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:
Brittany:
Ely:
Business branding is not something new and should never be overlooked. Once you have a good product or service, you then need to figure out how people are going to remember it, hear about it, and spread the word about it. Comet Branding is in the business of making that happen. From creating social media networks to promoting your brand through PR and other media outlets, they do it all. Al Krueger and Sara Meaney are not only fantastic, energetic people, but they are also great at what they do and take pride in their work.
Jake and I got a chance to shoot some branding photos for this branding bunch which was a real honor and ridiculously fun. Here are a few shots from the shoot that you will be seeing on their website and promo material soon.
We started in their office space where all the Comet magic happens.
From there took some shots around the building.
then From there we carried the Comet Chair (Vintagely awesome chair Al does his best thinking (napping) in) outside in the middle of the street in the middle of the day. (Bad idea to shoot photos at High Noon, but we rocked it none the less).
Leave some love for the Comet Cats.
(Oh yeah… Al’s hair is pretty much a work of art. Simply amazing. Discuss.)
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.
Emmanuel from Valo Photography on Vimeo.
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:
Last year I shot Tom and Sarah’s wedding (I am shooting Sarah’s sister’s wedding this year), and I ran into Shawn. He was one of the ushers there and is also in a Band with Tom. We ran into each other at Guitar Center just a little while after the wedding and he told me that he was getting married in September and needed a Photographer. We chatted and he said he would give me a call. Sho nuf, a month or two later we were talking wedding. They booked me and I will be shooting their wedding in September. Nice. They are getting married at the Eisner Museum here in Milwaukee which is an uber sweet place. I am stoked to shoot their wedding. So much fun.
Anyoldways… We got together a week or two ago and shot their engagement session. I was stoked to shoot the E-session, then it rained. It was in the mid 50′s the weekend before and up until that day. Sooo we had to reschedule. They were open the next weekend, so we met then and got to making awesome.
The light was so awesome. It took me a second to get the shot that I wanted and told them that they would have to keep kissing, they said they were fine with that 
As we walked around we found a manhole, sewer cover, underground thinggy that was shooting steam into the air. I thought to myself, FOG MACHINE! Busted out the light and went to work.
It was so much fun to shoot and actually be outside. The Midwest can get pretty nasty in the winter. I am not a big fan of frostbite and loosing digits, so I am glad I can start shooting outside again.
While yo’ur at it, check out Jakes post of photos from the same session.
A little while ago Jake and I went up to Minneapolis to shoot a wedding. The day after the wedding we stuck around and shot some promo material for Christ Church Internantional’s new website that is in the works. After we shot that we hung out with Jamey who is one of my mentors and a good friend. Some people just have a cool, down to earth vibe and that is very Jamey. He is the pastor of Leadership and Development at CCI and does his job well.
One of the things that I really admire about him is that he is good at reading people and encouraging people. We went to the Tea Garden (whish they had one in MKE), and chatted for a while about Valo and the big ideas we have for our company. He gave some great feedback to our thoughts and encouraged us to keep going after our passions. Here are a few photos that we took when we were walking around in South Minneapolis.
I haven’t taken photos of kids in a while. Amazingly cute, but dang… full of energy. They don’t stop and it reminded me of one of those carnival games where you throw a ball at clowns that come up, or wack-a-mole, or… well, you get the point. Anyways. I love these lil kids and it is amazing how beautiful they are. Tons of fun and full of mischief.
She had on some super cute shoes.
He was making faces the whole time we were shooting. Reminds me of me…
My absolute favorite photo of the day. I love how it is a little out of focus and very soft.
He was working the scooter like a 9-5
There was still a little snow on the ground, nasty as it was, but Ian wanted to climb all over it.
Boys will be boys.
This just makes me laugh.
Jake, I, and a few friends have been going around Milwaukee taking photos of people on the street. Everyone has a story and everyone is connected. It is interesting that we can pass by people and not even look at them or interact with them. If we do interact, say with a barista at Starbucks, or the teller at the bank, our interactions are very, hmm… very, calculated and inside of the box. We know how we are suppose to interact. We know how we are suppose to treat someone who is taking our order at McD’s. They serve us, and if they don’t serve us well, we, depending on how passive aggressive we are, either tell them how we feel, fume about it after the fact, or tell a manager. That is what we are suppose to do. What happens if we treat someone in an unexpected way? If we notice them and not just nod at them. If we have a conversation instead of giving an order? Next time you have the opportunity to interact with someone you don’t know, be a part of their story and enter into a conversation, even if it is just a small part of life. I am really tired right now, so I don’t know if that made sense or not… I would love to hear your opinions on this. Here are the photos:
Model: Fresh
Venue: Bucketworks
Date: Saturday 1/24/09
I am all over the place… I am super randomly editing stuff. I really should go through it more logically, but I don’t. Oh well…
Fresh is from Chi Town. He came up with a few friends to the shoot for two days. He was lots of fun to work with and up for whatever. When I suggested shooting outside, he was all over it. 15 degrees? Sure. Wife beater and tie? Doesn’t matter… Work the camera? Yup. The funny part about this is that we had tons of space inside a warm building, but me, being the anti-building guy said, “Lets shoot outside, it will be fun.” Not a good idea in WI in the winter. My hands burned when I came in from the cold (cant shoot and wear gloves), and I am sure it didn’t help the cold that I was nursing that whole weekend.
Luckily we were able to pull off some shots that rocked my face off… Check it out… so fresh and so clean…I have more photos coming soon, but for now here is a little somethin somethin…
Before
After
I wish I could display these at full res, there is some crazy retouching and detail going on, but it is harder to see in the smaller version. Oh well… you get the jist.
