How does the song go: ‘its a small world after all…’ ? It totally is. Ramona Capilitan, PR at De Waerdse Tempel in the Netherlans is using a shot of Alan Parsons for his promotional material this week. The small world part: I just left Amsterdam about a month ago, shot Alan and his crew a couple years ago, and my daughter and Alan Parsons’ lead vocalist PJ Olsson’s daughter are playmates. Funny…

Ramona, dank u wel for the business and the VIP invite. Alan, Godfrey, Manny, Steve, John, and PJ, have a great show! Hope to see you guys soon.

What a weekend - Bridgefest, Chaindrive, Anniversary (11th), and a wedding. Brockit had a full crew with Emily & Tess shooting secondary on the trails. I shot start to finish from a number of spots including bungee strapped to the tailgate of a pickup truck to ankle deep in the swamp. As always, some terrifically photogenic racers, notably my good neighbor Chris Schmidt. The rain held out and the weather made for some good sky. Got some good use out of the circular 8mm, and flexed the D3 with some harsh light. Nice job racers; hopefully you have fewer black fly bites than I do. Thanks to Christine and the Keweenaw Brewing Co. as always for the support as well. The first gallery is up already; look for additional content from Emily & Tess in the next day or so.

— UPDATED (Emily’s shots) —

Brockit intern Emily Allen has a couple hundred shots that are uploaded into the main gallery. For her first bike shoot, she did great. Way to go, Em! All images are chronological  in order as you passed one of our crew on the trail. Please remember to thank Christine Young and the race organization for providing cost-free imagery to all racers. How nice is that!?

— UPDATED (Tess’ shots including awards and Kids Race) —

Brockit gun-for-hire Tess Steube shot an amazing amount of photos at multiple points on the trail including covering awards and the kids race. 700 shots are up from her, making our total 1247 shots of inspiring bikers - woo hoooo! Nice job, Tess. Always nice to have you along, even though you shoot with Canon… Paul Simon would be dissapointed…

CHAINDRIVE 2008 GALLERY

nice quote from a first-time racer:

Hi my name is Elliott Krizek, I just raced the 32 mile Chain Drive for the first time and I wanted to thank you guys for the great photo work that you produced. The colors and images are rich and a joy to look at. Thank you!!!

One thing I love about living in the middle of Lake Superior is the dramatic weather; clouds and sun are especially fun to watch up here, and I have go no further than my back lawn, or around the corner to get shots like these. It is no secret that the other thing I love is shooting Kora. She is a natural, and she should be; she’s had a camera in her face since she was born. Long-term, detrimental effects aside, she likes it, and helps often with photoshoots. We use her as a model often; she is flexible and her talent fees are low! Of the four shots below, two are with the point & shoot (so handy!) and the other two take advantage of larger glass. As always; no PS work; as fake as the clouds look, they are real.

Jessica is a Brockit Bride for October. She and her fiancee took advantage of their engagement shots on a breezy, slightly overcast spring afternoon in Hancock before heading hundreds of miles back home. You guys are both naturally photogenic and will do great! The shots were all done with the 70-200 in natural light - my favorite formula… Nice smile below, Jessica.

From the earlier post, y’all (sorry, just back from Kentucky) know about the Houghton Spring Art & Music Festival. Along with others, I donate time and energy into the festival, specifically for me, into arranging the music, setting up the damn risers, making sure the show runs smoothly, then tearing down the damn risers. The effort was helped a lot by Todd & Jessie of Brassard Media who helped with poster design, distribution, and running the sound stage. Nice work! This was probably the best house (tent) sound we’ve had for the event, and an excellent, two-stage poster release; nice - nice! A few shots below for my Art Center girlfriends in downtown Hancock. Bonnie & Cynthia, always nice to do this; lets get going on next year’s plans.

Ah, this was lovely. Lori Polzin was our bride for the 6th of June, and we shot a beautiful, private wedding on the top of Brockway Mountain in Copper Harbor; shot in some local scenes, then moved southwest along the shoreline to Fitzgerald’s (Eagle River Inn) along Lake Superior’s shore. A wonderful, in-love couple, for whom Brockit intern Emily and I signed the witness lines on the marriage license. Excellent day you two, and congratulations!

Yes; another fun, challenging location to make look sexy through the lens. Working for a couple groups back in Houghton Emily and I headed 20 miles south to shoot in a manufacturing facility to provide fresh content. Everyone was accommodating, and the facility was probably the cleanest, most organized, comfortable plant I’ve been through in a while; nice. We shot with ambient light and a variety of lenses, checking off the shot list on a rainy evening. Excellent to meet you all - you got some great shots!

I never tire of shooting doctors, and for Portage Health, we nailed a couple of them in a couple different locations as we continue to provide updated content to Jessie & Karin. Always fun to work for you gals, and doctors, thanks for being photogenic. Matched gels to ambient light for these, with saves so much (all) color correction pain later. I mean honestly, who has time to adjust these things in post anyway?!

Kora, Meg, Carrice, Emily and I spent a quick hour shooting Carrice’s senior work for Finlandia University. The single picture does not do justice to the web of suspended glass objects, mirrors, and windows. It was pretty tough not to back into a feature, but the collecton of shots turned out decent. Brockit does a lot of work for starving artists, like Carrice, and it is great. Always nice to see fresh, edgy art from Finlandia’s students. Nice work here, Carrice, and we thank you for the Bells.

My family and I had the fortune of joining my siblings and parents on an almost two-week trip to the Netherlands - the birth and childplace of my dad, Abraham Poot. Fun, fun. This was a surreal trip that would be hard to explain, let alone repeat. I pushed myself to keep a daily blog where you can look through the images and rambling text that outlines everything from our arrival to our departure. At first lamented the absence of the gear I’m comfortable using, which I left at home for reasons of simplicity, weight, discression, etc… Oh yeah, and Robyn made me; so there is that. I grabbed a new, ultra-compact Panasonic FX500 which I ended up loving, despite its inevitable compromises by being a tiny point & shoot. On the other hand, it prevented me from looking like a dork and allowed me to be subtle and flexible. Fun, fun. So, yes; check the blog here if you want.

The three images below are all shot with the camera on the ground; something I can’t do easily with the D3. Oh yeah, and I got a nasty sting of nettle leaves while lying in the grass in front of the windmill; damn those plants…

Ah, another great shoot of Dr. Carlson and her family for Portage Health. Nice job as always, Rima; you win the award for the most photogenic doctor. I think this is the first on-site shoot that Brockit’s intern Emily gave a hand on as well. So nice to have company and support - makes the job go quickly and effectively!

I actually got to participate in a wedding from the bridal party point of view instead of from behind the camera. My good buddy Wayne got married in the lovely West Virginia to the even lovelier Teresa. I had the honor of being in the party, supporting Wayne and hooking up with my Detroit buddies. Woo hooo! Nice job Wayne. Glad we cleaned up the Cadillac and always nice to see you. Still can’t believe you are married! I also got to connect with my new photography friend Rebecca Kiger who was kind enough to feature me on her blog. Rebecca, thanks for letting me play, and I look forward to working with you. Wayne, even though you’re married, I’m hoping you still have a guest room for me…

Check it: This year’s festival is around the corner - directly. Jessie rocked the buzz poster out and look for the final one in a couple weeks. Don’t forget to check the local-music mailing list for the local music scene. Artist booths and live, local music all afternoon; what could be more fun? See the Community Arts Center for more information about the event, and a press release.

Noon - 1PM New Zeeland Jazz Apples
1PM - 2PM Squeaky Clean Cretins
2PM - 3PM On-the-Spot Blues Band
3PM - 4PM Keweenaw Brewgrass
4PM - 5PM Blackflies
5PM - 6PM Hannah Bethel

A/V partner Todd led me around the winding hallways and labs that makes up the maze of Calumet Electronics. As part of an image refresh and new content, we spent a couple days working almost each and every aspect of the complex including clean rooms, baths, labs, indoors and out. Lots of colors, lines, and scenes to play with, and we ended up with a good amount of glossy content. Thanks to everyone up there for helping out!

Driving back to Houghton from Kalamazoo (that’s 550 miles with a four-year-old) and gently buzzed on coffee, Robyn and I thought a fun project would be to shoot people’s most essential, tangible, physical item and focus on it, literally and figuratively; leaving themselves as a secondary prop - which is how I feel without a couple of my own coveted, material possessions… So; see the draft poster below, created by Ashley, one of Brockit’s interns. If you are 18, emotionally dependent on a some object, and want a little compensation for modeling in the studio, send an email to mail@brockit.com with contact information and a description - not of you though - we are looking for all types.