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.

Karyn from Segno / Marketing Dept. and I spent a couple hours shooting in the 30,000 sq. ft. kiddie casino that is the MineShaft & RockHouse bowling alley / restaurant /etc. High ISO, and remote strobes made quick work of the dark interior, and the shot below features the ‘glow bar’ which was shot handheld with the typical, fake-martini that I use for shoots like this. Crazy place… You might remember that we shot their menu before they launched back in the winter. This time I did not have the flu though… Nice place, guys.

As part of a video commercial for a good client, we grabbed a couple models and shot based on some sample shots and a rough storyboard. Basically test shots, but after a flurry of controversial emails, looks like these might be the final ones for the project. A lot of pressure to re-create shots based on stock samples, but we pulled it off decently with no less than 6 people in the studio. Nice job models; one of them a first-time figure model.

We shot Donna Michalek for an American Society of Mechanical Engineers publication. Always a trick to shoot on white; blow out the background without the subject. A paper roll and a wireless strobe worked the trick though! Even used on-camera strobe (gasp…) to bounce off the ceiling. Nice job, Donna!

Jessie from Portage Health and I ran around two locations, shooting environmental portraits of doctors over the course of a couple days. As always, photogenic doctors and a good challenge shooting in trauma rooms, exam rooms, and fluorescent lit hallways. Temperature matched gels, and lots of bounce. Check out their website (which just won a gold award) to see some of the final work. Congrats, Jessie!

We spent some time with Rhiannon in the studio, along with Chris, Millie and a cap and gown. Rhiannon, for hating having your picture taken, you did great! And Chris, thanks for the growler of amber ale the front porch! Woo hooo!

Awesome night being entertained by the Earthwork Music crew up in the historic Calumet Theater. Just some fun shots on stage at ISO 3200 at f / 2.8. Debating heading to their family music camp later this summer. Check it out; looks like fun!

We are in the midst of some shooting for a growing IT company, Up & Running. A nice combination of studio and outdoors work with their team. They recently became ‘mac certified’ thus the meditative apple shot; funny. They are a bunch of geeks for sure, but it is truly the geeks that will rule the world so I’m sticking close to Ian and his army.

With minimal scuffed knuckles, frostbite, and only a few frustrated tears, Kora is up on her bike. Crazy… She learned how to balance on Sunday, and we added the pedaling on Tuesday.

Spent a couple hours out at the Creek House with Brockit’s good friend, Segno Marketing, shooting new promotional content. All shots are natural light. Very peaceful place; by far the loudest sound was the D3’s shutter release. Had to take it out of 11fps ‘machine gun’ mode and shoot single, discrete shots. Fun stuff; thanks Karyn!

A quick shoot of Michigan Tech’s Pavement Enterprise group led by George Dewey. More wide-angle work, which I notice more distortion with on the D3 as it has a full frame FX (23.9mm x 36mm) sensor since I’m using so much more of the glass. Interesting… Nice work, group. George, looking forward to doing some aerial project shots when you return from Florida.

Spring might be here. The rest of the ice fell off the porch a few hours after this shot, and I thought I saw a couple flowers peeking out of the snow on Michigan Tech’s campus. Excellent.

As a favor to my favorite fabric designer / instructor Phyllis at Finlandia, I quickly shot the runway for the student fashion show. As always, beautiful and edgy designs. Sorry I couldn’t make it look more glam; but I think you all walk a little too quickly down the runway! Shot with natural light; moderate ISO, and the 17-25mm 2.8 lens. Students / models, check the client area of brockit.com for your photos. (Finlandia gallery)

Finished a project for Finlandia’s new ViewBook, being put together by the very talented Casey. Shooting faculty and students in action, and working the artistic angle for Casey to capitalize on. Natural light, and insanely high ISO for the projector shot below.

Well, what would Easter be without a 14″ snowstorm? A shot of my lovely sister from over the nice, long weekend of family, coloring eggs, fondue, lazy breakfasts, late nights, and planning for the trip to Amsterdam!

Always fun working with Finlandia University. Hit up the Criminal Justice class on a fingerprinting and surveillance exercise. I felt like part of their operation; black coat, sunglasses, telephoto, etc. fun!

Shot as part of a series of project shots for a terrific Kentucky marketing company, this is shot at their client’s site. A little girl (hmmmm…) playing Bingo with some wonderful women. It was a great week of games, stories, and food. Polka on Friday, ladies!

Ah, the Bearchase. 500 skiers, sub-zero weather, swedetown, coffee, frozen fingers, iced viewfinders, snowshoes, straddling a 4-wheeler, and pasties for lunch. Shot just before jumping on a flight to Houston, and shot directly for Copper Island as part of a media project. Fun stuff. Nice job, racers. See Bill Fink for your individual shots at the finish.

Video Link

Good friend, Todd of Brassard Media was good enough to as me to come along for lunch with legendary, iconic photographer Joe Kirkish and take some shots for a variety of uses. Joe, always nice to see you, good shots, thank you for letting me enjoy the sanctuary of your home. Tood, thanks for the trunk full of Bells.

From Joe:

Looking through some of the others:  you have retained your “eye,”
your timing, and you’re technical know how; what more could a person
ask?  Behind it all, of course, is the driving energy that you put
into your best shots.  Keep it up!

We had the pleasure of seeing Adam again at Alaina’s wedding in October. The pictures were beautiful, but we would expect nothing less. It was a pleasure to have Adam as our photographer and his pictures will be cherished.

- Janet Pauciulo

Good studio work with Greg and his lovely fiancée.. Brought the dog in for the end of the session even. Nice work, guys.

Worked with Michele on a new set of shots that show off the ojibwa casino’s remodeling work. Shots below were taken low ISO with existing light, and on-camera & remote strobe with gels. 4 degrees F and treacherous roads on the way, but it is only March right? Looks great, Michele.

Thanks to the very professional bunch at Rockbrook Camera in Omaha, Nebraska for the new, killer, Nikon D3. By far the two most outstanding properties are the high ISO performance, and the dynamic range. Thank you, thank you, Nikon for using the same battery as my D2X; now I can carry just one set of batteries, one charger, and one cord - Ted, my chiropractor thanks you as well. Not sure why the battery door covers are different though; makes quick changes difficult. Yay for Kora always being my test model. Shots below are ISO 800 with natural light. Lots of time in the sunshine these past couple days; very nice.

What a pleasure to head out to the DeLongs and shoot some family photos for them on their lovely property. Very harsh mid-day sun, but had some good luck with diffuse, natural light. Very deep snow out there. The DeLongs all had snowshoes, which were as functional as photogenic; the photographer should have dug his out of the car also! An inspiring, beautiful family.

Joyce always has challenging artwork to shoot, but it is such a pleasure to see her work while the paint is still tacky. Natural light with a silver & gold reflector to make the light uniform across the face of the paintings. I admit that it would be much more tough without Adobe Lightroom, but that is hardly cheating. The shot below is Kora’s favorite piece. Not sure what you’ve titled it, Joyce, but Kora calls it ‘a big sheep with a chick in the window.’ Nice work.

Woo hoo! Got the package from Katie at USSA today. Katie, thanks for the gifts; everything fits and is keeping me warm!