Happy Mother's Day 2013!!

Roller derby skater and mom Katie Bell for Shore Magazine.

Moms are great and they do so many things,
Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!!
Psssst--call your Mom!

Rugby player Adam Dudycha for Shore Magazine.

Rugby player Adam Dudycha for Shore Magazine.

Well I did not win at the Headline Club of Chicago's 2013 Lisagor awards on Friday night. But we did get to eat and drink in the fabulous Union League Club while listening to the gravelly-voiced Rick Kogan MC the event.
But rather than react like this wet, muddy rugby player on the ground, or maybe just like him, I say congratulations to all the winners and look out for me next year!!
-Tony

Rob Thorgren for BusINess Magazine.

 

Rob Thorgren for BusINess Magazine.

David G. Janney for BusINess Magazine.

David G. Janney for BusINess Magazine.

Tina St. Aubin for BusINess Magazine.

Tina St. Aubin for BusINess Magazine.

Painter Neil Kientz for Shore Magazine.

Painter Neil Kientz for Shore Magazine.

Polaroid artist Julie Schwartz for Shore Magazine.

Polaroid artist Julie Schwartz for Shore Magazine.

Advertising shoot for Gaucho's Brazilian Steakhouse.

Advertising shoot for Gaucho's Brazilian Steakhouse.

Is depressed the new normal...No!

I just put up some of my "Moody Office" images in the
"New Stuff" section on the website. Dark with muted colors and
a sense of despair. Check them out quick cause I'm shooting
better and brighter things to replace them soon. (but if you need
a little darkness, they are available as stock images-give me a shout.)

Black and White and Blue

I'm taking a moment for some jazz, cool or hot, either way. Grab some coffee and check out the fabulous Blue Note label album cover design by Reid Miles. Reid Miles mixed graphic text treatment with photography by Francis Wolff or himself with groovy results. A few years ago I joined other creatives bitching about creating album cover art for the CD insert format versus the lusciously large LP albums. I got used to it and created some fun stuff. Now the CD format insert is going away and the album art is being relegated a small blurb on a Myspace page surrounded by badly designed web garbage. AAAARRRGGGG! ...OK, I'm OK now. In addition to the Blue Note covers above I have included a few of my own images shot during a former life as a bartender at Chicago's "the Jazz Bulls" nite club which until it's demise it was the longest continuously open jazz bar in Chicago. Every once in a while I miss it, for about five minutes. Still it was a good side gig for a starting photographer.
Left to right we have latin jazz drummer Louis Everleigh, trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard and sax master Branford Marsalis. I think that the Blue Note covers blend music, photography and design in a way we don't see in music packaging today, but at least the music is still here. If you are new to jazz and not sure where to start, try the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. It is an essential jazz album that is sure to satisfy. Download and then pop it on as you browse the Blue Note covers online here.

Failure to Launch, but mission accomplished

I Failed. Yes, it happens to the best of us. As pros we have to "not suck" on a daily basis, that's a given. But in the dog eat dog world of bowling portraits, success has a pretty high bar. For those that care my subject rolls three hundred games like I drink coffee. Over and over. He rolls series (a set of three games) in the 800's routinely. Out of 900 possible you do the math. If I bowl a 300 series I feel pretty hot. (In my defense, when I bowl Miller Highlife is involved).
So anyway, I wheeled into a bowling alley yesterday to meet my subject before a match started. Time will be short so I scouted the location for a good spot and set down my gear. That's when it hit me. The floor. (A side note-I love bowling alleys because they are divine time capsules of space age design where Joe six pack meets George Jetson.) The carpet on the floor of this alley was sooooo cool. A groovy outer space design with planets, stars and even a ringed planet made of a bowling ball being orbited by flaming bowling pins. Wow. I grabbed these shots to show you all. The crowd in the alley thought I was nuts, photographing the floor. OK, here's the failure. I could not get a good shot of my subject and the carpet with laying him down on it. Aaaaargh! Here I was jonesing to get a groovy portrait out of this situation but time and subject willingness was going to blow it.
So I cowboyed-up and shot a portrait of the guy. Nothing to brag about, it was just a good solid portrait that was better than what the client had in mind. The bacon will be brought home but still I looked wistfully at the floor. I file the location away and maybe on some other day...
I have included this portrait of another really good bowler with the psychedelic wall from a different alley. I used a simple radio tripped strobe with a shoot through umbrella slightly off to the side. I guess I'll have to wait until later to add to my collection for the bowling portrait book in my dreams. You take your failures and learn from them to be stronger the next day.

Hoop Girls in the studio-or not...

Oddly enough, while I don't have a strong interest in sports per se, I get assigned to shoot sports figures fairly often. (Full disclosure-the sports I do like are bull riding and sumo wrestling, similar actually.) Shooting sports folks can be fun because of the dynamics: flashy colored outfits, graphic action, etc. Like any location portrait the limits of time and setting dictate a lot of the image. This assignment of a hot girls prep basketball team was in a kinda dull gym during practice before a big game, so little time and no juicy background
I scouted a corner with white cinder block walls a decided to create a white out background effect. Using two small radio triggered strobes I washed the background and set up two more as edge lights slightly behind the subjects. I set up one strobe in front in a white umbrella. I got the coach to release the top players for 9 minutes and got shooting. ( I like to tell them and odd short sounding time like "9 minutes" or " 4 minutes" so it sounds like they won't be gone long. Often when the shoot gets going I can get a little more time.) I arranged the ladies and got them to give me a serious "game face" series of shots. (not easy cause some of them where outgoing while some were shy.) The "game face" look gets them unified to make the group portrait look the team is of one mind. (And kinda moody-tough-cool too.) I then grabbed individual shots that showcased the individual personalities of the players. All done shooting in less than 15 minutes and they were back on the court. Happy coach.
Post production in PS was minimal as the background whited out pretty clean. I jazzed the contrast a little to bring out the glowy edge light, but no tricky "find edges" or "high pass" was needed. The final images look like a cool studio shoot without the massive background, big lights or catering table. I actually miss the catering table a little.

Opportunity knocks, but do I always listen?

Photography is about access and opportunity. I was photographing the author Rosemary Gard for an article about her novel Destiny's Dowry. The former gallery owner was charming and gave me a tour of the art in her stylish home. She laughed when she showed me the "mod" vintage wallpaper she used in a small bathroom downstairs. We shot the portraits for the article then I asked her to let me take one "fun" shot for me. I jammed some lighting into the tiny bathroom and we had a laugh with a few shots that I think show a less canned "author" like image. I did a little PS post production on the image and here you go. I try to always remind myself to go beyond the assignment when there is time.