Most high school yearbook editors want your senior portrait by mid-October. Now is the time to book you senior portrait session. Let's get together to make some amazing images that capture your individual style and personality. Contact me now to book a session and get 15% off your first print order.

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Spent the last few days in Pensacola Florida visiting my oldest daughter and son-in-law. Had a great time and the weather was beautiful. Highs of 75F instead of 10F back home in Wisconsin! Managed to get in a couple of photography excursions on Pensacola Beach in the Live Oaks and Fort Pickens areas.

Fort Pickens BeachPENSACOLA PENSACOLA PENSACOLA

PENSACOLA

Had a nice senior portrait session with Joy today. She was a real trooper dealing with the 90+ degree heat and humidity.

Joy Donahue

See the entire gallery here.

Had a great time this evening doing this shoot with Simon in and around Wauwatosa.

And then Mom calls!      No, the call was not staged!

Click here to see the rest of the gallery.

It is not too late to book your senior portrait session, but time is running out. Contact me today!

On Monday, 8/21/17, I had the opportunity to experience the total eclipse of the sun in Carbondale, IL. We chose Carbondale because that is where the complete blackout of the sun (called "totality") lasted the longest of anywhere along the path of the eclipse -- a full 2 minutes and 42 seconds. We arrived Sunday night and woke up early Monday to scout out a good viewing location. We found a picturesque park and boat landing on Crab Orchard Lake about 2 miles east of Carbondale. We were joined by about 100 other people, some who had come from as far away as Atlanta, to experience this event.

The 2 minutes and 42 seconds of total solar blackout was fantastic.  When you read about the eclipse and see pictures and video online you know it is something special. But, actually experiencing it in person exceeded all expectations. Nothing you read or see on the Internet prepares you for that moment when the sun is so blacked out by the moon that you can actually see the corona of the sun.

Of course during totality it gets very dark, but not totally dark. The sky is dark enough that you can see Venus and Jupiter. As totality sets in cicadas begin chirping, confused by the apparent early arrival of dusk. There is an eerie blue cast to everything. The temperature drops. (It felt like a 10 degree F drop to me.)  The corona  is visible to the naked eye and looks like the most brilliant jewel you have ever seen. Everyone around you is awe struck. The experience brings tears to some people's eyes.

 I will definitely go to see the next North American total eclipse in April 2024.  No question about it.

Like I said, words and screen images do not give you the full sense of awe you feel when you see it for yourself. With that said, here are some shots of some of the people we were hanging with and some screen grabs from a the video I shot.

2017 Eclipse Crab Orchard Lake Carbondale, IL 2017 Eclipse Crab Orchard Lake Carbondale, IL 2017 Eclipse Crab Orchard Lake Carbondale, IL Solar Eclipse 2017

These are frame grabs from my "not so great" video recording of totality. I think the audio is as interesting as the image. (No, the audio is more interesting -- because no video captures the image as brilliantly as your own eyes.)  If you bother to watch the full recording -- it is about two minutes and 18 seconds long. I started recording about 35 seconds after the start of totality and went right through the "Diamond Ring" at the end.  

   2017 Total Eclipse 2017 Total Eclipse 2017 Total Eclipse 2017 Total Eclipse

See a few more shots, and the complete video from this event in my eclipse gallery.
 

I have been out and about capturing the sights and sounds of evenings in Appleton. From the Fox River locks and dams to concerts in Houdini Plaza, there are lot of photographic targets to capture.

This is a fairly long exposure (close to 1 second) of one of the many dams on the River in the so called "flats". I love how the flow of the water paints a texture on the image sensor due to the long exposure.

Dam on the Fox RiverDam on the Fox River

This is a shot of Houdini Plaza during a night time concert. I wanted to freeze the moment and not have a lot of blurry people in the image. So even though it was dark, I used a relatively fast shutter speed (1/4 second) but I increased the sensor sensitivity with ISO 1000.

Houdini Plaza

Here is another shot of Houdini Plaza.

Houdini Plaza

The Fox Valley area is fortunate to have the Performing Art Center. While walking downtown one night I decided it might be interesting to capture the PAC from a nearby parking garage. Will definitely revisit this shot when there are people out on the street the night of a performance.

Appleton Performing Arts Center

This is the iconic (well iconic for people who live in the Fox Valley area!) Lawrence Chapel This is home to many concerts and local performance, besides  being the home base for performances by Lawrence University students and faculty.

Lawrence Chapel

Now is the time to book you senior portrait session. Let's get together to make some amazing images that capture your individual style and personality. Contact me now to book a session and get 15% off your first print order.

Click here to book to book a session.

Let's do this!

Jondo Valdez

Had an awesome photoshoot today with Alejandro. Jando is the son of some neighborhood friends. He is a sophomore at Appleton North and is an amazing person and a really talented young man. He is a musician and not only plays in various school bands and ensembles, he also plays in his own rock band. He plans to study computer science and double major in music too. We did some indoor portraits using speed lights and a black back drop to create the illusion that he was playing a solo on stage. We also used various locations in downtown Appleton for the outdoor shots.

Jondo Valdez Jondo Valdez Jondo Valdez Jondo Valdez   Jondo Valdez Jondo Valdez