More Photos.

 

A few more recent photos. Above, a headshot for friend Noah Siegler, Artistic Director for StageNorth in Washburn, Wisconsin. This was just a quick headshot after shooting some images for a play poster. Not sure if the play has been announced yet, so I'm not going to spill the beans here, but keep an eye out for that soon. This was also a first experiment with using an extension tube to get a shallower depth of field for a portrait. A little harder to nail the focus than with just the normal lens, but I kind of like the look. Watch for more experiments with that in the near future. Below, my favorite frame from a weekend shoot at Ashland Yoga Studio. Check out their new fall schedule, lots of great classes going on. September's shaping up to be a pretty busy month. Watch for more in the next couple weeks, including something competely different in the beginning of October.

Family Portrait.

First let me say thanks to the Sandor Family. They were great to work with for this shoot at the beach in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. Super relaxed and flexible, even if not everyone was quite up for pictures. Thanks also for letting me use you as an example.

Okay. Family portraits can be tough. I think they're one of the hardest genres of photography to do really well. Especially with little kids. It's a lot of factors to deal with all at once. Sometimes you get lucky and everyone looks the same way at the exact same moment and smiles their biggest, happiest smile and you get the photo and you're all set. But sometimes, no matter what you do, not everyone is on the same page. It happens. We all have those days (in fact, I might be having one right now, but that's a different story). That doesn't have to mean the shoot is a loss though; you can still come away with some great images. It just means you need to re-imagine the photos you planned to get. And that's the biggest challenge. Once you have a concept mapped out in your head it's hard to walk away from it, but sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes you have to step back and find another route to the same destination: great photos. For the shoot with the Sandor's that meant abandoning the formal family photo and changing to a less formal arrangement like the more candid images below. It's different, but in the end I think everyone was happier. Watch for more.

Senior Portraits-Adam.

 

One of my favorites from a senior portrait shoot last week with Adam in Washburn. Headed to Michigan again at the end of this week, then I'm back for more shoots in the Chequamegon Bay Area. Lots more of these to come during the end of this month and the beginning of September. If you still need to book a senior portrait session for this season give me a call soon, the calendar is getting pretty full. Enjoy the last couple weeks of summer, it's going fast.

August. The first half.

Another crazy month, another random sampling of images from recent shoots. I've had a little more interest in some of my wildlife work lately, so I've been keeping an eye out for a few more opportunities in that category (i.e. Bald eagles carrying fish and that sort of thing, a "right place at the right time" kind of shot that I caught last week during lunch). This month has been insane though. All over the map literally and figuratively. In between shoots, I'm also pulling together a calendar for a handful of photography workshops that I'll be teaching in the fall. Watch for the schedule to be posted here in the next few weeks and sign up early, the classes fill really fast.

This shoot was a major flash back to working for newspapers, something I used to do more of a few years back. The client needed an environmental portrait of Dr. Nehring, a dentist in Mercer, Wisconsin, but he's super-busy this time of year and only had about 10 minutes in the middle of a day to give us a photo op. That's tight, but doable. So I got everything set up for a shoot in this operatory while he finished a root canal in the room next door. I even had someone else sit in for a few test shots to make sure everything was dialed in. Once Dr. Nehring was finished next door he popped in smiled and we got the shot in a few frames (turns out dentists are pretty good at turning on the smile, didn't need much direction on that). Nice and quick. He was already back in gloves and a mask before I was out the door with my lights. Surgical strike photography. It took about five times as long to get there and back as it did to shoot, and we came away with a great image. Thanks to Charmaine and Jess, who both helped put this one together.

And another shot from a night at the Big Top Chautauqua. This is from the house show "Ladies of the Canyon." Four lovely ladies and the Blue Canvas Orchestra performing the music of Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass, Carli Simon and others. Pretty amazing. Next up, senior portraits. Lots of 'em. Watch for more.

Back Home.

Wow. It's been a busy couple weeks. But I'm home again from shoots in Georgia and then Michigan. Here's a random sampling of images from the last couple weeks. Some catalogue photos, some portraits sessions, and finally some dive photos on a couple of shipwrecks in Lake Huron. All in all a pretty random assortment of shoots, but what is it that they say about variety being spicy? Or is it life that's spicy. I always forget. You get the idea. Either way, I love this job. Stay tuned for more.

Nori.

This post could also be called Breaking Sh*t...and then learning how to fix it. Okay, let me start by saying that I had two shoots scheduled yesterday. The first one early in the morning got rained out, which is fortunate because while I was setting up for it (pre-cancellation), I totally smoked an important piece of equipment on the ground and busticated the power switch. Bummer. This is where being a little handy pays off. (P.S. the top photo is from the second shoot yesterday, that's Nori, keep reading to find out more about her.)

So, this thing is the battery pack for a portable mono block light that I use pretty much all the time for outdoor portraits. It's not super expensive, but it's expensive enough that I don't really want to buy another one. Not to mention, I couldn't buy another one in to time for the evening shoot; It's not exactly a regularly stocked item. Case in point, when I brought it in to Radio Shack I had to first explain what it was before they could help me out. Explanation complete, there was some chin scratching and some rifling through drawers before they hooked me up with the switch that I needed and I started playing mad scientist for a little while.

Now, the new switch wasn't exactly the same size, shape, or orientation as the old one. In fact nothing about it was the same except the voltage/amperage something rating, but I set about fanoogling it all into working order. After a few blue flashes, some quiet cussing, and a little bit of quality time with a screwdriver, I managed to install the new switch. Is it pretty? No. Does it work? Yes. Did I need to cancel my second shoot for the day? No. Mission: Successful. Now I just need to remember not to drop it again. Here are the extra/broken parts I had left after I put it back together: (I don't even know what the zip tie was doing in there before I took it apart. Hopefully nothing important, cause it's not doing it anymore. Weird. But not bad considering I had no idea what I was doing.) I'll say it, I'm proud of me.

Okay, so Nori. Nori is a totally rockin' fiddle player from Ashland, Wisconsin. She's just starting to hit the regional music scene and she was needing a few head-shots. She's also working on a new album which will also need some photos and judging from what she was playing during the shoot, it's going to be awesome. So, we put together a little shoot down by the lake that gave us several different settings in one little area. Combined with a perfect evening it worked out great. Here are a few more:

Flowers.

I had a little time yesterday afternoon to get out the old camera, slap on a macro lens and putter around in the yard for a while. It's a pretty sweet time of year to be out, lots of great things in bloom, and this is probably my last chance to play around for a while. July (which for your information starts THIS Friday. Holy Crap) is shaping up to be a ridiculously busy month with shoots scheduled in Michigan and Georgia along with a couple really cool projects in the Washburn area. Watch for some sweet new posts mid-month. Now I'm not saying anything more. You can't make me. You'll just have to check back and see for yourself. Gooooo, Summer!

New shoes, old skateboard.

 

I did it. I got new shoes. For those of you that know me, this is a big move. Epic even. The planets finally aligned (sort of literally) and I went down to Solstice Outdoors Monday afternoon to get some sweet new kicks. I've had my eye on these Patagonia Boaris shoes pretty much since Solstice opened. I looked at these every time I was in there, but I held off...until Monday. Mostly, I was worried Katie would sell out of my size during their Solstice Sale yesterday. But there were also other factors at play.

You see, I've been needing some new long-boarding shoes for a long time (I know all you purists are shaking your heads and saying you shouldn't long-board in shoes, but I'm really bad at it and rocks really hurt, so mind your own frickin' business, huh?). And since June 21st was also "Go Skateboarding Day", I thought "the time has come." So I pulled the trigger and just got 'em. In celebration of the new shoes and the skater-holiday and the summer solstice and the fact that we now have a sweet outdoor shop where you can actually get stuff like this in Ashland, I had to put together this photo.

See a few more versions of the same concept and check out how I did it below:

**Disclaimer: Taking photos like this is a really efficient way to destroy expensive camera equipment in a fraction of a second. Trust me I have a box of mangled camera pieces from other stupid ideas to prove it. But the pay out on these kinds of gambles can be totally sweet photos. And isn't that the whole reason to have a camera anyway? If a cameras going to die, shouldn't it go out doing what it loves? Still, try this at your own risk.

Step Uno: Drill a hole in your long-board deck. What's that you say? You don't want to drill holes in your stuff? It takes guts to attack your personal possessions with a whirling power tool. Sadly, not everyone is cut out for this project. If you're feeling uncomfortable, maybe you should take up origami or checkers instead.

 

Step Deux: Mount a ball-head onto a bolt fed through the hole. Add washers to prevent potentially tragic loosening mid-skate. For the ultra-cheap version you can mount the camera directly to a 1/4-20 bolt through the hole (and tighten a stopper nut against the deck to stop if from twisting), but you sacrifice the range of motion.

Step Three: Mount camera with cable release to ball-head. Aim, manually focus and lock it in place with gaffers tape to prevent zoom-creep. Zoom-creep is when, due to vibration or gravity or both, the lens inadvertently changes focal length. Some lenses have a lock switch to prevent this, but a little tab of gaffers tape does the same thing.

 

Step IV: Set the exposure for desired depth of field and/or motion blur based on ambient light conditions. You may want to do this with a grey card as the black grip tape and dark asphalt may give you a misleading exposure reading. Take a few tests before you start rolling and check the histogram to make sure you're on the money (for example, as the histogram reveals the image shown below is not on the money, too dark.)

Step 5: Get to scootin'... and try really hard not to crash. Push the button. A lot. Process and serve with cold beer. Happy new shoes/Go Skateboarding Day, America.

Back to my roots.

Got to spend some time out in the yard this afternoon messing around with taking some macro shots. They weren't for a client or a potential client or anything else; they were just for me (and now, I guess, you if you're reading this). I was just looking at something that I thought was interesting and trying to capture it, freeze it so I can return to that moment time and again. I was doing a lot more of this kind of personal shooting a couple years ago and it was nice to get back to it, for an afternoon anyway. This is the kind of shooting that got me into photography in the first place. I've always loved shooting nature photos, wildlife, bugs, all that sort of thing. Especially macro shots like this. As I developed as a photographer I slowly started to like working with people more and more. And now I work with people almost exclusively. Not that working with people isn't great, I love it. But it's different. It's complex and rewarding and exhausting and stressful and inspiring (and it pays a whole lot better) all at the same time. But after a few chaotic weekends of weddings and small portrait assignments it's good to take a step back and remember why I started doing this in the first place: because it's fun. Here's to fun.

Max & Lorraine.

Went down to Stillwater, MN this weekend to shoot my first wedding of the 2011 Season. Other than the tornado siren going off during their vows, the event was a smashing success. Great people, great party. Congratulations Max and Lorraine, I wish you a long and beautiful life together.

I also tried a new wedding photo experiment: a photo booth at the reception where people could snap their own portraits to give to the bride and groom. Two words: Frickin' Awesome. I started it out by just showing a couple people how to use it and asked them to show a couple more people. Word spread. By the end of the evening there were more than 300 priceless memories on the camera in the booth. Check out a couple below. I'm calling that experiment an unqualified success.

 

Colorado.

A few photos from an engagement session I shot while we were out in Colorado a week ago. These were shot outside of Boulder. We ended up with bad weather but made the best of it. I love the way the sky looks in these. Also got the chance to be a lame tourist in Boulder for the afternoon. As you can tell from the photos (taken by my lovely assistant Sarah), I really enjoy being a tourist. While tolerant, Sarah was not what you would call impressed. Can't win 'em all.

A New Boat.

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
-From The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

A few photos from the launching of new boat by JW Swan Boatworks. Josh and I went down to one of the growing gaps in the ice to give this craft its first taste of the lake. This 14 ft. row boat, built for a customer in Chicago, is based on a classic design for small working boats in Norway. To conserve weight the hull is planked with special mahogany marine plywood rather than solid wood, but sealed with a traditional and non-toxic combination of pine tar and linseed oil, also affectionately known as "boat sauce." Pretty cool to see it slip into the water for the first time. This got me excited for boating season. Now all I need is a boat...

 

Joe & Greta.

Wedding season is coming up fast, and for a photographer that means right now is engagement photo season. Just had a shoot last night with our friends Joe and Greta. We headed out to the campground at Big Rock County Park just outside of Washburn to get these images. For anyone that's never been there make sure to get out there this spring, it's absolutely beautiful. Great light. Watch for more photos from Joe and Greta's wedding later in the season.

Claire Duquette-Ashland Daily Press

 

Over the last four years or so, I've worked with Claire Duquette, editor of the Ashland Daily Press, on a relatively regular basis. I submit the occasional photo, she throws me the occasional assignment. It's a good system. In a recent conversation, Claire mentioned that her headshot was getting a little out of date. So we set up a time to shoot something new. This was a simple, one-light set up in the press room at the ADP, an iconic "newspaper" setting. If you were going to run into somewhere and yell "Stop the Presses," this room is where you would want to do that. I have to resist that urge every time I walk through there. Anyway, start to finish the whole shoot took about 12 minutes, most of which was setup and tear-down, but the end result is a few great images that Claire can use next to her byline. I love these kinds of shoots: simple setup, quick turn-around, great final product. And it didn't hurt that Claire bought me lunch afterwards. Anyone else out there need a new headshot? Call me.

Canoe & Kayak Magazine-Gail Green

This is Gail Green of Living Adventure, Inc. I photographed Gail for Canoe & Kayak Magazine earlier this winter, but I couldn't share the images here until they ran in print. It just appeared in the recent Beginners Guide issue as a two page spread featuring Gail as one of the premier guides in the country. It looked pretty sweet, and congratulations to Gail for the recognition. They actually used a slightly different image for the article, but this is my favorite. I love the water droplets in the air.

Not only is Gail a great guide, turns out she's a great subject too. We were scrambling to get this image before the ice came in this fall and, despite a crazy schedule, Gail found the time to don a dry suit and get out in a boat for these photos. I was shooting from in the water for these, floating in the lake in a dry suit the morning after the first big snow storm of the year. It actually wasn't as cold as I was expecting it to be, but I couldn't wear gloves and still access the controls on the camera. So I would get in the water, shoot a couple frames, climb out, warm up my hands, and get back in for a couple more. Gail was super patient, staying in her boat while I fumbled around, just waiting for me to get the right shot. Special thanks also to Gail's husband, Grant Herman, who held the light stand for me and helped me get equipment (and myself) up and down the icy boat ramp.

I love these sorts of assignments. Fun stuff to shoot. I'm still sitting on a few images from a couple other magazine assignments, just waiting for those issues to come out so I can show them here. Watch for more.

Embellishments-Wedding Dress Shoot.

 A quick frame from a wedding dress shoot for Embellishments Bridal and Gift in Ashland, Wisconsin. Thanks to Karen for the use of a beautiful dress for this shoot. I think we managed to keep it pretty clean, all things considered. Those that read this blog regularly will remember the model; I shot Tatiana's senior portraits early this fall. She did a great job on this shoot too. It's apparently becoming tradition that I ask Tatiana to do ridiculous things for photos. "Here stand in these mosquito infested woods and try to look happy while they suck out almost every drop of blood you have." "Okay, try to keep the train up while you walk out on the ice towards these pilings and, oh yeah, try to look warm." Bizarre as it may be, she guts it out and the photos seem to turn out pretty darn good. Watch for this and some other new images to start popping up in a few places around the area. More to come.

Boat Builder.

This, my friends, is JW Swan Boatworks. And that's old JW Swan himself at work right there in the middle of it all (although he prefers to go by Josh). I've done a few shoots for Josh in the past couple years to document projects that he's working on. Always fun to catch up and see what he's doing. Josh never half-asses anything and it shows, he does absolutely beautiful work. These are a few frames from the first shoot in a series of four. The goal is to document his progress on the restoration of a 27ft racing sailboat. Can't wait to stop back in a few weeks for the next shoot and see how much more is done. This boat is going to be amazing when it's finished. Watch for more.