Track Guy

As an on-location portrait artist, Senior Portraits in Milwaukee is now in full swing for me. The weather's warmed up and the sun is letting me photograph into the early evening. That summer, evening light is nothing short of "sweet," as Evan, my "track guy" recently said.

Evan and I had a great time together the other evening! After making some images at his home, we headed down to the track at Franklin High School and Evan laced up his track shoes for some action shots. I photographed him rounding the corner in full stride, where his feet seemed to be floating in the air. He's a fast, efficient runner and he made it to the State Track Meet this year. Way to go guy!

But when the sun settled a little lower in the sky, it was time to make the image I had envisioned the week before, when I scouted out the track. Under the bleachers, I wanted an easy, maybe tired, kind of look with that post-race relaxation that any athlete can relate to. Evan gave it ALL to me and my vision for an image came to be. Awesome image Evan and "SWEET"!

Evan is but one reason why I love to photograph high school seniors in the summer!

Girls & Little League Baseball

After photographing a couple of sweet girls in Lake Park last Friday evening, I wandered over to the ball field where my neighbor was playing his Little League game. It was a beautiful, summer night and it reminded me of when I was "Little League age" but couldn't play Little League ball. Back then it was the "boys only" club.

But I was a good ball player! We played daily in the neighborhood or with the summer park program. Shortstop, centerfield, you name it - I had an arm! But instead of sitting and watching my brother play, a kind man, Harry Schumbel, saw the pain in our hearts and gave me and another girlfriend the jobs of announcing and scorekeeping.

We sat up high in the clubhouse and either announced like the big leagues, or pushed the pencil around keeping score of runs, hits, errors and passed pitches. It kept us out of trouble and made us feel important. Thanks Harry but I still wanted to play.

So all of that came back to me as I photographed Henry that night. I chose this image because he has a great "at bat" stance. Bat held high with elbows up. Had I been scoring the game, he would have been given a hit as he made it to first base. Way to go Henry!