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…

The snow is starting to pile up, we’re wearing long underwear on a regular basis, and our muscles are sore from a fresh season of skiing and shoveling sidewalks.

To break in the season, come eat, drink and be merry with us on Wednesday, December 14th in our steam heated, 100 year old studio! We’ll have special treats from our friends at the Keweenaw Brewing Co., 5th & Elm coffee & bakery, and the Keweenaw Co-op.

In addition to this deliciousness, we’ll be demoing camera equipment and answering questions you have about gear for your own Santa list or someone else. We’ll have an array of SLR, ILC, point & shoot, and rangefinder-style cameras for you to play with.

AND… we’re having a scratch & dent sale on an eclectic variety of 30″ prints that you can buy right off our gallery walls for your stocking. As added incentive, we’re giving half of the profit to our furry friends at the Copper Country Humane Society.

Oh yeah… we’ll have a punch bowl too! Join us…!

(Here’s the Facebook invite too)

(did you know that Adam is actually terrified of heights?)

Ever wanted to know intimate things about us? Why do we shoot Nikon? Do people really pay us in whiskey? Do we make everyone get in the water for their shoots? Did one of us really jump out of a helicopter? At the recommendation of one of our favorite assistants, we’re going to open ourselves up for questions on a weekly basis. We’ll narrow the focus each week for topics on gear, modeling, workflow, weddings, assistants, etc. but to start it off – today anything goes…!

Ask us whatever and on Friday morning we’ll reply to as many as we can and post the whole Q&A here. We’ll use your first name or keep you anonymous.

*** ANSWERS ***

Deal? Go for it… Just use the form below.