another year, another race. but this isn’t just any race. set right in the middle of bridgefest weekend, the chain drive racers take over downtown houghton, the lift bridge and the maasto hiihto/churning rapids trails in their brightly colored jerseys. so cool! congrats to all of you chain drive racers – you were, as always, awesome & inspiring.

this year, brockit upped the ante from last year’s boat shots to helicopter shots. manned by lake superior helicopters, we were able to capture stills & video from 200 feet above the race. crazy! a huge thanks to the LSH crew, todd brassard of brassard media for shooting video, and to brockit’s second shooter, emily, who was stuck in the woods shooting with the bugs (sorry, em).

lastly, thank you to the organization, christine young, chris schmidt, and everyone for having us shoot the race again & for helping us figure out where to land a chopper on the race trails. i laughed, but knew adam wasn’t kidding when he asked them, “so… just say you needed to land a helicopter somewhere on the course to drop a photographer off. where would the best place for this be? 50’x60’ max with no wires or trees or anything…”

below is the highlight reel for your viewing enjoyment – please pass it along and view it at full-screen!

check out the full gallery here: http://brockit.smugmug.com/Clients/chaindrive

images are free (just right-click & save) for medium resolution download (please thank your race organization & christine young!) and unusually high-res images (so you can pick yourself out in the chopper shots) as well as any physical prints are available for purchase through the site. enjoy, and thank you!

- meg

*** 2010 Bearchase Gallery ***

Below are some sneaks from one of our shooters from the Bear Chase, Greg Maino at Juskuz Photography. As we retrieve and process all the imagery early this week, please enjoy the preview below and come back to the site here for updates as we get these up for you!

Brockit’s Jenny Hamel always does a stellar job preparing race inserts, and the CopperDog 150 bags will be graced with her great work. Thanks, Jenny! Sending these to the printer, then whipping out the x-acto knives for the crew to slice these up!

Racers, follow the post below, and check back here for official photos. Good luck mushers!

It is going to be a busy weekend, folks… Despite the warm weather, all events are a go! Since when do we let the weather stop us in the Keweenaw, anyways?

With the 1st Annual CopperDog 150 sled dog race & the Great Bearchase X-country ski race, both starting in Calumet, you are going to be seeing our crew all across the map, as Brockit Inc. takes on the role as the ‘Official Photographer‘ for both events!

*** Check back here for gallery photos at the conclusion of the weekend’s races! ***

First: the CopperDog 150 consists of a 150-mile course and a 30-mile course. As of this blog post, there are over 30 teams racing! Sled dogs galore! For family-friendly viewing come out and support the 7pm start in downtown Calumet, this Friday, the 12th of March.

Next, Brockit has been shooting the Great Bearchase for years and always looks forward to it – seeing our friends fly by on fast skis is exhilarating! As always, this race is on the Swedetown trails and consists of a 26km classic, 26 & 50 freestyle, along with the Junior Bearchase for ages 5-16.

Hope to see you showing your support on Friday evening, March 12, for the Junior Bearchase & Saturday morning, the 13th, for the Great Bearchase. There is still time to register for both!

For more details check out www.bearchase.org & www.copperdog150.com

For updates, follow CopperDog on Facebook & Twitter:

www.facebook.com/pages/copper-dog/

www.twitter.com/copperdog150

(and don’t forget to follow & fan us too!)

Wedding FAQ

Families can select the link below for galleries of candid and semi-candid shots. Digital downloads and physical prints can be ordered easily and immediately, with a percentage going back to help KFRC’s efforts with the winter park.

http://brockit.smugmug.com/Clients/kfrc

Special thanks to Brockit intern Rebecca for covering the majority of the event!

Also – check out the highlight slideshow, featuring 150 images of rock-star triathletes. Click on the image directly below… and again: the full gallery is here showcasing 2000 images from the race for purchase as digital or print.

GALLERY

A final congrats to all racers this year. Awesome job on the trails – thanks for being colorful & photogenic. The weather was great and hopefully you all had as much fun as we did – of course I was covered with a lot less sweat and mud than y’all were… In total with 5 folks shooting for Brockit, we ended up with very complete coverage. I love clicking through the beginning of the race which was shot from 3 different angles, in chronological order. Fun! 2860 images in total with the addition late last night of 723 images from intern Rebecca who covered the bridge crossing and the finish line with her D300. Nice job!

— UPDATE (again) —

Finally wrestled Greg’s disk away from Christine at the KBC and shots are uploading as I drift off to sleep. This will bring the total to 2137 images online, with intern Rebecca’s bridge and finish line shots to upload this weekend. Phew…

— UPDATE —

Photos are uploading to the storefront as I type. There is a single gallery with a chronological order to the photos and each you will notice has a tag in the filename indicating the photographer with credit for the shot.

AB = Allison, AJ = Adam, CS = Chris, EA = Emily, GM = Greg, RF = Rebecca

Images are free for medium resolution download (please thank your race organization & Christine Young!) and high-res as well as any physical prints are available for purchase through the site. Enjoy, and thank you!

A quick congratulations to all the racers in this year’s chain drive race in the Keweenaw! Always inspiring, and always a little dusty & buggy… This year Brockit Inc. had no less than 5 photographers covering the event, and in two shifts. A huge thank you to our team: Greg from Juskuz who was shooting on the North end of the course, Chris from XMATIC who was chasing the leaders on the trail and also on the North, our own Emily hit the fields, woods, and blackflies a mile from the finish, as well as Rebecca who camped out at the finish line. We had a couple unique angles for the start as well, so a big thanks also to my buddy Todd from Brassard Media who hooked me up with a boat ride to parallel racers along the canal. While I was breathing boat exhaust, Emily was on the roof of the condos next to the bridge, and Rebecca was standing on the bridge itself. Fun, fun! Give us a little time to compile everyone’s content, but in the meantime, some sneaks from Greg and Chris below.

Stop by to take a glance and also check out 5th & Elm’s second location in Hancock (the old Spice of Life). You can’t go wrong with good coffee.

Brockit’s involvement comes in the form of a full blow, rock-star photoshoot. Interns Emily and Rebecca helped load in all the gear and worked quickly with Todd & Jessie Brassard  of Brassard Media – both who seem to be involved in every aspect of the camp – to setup the scenes and get the shoot rolling. Having returned just the night before from a large weekend shoot in West Virginia, I needed all the help I could get. We shot performance style with a live performance complete with lights and smoke, then moved to the studio setup for the group shots. Each performer, dancer, singer, etc. gave two quick poses – inspired by TopModel, MTV, RollingStone, or the variety of examples that Jessie brought with her. Got some great shots out of this for sure. Nice job everyone!

Some sneaks below, and the full sets will be available by the weekend.

— UPDATED —

Full galleries are up. Check it out.

— UPDATED —

Photos are available! Just over 400 in all from two photographers. Images are posted in chronological order. Some highlights below. Congratulations again!
Check out the gallery here!

Many congratulations to the 2009 graduates from Finlandia University! Emily and I were pleased to capture the event this past weekend and watch the transition from student to graduate. A little shout-out to Peter VanPelt who received an honorary degree and made a number of eyes tear with his powerful speech. Thanks, Peter.

We’re processing the photos which include candid shots as well as the stage shots and will be uploading as quickly as possible from the road this week. Keep an eye on the blog here for updates. I’d suggest adding the RSS feed or subscribing to the blog so you’ll know the second they’re up! Thanks and congratulations again!

An Acknowledgment of Life, Death, Grief, and Rebirth

A collaboration by photographer, Adam Johnson, and artist / model, Heidi Wiitanen

………..

A series of eleven 20” by 30” black and white nude photographs to be shown at the Rhythm Skate Shop from April 15th through May 15th.

Reception: April 17th, 2009, 8 – 10 pm

Purpose:

Although these local visionaries have worked together for several years on various photography shoots, this is a first-time collaboration for photographer, Adam Johnson, and artist / model, Heidi Wiitanen, presenting the public with a very special project.

The project consists of 11 black and white nude photographs and a mask, conveying the emotions involved in the process of life, death, grief, and rebirth. The model, Heidi Wiitanen, shares her portrayal of the different selves in each of these emotional processes through photographs taken by Adam Johnson. Powerful and relatable, these photographs display an embrace of trials and hardships, the ability to overcome them and the beauty of rebuilding oneself with a sense of empowerment.

Postcards and an artist statement from both will be available at the reception.