Model Mondays

My friend Victoria Fadden and I are trying to arrange model shoots on Mondays. I figure that if we can pull this off once a month, we'll be lucky... and very well organized. Here's a few shots from our first Model Monday. The first of many, I hope!

This is the lovely Nia, a new, aspiring model with makeup and hair by the fabulous Traci Fein.

The Poetry Slam

My favorite columnist Neil Steinberg  recently wrote about the Uptown Poetry Slam. (Can't get back to the column in the  ST archives right now, I'll try to figure it out and post a link). I am loath to try to summarize one of Neil's columns, especially when I can't refer back to it, but I'll have a go at it anyway-

You can't imagine how cool these slam poets are. You'll be on your feet, stomping, clapping, snapping, cheering.

Hope that covers it. Sorry, Neil.

I have photographed several of the original group of slam poets, including the slampappy Marc Smith. You can see the many moods of Marc in the photo above. and here is a link to a gallery of more portraits of Slam poets.

Check out Marc and the Slam at the Green Mill in Chicago on Sunday nights.

Portraiture

Portraiture is my first love. The 4x5 view camera is my second.

Here's a shot of my friend Ed's oldest child Eamon. I shoot Ed's kids every year and enjoy every moment. The kids are so nice and well behaved. They are cute and patient and very photogenic.

This was lit with my Elichrom 74" Octo Light Bank with a Speedo head. I let the light spill onto the background to give a little separation, a 4x8 sheet of white foam core for fill. Simple.

Shot in color, scanned full frame and converted to B&W with a sepia tone.

Let's Do Something Different.

Kelli & Brian didn't want a wedding cake. Brian doesn't like cake and Kelli wanted to do something different and fun.

When the guests at Kelli & Brian's wedding took their seats, there was a silver box wrapped in ribbon and string at each place. As the couple stood at a small round table in the middle of the dance floor, the MC announced that everyone should open their box. Inside they found two marshmallows, two chocolate squares and a Graham cracker!

At the same time, waiters brought little hibachis to each table and lit them. Everyone toasted marsmallows and made S'mores! It was a big hit.

See the slide show here. Just click the back arrow to get back to the blog.

This little guy was very interested in what was going on.

New Studio!

My wife Cher and I recently moved into our new building in the west loop. We've named the building (and the business of renting out the space) Loft on Lake. 

Cher's business, KGA Garrett Associates, is on the second floor and my studio is at the back of the first floor. The studio is 3300 sq. feet of completely open space. Brick walls, concrete floors and wood ceilings with a 12' x 60' skylight running right down the middle.

My son Evan and I did most of the build-out and we are very happy to be finished.

There are two bathrooms, a beautiful kitchen area perfect for food stylists and a storage area big enough to hold product for a major shoot. Our back doors are large enough to drive my Chevy Suburban through from our parking lot in the back of the building making it very easy to bring in product and gear or to pack up for a location shoot.

The space is available for rent for photographers, film crews, corporate events and parties. Call me at 312 498-9990 or send me an e-mail for more details.

Art buyers interested in my work can view my website here.

Macro Photography

As I am new to blogging, there are photos from my archive that I would like to share. I'll interject a few archive shots among the new posts from time to time, and identify them as such.

Being an equipment freak, and generally pretty excited by a challenge, I was thrilled to have an excuse to purchase the Canon MP-E 65mm f2.8 1-5x Macro lens. This lens starts at 1 to 1 magnification and ends at 5x life size.

One of my clients asked me to shoot a fly. And not just any fly... a specific type of fly. In January. In Chicago. Naturally.

The fly had to be shipped to me from a university in the South in the form of pupae. It took a few days for the pupae to hatch (?) and we had hundreds of teensy tiny little stable flies in a special container. I put the container in the freezer to, well, kill the flies.

The shots are pretty cool, but I quickly realized that dead flies are not nearly as cool looking as live flies. I did have some fun with the image, as you can see in the second shot above.

Esperanza

My good friend Stan invited me to tag along on a shoot he did at the Old Town School of Folk Music a few weeks ago. Wednesday nights are World Music Night and the guest was Esperanza Spaulding. Stan recently bought the new Canon 5D Mark II digital 35mm camera and was anxious to try it out. I was shooting my standard Canon 5D with my EF35-350 Canon zoom. 

We got permission to shoot the first 3 songs, and Stan wanted to submit the shots to a magazine he's working on.

Most of my shots were taken from the balcony, cradling the camera on my arm resting on the rail. Exposure was 1/30th at 5.6 (max) at 1600 ISO at a focal length of 320 mm. Shot raw. Here's a link to a web gallery of my shots.

Great concert, too! Esperanza is a lovely young woman. Pretty tiny thing to be playing a big stand-up base, but she was fantastic.

Memento Mori

Anyone interested in photography would be richer for having read On Photography by Susan Sontag. Everything I know about photography I have learned by reading (and shooting) and Susan's ideas about why we photographers do what we do are most enlightening. Sontag described a photo as memento mori: a reminder of our mortality.

My first job in the photographic industry was as a clerk in a camera store, selling cameras and film, and photo finishing. A few experiences from those days have stayed with me. 

The most memorable was the time a woman, probably in her 60's, brought in a small, old black and white print of six young women sitting around a table. She wanted the photo copied and an enlargement made. No problem. Then she mentioned that this was the only picture she had of all her sisters, and that they had all passed away.

Memento mori.

From that day forward, I told everyone who bought a camera from me to take lots of pictures of their family and friends. Here were the rules: get close, get their faces, get them laughing and happy, get them in focus, and be sure to put the prints and negatives in a safe place. When all is said and done, these photographs will be cherished.

Welcome to my blog

My friend Brad had a camera on layaway at the camera store down on 3rd street in Santa Monica. That was when 3rd street was a street and not a promenade. We went into the camera store and asked to see the camera. It was an Argus C3. Built like a tank. Looked like a brick with a lens stuck to the front. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

That winter, my family moved to the Chicago suburbs. Our neighbor had a darkroom in his basement and showed me the basics. I bought a 35mm rangefinder camera, then a 4x5 Speed Graphic, then someone gave me some old darkroom equipment and I was a photographer.

Since then, I've shot just about everything- portraits, groups, industrial, editorial, fashion, advertising, food, tabletop and weddings. I've shot everything from Cheerios and Lucky Charms to surgical procedures and burial vaults. Every format from 35mm to 8x10. Now I mostly shoot digitally.

I love everything about photography- the theory, the practice, the art. In this blog, I want to share my love of photography and show off some of my work. Keep watching. Let me know what you think.