About Orion

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’d tell others about myself. I have a lot of interests, besides photography. I’ve been told almost my whole like that I’m rather geeky. So when I looked up what a geek really was, I discovered that they were right all along. The Oxford dictionary defines a geek as: noun: geek; plural noun: geeks 1. an unfashionable or socially inept person.a knowledgeable and obsessive enthusiast.”a computer geek”2. USa performer at a carnival or circus whose show consists of…

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3 Tips for taking portraits with your pet

A boy and his dog, what a great pair! As a family photographer, I am privileged to work with many diverse types of families. Many times we work with children, and young children need special attention for getting great photos with them. But young children aren’t the only kids that need special consideration in photography. I am talking of course about your fur babies! Our pets can be our children too Over the years I have worked with dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, horses, and…

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Come Celebrate with Us

The New Studio! This Friday, August 19th, marks the grand re-opening of the Photos By Orion studio in our new location, and the grand opening of Purple Kat Business Development, my newest brain-child. We are going to have a big event! I hope you can make time to come out and help us celebrate between 2:00 and 6:00 pm. Our official ribbon cutting is at 3:00 pm and I can’t wait! Hope to see you there! Our new address is 2416 13th St SE Suite…

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Cherry Blossoms, Camas, and Japanese Wisteria…oh my!

Beautiful family portraits and preserving them for the future That special time of year has arrived again! The cherry blossoms are here and that means the camas and wisteria are not far behind. Each year these 3 beautiful flowers offer their blossoms up and families want to take advantage of their beauty for family photos like these: I always love this time of year because I know the kinds of amazing photos I can give my clients. But it is also a bittersweet time because…

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Everything You Need to Know About Hiring A Drone for Your Wedding

Drone wedding photo at Riverbell Farm

Guest blog from Dronethusiast.com Everyone wants their wedding to be a special occasion – a source of wonderful, happy memories that last a lifetime. And of course, you need a photographer (and/or videographer) to capture those memories so that you can revisit them again and again. Many couples are now choosing drone photography as a way to make their wedding videos more dynamic and instantly unique. But this technology – and its adoption by the consumer mainstream – is still fairly new, so it’s understandable…

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Orion Shooting Orion

If you didn’t know, my name is Orion. It makes sense for the business name, but as my wife is really the face of the business, I’m the name. So when I got contacted to shoot someone else with my name, I was immediately excited about the opportunity. I’ve known of a few other people in the area and in the world of Facebook with the name Orion, I’ve never met another in person in real life. When I finally met Orion, I was surprised…

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5 Tips to help you get the best portraits of your kids

Two children hugging

Here at Photos By Orion, we love working with children! They are so fun and spontaneous, and they can have such engaging smiles! But kids, like pets, have only a short amount of time and attention they are willing to give to a photographer, so here are a few tips for helping you get beautiful portraits of your child.   Have them well fed and rested  No one does well in photos if they are hungry or tired, so the best time to do a…

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5 of the best spots for senior and family portraits in the Salem area

The Willamette Valley is full of great outdoor locations for Fall family portraits or Senior shoots. Here are 5 of my favorite: Minto-Brown Park Minto-Brown park is located minutes from downtown Salem, Oregon. It is the largest park in Salem. Numerous fields and paved paths abound in Minto-Brown Park, providing a variety of locations to choose from which makes it a favorite location for me because it has a good variety of location types. There are old stumps with vibrant green foliage, grass fields  and…

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Budgeting for your wedding

Weddings are expensive. Let’s face it. According to CNN, the wedding industry is a 53.4 billion dollar market and the average wedding costed about 28,000 in 2012. Those are some crazy numbers, and I’m certain they are only rising. That doesn’t mean that you have to take a second job just to be able to afford your special day. I believe that there are two main factors that need to come into play when you’re planning and budgeting for a wedding: Prioritization Effort Wait, what?…

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