Shows from last year...

Over the summer/fall I really don't shoot all that much black and white, in fact this year I haven't really done much since I'm exploring larger prints and finding new ways to show my work - and gearing up for the spring art crawl here in Minneapolis.

So what happens is I have a bunch of film that sat around needing to be processed, and I finally got around to doing that here the other day. Below are some highlights!




Some Random Hot Dish event at the Record Room (old VIP room) at First Ave. This is always a fun night, and those guys have some great house dj's coming though each first Sat of the month.




My good friend and awesome musician Meredith Firke - http://meredithfierke.com/ - really, check her out! A great local signer songwriter with a nice chill folkish sound (sorry, not a music review person), anyway she kicks butt and you should see her!




My friends in the George Maurer Group at the Dakota last Dec. Two things are amazing about them, first is how they can cram all those people on that small stage, and they do some pretty cool jazz standards in a fun way. Well, and I used to sit in with them back in high school when I played my sax more often.

http://www.georgemaurer.com




Finally, got to see the New Standards close their set (before late night took over) at the Dakota with a very good friend. Although I haven't seen them lately, it brought back memories to hear "I'm a dude dad" and watch them close things down.

http://www.thenewstandards.com/

Running around in the dark - Christmas blizzard of 2009

So, as with last year, we had a late December blizzard here in Minneapolis - and Minnesota for that matter - and as with last year it was pretty much the real deal. For about 3 days driving was a lot of fun, flights in and out were a mess, it was cold, snowed, rained, snowed, and now we have ice all over the place.

Also like last year I tried to get out with my camera and document it a bit, with a few different places and trying a few different things. All of this was done with my RB67, Delta 400 film, and it was pushed to around and over iso1600.

That first picture posted was of the Gutherie Theater and Mill City. It was really dark at the time, still snowing a bit, and the film looks grainy since it was really pushed up to and past 1600, with a lot of added contrast in post. I think the exposure was around a second, f4, and yeah, it was really dark and snow/foggy.


This is our view towards downtown from Loring park. I meant to, and will someday, bring a longer lens to shoot it with, but it's a really cute park and fun view. Kind of like NYC's view from Central park, but much, much, much smaller.


Another view from the river front area of town, just some old grain elevators that are either being torn down, or converted into something or another. I think, after going back there, that this needs to be flipped horizontally, but that's my dirty little secret. Again, it was pretty foggy, a little snow in the air, and I needed to really push the film to get this.



An Alleyway downtown that I always like to shoot for fun. Again, snowy, foggy, but not as cold as a year ago.


A hotel downtown, which was decked out a bit in Christmas stuff, it's cute.



But yeah, that's my trip around town this year! More to come this winter!

HotDish MPLS - First Ave 12/04/2009

So I normally don't do club or dj pictures anymore, but for friends - drinks - and a little money - I can be convinced to get out and have a good time. Other than that I'm getting old and try to be in bed by 11pm every night, I get tired even thinking about staying up until 2!

Thanks to J Matthews and Nate Laurence and http://www.hotdishmpls.com

Don't be scared to get wet!

Not that this was a huge risk, but I'm always up for getting the shot, and if that means putting a light out in a few feet of water - so be it! My friend and I wanted to do a shoot, the weather was nice, and frankly we don't have that great of beaches here - or at least nothing along the lines of Cali or other beachy places. So, the only other options are really to get in the water and have some fun.

So we went away from where there would be a lot of traffic, not really because we don't want any onlookers, mostly to get out of the way. We did start with some on land shots, and then after a bit, and after getting a few good shots there, we moved into the water. I wasn't too scared of the rig tipping over when set, but it was fun trying to get that out there and not slip and fall myself.



All in all the results were worth it, and I enjoy pushing the limits a bit and getting shots that others may not.

When a model asks if you have any fans...

So I was doing a shoot with a few friends, and she wondered if we had any fans in the studio - something about blowing her hair around. Now don't get me wrong, I like this idea, but you really do need large fans that move a large volume of air around, not just any household one will work that well.

Since we're cheap at the studio sometime, we just have 4 or 5 regular fans, and it literally took all of them to get this shot. One or two were aimed at the side, to get the hair started, and then the others were used to push the hair up from the back. This along with 35 or 40 pictures (you wonder why she looks ticked?) and merging 4 together got the shot you see.

I guess the light could have been more dynamic in hindsight, however we were really having a hard time getting the hair to do what we wanted, and I was worried that anything harder would hinder getting her hair to move like we wanted and or limit when we could shoot.

But again, you never know what's going to happen if a model brings up something, and most of the time it's worth a try!