I’m in Vegas baby! Time to brush up my skills and hopefully learn lots of new things to help me be a better photographer. There is something to be said about becoming better at your craft. If you are washing dishes or are a CEO, you can always be better, brush up, and focus on your craft to enhance what you do. I am excited for what this week has to offer and what I can learn from it.
I am staying at the MGM Grand hotel thanks to WPPI who picked my video to win for their video contest. Went to a Plus class today with the great Kevin Kubota and was soaking in his great Hawaiian wisdom. If I get as many ideas and things to implement as I did today, my head will, undoubtedly, explode. Here’s to my head going Boom!
We shot a few photos with the class today and tomorrow we are going to work on them, but I thought I would post a few for you to see.
I don’t really do much band photography, but it is always fun to do something different every now and again.
Tom is one of the guys in the band and I had the pleasure of shooting his wedding as well as the wedding of his wifes sister… I kinda feel like a second cousin now. He gave me a call, we set up a time to shoot, and then we were off. I have quite a few more shots that I love, but here are two of my favorites.
I love pictures. I love taking them, editing them, and printing them. I love showing them and giving them to people. There is something about catching a moment and putting it on paper. This last Saturday I went on a photo walk with some of my Flickr friends. (Flickr is fantastic for people from pros, to moms with cameras) We have been going on photowalks for about 4 years now and it has been great to meet new people and talk with other people who are passionate about pictures.
We met up at a place called Wolskie’s, which, if your from Milwaukee, you have probably seen their bumper stickers around town. From there we walked around Brady Street taking photos of places and people and ended at a place called the Nomad. There were lots of great photos taken and conversations had. If you shoot, want to shoot, or have fingers and a camera, you should come out to the next photo walk. To get more info, join flickr and then join the Cream City: Milwaukee group.
Photos are interesting things. They can make you laugh, they can make you cry, they can make you reminisce and they can inspire you. As I venture into the world of dating and love with my lady, I have become more aware of the power in a photo.
Nicole and I went on a “photo” date a while ago where we drove around the countryside with a tripod and no timeline and took photos. A few years ago I did a 365 Project where I took a self portrait a day for a year, so taking our own photos would be cake. We took quite a few photos and I still haven’t edited them all but have been working on them here and there. The ones that I have edited I got printed and they now hang in my office and by my computer at home.
It is crazy to me how the essence of someone can be captured on a piece of paper with ink and how that photo can trigger so many thoughts and emotions. I love having a photo of her where I can see it to remind me of how beautiful she is and how blessed I am to have snagged such a wonderful girl. It’s a good reminder to me to smile and to tell her that she is beautiful and loved every day.
A digital file is nice and a photo on a computer is great, but there is something that changes when it is printed on paper and becomes tangible. I really need to get more photos printed, and so do you.
Today I took some time out of my crazy schedule to chum it up with a bunch of local photographers at an event called PhotoCamp Milwaukee. It was a good time. Next time a PhotoCamp happens you should attend if you are in the Milwaukee area and interested in photography. Lots of learning happened and I even taught a session on using natural light for portraits. Good times. Here are some of the photos of the models I took:
Valo is all about bringing the funk and bringing the noise. Uh… something like that.
Comet Cafe has been a regular spot for Jake and I. It is a sweet spot with tons of interesting people. I love seeing how people express their style and personality in different ways. Carrying around my camera everywhere I go is the best way to get great photos. These photos I didnt even have to do anything for other than set up the camera and pass it around the table. Lots of fun and got to meet lots of cool folks. Here is the result of the click, click, pass…
I only took one photo, so cant take credit for any of them except mine…
It is starting to warm up here in Wisconsin. Starting to…
Jake and I got the privilege to be interviewed by Blake of actionstalk.com about our business. He interviews start up business and posts the interviews on the website. Blake is a real cool cat that we met at the Teecycle.org shoot. Our video should be up on his site sometime soon. I will post a link when it is up.
After our interview with Blake we had a shoot with a model named Emmanuel. It was a semi-nice day out and we ran around downtown Milwaukee. There are tons of great spots to shoot and so much character. We would walk just a few feet and have a new place to shoot.
We went over to North Ave. and there is a park that is newly built that overlooks the city. It was awesome durring sunset and we got some really great light.
I also messed around with a bit of video on this shoot and put together some of the clips that I shot. I still have a lot to learn about how to use this camera to its full potential and how to do video with it. This is only the third thing that I have had a chance to edit/record with the camera.
I am alive! I think… I have been super busy these past few weeks getting things ready for our site lauch, shoots, and putting the finnising touches on the Brewlypse photos (soooooooo many of them to go through). I should be updating the blog a lot after this week is over. Jake is in Mexico and got our real site up before he left and we have so much to still add to it. It is crazy trying to balance a fulltime job with a fulltime job.
Here are some sneak peaks of shoots that I have done in the past few weeks:
I am very excited for spring. I cant wait. Cant wait to get out and throw a frisbee. Cant wait to grill. But most of all, I cant wait to shoot photos outside!
I was just messing around with my new Canon 5d MkII the other day and put together this short video clip. Let me know what you think. I am excited about the possiblities…
