If you live anywhere near Iowa, you've probably heard of David Zollo. He's been playing the piano and performing since he was a kid, and now he tours all over the world. We talked over a coffee about working on some photos, so he invited my family out for a campfire at his house and I was able to capture his portrait. He's such an interesting guy with a crazy life story. I look forward to working for him in the future. I feel so lucky to be able to work with such crazy gifted people. The list just keeps growing...

Here's a few shots from the evening.

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Thanks for stopping by,

jp

This morning I was on my way to work and saw the awesome effects of the fog. The shot below was from Hwy 1 coming into Iowa City. It is not as captured, I messed with it a bit. Levels, saturation, ND filter, dodge, sharpen, spot removal,

etc. It is, however, very close to the original. The "as shot" image is below it. I don't want to turn this into a tutorial on how, but if you're interested in learning about stuff like this I'd love to help you. Let me know!

I really love landscape shooting when the temps have been around freezing. It always creates a interesting feel. Driving into town for me was worse than texting while driving. I couldn't take my eyes off the trees and grasses in the ditches and fields.

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Hope you dig!

jp

David Chancellor gave us a tour of the new Climb SoIll, in St. Louis. Judging from the amount of time and effort dumped into this place, it will be the new destination for indoor climbing in the midwest. They are renovating an old brick building that was part of a hospital, using as much "green" materials as possible, and overall doing it right. The silo on the top goes at about two hunny feet!! You can see it for miles and it's a good way to locate it if you get lost. It was so sweet to check in with Dave and his wife. I've been admiring his work with SoIll Holds for a while now and have several on my wall in the garage. The pics are from our tour. As you can tell, Dave is very excited about this endeavor. You should be, too! It will be amazing. By the way, Dave was cool with me taking his portrait. You can see it here. Thanks, man!

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Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

I've been fortunate enough to have a steady job on the side of my photography work. This allows me to be more discerning when I take photo work. I'm able to do work that I want to do, such as shoot William Elliott Whitmore in Flat Black Studios on my own dime.

I'm to the point now that I need to specialize my work. I could be "freelance" like most of the other shooters around me, but I don't want to be "pretty good" at a lot of stuff, and not amazing at anything. Sometimes you hafta sacrifice the good for the best. 

So...narrowing down my work. Adventure, portraits, kids, weddings, advertising, editorial, landscape, architecture, all of which I've done a little of. 

I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out. In the meantime, let me know what you've like the best out of my shots. That may help me make some decisions. 

Thanks.

I've been working on my stuff. By this I mean I'm thinking a lot lately about how to get "better" as a photographer . For me, to define "better" is hard.

Better at:

1. Photoshop/Lightroom?

2. Manual mode?

3. Capturing in camera?

4. Understanding my subject?

5. Marketing?

6. Blogging/FB/Twitter/Flickr?

7. Lighting?

For me the answer lies in a mix of all of these answers. Take a look at these two, very important pictures.

I had the privilage of creating images with a family in early October of this year it kind of changed how I look at photography. I was there to shoot pics of the family together and also to shoot the senior pics for thier daughter. In between clothing changes for her, I asked these two to sit in this chair and to NOT smile. I was very adamant, DO NOT SMILE. These are some of the images that I captured. They were in hysterics, they couldn't sit still, and I was laughing just as hard as they were. Who could resist making images at this time. It was magical. These two young kids showed me that this SHOULD be a fun, exciting time. Learning things like this are what I'm trying to get better at. It's a process. I'm slowly learning to catch cues when they happen. So... for me to get "better" means to be just a little more open to those cues the next time I go out to create art.

Slow down.

Create images with meaning.

Observe.

We live in a fast paced world and it's important for us, as artists, to take a step back and chill out a bit. Relax and create great images that tell stories. I'm working on just that. How about you? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What are you dealing with in your photographic career?

This is just one more thing that I will be adding to my list of "hope to accomplish". Hopefully it will stick. We'll see.

 

For a while now I had been thinking about asking Pete and Terra Hartley to model in a shoot for me with some interesting light and color. They agreed and the images that follow are the result of tonights shoot with them in Iowa City. This was some serious fun for me and I could tell that these two were gonna be great. I was right. It was friggin' bitter cold and when we were through, we enjoyed a nice hot tea from the Java House. Enjoy the images! 

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I've got a lot of great people in my life. One of those people is Chris Grebner of The Farmer's Table. He has taken the concept of eating organic and made it into an amazing evening full of local, organically grown produce, local people to share it with, and a lot of local enthusiasm. If you get the chance, check out Thefarmerstable.us Here is just a few pics from his last event. I'd rather send you to his site for pics and info than take the attention from where it is due. He really has a great thing going and you need to see it, first hand.

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Thanks for stopping by.

Here are some of the views we had while visiting the Outer Banks, North Carolina. We will go back. Enjoy. 

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I'll be posting again soon. Stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by, cheers!

The other half of our trip to Minnesota last month was with Josh and Dana Cramer and their kiddos. We met at Duluth, ate at the famous Fitgers Brew House, stopped at a few cool spots along the way, then went to Grand Marais. The coast of Lake Superior blew us away with its beauty. We stayed just outside of town in two little cabins right on the lake. (I kept calling it the ocean). So many good memories with these guys! Enjoy!

Us at Gooseberry falls

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Couldn't pass this "photo-op"!

Pallisade Head. Man, this was amazing. Here it looks like maybe thirty feet or so, but it was really about one hundred and fifty feet in places! Giant. My hands were sweaty.

Nice view!

Inside the cabin.

The boys had rock throwing contests daily. Hourly.

Zoomed in on this boat to see it was swarmed with gulls.

Deep water bouldering with Josh at Grand Marais. That would've been a cold fall.

Fires on the shore.

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Rascal breakfast time.

Ike and Josh figured out how to juggle together.

More views.

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All of us together. 

Thanks for checking back in! Cheers!

 

 

Following up on the last post about our trip, I thought I would go ahead and show you some of the people there, and times we had. These will be from our trip with family near Longville. Kari's family has gone here, All Seasons Resort, for around forty years. We've gone several times as well. It's a fantastic place to do nothing at all. Enjoy the shots.

 

The Resort.

 

 

 

Fishing for crawdads.

 

 

The catch.

 

 

Cooked crawdads are so tasty!

 

 

Isaac canoeing

 

 

Owen floating in his raft.

 

 

Isaac being Isaac.

 

 

Owen couldn't get enough of the water!

 

 

Our dock on Woman Lake.

 

 

Playing cards with family is always a hit here. Owen isn't sure what to think of Trevor.

 

 

 

 

Owen still loves to have his picture taken.

 

 

He didn't mind so much here, but he didn't know till after.

 

 

Isaac floating in his new raft.

 

 

This is my favorite shot of this post. He fished so much! Up to 8 hours a day!

 

 

Feeding the ducks. They are everywhere in the summer and nowhere in the winter!

 

 

Throwing the ducks some corn always starts a frenzy.

 

 

Took a pontoon ride one day. We all loved it! Owen's rascalness is barely evident.

 

 

Tyler chillin'. Looks like a Gap ad!

 

 

Isaac caught a nice walleye, and it was delicious!

 

 

Immature loon on the lake.

 

 

Classic sunset over Woman Lake.

 

 

Thats a lot of images. Hope you dig them as much as I dig shooting them.

I'll be posting shots of our Lake Superior trip soon as well, so keep checkin'!

Cheers!

 

 

 

We just got back from Minnesota and I wanted to start showing you all some of the visuals from our trip. This is the first of a few posts I will be doing, so stay tuned. The next post will be all the people we went with. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like live shows. Tonight was a very special addition to my growing list of favorite "Iowa City happenings". About a year ago I happened to be driving by a small park in Iowa City and saw a guy setting up a slackline, so I stopped and "walked the line" for a while with him. It turned out we had a lot of mutual aquaintences. His name is Luther Bangert. We hung out for a while, had a few laughs and parted ways. I saw him randomly in the city riding his unicycle every once in a while. He then left town for about nine months to spend time in India learning the sitar and also to study with the Bombay Circus. Well...he was back in town tonight to put on a show of all the amazing-ness he'd learned while abroad. Check out the visuals!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is where the evening got REALLY exciting!! So far, nobody has been able to juggle SIX balls while swallowing a sword. Luther did it on his fourth try!! It was killer to see! He set the new world record! This isn't any kind of trick, either. The thing must've been three feet long and he downed it like it was nothing. 

 

 

 

 

Afterwords they invited all the kids to come on stage and Owen, in his usual fashion, obliged with crazy flips and dances.

 

 

 

What a determined look in this shot!

 

 

 

Way to go, Luther! You nailed it.

 

 

 

What a great evening of juggling, balancing, music, and best of all-going for a WORLD RECORD! Thanks a million and have a great time in Portland.

 

Till next time, Cheers!

We took a recent trip to Colorado to see my sister and her husband. While we were there we went to various places to climb which offered great opportunities to shoot some pics for my portfolio. One of these places was Endo Valley, a boulder field just off of Fall River Road in RMNP. It was amazing, to say the least. Dozens of house sized boulders stacked on top of each other make for a maze of problems that could take weeks to discover. I will be posting about the whole trip soon, but the pics that follow are from this area. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 Chris Grebner started something amazing called "The Farmers Table".  Working with a local, organic farmer he creates an amazing meal, from their land, at their home, to be shared with the interested public. We were fortunate enough to attend the first one at Doug and Alecia Williams beautiful home near Oxford, Iowa. Chris worked with them to make a delicious, five course meal that was mostly taken from their farm. This is something fantastic that might change the way "organic conscious" people in the area dine when they decide to eat out. The pics that follow are from the evening. Thank you, Chris, DeeAnn, and Kelly. It was delicious and memorable.

 

 

 

One of the tables at Doug and Alecia's home.

 

 

Chris toasting bread.

 

 

Chris preparing asparagus shoots.

 

 

...more asparagus.

 

 

Stinging Nettle soup, you heard me. It was delicious!!

 

 

Some of the plates we all enjoyed.

 

 

...and more.

 

 

...and more.

 

 

The menu from the evening

 

 

The light coming in the windows made the evening perfect.

 

 

A shot of the deck in front of the home.

 

 

The home is beautifully landscaped.

 

 

Some of the goats and chickens.

 

 

Baby goats at rest.

 

 

A quaint little "guest home" on the farm.

 

 

Thanks again, you guys. The entire evening was very enjoyable for all who attended. Kari and I got to chat with Pete and Terra, drink some wine, laugh a lot, and eat an amazing meal. The whole night flowed perfectly!! Cheers! 

Just a quick "Happy Mothers Day" shout to my Kari! Our boys would tell you that she's the best mom ever. I totally agree! She is. Love you, babe! Here's a few purties for her and all the moms out there that are totally "undersung". Cheers