Splashdown!

Every time a client calls me about photographing a field dog (hunting dog), my skin starts to tingle with excitement! I can begin to see them in the field, in the water, in the back of truck doing "their thing" with great passion, energy and focus. Jet was all the above with some extra octane thrown in! Although he's trained as an upland game bird (pheasants, quail, grouse, etc), he relishes his time in the water - even if it's cold, October water.

So off we went to Nagawaukee Park in search of some great images. Jet was awesome! After some family images with beautiful, yellow and orange fall foliage, Jet led us to the water. Whistle trained, he followed his commands to retrieve the tennis ball with a gusto that got us all excited. Throw, fetch, repeat.

But things got REALLY exciting when I suggested that the owner throw the ball along the shore, towards me, while I stood in the frigid water. If Jet could do it, so could I!

We all loved this image of him exploding out of the water with his "eye on the ball." Focus, energy, passion - it's all here in this one image. Like Jet, I could have photographed him all day!

I Bought It!

Just recently I talked about this big, beautiful, B&W image of Yosemite Valley that I saw at the VP Gallery in Milwaukee on Gallery Night. The cool thing about this image is that I knew the photographer, Tom Ferderbar, and it was made in 1958 when he attended an Ansel Adams workshop ( was one then!). And when you photographed with Ansel, it was with a big 'ole 8 x 10 camera! So this image, sized at about 3 feet by 2.5 feet, just screams with detail

The sharpness of the conifers and the rock faces is amazing! Makes our big, double-digit megapixel digital cameras look like Kodak instamatics! Tom's done a wonderful job of not only preserving his 8 x 10 negative but scanning and producing such a marvelous print of a magnificent scene! When I saw it I realized the historic value of the image and I so wanted it because of Tom's longstanding commitment to his craft and attention to details. His Milwaukee commercial photography studio enjoyed a long, respected history of excellence!

So, I bought it! What a great thing it is when a photographer purchases the work of other photographers! The framed version, with museum glass to make it look like there's nothing between my eye and the image, will hang in our newly updated kitchen against a sage green wall. So now, I can go to Yosemite Valley everyday! Thanks Tom for making such a beautiful image!

Gift Certificates for the Holidays

It's not too early to start thinking about what gifts to give to your friends, family and business associates for the Holidays! One of the easiest things to do is give me a call and purchase a Gift Certificate for 2009 for a custom Creative Session - either on-location, your home or in the studio.

Your purchase can include a print or canvas as well as the Creative Session. I'll help you choose the appropriate gift for that special person/family that you have in mind. Each year I redeem many of the Gift Certificates that were purchased the previous Holiday Season.

This Holiday Season has a special offer! Purchase one Gift Certificate at the regular price and the second Gift Certificate for 1/2 price. Think ahead! This offer ends December 22nd.

Best Pet Photographer in Milwaukee

Now you might think, "what is this images all about?" Thanks to WISN's A List contest for Best Pet Photographer in Milwaukee, I've received this nice, spiffy logo to use. It indicates that I was in the top five for the contest but the real truth is I finished 2nd in the non-juried voting.

I want to thank all my clients who wrote wonderful reviews about my work during the voting! When I read them, I felt very blessed to have "worked" for you. I have a quote near my desk that reads, "Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." William James (American psychologist and philosopher) I know my work makes a difference to you!

So to all of you that took the time and effort to email in your votes, "Mucho Gracias!" It's an honor to be named as one of the Best Pet Photographers in Milwaukee!

SOLD!

Last night was Gallery Night in Milwaukee! It's always a great night to get out and visit local galleries/museums to see the works of many creative people. Last night was no exception! At the VIP Gallery I got to see the big, beautiful B&W images of Tom Feederbar, a wonderful photographer and man. I have my eye on an image of Yosemite Valley that he made in the 1950's with an 8x10 camera!

While I was eyeing up Tom's images, someone was buying one of mine! The Coffee Pot caught Michael's eye and I had fun talking to him about how the coffee pot and dusty bottles have been sitting outside for at least 10 years in McCarthy, Alaska. I say "at least" because I've been photographing in this area annually for 10 years. The coffee pot hasn't been moved in all that time.

I made the image with HDR and some additional Lucis Art. I love how the detail pops up and out at you and it's almost as if you can "smell the coffee!"

Janie and Jack Store Shoot

This is the week for lots of fun with little ones at the Janie and Jack store in Mayfair Mall! I consider myself lucky because I get to laugh, play and oh yeah, photograph infants to 6 year olds in the store. I KNOW I will be having fun with the kids because they have the greatest looks on their faces and will be dressed in the fun clothing from the store. Stop by if you're in the mall. I'm there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - all day.

It reminds me of my first day of student teaching at the elementary level. I told my proctor that my smile muscles hurt from smiling and laughing all day! It's good thing to like what you do in life!

So here's fun shot of my buddy, Sam, whom I've photographed since he was about 1 month old. His eyes have that sparkle that I love to see and photograph. Squeezable, huggable, loveable. . .

GQ Senior

The season for senior portraits is winding down and fall family portraits is in full swing. For me it's either been "shoot" or "sit at the computer" as production of stellar imagery is in full swing!

But hey, here is a fun story I want to share of when I photographed a male senior, Patrick, from Whitefish Bay High School. He had this great suit he wanted to wear and so I was working with him in an alley, down in the Third Ward, when a Porsche came out of the alley behind my subject. Wow! The end result was it looked like a magazine image for GQ! A good setup with a little luck, makes for a great image. Patrick and his mom loved it!

Then we headed south to another location I had scouted and found this bench and a great brick wall. A little dappled light through the tree and some bare feet and Patrick made it all look easy! A few more weeks to go and then I'll be looking foward to next year's seniors!

Lupine Lunch

In late August I was out in Washington State in the San Juan Islands, helping my college roommate celebrate her 50th birthday. The San Juan's are a great place to be! I photographed Orcas coming together in 3 pods to mate, kayaked in the ocean and lived on a boat for a few days. (It took me three days to stop "rocking!") After that it was onto Mt. Rainier N.P. for a few days.

From ocean to mountains - good thing I remembered to bring cool weather clothing! In spite of the rainy, cooler weather, there were some good images to be made. The wildflowers were 3 weeks late and at the end of August, the whole mountain and surrounding areas were in peak bloom. That meant a lot of activity for this one marmot.

I had stopped along the hiking trail to take off a layer and while quenching my thirst, this chubby marmot was PLOWING through this upper meadow of lupine. I put on a longer lens, set up the tripod and waited for him to come towards me. While animals in this area of Mt. Rainier are acclimatized to humans and thus easier to photograph, he was paying me no mind. He was after the wet, luscious flowers of the lupine plant. It was like photographing a lupine eating contest! The marmot would eat one, move, eat another, move on.

Watching the marmot eat made me hungry. I packed up, hiked up to a better view and pulled out my peanut butter sandwich. I started thinking, "what does a lupine taste like?"

McCarthy in the Fall

Sure, I know you all think that I'm up in Alaska just checking up on how folks feel about Sarah Palin, but you're wrong. While I boarded the plan in Minneapolis, I heard the news about Gov. Palin and was excited to be heading to her "home turf." Once I had the rental car in my hand,s however, it was drive 7.5 hours to the cabin in McCarthy where the only news I heard was from KXKM and the NPR broadcast from Valdez, Alaska. Let's just say that I was out of touch with mainstream America! No phone, no voice mails, no emails - can you say relaxed?

My friend Jason Gallus (J Gallus Photography - Minnetonka, MN) and I were blessed with the best fall foilage I'd seen since 1998! We had 3 great days of weather and then the rain came back in. Alaskans have been plagued with a rainy summer. So much so that when we had 3 days of sun over Labor Day weekend, one McCarthyite exclaimed that it was the first 3 days of sun of the summer!

Up in Alaska, the fall colors are a bit different from the usual hardwoods in the northern U.S. The conifers are green, the aspens and cottonwoods turn yellow/orange and the berry bushes are a beautiful red. It's nothing short of fabulous!

So Gov. Palin comes back to Alaska tonight and I leave Friday morning before all the events get going. Just the way I like it!

Back to School

Yesterday my twin neighbors headed off to their first year in High School. Where did the summer go?? I know where mine went - eat, sleep, photograph. . . repeat! But watching them pose for mom as she snapped some quick shots to mark this moment in their lives, reminded me of the flurry of activity that occurs at this time of year.

It reminded me of preparing high school cross-country runners for another season of practices and meets. Each athlete was preparing to achieve the goals they had set for the season and the rising decibel level in the locker room told me that school was back in session! It didn't matter what the weather was, we were out there to set personal goals and win meets! We ran through the last heat/humidity of the summer, through the fall rains and finally the light snow and grueling winds that awaited us at the state meet. It was time to wear gloves again.

So as I'm working on a custom Senior "My Book" for Evan, I wish him his goal to compete in the State Meet and a personal best!

Pre-visualization & that little voice within

Things are humming around here - lots of graduation portraits being fit in before school starts again. Seniors are fun for me because they challenge me to find new places to photograph them. And I don't mean "just photograph them," but rather photograph them in a way that says something about them. So the challenge is let my intuition take over and actually feel what their body language is telling me and go with that. That's part of the "art" of photography.

Zoe was great to photograph! She really let herself relax into our session and some great images were the result. When I came up an area I've photographed in before, I noticed a new stairway was blocking an area I had used in the past. I needed to let me eyes show me what was going to work here.

I walked around and checked out my angles and listened to the voice that said, "try down low." I squatted down and took a look at where I could put Zoe. Bingo! I could see how it would look in my mind's eye if I put her right there! The rest was all her - relaxed, confident, willing to work with me and then, happy with the results!

Bring It On!

Summit Ave. Block Party 2008 - it's the place to be on the East Side when the 2700 block of Summit Ave. throws its Annual Block Party! We're know to suddenly have "new neighbors" that stop in and enjoy a summer day/evening with us.

This year we had a Romp House for the kids and the local firefighters from our neighborhood station came by with their Engine. WOW - the kids had a great time with that! Helmets on, sitting in the driver's seat - it can't get much better than that until they turned on the hose!

Charlie is know to try anything and when the hose came out he was the first to say, "Bring it on!" Although it was a cooler day by the lake and the water a bit cold, he stood there enjoying ever drop of water that rolled off of him!

This image captures some of those moments that makes photographing children fun! The "realness" of his ribs sticking out, his clothes askew and not a worry in the world except the feel of the water. "Bring It On!"

Eye On The Ball

Tis the season for dogs and their owners! No wonder - when would you rather walk the dog: When it's 10 degrees and a northwest wind is howling or 75 degrees on the beach?

Patches was digging the break in the heat and humidity. Right from the start, she was on a mission at the start of our shoot. She had places to explore and miles of sand to run in. When she dug in, the sand just went flying, as if it had attached to her enthusiasm. This was a canine companion that lived my motto of "live well ~ play hard ~ love often!"

She wanted to catch the seagulls and of course, she wanted to play ball - which she did with all the gusto an American Pit Bull Terrier can offer. This shot, however, is just pure luck when it came to timing. I had the camera settings where I wanted them to pull this off but Patches gave me her all and I got lucky. So Patches ended up with a ball "patch" over her eye.

You just gotta love the determination, athleticism and drive that some dog breeds have! Patches, however, is a complete package. She's got a GREAT temperment! I'll bet that she curled up next to her owner after her great summer night at Bradford Beach! Good catch Patches!

Cognitive Challenges and MS

Often times we read books and think "Wow, what a great book this author has written." But when the author is your neighbor, it's more like "WOW."

Jeffrey N. Gingold now has two books under his belt about the cognitive challenges of Multiple Sclerosis with the newly released, "Mental Sharpening Stones," a hopeful book about prominent individuals that have thrived in their personal and professional lives while learning how to navigate the unpredictable cognitive waters that those with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) find themselves swimming in.

As a peer-support volunteer for the Wisconsin MS Society, Jeffrey continues to educate not only those with MS but also those who treat individuals with MS. Physicians, therapists, family and friends will all benefit from reading this book! One can "walk in their shoes" by reading about the challenges each of his "guests" overcome and live with. From Richard Cohen, famed New York TImes writer and TV producer to Montel Williams to Mary Mullarkey, Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, each person shares how they keep their mental stones sharpened.

I applaud Jeffrey for opening doors for those who live with MS and making us ALL realize that the challenges of MS are often cognitive and not just physical. For those of us free of MS, it's easy & common to assume that if someone appears well, then they must be doing OK. His book, while offering a glimpse in the cognitive challenges of those with MS face daily, it gives practical steps to take to "exercise" the brain and keep those neurons challenged. I found the "mental sharpening stones" to be great advice for everyone as we age.

Thanks Jeffrey for asking me to photograph you for this great book!

Pump Those Legs!

Want to get in cycling shape quickly? Join a cycling trip with Two Bikes and a Map (www.bicyclewisconsin.com) and ride 350 miles in 6 days. Throw in a lot of rolling terrain, mile long hills, a steady headwind, and in no time, you're in shape!

Here's a few photos to let you get the idea of this Northwoods Tour from Ashland to Galesville WI. There's Curtis and Betty - one's 13 and the other is 80. Betty's had a hip replacement but it doesn't slow her down one bit. You go girl! Curtis was one of the younger riders at 13.

Along the way we got to use the Porta Potty/ATM/Bar. A tight squeeze for all three but where else can you get money to buy/drink beer and get rid of the overflow? Gotta love someone's sense of humor that placed the Porta Potty there.

So now that I'm in shape for cycling, you can bet I'll be out there a lot more on these summer days. May there only be tailwinds!

One Small Leap . . .

I've photographed a lot of dog breeds over the years but I've never had the chance to photograph one special canine breed - the Rough-Coated Jack Russell Terrier. It was such a fun treat for me to photograph Ashley, a 7 year old, power packed Jack!

She can fly! At one point I was photographing her running and I had to stop and change the camera controls to get a faster shutter speed to stop her in mid-air stride. Wow! Too bad she doesn't do Flyball - she'd be good!

But what I loved about Ashley was just how sweet she was! From the time we greeted each other, she was mine. I let her into my car to sniff the scents of my two dogs and from then on, we were buddies! For such an active breed of dog, she did anything I asked her do. Of all the great images her owners will get to soon see, this one stuck in my heart. I feel a sense of mutual respect in this image.

Lying in front of her owners and just barely looking over the taller grass, Ashley and I understood each other. Despite the "big glass eye" of the long lens, which can make many an animal nervous, she is calm/assertive - right at home between me and her owners. Good guard dog Ashley! Thanks for the play date!

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!

Photography as History

Over the past few years, I've come to think of the importance of the work I do. Whether it's portraits of seniors, families or children or the images I make outdoors, each shot is a moment in history that lives on. It becomes a significant part of a family's history, or in this case, Milwaukee's history.

I recently read in the local paper that an old grain elevator was slated to become another condo project along the Milwaukee River. Searching back in my files I found an image I've made there that shows the stately nature of what would have been a very busy grain elevator in the Port of Milwaukee.

The old, rusted, railroad turnstile still stands that allowed trains to cross the river and deliver grain for storage. From there it was loaded on ships and traversed the Great Lakes to be delivered to other ports of call. One can image the hustle and bustle of workers each fall as the grain harvest came in from all over Wisconsin. And now it's history will evolve and become condos.

Perhaps I can be there with my camera when the change begins anew!

The Sun Shone on Them

The wrinkles on my hands have faded from cleaning up water in the problem corner of the basement and it's been 2 days since I've had to retreat to said basement with my dogs, external hard drives (with important wedding/portrait images), and other personal effects to avoid playing "Dorothy" in a tornado warning.

We've had 6-8" of rain in a 2-3 day period and some lakes in Wisconsin have decided to empty and become rivers. Picture that! So I feel fortunate that all is OK at my house.

All this water got me thinking about the last day of beautiful sun and warmth that "rained" down on us. It was for the wedding of Christine and Bjorn! They were lucky to have the sun shine down on their special day and I was lucky to be able to photograph them with my most able assistant, Julie Zahn. What a team we were that day! All I need to do is look at this image to feel not only the sun's warmth, but the warmth of their love for each other. Congrats and that's for the sun!