents took me as a teenager to see an O’Keeffe exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute back in the ’80′s, I’ve long admired her work.  This story was also a first for me in another way: there were far more photos published in the printed newspaper than there were online.  These days, as a contributing photographer for many magazines, most of the visual content ends up not in print but online or in an iPad version, there’s still a thrill in seeing a large photograph running across two pages of the New York Times.  Please read the article here.  I’ve also put together a portfolio of the outtakes online here for your enjoyment.  Aloha and mahalo for visiting!

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hawaii in the New York Times’ Travel Section

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Portland Photographer Susan Seubert shoots 2013 Chicken Coop Calendar

Last year I worked on my first calendar project with Amber Lotus Publishing.  The topic was something I was vaguely familiar with: urban chickens and their coops.  I’ve done a fair amount of assignment work photographing various gardens and a few stories about people who have urban farms, but this was the first time I’ve worked on a project specifically for a calendar.  The 2013 version is now available either directly from the publisher or on Amazon.com.  I’m sure you might run across this in garden stores too!  It was great fun working with each coop owner as every chicken coop had wildly different personalities.  It was also wonderful meeting the ladies, who turn out to make not only great pets, but also great eggs.  I’ve posted a few photos from the shoot on my stock photography site and will add more in the near future.  This is the perfect gift for anyone who keeps chickens as the coop ideas featured in the calendar are all very original.  We photographed the 2014 calendar this past summer and it was neat to be able to show those coop owners the ideas that are featured in the 2013 calendar.

City Chickens and Their Coops 2013 Wall Calendar featuring photos by Susan Seubert

Lydia Hess, the art director, and yours truly working on the perfect light for those glorious eggs

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Editorial and Commercial Photographer Susan Seubert in Maui

Aloha from the island of Maui!  I will be based here in the islands until November 30th.  Already, it’s been an extraordinary trip beginning with an encounter with an Hawaiian Monk Seal, both on land and in the water.  In the morning, tourists discovered a female monk seal hauled out on the beach here in Kaanapali.  Later, as I was stand-up paddleboarding, looking for turtles to photograph, she swam directly to the tip of my board, sorted a few hellos, then headed off for a nice ocean brunch.   It was an incredible encounter as the Hawaiian Monk Seal is one of the most critically endangered sea mammals on Earth.  It is estimated that fewer than 1500 remain.  They generally occur in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, so it’s rare to see them in areas like Kaanapali Beach, which is populated by humans.

I’m taking a little time off in order to test some underwater photo equipment for a trip to the Galapagos with National Geographic Expeditions where I’ll be the on board National Geographic Photography Expert.  I’m thrilled to be working with National Geographic Expeditions as every trip is truly an adventure!  If you’d like to join me in the Galapagos, I’ll be on two departures in January, the first beginning January 4th.  I’ll be giving tips and tricks to enhance your photography experience while we’re on the Expedition together, and demonstrate the type of work I do on assignment.  You can read more about the itinerary here.  In the mean time, if I don’t answer the phone, you can find me here:

The view from Honolua Bay on West Maui looking out over the marine preserve and the island of Molokai in the distance.  Aloha!!!

This image was taken with Lumix G2 fitted with a 20mm 1.7 pancake lens.  The RAW file was processed using Adobe’s Lightroom software.

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Editorial Photographer Susan Seubert Shoots for National Geographic Traveler

Summer is definitely on its way out as is evidenced by the fall magazines that are arriving in my mailbox.  The October 2012 issue of National Geographic Traveler landed and features a story I shot for their Road Trip section on central Washington State.  The adventure begins in Centralia then wanders over the Cascade Range, winding up with explorations through Yakima, Ellensburg and Prosser.  This is a beautiful area of the country, particularly at this time of year when the stone fruits of the Yakima Valley are ripening and everyone is getting excited for harvest.  There are some fine wines produced in this area, which also boasts the second largest hops growing area in the world.  If you decide to take this trip, I highly recommend staying at the Cherry Wood Bed, Breakfast and Barn where one can go on trail rides through the vineyards on horses that have been rescued and rehabilitated. While I was there, a pony named “Wild Bill” adopted me when I was shooting in one of the places where they keep some of the horses.  He was adorable!!!  Spend the night in a truly luxurious tee pee and take a bath under the stars in one of their outdoor tubs.  You can read the story on National Geographic Traveler’s web site here.

The opening image for, “Northwestern Exposure,” a story by Freda Moon about an adventurous road trip through Central Washington State. Photographs by yours truly.

Me on assignment, with the rescued pony, “Wild Bill.” My childhood dream of having a pony, if only for one night.

All the photos were made with Canon 5D Mark II cameras and a litany of Canon L Series lenses.  The images were processed using Adobe’s Lightroom software.

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Multimedia Photographer Susan Seubert in Smithsonian

The current, (May 2012), issue of Smithsonian Magazine features an online multimedia piece about the meaning behind hula and I had a great time shooting the video and audio that comprise the bulk of the piece.  I had been assigned to illustrate a story written by Oahu resident and well known author Paul Theroux entitled, “Paul Theroux’s Quest to Define Hawaii.”  It was a pleasure to spend an afternoon with Paul, an extremely interesting and generous man. He’s always got a tale to tell and is engaging in conversation. I feel quite lucky to have now worked on two of his stories.  His story can be read here, the photo gallery can be seen here, and you can hear his thoughts, along with Kumu Hula Hinaleimoana Wong Kalu in the multimedia piece here.

One of the images made for the story, “Paul Theroux’s Quest to Define Hawaii” of the Waianae Mountains on the island of Oahu, Hawaii

All of the still images and video were made with Canon 5D Mark II bodies, Canon L series lenses and the audio was captured with a wireless Sennheiser mic system and the Zoom H4n hand-held audio recorder.  The stills were processed in Adobe Lightroom and Smithsonian’s in-house video editors compiled the raw material into the finished piece.  Go team Smithsonian!

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Editorial and Fine Art Photographer Susan Seubert on Oregon Public Broadcasting

Last night, Oregon Public Broadcasting aired their twice weekly segment on art, called Oregon Art Beat.  I was one of the three persons featured on the show.  It is so strange to watch myself on tv, as I’m used to being on the other side of the camera.  The piece is about the fact that I work both as an editorial photographer and a fine art photographer.  I would like to thank OPB, Jule Gilfillan, Tom Shrider and Randy Layton for putting together such a nice piece. I’d also like to thank This Old House for giving OPB permission to photograph us working on location for the March 2012 cover. I am also grateful to Michele Greco for allowing herself to be filmed while we were working – so a big thanks to my favorite stylist/producer. Although this feels like more shameless horn-tooting, I really hope that you’ll take a moment to watch the video.

Oregon Art Beat video about Susan Seubert Photography

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