Light It Up

It's good to stretch every once in awhile. I don't think there's any real point to this other than it looks cool, and I wouldn't be surprised if Katrina thinks I'm just a little bit nutty. But she was a good sport about everything, and that's all that matters, right?

All those lights sure made adjusting for proper skin tones a pain, and in the end, I think I just said "pooh" on that. Or something along those lines. And I have NO idea where the extra little refraction thingies in the last image came from. Weird stuff.

Dave

All in the Family

Remember Angie from a few shoots ago, and John from the post I put up a couple minutes ago? Well, it was a dual shoot! I was actually out doing some family portraits, and took care of the unicycle stuff while I was at it.

These are a couple of my favorites from the session. I had a bit of fun with the Charlie's Angels shot. I probably wouldn't normally do that much tinkering, but it was just begging for it, I think.

Dave

Wheel(s)

Remember Angie from a few shoots ago? Well, this is her brother, John, and his unicycle. How could I pass up shooting the only person I know who can ride one of these babies?

The subject matter may lend itself towards something a bit more....edgy, but I think these work alright. He offered me a ride, but I had to decline, as falling and breaking my arm is pretty low on my list of enjoyable activities. Maybe I'll try it*, one of these days.

Dave


* the unicycle, that is, not the arm-breaking.

Tattoo You, pt. 2

I guess today is subtle tattoo day.

First is Kristen (I DID take a picture of your tattoo!) of October wedding fame. Maybe, if she's nice, she'll leave a comment about her quote, because, if there was a time when I knew, it isn't now. I do like the design and the font and such.

The dude was sitting in line with me at the U2 show back in September. It was a covert shot, actually, so I never bothered to ask him what it meant.

Isn't it great how I'm putting all these pictures up and not bothering to have any information about them?

Sorry. What can I say? I'm a photographer, not a journalist. Jim.


Dave

Tattoo You, pt. 1

Circumstances have not been kind when it comes to getting out and gathering new images lately, so I'm just going to start using some of the stuff I've had sitting around.

So I'll start with some of the images I've been shooting here and there of people and their tattoos. Brittany here works for the library, which made things a lot easier, I must say. I don't remember any of the specifics about her tattoo, as I shot this almost 2 months ago and didn't think to write down anything about it. I know it's based on a painting, and took two sessions.

That and it looks pretty cool.

Dave

A Horse, of Course

Far be it from me to let another week go by without posting something. I'd probably get fined for wasting valuable bandwidth or something like that.

So I can officially call this a series now, right? Two pet pictures?

My friend Thea has herself a farm, complete with 5 horses and 8 miniature donkeys (which are pretty cute). It's interesting--I've never really thought of horses as "pets" in the same sense as cats, dogs, and rocks. Maybe because they don't stay inside most of the time? Possibly.

But it seems like the folks I know who are "into" horses, for lack of a better phrase, have a really deep connection with them. And I think this picture manages to capture it.

Dave

(All her) Duck (s)(!) (and cover) (in a row)

I think I got all the duck puns out of my system.

Um...I had a lot of fun doing this shoot. Katie was a real sport about moving all these ducks around. And I think the people who walked by us got a kick out of seeing them. In case you were wondering, the ducks don't have names.

You'll notice that this finally takes care of the "collections" portion of my credo for this site.

Dave

Read....or else

It seems like I have a lot of shoots these days that I have to hold back on posting for one reason or another. I did this shoot a couple weeks ago for work, but wanted to wait until it got approved from the proper work authorities. So now that it's approved, and the poster is ready to go, everyone can see it.

We do our own version of the READ posters every once in awhile, and they look fine, if not all that visually arresting. So my friend Kelly (from the first framed! session) threw out the notion of doing one with a member of ARRG, that seemed like an awesome idea. Much to my surprise, everyone at work was on board with it, and ARRG was very excited about it.

I even got to rent some lights for this shoot, which always makes me feel more professional. I don't know why I thought the chair necessary, but I know that as soon as I started thinking about this shoot, I wanted it to look pretty much exactly as it does in the poster. And I think it'll look very nice, and DIFFERENT on library walls.

Also enjoy some other shots that were almost used, as well as the shot I used, before I tinkered with it.

Dave

Like Mother, Like Son?

This is not my favorite blog title, I must say, but I was at a loss for something clever.

Anyways.

Please say hello to my coworker Angie, and son Christopher. Also say hello to some tricky lighting. I normally like fall, but I don't really having less light in the evening. I think we had about 25 minutes usable daylight, so I was able to get the shot at the end. After a bunch of messing around with the flash, and being generally displeased with the results, I used Angie's headlights for lighting instead, which you see in the first two shots. I do believe it's the first time I've ever done something like that.

Thankfully, we didn't run her battery down, which would have been a bad thing. Oh and I like the shots, too, of course. I can only imagine people driving by us and wondering what on earth was going on.

Dave

Let's Get Married, pt. 2

As requested, I offer another sampling of pictures from the wedding a couple weeks ago. Now that I'm all done, and the disc will be in the mail tomorrow, I don't have any qualms about posting these.

Oh, right, and the bride asked me to put some up to tide her over. Can't forget that.

Anyways!

-first dance, courtesy of the fish eye. I especially like the odd color saturation thingy that came with no effort on my part. Sharp-eyed viewers might recognize Kogane, who made an appearance on the blog last year.

-Groom holding the flowers will always equal photographic gold in my book.

-I told the guys to just pick a direction and look. Why? Darned if I know. This was the first pose of that, and probably my favorite.

-A fitting choice of wine, really. I especially enjoy doing shots like this at weddings, putting bride/groom/both closer to me in the frame and having everyone else just out of focus. I think I stole it from somewhere or someone.

-Bridal portrait. One of my better shots of this type, if I may be so bold to say it. Getting elevated is a pretty good idea!


Dave

Street Scenes, pt. 2

Remember way back when I went to the Loop and took pictures of people there? And how I said I had some more? Well here they are! Only took me two months, but oh well. I have another glut of images right now, so I'm taking advantage of it. Plenty to get to over the next couple weeks (including that wedding--don't think I forgot!).

Anyways--shot one is from the new Moonrise Hotel. My friend and I wandered inside, and were greeted by the fellow seen here. His name escapes me (because, I bet, I never asked for it), but he was very pleasant, and let me take his picture. Now I see him every time I walk by the hotel. Maybe I should make him a print?

The other dude was one of the more interesting people I've seen in some time. He was just....BIG. Well over six feet tall, and...well, he fills the frame well. Add in his accessories, and he proved a real challenge to shoot. Considering I just stopped him on the street, I didn't have a lot of time to really compose a good shot. I'd like to have another go at him someday.

Dave

Quit Dragon Me Down

I had wanted to do a week of people and their pets last year, but never really had time to coordinate it all. So the idea just sort of sat around in the back of my head. I don't know if this will become a recurring theme, but you never know.

I actually like the idea of using "non-traditional" pets, to be honest. As much as I like dogs and cats, using critters like spiders, snakes, and bearded dragons seems more exciting.

And this is my friend Stacey, with her bearded dragon, Grimm. It's rather hard to get an idea of what a reptile may be feeling, but I got the impression that he wasn't all that excited about having his picture taken. At least he didn't try to eat me.

So if, or anyone you know owns an offbeat pet, let me know!


Dave

Let's Get Married

I shot a wedding over the weekend, and while I certainly plan on posting some more images, I figured I'd post this one as a teaser of sorts. It takes awhile to go through all those pictures, you know. Plus, I'd rather have the CD on its way to the bride before I let the whole world see them.

Dave

Sorry, I Don't Know How it Works!

More recently I went to Forest Park for the annual Balloon Race, which was fun. The guy in the first shot was, I guess, a balloon wrangler. You don't want those things getting away. It could get ugly. It looks like it took a fair amount of work, but he never seemed to be under any particular duress.

Shot two is just fun. The dog looks quite content.


Dave

All Aboard

Hey, remember when I rode the train to Montana? There were people on that train, and I took their picture! Crazy! Sadly, The specifics are fuzzy in my mind, but I can say that the old dude on the right in picture 3 was retired and basically spent his free time riding the train, which sounds like fun. The mom and her daughter were adorable, and the Amtrak employees were nice enough to pose for me in Milwaukee, even while they were working.

Dave

No Line on the Horizon

I stood in line for 9 hours to get a good spot at the U2 show last night. Was it worth it?

YES.

(and don't forget to scroll down. i posted two tonight!)
[and for more U2 shots, check out my flickr page. the link is on the sidebar]


Dave

Focus!

I wanted to have some nice shots of myself for my (still in the works) redesigned web site, so I enlisted the help of my friend Julie (who, if you won't hire me, you should hire her for your photography needs). And it would have been silly, I think, not to take some pictures of her while I was at it.

We both agree that one of the perks of being a photographer is that you can be in all sorts of crazy positions, and no one will think less of you. It's like having a camera in your hands grants you freedom to do anything!

(within reason, anyways)

Dave

For the Kids

SO let's see--these have been sitting around for awhile now. The first is from a session I did with my friends for their son's first birthday*. We went to the park near my house, and got a pretty good session in while he was up and alert. I'd never really shot kids this young before, so it was a lot of fun. I didn't really compose this shot too much; I set the camera on the ground and just pointed in his direction. But I do like the...well, "peek-a-boo" look here.

The second is from way back when, when I was out at Eckert's picking fruit. Why didn't I post this with the driver? Darned if I know. But this is a fun shot, I think. I like (and didn't notice until today) the berry he has in his hand. I bet it tasted good.

Dave



*Friends with one-year olds? Good gravy am I getting old!

All the World's a Stage, Pt. 2

Has it really been so long since my last post? Well I'll be. Guess a two-week vacation will do that, huh?

Anyways, I was in Montana, visiting the Brother during his tenure at the Ft. Peck Theater. So it seemed like it would have been silly to not capture the whole theater thing in some way. So I opted to pick the folks working behind the scenes and give them their time in the spotlight.

And with that, I suppose it's fitting that the Brother himself is first (not planned!), working on some kind of lighting thing. I can't tell you anything about it, but I do really like the way the shot came out, especially considering I didn't use a flash.

Close on his heels is Phil, the set designer. Sadly, this shot was taken just before he placed the monstrous turkey on the set. Believe you me, it was a big one.

Kehler was in charge of costumes, and I was hoping to get a shot of her amongst the costumes themselves. Sadly, they were in another room hanging up, and it wasn't all that photogenic. But I think this works out pretty well, really. If I was feeling really industrious, I would have named the two dress forms. Some other time, maybe.

Last, but by no means least, is Annie, who wore many hats (but not the costume hats) for the summer. I opted to capture her as Prop Diva, since ASM, in my head, didn't yield as many ideas. And really, how could I pass up another opportunity to get a shot of someone holding a sword? Also be sure to note the pink flamingo and rubber chickens, which I imagine are staples of any good theater prop shop.

I have some more vacation pictures to come, as well as some other stuff I've had sitting around, so I'll try to get into a normal posting schedule again until I'm all caught up.

Dave