have you ever seen an unhappy sled dog?!

While we don’t get much sleep in the summer, we don’t exactly rest in the winter either… Sandwiched between two back-to-back California trips, a ski race, and two snowstorms was a multi-day event that we’re honored to partner with, sponsor, and SHOOT – the Copper Dog 150! Race organizers Doug Harrer (chair) and Todd Brassard (director) contract Brockit Inc. to literally chase these teams all over the Keweenaw – nailing shots at pre-determined, strategic sites on all legs of the race. For the second year, we’ve loaded our gear and our butts onto snowmobiles (huge shout-out to Rob Greenhoe!) and covered the race remotely for the duration. Highlights HERE, fun stuff below.

rabbit, sweep, video, photo, communications - all via snowmobile

official timer & his time - Kiko

Friday’s stretch is especially tricky because we shoot everything at night. Lots of remote strobes, headlamps, and riding down unfamiliar backcountry trails to setup a shoot site before the teams overrun us. This year we didn’t have to burn our own clothing to keep warm in the woods (yes – we’ve done this…) but we were rained and snowed on which made it tricky for  anything not weather resistant. We put remote strobes inside our helmets on the sides of the trail and used a red LED to lock focus in the snow and rain. We made it to Eagle Harbor to find shelter at the Inn, then camped bunk-style in a secret motorsports haven.

stage left - gopro video & radio triggered strobe

larger dogs -> smaller teams -> shorter leg (35 mile race)

testing remote lights for the night stage

strobes working (note use of snowmobile helmet for shelter)

cold & wet - warming up in Eagle Harbor

Saturday morning started with refueling machines, checking gear, finding coffee and looking for gloves that weren’t still wet or partially frozen from earlier that morning. We shot the start then cruised up trail 3 to a remote spot in the Northern part of the Keweenaw to wait for teams to run into us. We worked with the race to find a spot that would have teams overtaking each other, as the morning start was in reverse order. We weren’t disappointed. Not only was it photogenic, it was also an occasional tangled mess – at one point requiring photog to race down the trail, grab a team, then stand on the brake as the mushers untwisted barking dogs. Copper Harbor was next, and we thawed by the fireplace at Zik’s and offloaded data before naptime.

scraggly 'officials' getting going in the morning

this is dog for "lets gooooooo!"

Jerry Bath's dog Brew charging the photog

teams overtaking each other in the Keweenaw

photog stands on the brake, musher untangles

Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we took backcountry trails to a gentle curve with snow-laden pine trees as background. We carefully passed a dozen or so teams to meet them in Calumet at the finish and called it a wrap.

waiting for dogs, updating our facebook page, freezing fingers

full speed team

unusually reliable and cushy ride for 150 miles...

Tons of thank-you’s to Rob Greenhoe for the sled, and Doug, Todd, Meredith, Jason, Abbey, and the whole CDog committee for their faith and a careful balance of 87 octane and 80 proof liquids to keep us in business. Kudos also to the teams (who after 3 years are quickly becoming our friends) who travel hundreds of miles to race, and to the community at large who supports this event with countless hours of volunteer work to make it all that it is. It is truly a testament to the Copper Country’s work ethic and camaraderie.

director & asst. director (rockstars)

brockit sponsored team - Keith Peppler #6 (finished 6th too!)

There are highlight galleries on our storefront, and some additional behind-the scenes photos below. The annual video put together by Brassard Media is coming out soon and in addition to the glossy stills, will feature some of our 60fps HD video that we captured for fun on our adventure.

GoPro2 buried in the snow - pre-snowmobile impact (survived...)

we just like this one

Keith Peppler's team - Brockit's banner

A winter highlight is always shooting the annual Great Bear Chase Ski Marathon up at the amazing Swedetown Trails in Calumet. As always, we get to be reminded how un-athletic we are, and this is especially true for this race which is a community event with a very wide demographic. It’s always great to see so many familiar faces – albeit sweating and often pained-looking familiar faces… Special thanks to occasional assistant, helper, and multiple workshop attendee Rob Hill who took his training and an arsenal of Brockit gear and shot this event while photog #1 was on a redeye back from the West Coast. Race notes, photog tips, practice, and preparation aside – Rob nailed this race – aided by the gorgeous Lori Hannula. A shout-out also to Angela Luskin who always lines this up for us. It’s a pleasure to work this race which we’ve been consistently shooting for the last decade at least. All photos are up in the gallery and available for purchase. Chronological order, and both digital and print copies as you please. Yay!

*** GALLERY ***

untitled photo from 'transitions'

Really – we are nice people. Nice people who don’t always take photos of babies and butterflies, but we’re not trying to offend anyone. We expect the usual hate mail from gymnophobics (have been dying to use that word) but we didn’t expect kick-back from funeral home directors. Ouch. Actually, we’ve done some pretty nice commercial work with funeral homes in the area, and we find them professional, well-dressed, and really really funny. These are all traits that probably suit their line of work well! In 2004 we were doing a collection of photos on a project called ‘transitions‘ which showed the ambiguous area between life and afterlife. Hospitals were used, as were funeral homes. While the photos have been in circulation for about 7 years, they’ve recently been discovered by the funeral services community with mixed reaction based on the emails and phone calls.

For the record: our work in these anonymous (seriously, how many people could make a positive ID on an embalming room!?) funeral homes was escorted, authorized, and reasonably respectful of the locations. We dropped only one Big Lebowski quote (“Yes sir. It is our most modestly priced receptacle…”) and we’re sorry for any offense or implied disrespect. Art is in the eye of …..

We’ve worked an arrangement involving community service to the industry which we’re optimistic about, and um… if you are ever in need of a good funeral home, we can make some recommendations…

room 603

Meghan's punch bowl! (iPhone w/ KingCamera)

Yes – its overdue, but between holiday hedonism, workshop planning, and broken ribs – well, that’s all the excuses we can come up with right now… In all seriousness, thanks to all of you that came out to our Holiday Soirée just before the holidays. Wow. We had about 100 more people than we expected, and by 8PM had long run out of parking and both the punch bowl and IPA were on their last inch of reserves. Thank you to everyone who bought scratch & dent prints off the walls. We were able to bring a nice check over to the Copper Country Humane Society as a result, and the cats and dogs there thank you as well. Special thank-yous:

Keweenaw Brewing Co. - thanks to Dick & Paul for the CO2 and the hoppy beer, and special thanks to occasional model Abby for pre-washing an entire rack of pint glasses for us!

5th & Elm Coffee – a big thanks to Boone and Frank who balanced the IPA out with some strong coffee, AND some amazing truffles. Wow. Frank will indeed make these for events, keep it in mind if you want to impress someone.

Keweenaw Co-op – our preferred studio caterer for an absolutely amazing selection of gourmet cheese, salsas, olives, hummus (is hummuses the plural?)

Office Max of Houghton – these guys let us leave their store with thousands of dollars of cameras and equipment to be able to demo at the party. Looking through the images on the cards, they were, ah… certainly enjoyed. If you need a camera locally, definitely head up there, ask for the manager, mention us, and they’ll give you a good deal.

E.L. Wright artists & landlord – did you know that we share a building with Andrea from Distant Drum, and Joyce Koskenmaki? These are amazing artists and they like our parties almost as much as our landlord.

And again – thanks to all of you for the good cheer, the laughter, and your love of art. We’re looking for another excuse for an evening party. Today *is* National Peculiar People Day. Hmmmm…

5th & Elm Truffles (iPhone w/ KingCamera)

early guests (iPhone w/ KingCamera & Diptic)

scratch & dent prints (iPhone w/ PhotoForge2)

Adam & Sandy (Nikon D700 w/ 50mm)

playing with demo gear (Nikon D700 w/ 50mm)

camera demo (Nikon D700 w/ 50mm)

photog with guests (FujiFilm X100)

really happy guest (FujiFilm X100)

the cutest guests (Canon T3i w/ kit lens)

check delivery to humane society (iPhone w/ Luminance & Diptic)

Remember our secret project this past November? This is it. We were honored to be able to provide footage for our new friends at Palace Sports and Entertainment in Auburn Hills – covering their project at Horner Flooring. Over the course of a week and a half, we spent some quality time with King from StandUP Media and an arsenal of gear – covering the process of the final stages of the creation of a new floor for the Detroit Pistons. Using a trio DSLRs and an x100, we captured panning shots, features, and interviews in multiple locations – (which is why we chose King for this job!) A neat trick was mounting a Nikon D700 with a 17mm lens to a scissor lift to capture a single shot, every 5 minutes, for 24 hours, for 5 days. No room for error once it was setup either: manual everything from focus, to white balance to make every shot for 5 days identical. The real trick however was trying to get down from the top of a 15′ high platform once we were in place. Um, yeah… hindsight… Doug and his team at Horner were great to work with, and running the interviews was a highlight of this job. Stan and his media team at the Palace were equally fabulous, and produced this 3:22 video. Can’t wait to see the floor with some players on it. Fun!

one shot every 5 minutes, 24 hours for 5 days

We’ve had a lot of interest in more workshops, including an intermediate one – so we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be offering two sessions on Jan 21! We’ll open registration up at 2PM on Friday the 6th (today.) See below for the schedule and the details, and lots more on the workshop page. Both promise to leave you smiling, exhausted, stuffed, and excited to shoot with new knowledge and skills. Just like previous workshops, we will have some of our best models on hand to serve as models in multiple scenes, lunch will be catered by the Keweenaw Co-op, and hands-on instruction will switch rapidly from “showing” to “doing.” Fun fun! So… brief details are below, and after 2PM, use the workshop page to learn more and sign-up. Put that new, confusing camera that Santa got you into good use!

workshop participant: before vs. after

- NEXT DATES -

Beginner Workshop – Saturday – Jan 21 – 10AM – 2PM (limit 10, catered lunch)

Intermediate Workshop – Saturday – Jan 21 – 3PM – 6:PM (limit 5, cocktail reception)

Participants for BEGINNER sessions bring their own camera for a hands-on, intensive session that will cover:

• basics on photography (light, depth, framing)
• mechanics of your own camera
• image processing, sharing, printing, and archiving
• hands-on exercises in-studio with live models
• mobile phone camera tips
• photo critiques, tips, and equipment recommendations

Participants for INTERMEDIATE sessions also bring their own camera for a hands-on, intensive session that will cover:

• controlling depth of field
• creative framing
• workflow and edits
• working with subjects
• advanced lighting (reflecting, diffusing, remote strobes)
• advanced controls (exposure compensation, auto ISO, flash sync, focus tracking)

Learn more here…