Catch up...

Interesting, a guy walks past me at a wedding in MN and says,"hey, nice lens" and keeps on going. I find him on the grooms Face Book page and find out he's very involved in Scouting and teaches inner city kids film camera techniques. Okay pretty interesting. After several typed chats I realize he's pretty amusing and I ask if he blogs. He replies with "I used to but haven't in a long time". I came back with interesting, me too. He throws down the gauntlet of "I'll blog again if you do" I picked it up and slapped him on the face. Last night, he struck first with...Hot Water. So here I am trying to figure out how to catch up on a couple years of absence. Work: I tended bar and continued to do shows for the past 3 years. So much material came from the bar that I never wrote about, some sad, some funny, some twisted sad tales from customers that became regulars and some even friends. Parts of the job I seriously enjoyed. Interacting with people and teaching about different aspects of beer and doing food pairings were the highlights. Being the assembly line drink maker for 10 to 18 girls who some tipped well and some tipped well, not so well and being treated like I was just a dumb bar tender made up the majority of my negative feelings on the job. The shows came back and I started making money shooting pictures so I felt it time to take my departure from drink flinging...so far a decision I do not regret. Three Summers of nights away from Kim. It had to be done and I am thankful for Kim's understanding but no more. Pictures you say? I re vamped Prairie Glen Productions into my commercial photography page. The seed was planted while doing a photographic project I called Bar Shots I had my camera and an off camera 8 inch soft boxed flash and did portraits while I tended bar. I never took more that 3 minutes to shoot a customer or client. It was met with many people actually fixing themselves up a bit to get a portrait done. Soon I was shooting actor & musician headshots, even spending time shooting members of the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Enough encouragement and a serious offer of money to get out of the bar made up my mind it was time to leave, do shows and now do Photography part time to fill the economic gaps. Very excited... I was able to pick up some very serious professional camera gear and I'm doing my best to be responsible with it. Believe it or not all digital camera's have what's called an actuation life. Most cheaper cameras are good for about 100 thousand shots. Mine is rated at 150 thousand. Every shot counts. I do Event, family, portrait and children shoots. Weddings will come later, still learning that part of the biz. So here's my re entry to the blog world, we'll see where this goes.

21 hours...

4:45am - (3:45 central) Up, shower, check email in South Bend IN.
5:30 - Show rehearsal call time.
7:00 - 10 Client show.
10:30 - 1:30 strike show and load truck.
1:30 - 5:45 - drive to Peoria.
6:00 - 12:45 - Set show for a 5:30 call that morning.
1:00 - 1:45am - Gin and Tonic, talk about the day with Schmitty, then bed.

Long Day...

NAPP

National Association of Photoshop Professionals...

My portfolio there.

My NAPP Gallery

Don't really even need to say anything...

Missed February...

So I missed it eh?
That's a wee bit embarrassing. Quite a few things have happened since my posting.
I spent over twenty days in February on the road for TriMarq. Very very thankful for not only the work but that I didn't get fired from the bar for taking so much time off.
I got stranded in Atlanta again but it was the snow storm of he decade on the Chicago end that messed that up. It was quite a sight to land at O'Hare seeing dozens and dozens of snow plows working the runways. Green Bay, Chicago and Pensacola rounded out the shows for what turned out to be a very busy but good month.
The big news as it turns out is that my parents are moving in with us the first weekend of April. Mom's dementia is getting progressively worse and needs more attention.
They will basically take over the upstairs and with our work schedules, Kim and myself will be able to help them with the day to day tasks of living.

More to come...

Atlanta Rev.2

A full crew a great show and no gear...
It's noon and we're all ready and assembled to do a show build and I see one of our lead techs with an odd look on his face, "we don't have our truck". Apparently, the driver bringing our gear down took the advance money and never picked up the truck. Our crew (8 peeps) waiting for the truck find out it's never left Milwaukee. The gear company who hired the guy, hired two guys that could drive straight through. We got the truck at 12:30 this morning. We unloaded and started the build around 1:15. I got to bed around 5:30. A full blown blended image wide screen show with all the bells and whistles set up in less than 4 hours with minimal griping. I love working with professionals that have the all for one, get it done mind set. The rest of the crew is resting and I'm manning my four breakout rooms. I'm tired but love the fact we nailed this set up.
The weather is now saying horrible snow and cold when I am supposed to be traveling (again) I'm starting to think I'm a snow/travel jinx. Maybe I should hate snow more but I just can't help it, I love it!
Stay tuned to see if I make it home!

Retro fishing post...

I found a few old pictures and these three reminded me of an ill fated fishing afternoon with Steve Bailey.
We were in the thick of it...Fish and mosquitoes. Fish after fish. On one of my casts I pulled hard over a weed bank and got a hook caught in my shoe lace. I couldn't get it out so I just cut my line and re tied so I could get back to the action.
About 20 minutes later the mosquitoes were really attacking. One bit on my right calf and I scratched it with my left foot. Forgetting there was a hook in my shoelace, I embedded the hook deep in my calf. I was so shocked I couldn't even speak to tell Steve what was going on. He saw me hopping on one foot and ran over to help. He helped me get my shoe off and we made our way back to the car. I leaned on the car with a pair of fishing pliers and tried and tried to pull the hook past the barb. I couldn't do it.
Giving up I made my way to home to so Kim could take me to the ER. After some local pain killer, the doc whips out a cheap pair of pliers. 20 seconds later I was getting a tetanus show and was sent on my way.
Gotta love fishing!