St Paddy's Day R.O.W.

For the second year in a row now I've had the great fortune of photographing my friend Jenn Gibbon's team of cancer-surviving rowers for their annual St. Paddy's Day Sprint for Recovery. Her non-profit organization ROW (Recovery On Water) encourages cancer survivors to stay active by engaging in crew in order to reduce the chance of relapse. It's an incredible group run by a pretty extraordinary woman. Jenn's a bit of a local celebrity and worshipped like an idol by her girls, but the truth of the matter is, she's a real hero.

Last summer Jenn set off to be the first person to ever row around the perimeter of Lake Michigan in an effort to raise awareness. 3 months and 1500 lonely miles of grueling, back-breaking hard work - a feat I couldn't ever possibly imagine having the endurance or courage to attempt. You may have heard about the challenges she encountered in the news during her record attempt. But even after this unfortunate incident, because Jenn is who she is, she never waiver for a second in her mission. She found incredible inner strength to carry on and complete her journey.

Now Jenn is a full-time crusader for survivors of both cancer and sexual assault. Her warmth and charisma along with her passion for the people who look up to her makes her one of the most inspiring people I know. I froze my butt off this year on the river photographing her team, and I'll gladly do it again next year if she asks me to.

Thanks Jenn for being so amazing.

Go ROW

Unnamed Project 02.13

I'm not sure yet what it is, but this project has me very excited. Time to get to work!

Stay tuned...

Julian Bell

I have to admit, the holidays got me a bit distracted from working, but I'm getting back in the saddle and I'm ready for action. I'm starting 2013 off with a portait shoot of a local rising star: singer/songwriter Julian Bell. Julian was recently on The Next showing some serious chops with his John Mayer cover. Recently I heard him open for another local songwriter Phil Jacobson whose album photography I did last fall. After listening to him perform live, I knew I needed to have him over for a session.

We only spent about an hour together shooting, talking about music, his new EP he's releasing next month, and our mutual love for John Legend. Julian is really a warm, kind soul and I wanted these photos to reflect that quiet nature. I really enjoyed our short time together and expect to see great things from this artist.

Sophia

I have been spending more time on FB posting images and ideas on RedTown page, completely neglecting the blog! This ends now.

Hello again big beautiful photos.

First up - a recent test shoot with Sophia of BMG Models.

New Business Cards

Look what the mailman dropped off the other day.

I've been in need of new business cards in a desperate way for sometime now. I've always designed my own cards to save on costs (and because I enjoy the work). I've used a variety of different online printers out there and every time I received the final product I swore up and down that the next time I'd do it right and get quality cards from a local printer. I've done this about 5 times now.

I've always struggled with what to put on my business cards that would appeal to the broadest group of potential clients while still being interesting. I've usually simply opted to not put a photograph and instead put my logo on one side and contact info on the other. However, I always wanted to put my photos on my cards - it's far more likely to be kept by a potential client after you've parted ways and has the added bonus of being a great mini piece of art. A few years ago a friend of mine showed me her mini moo cards which were cute and unusually sized and featured different photos on each card. I liked the concept of being able to have more than one photo on a card for the sake of variety. If I'm trying to convince someone to hang one of my landscapes, it seems only fitting that I can pass out a business card with a landscape photo on it. But alternatively, it doesn't make much sense when trying to get new portrait clients. Obviously I need cards with people on them. Moo cards seemed great because of the ability to print different photos per run, but I wasn't a huge fan of their mini size - sorry.

Well some years have passed and here I was again, in need of new business cards. So I decided to take another look at moo.com and I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only did they still make their signature mini cards, but they made full size cards too. Not only that, they even made cards with rounded corners! I watched their promo videos about their paper quality and printing process and was instantly sold. So I immediately got to work, selected 25 of my favorite photos, and decided to take a chance.

A week and change later, here's what arrived at my door:

Surprisingly nice packaging and presentation. I was very impressed by this level of care and design. I'm used to receiving my cards in something not much better than a glorified shoebox. This packaging showed commitment and integrity. 

I ordered 200 cards, and they threw in a cool little black rolodex box to keep track of your collected cards. I felt kinda special, but I don't know, maybe they do this for everyone?

I even splurged on a $10 sticker book of 90 stickers. They're pretty rad.

You can print up to 50 different photos, but I decided to keep things civilized and printed only 25. Moo.com preferes a pdf print profile which I found to look a little bizarre when I exported my images, but with just a bit of tweaking I was able to get my photos to look pretty close to how I wanted them. Some of the shadows are a little muddier than I'd like, but that may be on my end and not necessarily due to the satin finish of the cards. A satin finish that is absolutely stunning by the way.

The cards themselves feel amazing. I'm totally in love with the rounded corners and the weight and feel of the card in hand is really just awesome. These are hands down the best feeling cards I've ever had.

I love this mini potfolio of business cards.

On the reverse I stripped away all the nonsense you usually get on a business card and simply listed my website against a repeating scroll of "RedTown photography".

I'm totally in love with these cards and can't wait to fan some out for a potential client and have them choose their favorite. In today's world there are so many different ways to get your work in front of people but there's still something to be said for a great business card. If you're in the market for some new ones yourself, this should be your first stop: www.moo.com

Gary, IN

I recently spent some time in Gary, IN exploring some of the more famous condemned and abandoned sites of this once vibrant industrial city. Urbex photography is actually a relatively new hobby for me, though I've been exploring sewers and empty buildings for years. Unfortunately, urban exploring is still a very underground scene, as most of the activity involves trespassing and other illegal activities. As a society we're quick to hold someone else liable for our own mistakes, so it's only natural that local governments and private land owners would want to discourage people from exploring their abandoned buildings which are, frankly, lawsuit magnets waiting to happen. This is sad, but a reality of life.

To me urbex is important, simply because these abandoned sites are a historical artifact of our existence and should be recorded and shared, if not for current generations, then for posterity. The urban ecosystem is designed to recycle itself, so these relics never last for long, as their bulldozed to make room for new condos or shopping centers. Indeed, one might visit these places and think they're only eyesores and shelters for violence and gang activity that should be demolished and the sooner the better. I think this viewpoint is narrow-minded and uninspired. It's certainly tough to drive through once iconic main street Gary and see it's store fronts now shuttered and forgotten. But it's also inspiring to experience the impermanence of humanity's creation as evidenced by the decay of these architectural relics. All things return to earth, which is a lesson so easily understood by experiencing this beauty first hand.