Shooting some food this week. I love this stuff. And not just because you get to eat it when you're done...but that certainly doesn't hurt. Watch for a few more great food images this week and next as we roll through a couple more shoots. And, of course, Marvin had to throw his two cents in on the shoot. That crazy little guy.
I've been bouncing around the state for the last few weeks doing a whole bunch of different things. Some meetings, some shoots, and some good old fashioned hangin' around. It's been good. Here are a few little postcards from Marvin and Me along the way. Enjoy.
I did some more work this week for the good people at the Lakes Community Health Center. These shoots are always great. Nice people to work with, interesting settings. But the challenge is always the same: working in a really small room. Dental and medical exam rooms are not really designed for photography. They're small and they're full of really shiny surfaces that glare and bounce light in all the wrong ways. These rooms are designed for medicine, which makes sense since that's what they're used for 99.72% of the time, but that means that the .28% of the time that I'm working in them is pretty tricky. I usually end up cramming myself into one corner, filling another corner with lighting equipment, and then telling people "just act natural." Not exactly easy to do when your in a room full of blinking lights and there's a strange man cowering the corner brandishing a camera. Still, we always come away with some great images. Watch for more as the winter goes on.
One of the incredible things about being a photographer is that frequently people call you up out of the blue, tell you about something absolutely amazing that's going to happen, and then ask if you'd like have a front row seat to watch said amazing thing happen. Do I want to come watch the Paralympic World Cup? Sure, that sounds awesome. Would I like a press pass so I can get down on the course? Did you even need to ask?
From the get go I was pretty excited to go watch this event, but I didn't realize how incredible it was going to be until I got there. First off, there are teams from all over the world Russia, Canada, Italy, France, Japan. It's always cool to hear coaches yelling at their athletes in different tongues. But on top of that it turned out to be hands down the most impressive show of athleticism I have ever seen.
The first event I caught was the biathalon (skiing and target shooting) for seated skiers. If you're not familiar with seated skiing Google it. It looks really hard. And not like, "oh, I'd be slower than that guy, but I could probably do it" hard. I'm talking "I couldn't do that...at all" hard. I know I'm not a body builder (I know, some of your are probably surprised to hear that...it's true), but I'm in okay shape and I don't know that I could actually propel myself this way on flat ground. Much less up hill. And there were some serious hills on this 7.5 KM course. Yeah you read that right 7 point frickin' 5 K's. Insane. So on top of skiing this difficult course you then have to stop every 2.5 KM to lay down and take 5 pretty difficult shots at a target while your heart is racing and your breathing like...well like you just pushed your self around a 2.5KM course with just your arms. And a bunch of the athletes had perfect shooting records for the day. So with out rambling, let me just say I was pretty much blown away.
Then came the division for skiers with a visual impairment. And remember that this is a course with some pretty big ups and some pretty big downs. Now imagine navigating that course by following the voice of your guide skier. I would just lay down and give up. They were flying. Then they did their shooting. These athletes shoot with a laser system that gives a tone when they are lined up on the target. I never got close enough or got to talk to anyone about how exactly it worked, but it seemed pretty cool. How often to get to watch blind target shooting? Amazing. Long story short if you ever get the chance to go to a Paralympic World Cup, Go. Where ever your seats happen to be.
I've really been getting into this new technique over the last week or so. Here are a few more images from Marvin, the 1949 Kodak Dualflex II. I've been honing this style a little, figuring out which configurations of equipment and settings seem to be working the best. I've even been making some custom pieces for the camera to block out unwanted light. I'm sure I look relatively insane trying to use this two camera contraption, but I don't care. The results are worth it. There's still more tweaking to be done, but, for the most part, I think I have it figured out. Now I just need some people for a few photos; models if you will. But not the prima-donna "I simply won't work without a bowl of peeled grapes and bottle of san pellegrino" kind. I need the northwoodsy, down to earth kind. Potentially, the kind that come with their own massive beard and shotgun accessory package. I have a couple ideas. Also, anyone have a classic three piece suit? Send me an e-mail and we'll set up a time. ((**WARNING: If no one volunteers, I will be forced to continue posting random images of myself and other inanimate objects. And nobody wants that, people. No body.**))
It's 2012. And that means it's time for some changes. Especially here on hiredlens.com. Like shaving off the itchy, frazzled whiskers of an overgrown beard, we've trimmed down to a cleaner, more streamlined, and, I dare say, more handsome version of the same, good-old site. Wielding HTML like a fresh razor and Adobe Flash like warm shaving cream, we've managed to scrape away the superfluous chaff to get down to what really matters. But much like shaving off an unsettling large amount of facial hair, you're bound to miss a little here and there, so bear with us as we find and remove those last few scraggly wisps of the old design. And keep checking back to see what's new in 2012. In the mean time, keep it real out there, people.
Was that photo taken with an iPhone and the hipstamatic app, you ask? Oh, no. That's a real photo taken with a real F#$%^ camera, my friends. Remember those: little black boxey deal, you put a roll of this plasticy stuff in the back and then used them to make photographs. Anyone? No? Hmmm. Okay, to be fair I didn't shoot these with film, but I did use an old camera. I fanoogled a way to shoot through the old body and lens (complete with 60 years of true grit) using my current digital SLR. Pretty sweet. This particular one is a Kodak Dualflex II circa 1949. It's amazing the things you can find in your parents basement. Watch for some new stuff from this little guy ( I think I'm going to name him Marvin) in the next couple weeks. I've got big plans.
Man, everyone needs a poster right now. One last one for Ashland Yoga Studio quick before the holidays. It was fun to play around with a different, non-standard size for this one. I'm excited to see how they turn out once they're printed and trimmed.
Usually things slow down in the late fall and early winter. Portrait season has passed and it's still a little early for the good winter sports photo assignments in the mid-west. So in years past, it's been fewer photos and more sitting-around-reading, which isn't so bad. But this year I've been busy with a lot more graphic design work. I love this stuff. Here's a new poster I just finished for Katie at Solstice Outdoors to advertise their ski and snowshoe rentals. Anyone else out there needing some design?
Some more design work for a local event. This is the front of the ticket for the event watch for a poster and some other items coming soon. Oh, and if you want to reserve a ticket for this (I'm for sure going, so it must be awesome) call Julie at (715) 373-5565.
In honor of Wisconsin's new conceal and carry law, Hired Lens Photography is proud to present: The Bob Gross Guide to Making Friends and Influencing People. Foward, Wisconsin. Forward.
Hired Lens Photography is proud to present the long-awaited public debut of: The Bob Gross Guide to Dressing for Success at the Office. Enjoy.
Had a great senior portrait shoot this past Wednesday in Ashland with Kylie. It was a fairly chilly out, but we still got some really nice things outside and Kylie did an awesome job looking warm and happy on a cold day. Then, after we lost the sun, we headed indoors for some more formal portraits. This was probably my last senior session of the season, and it was a great way to wrap up a busy year. It seems like everyone's images are due into the yearbook in the next week or two, so if you had a session with me earlier in the season and still need to choose an image to touched up for submission, let me know ASAP.
Hey everyone, meet Jackson. Jackson is a fairly eclectic guy. He's a bow-hunter, a fisherman, a runner, a snow board racer, a scuba diver, a fire fighter, etcetera etcetera. The list goes on. I feel like a total bum talking to this kid. Anyway, someone like Jackson deserves some unique senior portraits, so we put together a shoot that was a little different than most. From the start, it seemed that the universe was against us. There were cloudy skies and boat motors that wouldn't start and lost arrows. But we persevered and, after defaulting to a second day of shooting, we got some really great images. For me that's the fun part.
After a couple crazy weeks including a trip to Voyageurs National Park, I'm finally processing photos from the last wedding of the season. Joe and Greta had a beautiful ceremony at Living Adventure, Inc. outside of Bayfield, Wisconsin, followed by an amazing dinner which promptly lead into a TOTALLY ROCKIN' DANCE PARTY (insert fist pump and high kick here. Yeah!) at the Bayfield Pavilion. Congratulations, you crazy kids.
Yesterday morning was a particularly rough episode in my ongoing struggle to accept the end of summer. Frost. Really, Mother Nature? Was that entirely necessary. I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job, but that seemed a little over the top. Just because you can cause the untimely end of our garden doesn't mean you should. That's just mean. After we harvested everything that was even remotely ripe the other night in the freezing drizzle (thanks for that also) I took a few photos of this spicy thai pepper. Our neighbors Mike and Tonia, grew these in the garden this year. Pretty? Yes. Incredibly hot? Also, yes. About a week ago, Mike double-dog dared me to eat one, and of course if someone double-dog dares you to do something you pretty much have to. So I did. Let me just say that I didn't realize that the human tongue could sweat, but I'm pretty sure that's what was happening. I will now be using this little guy as a heat source.
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.
