Dipping My Toes Into The World Of Tour Organizing

For the previous 5 years, I had been doing some part-time tour directing for a local motorcoach company as a way to earn some extra money and do my second favorite thing...travel.   As a tour director, the trip and itinerary was all planned out for me. My main responsibility was to research our destinations and make sure the trip went as planned by the office.

After leaving my tour director position this past year, I  thought it would be an interesting challenge to organize some small tours of my own.  My first trip was a four day to St. Louis, and this most recent tour was weekend to Chicago.   I made all the arrangements, rented a 12 person van...which I discovered is really not made for 12 people...and got 10 friends and acquaintances to sign up.

The weather was perfect and the group all got along great.   We took a Wendella Chicago River Tour, saw a show at Second City Comedy and spent an afternoon at the North Halsted Street Market Days and finished it off with a relaxing stop at the King Spa & Sauna in Niles, IL.   Overall it was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Just might have to do this again...

Senior Portraits - Alex

Theres are a few images from a high school senior portrait session with Alex at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, WI.  I always enjoy working with high school seniors with the excitement and anticipation of their final year in high school and graduation and a reminder of those days for me many years ago.

Cullen Weston Pines & Bach - Professional Portraits

Spent a morning at Cullen Weston Pines & Bach law firm of Madison, WI.  They are a progressive firm that specializes in labor, environmental and civil law to name a few.  I like doing sessions like this on location.   It gets me out of the studio and get to see interesting locations.

   

   

Madison Flashes of Hope - 2013

This is my second year of volunteering with Madison's chapter of Flashes of Hope. A national organization that coordinates free portraits of children and their family who are being treated at the University of Wisconsin's American Family Children's Hospital. It's a great way to give back with photography. It can be a bit of challenge to make portraits of children who may not be feeling their best and at the same time being confronted by a stranger with a camera. But, it's the challenge that I enjoy. Working quickly while being patient is the key to capturing those fleeting candid moments. I'm honored to be part of this great organization.

Wisconsin Public Radio's 45 North with Anne Strainchamps

I had the good fortune to be hired to photograph  Anne Strainchamps, the host of the new Wisconsin Public Radio show called 45 North  for a story in the Isthmus Newspaper.   The show explores music and literature and the idea of a sense of place.  The show was name for the fact that the 45th parallel runs through northern Wisconsin.

It was my first time to the WPR Studios on the UW-Madison Campus.   I immediately got a good vibe from the place, and the people were super nice and friendly.  Meeting Ms. Strainchamps was a bit strange at first though.  Not because there's anything strange about her, but simply because her voice is so familiar to me as a regular listener of To The Best of Our Knowledge.  I quickly set up a light and made a few portraits before heading to the studio for the 9:00am start.  Fortunately the first segment of the show was a taped interview which gave me ample time to get in-studio images.

Anne's first guest was Wisconsin author David Rhodes, who just published a new book called "Jewelweed", the follow-up to his bestselling novel, "Driftless". It was nice to hang and listen to them discuss the rundown of the show and life in small towns. The second hour was the Klezmer Sound Salon with five time grammy-nominated producer, performer (and funny man) Henry Sapoznik.  Mr. Sapoznik is the Executive Director of the Mayrent Institute at the UW Madison and an expert on Yiddish music and folk culture.

This was a really enjoyable assignment. I loved being in the media production/live broadcast environment. After my nerves calmed down (and the sweating stopped), I got into a nice grove and was quite happy with the results. Isthmus gave me a three image spread with the article which was a bonus. I'm a proud member of WPR too!

Trying Out My New Photek Softlighter II

I've had my eye on the Photek Softlighter II Umbrella Softbox for quite awhile and decided to bite the bullet and get it. It's like a poor man's OctaBox that produces a very nice soft light for cheap.

It's a simple design of an umbrella with a diffuser panel on the front. I used it with a Canon Speedlite to photograph these products below. It was a simple one light setup that produced nice soft highlights and shadows.

I'm anxious to use it in a portrait session scheduled for next week.

St. Louis Gateway Arch

If you read my blog, you've probably come to the conclusion that St. Louis is one of my favorite cities. It has a lot of character, architecture and interesting neighborhoods. I'm also in love with the Gateway Arch. 

The tallest man-made monument in the United States towers at 630 feet. It's a simple but elegant shape (a weighted catenary curve) covered in stainless steel that constantly changes as you move around it. I never get tired of looking at and photographing it. It's just such a massive and unusual structure. I enjoy getting up close and using a wide angle lens to distort and create exaggerated shapes such as this one. The Gateway Arch is truly one of our greatest national monuments.

Vi The Salvage Art Queen

Vi has been showing up a bit here.  She's such an interesting person, and I really appreciate the effort that she puts into her themed outfits when hits the Madison event scene.   I kind of feel like a one man paparasi following her around town to photograph her different looks.   Here she was at Hatch Art Gallery on Willy St for the twice a year Madison Museum of Contemporary Art's Madison Gallery Night as The Salvage Art Queen.  Most of the items she did fine or are from resale shops and she has quite the collection of accessories to compliment her outfit.   Being a living work of art herself, her presence at the Hatch Art Gallery was a nice addition to the intimate art on display.  I'm sure I'll be posting more images of Vi in the future.