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Mifflin Street Block Party 2012

May 5th, 2012 § 2 Comments

The Mifflin Street Block Party is a constant loop of Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” belted out from speakers accompanied by drunk college students. A walk down the street means dodging horse poop, vomit, mud and urine—sometimes all mixed together. It also means a perpetual response of “No. That’s not what I’m looking for…” as person after person pleads for a photo of themselves, their friend, their friend’s dog or that guy over there.

But Mifflin is also what I consider a “photo Christmas.” I get to wander around for hours taking photos of people having fun and doing silly or stupid things…it’s the street photographer’s dream.

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This year was the fourth Mifflin I’ve photographed. Many of the City’s changes appeared to have worked—either that or the students chose to behave themselves for the most part this year. Considering the top headline of the party so far is that Badger running back Montee Ball was arrested, I’d say the party was a success. At least, as much as an all-day, drink-til-you-drop party can be successful.

Favorite photo of the day is probably this one:

Although, it doesn’t really compare to my favorite from last year…

Madhatters Spring Concert 2012 at the Overture Center

April 15th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Before I began shooting the Madhatters Spring Concert last night, I realized that it was my last time shooting a Madhatters show as a student. As more evidence that I’m getting old, I now recognize more of the Madhatters alumni that show up to the concert than I do their current members. With only a month to go before I graduate just about everything is making me nostalgic.

It was fitting that my last concert as a student finished where it began, at the Overture Center. Better lighting. More space. Cooler venue. But also, limited access and nagging ushers. You can’t have it all.

I tried to take full advantage of the lighting and colors at the Overture. I almost missed the start of the concert because I was playing around with the lights backstage, which seem to be pretty just for their own sake (they can only be seen from backstage).

One of my favorite moments while shooting came at the end of the concert as a senior Madhatter wrapped up his solo for his last performance of his college career. I just happened to be in the right place to capture a nice wide-angle shot as he waved goodbye. It’s not the best photo from the night, but I know it will have meaning and memories — and that’s always a nice thing to be able to give people as a photographer.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed shooting every Madhatters concert since my freshman year, and I hope to continue doing so as long as I’m able (and they let me).

Thanks again to the Madhatters for consistently putting on a great show and making my job easy. I hope I’ve provided many of you with photos you’ll enjoy for years to come.

Gotta have the window seat

April 6th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Google Earth has made airplane photos pretty mundane at this point, but I thought I would share anyways.

Took these photos out of a very smudged and foggy window seat on my flight into Chicago.

Even at the age of 22 I find myself glued to the window pane during take-off and landing. Much like my first flight when I was 5 years old, I’m still mesmerized at the symmetry of the landscape below.

Occupy Movement Within Wisconsin

April 1st, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Today is the release of my first major project for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Since late January I’ve been tracking the Occupy movement’s activity within Wisconsin, specifically looking at Madison’s camp, which is believed to be the last encampment left in the state (see the full story and photos here). When I got the idea to begin covering the story, I had no concept of the amount of depth and research that would be involved in the reporting process. Even though I’ve been working with newspapers for the last 4 years now, this project was the first time I had been exposed to an investigative journalism story.

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Needless to say I learned a lot from the process and the mistakes (oh, the many, many mistakes).

Since Occupy Madison is comprised mainly of homeless individuals, the biggest challenge to overcome with the camp was establishing a trusting relationship. Whether actual or perceived, homeless people often feel taken advantage of in many circumstances, and I wanted to make every effort to create an environment of a mutual working relationship, not merely me taking from them.

The Center offers me a unique advantage of time. Without time, this project would have been impossible. Also, working with a flexible deadline takes a lot of pressure off of my reporting. Even though I was responsible for writing the story and working on a photo essay, I was able to do both independently at times or simultaneously at other times. I was also able to just go to the camp and hang out for a few hours, with no pressure to produce immediately.

I think eventually a number of the Occupy members came to understand the work I was doing, and were candidly open about their lives, backgrounds and politics.

No one was more open than Dale, who I spent a number of hours with visiting him and talking about his involvement with the camp. I think my relationship and genuine interest in his life allowed me to get one of my favorite images of the photo essay, where he’s asleep in his tent after we grilled some brats (in other words, he slipped into a food coma). Before he laid down he gave me a small tour of his tent, much like anyone would give a tour of their new home. He was proud of what he had and wanted to make sure I documented it.

The other perk of having time on your side is the choice in lighting. Being able to pick and choose the time of day and the type of light I shot under was pivotal in getting photos that were much more visually appealing than if they were all shot under other conditions. I must have waited days and days to get a clear blue, twilight sky with the tents glowing in the parking lot. The biggest problem was the Occupiers didn’t often turn on the lights at dusk…but when they flipped them on right as the “blue hour” was coming to a close, I was pumped. I waited for a few minutes, walking around and between the tents hoping to get a nice silhouette against the tent. When the figure walked right into the frame of the tent, that was just icing on top.

I’m curious as to which news outlets pick up the story and how they run the photos. I know the photo page is something that has disappeared for the most part in daily newspapers, so any chance I get to see a flicker of the good ol’ days, it makes me happy.

Hope you enjoy the story and photos. I’m excited to begin work on the next project and continue collaborating with the other journalists at the Center and their in-depth pieces.

Cover for Grow Magazine

February 20th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Back in October I posted about a wonderful, fog-filled photoshoot for Grow Magazine, with the promise of sharing the photos from the actual shoot when the magazine hit the shelves. Well, that day has finally come.

What is more exciting though is the editor decided to run my photo on the cover, since the shoot went so well. Nice.

The story in the magazine revolves around Rebecca Claypool, a UW-Madison grad who received a loan to purchase her own sustainable farm. The loan came from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at UW, which recently created a program that targets female farmers interested in sustainable farming and committed to help meet the growing demand for food.

Claypool’s farm is beautiful…and when bathed in gorgeous morning sunshine and fall colors it becomes breathtaking. There were moments when I would pull my eye from the camera and just absorb my surroundings before continuing the shoot. If only all photoshoots that I wake up at 4:30am could be like this one…
Here are some of the other photos I took that day:

State of the State Address

January 25th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

To the surprise of no one, Scott Walker’s State of the State address tonight was contentious and high strung. Through “Recall Walker” and “Shame” chants echoing outside the chamber doors, Walker delivered his speech to a starkly divided legislature. A handful of protestors also made their way into the public viewing gallery and briefly interrupted his speech before being carried away by Capitol police.

In other words, as far as a State of the State address goes, this one was pretty interesting to cover. When I covered Doyle’s last speech 2 years ago, I’m pretty sure I left early since I had enough speaking shots to bore any viewer to sleep.

I think I can speak for every photographer who has ever worked in the Capitol and say that I hate the lighting. Photographers should just get together and install lights that can at least be color balanced, instead of these weird yellow-green orbs that hang from the ceiling and walls.

Red Pandas at the Vilas Zoo

January 10th, 2012 § 2 Comments

A small dream of mine came true today: see a red panda in person. Except, I got to do even more than that — I got to be up close and personal with the two red pandas at the Henry Vilas Zoo as they chomped away on bamboo and bits of banana.

I love my job.

Although, I don’t know what is worse, trying to photograph babies or live animals. They are both uncooperative 99% of the time and photogenic moments are incredibly fleeting. Despite the difficulty of trying to get a good shot of these adorable creatures, I couldn’t stay mad at them very long. I mean, look at them…they are like living, breathing stuffed animals.

Aww…

Scott Walker Interview

December 23rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment

I’ve had the opportunity to photograph both Governor Walker and former Governor Doyle on a number of occasions, but they were always in a cramped space in the Capitol with four TV cameras and a boring podium blocking the majority of the governor’s body.

Today I got to photograph Scott Walker in his “home,” the executive mansion on Madison’s north side. Besides the somewhat gaudy Christmas decorations and prevalence of bald eagle portraits, the mansion was a pretty interesting place to shoot in.

More or less Walker was hosting an FDR-esque fireside chat for media outlets to interview him privately for 15-20 minutes. I was called up by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism to do a few photos while they interviewed him. I was really thankful for the more intimate setting we were placed in. It allowed for me to be more creative and freely move around for different angles without worrying about being in someone’s shot.

Considering the article that the Center is working on is sort of a year-in-review type piece, I wanted to get photos of Scott Walker that were reflective and telling. In shooting Walker before I knew this would be a challenge since he usually isn’t extremely animated in terms of facial expressions, and I wanted to do more than just hand gestures and talking.

I was most pleased with this shot below. Perhaps is a little overly dramatic, but I think it brings across the mood I was looking for. I only wish it didn’t have such Christmas-y overtones to it, but oh well.

I always find photographing politicians fascinating — and since I got to be a fly on the wall while he was being interviewed, I really enjoyed having candid access to him that I wouldn’t have had if I was making a straight portrait.

Surfing in Sheboygan

December 9th, 2011 § 2 Comments

Sheboygan is the Malibu of the Midwest, at least for surfing.

The day of the cover shoot for Curb Magazine, Sheboygan weather was the antithesis of Malibu. Cold, 45mph winds gusted off of Lake Michigan and the water temperature sat just around 40 degrees. The sky was a cloudy bluish gray and sand-sized rain droplets pelted us for almost the entire 2 hours we were out there.

Needless to say, there were lots of issues to overcome with this shoot. The quality of light was probably the biggest issue: since I couldn’t haul out my lights in the rain (having the battery out in the elements scared me even more) I had to use available light. While it was soft light, it was too soft with no direction and looked pretty boring.

The other big problem was the weather itself, which had created a cistern of waves that were more or less unsurfable. And the entire point of this photoshoot was to get a cover photo of the guy surfing. Ugh.

After I squeezed into my wetsuit (which is a story in itself, I assure you), my subject and I made a valiant attempt to get the surfing photo anyways. That didn’t work out at all, and I was beginning to think it was only a matter of time before I slipped and dropped my gear into Lake Michigan. So I cut my losses and decided to just do some portraits…

These are fine and dandy, but still…meh. Not as cool as surfing photos. But instead of trying to fight the weather, I thought I’d just get some inside art of him just walking around and doing more active things. Most importantly, I thought I would buy some time in case the weather did improve and I wouldn’t have such a hard time focusing my lenses with all the raindrops on the filters.

Weather didn’t improve though and it looked like I would just have to settle for using my portraits. I wasn’t happy about it, but it’s hard to convince the largest fresh water lake in the world to cooperate.

After I changed out of my wetsuit, we decided to take one last stroll along what is called “The Elbow” in Sheboygan. Basically it is the long pier leading out into one of the prime surfing spots on the shore. With the sun beginning to set, the colors in the sky turned a nice blue. Conveniently for me a surfer passed me with his (nearly) matching blue surfboard. I quickly shot a few off a few frames and followed him until I felt satisfied with what I’d gotten. At the time though, I thought of it as a throwaway shot that I might give to the magazine if they wanted some filler.

Turns out my throwaway shot (and the last frame I shot that day) is the cover. Nice.

Check out the article here

UW Madhatters Winter Concert 2011

December 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment

Annual Madhatters Winter Concert at the Orpheum.

To my appreciative surprise, the Orpheum reconstructed its main stage to be a more photography-friendly 5 feet off the ground, instead of basically 20 feet high on shaky rafters. Also the different orientation of the stage allowed me get some different angles backstage.

Here are a few shots from Saturday night that don’t look like photos I’ve taken at their concerts the past few years. It’s always a welcome challenge to myself to get creative with something I shoot twice each year.