Here is an update to my last blog with Ryan Bock's senior photos. I shot a Fusion Video and tonight I finished editing. Here is the result:
If you want to view Ryan's Fusion Video in the highest resolution click here.
Ryan Bock is cool. I like him a lot. Today I had the honor of shooting his senior photos and it turns out he is very talented at skiing and especially tricks and things. So we went to Wilmot Mountain to shoot photos and tricks of his favorite sport. Of course, while I waited the 5-7 minutes between his jumps I shot the other snowboarding, skiing crazy people all around me. So here are the photos I captured. Video and senior portraits to follow. By the way, do you know what it means to "pull a 3?" I didn't either at first. Ryan let me know that it was short for a 360. 5=540, 7=720 etc etc. (I should study the language before I go to these things so I don't look like "that old dude." Even though I was in the skateboarding scene like a hundred years ago I wasn't getting all the lingo. The good news is my ego can handle it. Here are some pix
When we were shooting video we actually caught a "yard sale" as Ryan's helmet went flying during one of his tricks. Anyway this shoot was "Sick Nasty!" If you want to see all the images in all their higher resolution glory follow this link.
I'd love to hear feedback and more "clean" ski hill lingo!
http://bit.ly/wilmottrix
This morning came pretty early at 5:00am to get to Milwaukee for the Social Media Breakfast. But little did I know I would be shooting Bill Gates in person. Well actually a Bill Gates look alike! Jeff Larche is an incredibly personable and engaging speaker. I was blessed to sit under him as well as Matthew Olson, Tom Snyder and Kim Nielson. The breakfast was held at Moct "MOCT, pronounced "MOST," Serbian for "BRIDGE" is more than a bar." While the building is pretty cold that early in the morning the people are warm and friendly and I think we all benefit from the sharing of knowledge and enthusiasm for getting our brand message out there in a socially relevant way. Here are some photos from the event.If you want to see more photos here is the link whose who at the Milwaukee Social Media breakfast.
Jen and Zack are easy going and fun to be with. We met up Sunday in Harvard, IL to take some off-beat, fun and different photos. Just my style. On my way into town I spotted a fire escape and was immediately excited. I love urban grunge especially with cool subjects like this couple. So we started out shooting on train tracks (risk number one.) I don't know what it is about train tracks but I just like em'! Then we jumped in the car to warm and found the fire escape (risk number two.) This was the best fire escape I have seen yet because there was a fire escape right across the street where I could shoot at the same level from. Very nice. Then we found a cool alley way with the largest ice cycle I have ever seen and I realized that Zack was the kid on the playground the other kids would always dare to lick the ice pole in freezing weather. I asked to confirm my suspicions and he admitted it. Risk three was trying to make that photo work and it didn't really make it into the top 50 photos for the day.
Next stop was the transition from urban grunge to rural grunge in an abandoned barn. (risk four) I LOVE abandoned buildings! Something about them draws out the kid in me. So we traipsed around looking for cool things to shoot. I found a tire and laid down in the snow to get the shot. (Dropped my stupid keys and we had to come back and find them later!) Then (I couldn't believe it) but Jen and Zack agreed to go up on the hayloft and shoot. There was actually a shaky broken ladder and evidence of animals living up there (use your imagination). (Risk five and six)
Then to top off the risk chart they climbed up on rafters and "skooched" on their rears to get in the right position for the shoot. (risk seven)
So Jen and Zack win the award for the most number of risks taken in an engagement session. Thanks you two for indulging my inner grunge. I hope you like the photos as much as I do!
Here are some images from the risk taking Jen and Zack engagement session.
This weekend I had the opportunity to shoot engagement photos for Ashley Milatz and Tim Cates. What a riot? I love how in love they are. They are getting married in Burlington, WI. We met up at Veteran's Terrace where their reception is going to be held to start the photoshoot. Veteran's Terrace is an amazing new reception building in Burlington that can seat up to 420 guests. It also has many smaller rooms that are available for weddings as well as small groups. Burlington is a charming redeveloped small town with lots of fun places to shoot.
It was a cold morning so as we drove around Burlington looking for cool and rustic locations to shoot we kept blaring the heater to warm up. We shot at the train depot. Here are the photos we made.
I like to take a look at the magazine rack on the way out of the grocery store to see if one of my images has been published. I was thrilled to see my image on the cover of Waukesha County Magazine. Perhaps this is how a musical artist feels when she hears her song on the radio for the first time. The models were a delight to work with. Waukesha County has a lot to offer. Here is a link to things to do in Waukesha County.
Click more to see the cover.
Before today I thought a "hike" was what a center did when the quarterback yelled the word, or a long walk in the wilderness. But I experienced a HIKE today on an ice boat called Zephyr III with Bob Mereness at the helm. In this case a hike is when the boat edges up on two of the three runners. Ice boats can get up to 100 mph although today I think we were only going about 50, which was plenty fast for this newby! So I started by walking out on transparent ice, so see-through that I felt like I was walking on water. You could see fish swimming underneath. I was questioning my own sanity for just a second but then remembered I am committed to getting the shot "no matter what" so I charged on about a 1/4 mile into Lake Geneva with my Canon 5D Mark II with 1080p HD video built in. It turned out that a monopod and my 24-105 lens was the perfect combination for the video project.
I hope you enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed making it.
If this video has trouble loading try Ice Boats on Lake Geneva on YouTube.
Here are some photos I took a couple of years ago of the Ice Boats.
Pantone, LLC announced the color of the year for 2010. It is PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise. The recent press release stated, "Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing." What do you think? Is this color deserving of the 2010 color of the year? Personally I like the color. Here is a swatch from Pantone.
Here is a sample wedding I shot that used this color.
Doug Congdon & Leigh Wieble
Here is a link to more photos from this wedding. http://bit.ly/congdon
I'd love to hear feedback on this color. Do you think it will be the "color of the year" in 2010? If not what color do you think will be most fashionable?
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Walworth had quite the Ice Storm on Christmas Eve. I loved the way the world had this huge transparent coating on it. So I went out and shot this video and my wife Heather and I wrote a script and Heather narrated it. I'd love to hear what you think of it!
I recently had the pleasure of working directly with Jon Troast, the famous but approachable and humble singer song writer from Lake Geneva, WI. We created a music video based on the song "Living Room Tour." In 2008 Jon performed 100 living room concerts in 100 days. This music video helps tell the story that was inspired by his adventure. A special thanks to Josh Pilman and Brian Slawson for their help in shooting. The video was shot entirely on a Canon 5D MII. Also, thanks to Jason and Ruth Arndt for the use of their living room and to Cooper the wonderful dog who starred in the video.
You can view video at http://tinyurl.com/jontroast.
We were published on Walworth County Today's Video Blog today too!
