I did a shoot for the Bartender Olympics here in Milwaukee hosted by OnMilwaukee.com. A group of bartenders compete in events that involve the most ridiculous of tasks. For example stacking as many PBR cans as possible in a minute or making a drink while holding a shake weight. Haha, so I took a fun approach to it, by making these “athletes” feel like they were true competitors, complete with sweatbands. We didn’t even have to style them-they showed their personality & we made em look like champions! The Bartender Olympics will be held March 1st and along with it, our new issue of Two Cents MKE! In the printed magazine you’ll be able to see the full spread and all the contestants. I’ll link when it debuts! In the meantime, here are some of my favorites!

Last month I did a shoot for Great Lakes Distillery, a local distillery here in Milwaukee, WI that’s made quite a worldly impression. They’ve won all kinds of awards for their inventive & unique tastes. They literally hand zest all the lemons that go into their Citrus & Honey Vodka. Not to mention, a kick ass bar with esteemed mixologists. Well I was very honored for the opportunity to revamp their product photography. Check out their tours & tastings if you’re in the MKE area, I learned a ton!

Some of my favorite shots from a recent wedding! I’ve been crazy busy now in the start of wedding season. I am freelancing as a second shooter (7 years now!) and am working with Mia Stevens this year! I’m so glad I found her, we work fabulously together! Anyway, here are some of my shots from our first wedding back in April. All images shown I shot were for MiaS Photo LLC. (Check her blog out!)

The past two days have brought in a lot of fog. It acts like a giant diffuser, making everything bright, but evenly lit. I keep a small point and shoot in my purse for times when I’m out & about not intentionally on a photographic excursion, but because I have come across one too many moments when I REALLY wished I had a camera. And the one on my phone doesn’t cut it. I don’t typically carry my pack of lenses when going to the bank, so my Canon Powershot does very nicely tucked in a bag.

Anyway, I was driving down Lake Drive & felt compelled to get outta my car & take a walk. I had a teacher once tell us to go out & shoot “atmospheric” conditions. It was a dumb assignment. I think I submitted an image I had taken of rain on glass that I had shot the year previous-he wasn’t the wiser & I passed with flying colors-let’s call it senioritis. I did some major digging around in archives & revived a hard drive so you could see it here. I thought of that lame class when I was out today and thought “I suppose this would be considered atmospheric.”

I’ve spent the better half of my Saturday playing in Lightroom with these. I rarely have time to play, since I work on other client’s work most days. But found myself getting lost in them. These could take a few routes, but thought they should stay low in contrast & with subtle color. I wanted to reflect & show the softness of the fog that dulls everything. After taking out the branches & floating objects in the foreground, I decided to keep them after all. I think it adds dimension that grounds it a bit better. The others below are a little cleaner. I think I have a million different versions with variations of color, crop & detail. When I turned it around, I thought it looked like a tree. I pushed a few of these far enough that there’s a bit of artifacting (it was shot with a small camera & can’t hold) so for fun, here’s some studies of fog & composition, nothing special, but I thought they were nice. Doesn’t the beach shot look like it’s the source of all the fog coming from the pool of water?

I was at a networking meetup last night where the speakers talked about their fairly new business and how their famous app made it to market. Oh you might have heard of it: Hipstamatic. They dialed in via Skype to talk with a room full of burgeoning entrepreneurs staring at them half way across the US. It was quite humbling hearing their story & their attitude towards their newly found success & how it started. They are all from Wisconsin, the Midwest, and just decided to move to San Fransisco a few months ago after the app took off. (p.s. It was their FIRST app they ever attempted…so here’s to hope for each of our million dollar ideas.)

Someone asked the question, “Why move out to California, why not stay in the Midwest?”

It was a good question, especially for this group, whose competitors all live in NY or Cali & believe that’s the only way you’re gonna make it. Well, truth is, they were successful & were able to grow their business in the Midwest before they ever got to Cali. There’s a ton of talent here & it’s been a centralized theme as of late to help the Midwest grow it’s creative economy.

This sign has been up in my neighborhood for years. Funny how people adorn their small piece of green in a city. I happen to take this photo 2 days ago.  Although humorous, it points to places mere blocks away to miles away, even Easter Island. (Canada & Hell are pretty funny too). But Milwaukee is the center, it’s in the middle of these arrows pointing everywhere but here. It’s the center of all the places listed.

I was given a magnet a few years ago that I keep in front of my desk. It says:

“The Great Opportunity is where you are. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the universe…”- John Burroughs

So here’s to growth in the Midwest, and the little reminder that you can create success wherever you are, and to believing that you can put yourself on the map & not have to live in Silicon Valley.

…and to the homage of Ace of Base. :)