Ken's Blog

Chicago shoot

2009-10-28T16:15:00.004-07:00

Recently, Mary Knopp (Randallphotography.net) hired myself and Maurice Sartriani to shoot portraits for her at her client's four-day conference in Chicago. We "shot heads" during the day, and cruised the streets of downtown Chicago every night having a blast photographing everything in sight! "Mo" and I got there Sunday night as it began to rain; and having just escaped a long Phoenix summer, we went nuts photographing every reflection and fogginess we saw.

Coming down from the elevated train. Love this one!

The "bean" in Millinium Park. Very cool.

Downtown along the Chicago River.

Looking back from the Navy Pier.

Under the "El".

Traffic through the skyscraper canyons.

Had to go to the top of the old Sears Tower, right!?

very scary looking straight down!

weird art piece at the Millinium Park.

We both had a great time street shooting. Chicago is a great place, and I can't wait to go back!

Sunset

2009-09-10T22:45:00.002-07:00

View from near my house at sunset. I love monsoon sunsets!

Oregon vacation

2009-07-25T23:49:00.011-07:00

Here's a few of my favorite shots of our family camping vacation to Oregon this past June. We drove all the way up the coast of Oregon, starting in the Redwoods of Northern California, to almost the northern tip of Oregon at Seaside. Then we traveled south and made our way to Crater Lake. We had a great time, and I got share a lot of the beauty of my home state.

A windy & cool southern Oregon Beach;

Windswept.
Another beautiful day; at the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park beach.

The view from an opening in the Sea Lion Caves. Notice the sea lion on the rocks in the foreground. Very cool.
Our dancer Alyssa loosening up on the Oregon Dunes at Florence.

Sand Drags up the dune!

Mo's has the best clam chowder on the planet!

The Silver Falls State Park near Salem is a must see. 10 waterfalls along a 9 mile trail is spectacular. You can walk behind some of the falls, a very unique experience!

One of the falls, with my family just to the right of the fall. They are good sports for 'ol Dad!
The trail back from the falls through the very lush forest at Silver Falls.
We camped at Diamond Lake near Crater Lake. The view at sunset was fantastic.
The view in the morning was even more unbelievable! We had one of the best campsites at the parkI feel cool and refreshed just posting these photos; it is like an oven here in Phoenix this time of year!

Chile - Concepcion Aldo Nueva paper plant

2009-02-11T21:44:00.001-07:00

After driving back from Andacollo to Santiago, we flew out the next morning heading south to Concepcion; where the foliage was much greener, even if the trees were unlike any I have ever seen before. Still, it reminded me much of my native Oregon, only different!

We drove from town to th high-tech paper plant Aldo Nueva for the shoot.

Part of the Aldo Nueva paper plant

Very new and "shiny"!

My guide engineer helped design this plant.

They plant actually owns the vineyard as well, and are very proud of
their environmentally "green" plant, and award-winning wines.

Chile - La Serena

2009-01-11T21:11:00.006-07:00

After spending the night at the only motel in the little company town anywhere near the mine (mostly was spent cleaning dust from everywhere on my equipment), we drove back to Antofagasta then flew to the beach town of La Serena where I spent the day recovering from the trip into the desert, backing up files, and more cleaning of dust from everywhere.
Juan Carlos took me to the "best seafood in town" where I got to meet his son who lives in La Serena.

The view north from my hotel in La Serena. Very beautiful and balmy.

I love my job! Editing and backing up while taking in the view.

Juan Carlos Olivaros and his son. Great people.

Delicious seafood here! The orange shellfish was very different and spicy; I loved it!

Christmas time in Chile, yet summer break for school was about to begin. Felt disorienting!

Chile - Andacollo mine

2009-01-10T14:48:00.001-07:00

After flying back to Santiago, we drove to the religously significant town of Andacollo, also the site of one of the largest copper mines in the world, which is where the shoot was. Very unique landscapes and cactus and trees along the way there; very different from the Sonoran Desert here in Arizona. Too bad I only got to see it from the back seat of a speeding pickup truck!

Here are some of the scenes at the Andacollo open-pit copper mine:

New construction at the mine

heavy-duty construction of the new plant.

These dump trucks are the biggest in the world. Kind of
scary to be around.

My lighting setup behind the garbage cans; each color
is different recyclable, they are serious at Amec!

Final shot for the annual report.

Another hot and dusty, but very interesting day. The people I met were fantastic as usual!

Chile - Atacamo Desert for annual report

2009-01-07T18:51:00.008-07:00

I had been shooting annual report photography for Amec, a worldwide engineering consulting company, for a few years, when this year they asked me if I could shoot for them in South America.....of course I said yes.

I made the trek down to Santiago Chile, where I met up with my guide and compatriot (and interpreter) Juan Carlos Olivares, the Media Relations Director for Amec in South America. What a great guy, as was everyone I met on the entire trip. Juan Carlos took great care of me, and was a wizard at getting us to and from the far reaches of Chile.

The first shoot location was at the Franke Mine in the middle of the Atacama Desert; the driest desert in the world. Some places in the desert do not see rain for 75 years or more! As you can guess, there is absolutely NO LIFE at all, not even insects. It is, and looks like, the moon. Very dusty.

Very dry dusty terrain; epic in it's austerity.

On the road to the Franke Mine in the Atacama Desert

We drove a VERY long way into the middle of NOWHERE.

An overview of the mining area. Just a LITTLE dusty!

Lining a tailing pond with rubber at Franke Mine, Chile

the head Amec engineer at the mine.

Me, on the moon. In fact, NASA tested the Mars & Lunar rovers here. I can see why.

The final shot for the annual report.

2008-10-28T21:26:00.001-07:00

I do a lot of Public Relations work for Ronda Bannard (http://www.inspiredconnections.net/), but when she called to have me cover a private benefit for The Women's Media Center featuring a Salon (reading from her book) given by JANE FONDA I jumped at the chance!

Guests were invited for a catered lunch and a select few were also invited to have their pictures taken with her. After lunch she read an excerpt from her book "My life, so far" which talked about her directing her father and Kathryn Hepburn on the set of "On Golden Pond", and added her personal feelings. Very cool.

She then signed books (Jessica and Alyssa have one, although they aren't allowed to read it yet!).

A very classy lady and still looking good at 70! Yikes.

Signing books:

Jane with Rhonda (my boss on this shoot)

Funny sidenote; when I was photographing the "with celebrity" shots, Jane was stressing out about the ambient light coming in from the open patio door to her left. She asked all flustered "What about this cross-lighting? What about this cross-lighting?" pointing at the lights and the patio door. I told her it wasn't factoring into the exposure because I was overpowering it with the strobes; but after the second time she asked, I showed her the image on the back of my D3. She waved her hand up and down and said "Oh, that looks great" as she walked back to her spot. She was much more relaxed after that.

Washington DC Mall

2008-10-01T08:54:00.001-07:00

In September I was lucky enough to hired by Mary Knopp (http://www.randallphotography.net/) to go to Washington DC to photograph 1/2 of the 800(!) portraits for her client. Mark Skalny (http://www.markskalny.com/) was the other photographer. He turned out to be a good tour guide as well, when we had an afternoon off and I wanted to tour the Washington Mall, having never had the chance before.

Was a very appropriate time with the elections coming up.

Had fun taking tourist shots.

The capital at sunset:
Washington Monument with a cool sky:

Base of the Washington Monument taken with my 10.5 fisheye:

Mr. Mark Skalny checking out the view of the Washington Monument thru the lens of my 10.5mm fisheye while answering questions from his assistant in Phoenix.

The Lincoln Memorial
The man:
View from the side of the Lincoln Memorial down the Mall.

I guess I was fascinated by Washington Memorial and the sky!

Part of the Korean War Memorial:

Sunset view from the steps of The Capital down the Mall. Forget who the statue is of.

Thanks for the tour, Mark!

Smithsonian Aerospace Museum

2008-09-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

I loved old airplanes and the race to the moon when I was a kid, and have always wanted to go to the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum in Washington DC. Well, thanks to a shoot Mary Knopp (http://www.randallphotography.net/) hired myself and Mark Skalny (http://www.markskalny.com/) to do in DC, I finally got the chance. The client rented the entire museum for the evening, and had colored lights put up everywhere. The effect was very cool, and I got a chance to check to check it all out. I was in heaven!

The U2.

I had a blast looking at the actual airplanes and rockets and spacecraft I had been reading about all these years. If you are a gearhead of any type, I can recommend making the effort.

Wedding jumping

2008-07-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

I recently photographed the wedding of a friend's eldest son. TJ and his wife-to-be Kerry wanted some "fun" photos of their wedding, and so I thought they, being young and energetic, would be great at trying some "jumping shots".

They turned out great!

Not your typical wedding party photo:

I love this "Off into the sunset" image.

Good luck TJ & Kerry!

Nevada gold mine shoot

2008-02-14T18:47:00.003-07:00

A long time client (AMEC) loved the annual report photos I did for them here in Phoenix so much that they had me fly into Elko Nevada to get a similar photo of them and their client at the open-pit Cortez Gold Mine in Crescent Valley (middle of no-where Nevada).

Nevada just had a record snow-fall the week before and more was forecast as I traveled up, so I was really concerned that the shoot would be snowed out. Not to mention, I would have to drive almost 2 hours to the mine.

It turned out to be a beautiful drive to the mine. Very epic sweeping views of the snowy and stark terrain.

Here's my favorite shot, AMEC's designed and built "tailings pond" for the mine (no boating, please) :

The working conditions. Muddy and frozen at the same time, like working in a gooey slurppy. I stood in the bed of the truck for the tailings pond shot. About froze my rear off.

I used my White Lightnings for lighting,and a Paul C. Buff Vagabond battery and a Tronix battery for power. Worked perfectly.

The second location, at the edge of the open-pit mine, 1,000 feet to the bottom. The mud stuck to your boots so much, I felt like Frankenstien stomping around. The wind really kicked up here.

We were about half-way through the shoot when a major gust of wind come up out of the pit and blew the hardhats off the engineers and knocked over the light stand (in the photo below) into the mud, shorting out my Vagabond battery; a big "ZZZT" and flash of light, and the battery was toast, literally. The White Lightning worked fine after a good cleaning.

Engagement photos

2007-12-19T00:15:00.001-07:00

Had a chance to photograph Shoshana & Mike engagement photos at Fountain Hills recently. I will be photographing their wedding in February, so it is always great to work with them before the big day. They get to know me, and I get to know how to get great photos from them before the wedding. Love the tree photos!

The Kiyosaki's

2007-12-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

I recently helped out my buddy Chris Barr photograph Robert Kiyosaki (of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' fame) and his wife for a magazine article about a new book that Kim had written. It was a big production, and Chris got some great shots.

That's Chris on the roof of Dan Coogan's pickup. I was to photograph the Kiyosakis from the front, while Chris shot down into their Bently convertable. Of course, being the true friend I am, I was ready to photograph Chris if he fell of the roof.

Crusin' Biltmore Estates:

The "Studio"

His & Hers Lamborginis:

Kim and Robert K

Tree

2007-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but I really like this photo of a tree. I photographed it at an event at Circle Bar Ranch, a wedding & event venue at an old ranch out towards Payson.

Funky and old, like this tree.

4-Seasons Resort Wedding

2007-10-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

A good friend and collegue, Jefferson Todd Pals, asked me to help him as a second-shooter on a wedding he had at the WAY North Scottsdale Four-Seasons Resort. Of course, having never shot there, and enjoying working with JT, I said yes!

Here are a few of the photos I took at the wedding.

Concrete pipe plant

2007-09-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

I get to see some unique things, being a photographer. Did a little shoot last week for Hanson, an international concrete pipe manufacturer out by Luke AFB. It was a record 113 degrees that day - the client pointed at what they wanted photographs of from the shade, while I baked my brains in the sun.
Nice shiny new plant, but the most interesting thing to me was this "biblical" sized rebar-wire "weaving" machine that created the reinforcement mesh for the colossal concrete pipes.
The thing was was at least 20 feet tall; check out the rolling platform stand at the lower left for a sense of scale.

A few of the wire cylinders:

The sand & gravel conveyor belt:

New Nikon D3 & D300 announced

2007-08-22T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today, Nikon announced two new cameras, the D3 & the D300, as well as several new lenses.

The D3 sounds like Nikon's answer to Canon's MK III; very good news to me! If the D3's high-ISO low noise feature is as good as purported (better than the MK III!), I won't have to make the switch to Canon, which will save me thousands of dollars of investing in new equipment. This would be very good.

Here's a link to Rob Galbraith's site: Nikon D3

It is a very pretty camera, too.

World Record Pool building

2007-08-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

As a photographer, you get to witness some unusual things. I like that.

A few days ago I helped Chris Barr cover We Fix Ugly Pools' attempt to break the world-record for the fastest built swimming pool. Bet you didn't know they had a record for that, did you? Me neither.

To cover it, we set up two synchronized cameras on roofs overlooking the pool area and took 4 bracketed shots every 10 minutes. In between climbing a sissor-jack onto the roof to check on a time-lapse camera (wrapped in a ziplock bag and shaded by a gobo), I did the event photography. Got quite a work-out, and sweated like a pig the whole time.
We got to the site at 4am to set up the time-lapse cameras. It was to become a brutally humid & HOT day.

6am:

Shooting the gunite:

A frame from one of the time-lapse cameras:

One of the time-lapse cameras. Plastered...

The Phoenix Fire Dept filled the pool from a hydrant in minutes.

After a beehive of activity and six manic hours later, the pool was full of water and we were spent.

12:30 pm - the homeowner and just SOME of the workers who made it happen.

Canon MKIII vs. Nikon D2x noise

2007-07-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get to borrow one of the new Canon MK III's to check out it's purported fantastic low noise at high-ISOs (thanks Bob!). I did some quickie test shots with the MK III and my Nikon D2x, and the difference is shocking. May have to change to Canon! (big dollars tho).

These are 5"x5" crops from 100%:

My D2x at 3200 iso:

Bob's MK III at 3200:

Kinda hard to see on the blog, but the color and noise levels from the MKIII is at least three f/stops better than the D2x. Wow. If you shoot in low light alot, like I do, this is very awesome (I know; photographers are weird).

Rust, Austria

2007-06-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

One of the many more amazing things we saw in Austria had to be the city of Rust (literally; "Roost"), located on an inland see. This is where storks nest (roost) on the chimneys of the homes, like in the storybooks!

Down the Danube River

2007-06-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

After touring Melk, we took a "3-hour tour" down the Danube River to the city of Durnstien. There were castles and quaint villages on every bend in the river.

(below) - Some of us hiked to this castle ruin above Durnstien; the views from the top were breathtaking (as was the climb!).

A view up the Danube.
Overlooking Durnstien from the castle.

Melk, Austria

2007-06-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

We went to Melk, a monastary that is incredibly baroque, which is surrounded by a beautiful village . It was like being in fairy-tale.

The Graben

2007-06-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

We are staying at a 300-year-old hotel just down a narrow street from the "Graben", which is a pedestrian only street and plaza shopping and dining area in the center of Vienna. It is a great place to people-watch and catch street performers. The muscians were incredibly good for some reason!

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2007-06-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

We went to a lot of art & history museums in Vienna; all of the museums were as much artistic as the art they held. Very baroque!

2007-06-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Jessica turned 12 on June 18th. We celebrated her birthday with some wienerschnitzl and chocolate cupcake.

Afterwards on the way back to the hotel, we browsed thru an open air street market.

Lippizaner Horses

2007-06-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to see the Spanish Riding School Lippizaner horses, who perform in a elegant building just two blocks form where we are staying. The girls loved it; what these horses can do is amazing.

Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take ANY photographs. (Had to shoot through the pillars - sure could have used the Mark III's live view!).

Stopped in at the Starbucks across the street for some iced frappachino mochas afterwards. It is pretty warm & humid here!

Beethoven

2007-06-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

The next morning, we sent off on a trek to Vienna Woods to visit one of the homes of Ludwig Van Beethoven. It was an awesome feeling to stand in the austere rooms where Beethoven penned several of his masterpieces.

Vienna trip

2007-06-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have embarked on a two-week trip to Vienna, Austria with my family and Mother-in-law Lelia Schlabach for a classical music appreciation/education tour organized by Lelia’s cousin Wilbur Maust. Thanks for the trip, Lelia! I know the girls will never forget it (and neither will Gretchen and I).

Well, we finally made it to Vienna, and after a five-hour delay in Atlanta thanks to a non-working “airpack” on our Delta 767, a total of 26 hours of travel time, we arrived at the Pertschey Pensionen, our hotel, as exhausted shells of our former selves.

The view from our room.

After we explored the streets around us and the “Graben” (a no-cars area) a bit, we hit the bed.

city streets of Vienna

Reality Check part II

2007-05-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

If you read the earlier entry about the Goodwill ecademie HS kid who killed himself instead of getting caught by the police, you might want to know about all the successes this school has had. I just covered the event and took group photos of the young people who graduated from the ecadamie High School, and it was very inspiring and emotional.

Some of this kids were the first in their families to graduate from high school, and all had put a lot of effort into graduating.

Good thing the school doesn't have a "no cheering" policy during the ceremony; no one would have gotten their diploma. Besides the cheering and clapping for each student as they went on stage to get their diploma, I heard screams of "That's my sister!!, "We Love you Tony"and "You go, Girl!".

Immediately after the shoot, I went to a friend's son's graduation party at their house, and the differences were palpable. Everyone there expected him to graduate, with honors (he's a smart kid). He plans on spending a few months in Costa Rica exploring the jungles before going on to college.

End of the School Year

2007-05-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

One advantage of working for yourself, is that you have a lot more opportunities to share school events with your kids by shifting work schedules (who needs sleep anyway?).

This year, I got to see Alyssa enjoying her class's end of the year swim-party the day before the last day;

Alyssa & good friend Sophia P.

Talk about a Slam "Dunk"! The boys were going nuts catching some serious air time.

- and the last day's "Camp Multi-Age" (1st & 2nd grade) camp in her classroom. Gretch & I set up her tent before school. Of course, what's camping without a portable DVD player in the tent?!

Alyssa with tent mates Sophia P. & Jewell.

Her brave teachers even provided "smores" for around the "campfire". The kids loved it, but what a sticky mess! Mrs. A & Mrs. M, you are awesome!

Reality check

2007-05-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, things happen that make you realize that what you do as a photographer is more than just make pretty pictures for people.

I do a lot of work for Goodwill of Central Arizona; photographing everything from Grand Openings to Christmas parties to PR events. Good people doing good work; I enjoy working with everyone there and being a part of something that helps people who really need the help.

One of the more recent things Goodwill is doing is called the ecademie Charter High School. Most of these "kids" come from a disadvantaged background, or worse; and are making a serious attempt to better themselves against tough odds. Some have been in prison or are already parents; but most are just having a rough time getting started in life.

On April 27th, Goodwill held a Prom for the e-cademie students at a downtown hotel, and we made on-site prints from portraits I had Jim Baker shoot for me, while my nephew Ben ran the printers and I covered the event. Most of these kids had never had professional photographs made of them, and Deana, my contact with Goodwill on this shoot said, "Make them happy, and send us the bill". The kids went nuts over the photos and we shot and printed our brains out until we ran out of paper near the end of the night. Everyone was happy, and we were tired.

Less than a week later, I received a call from e-academie asking for photos of a student at the prom named Andrew, because a few days after the prom he had attempted to hi-jack a car, and was spotted and chased by the police. When he ran from the car and in a gun battle with the police was shot in the leg, he put his gun to his head and killed himself.

He had already been in juvenile corrections. He was 17.

His mother had NO photos of him, and the school wanted to give her every photo of him they could. Especially an 8x10 for his funereal.

I remembered this kid because of who he was; a big, loud, tough acting Hispanic dude, who really wasn't all that tough, but sure tried to be. He was one of those central "life of the party" type kids who you notice.

Here is a shot from the dance floor with William (in a white shirt, towards the back), mixing it up.

Aerosmith shoot!

2007-04-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

My favorite rock group during my high school days was Aerosmith (before they became icons), so when I got a call from someone representing "Aerosmith" I brilliantly shouted "Who!?".

He chuckled, then replied "Ideal Aerosmith, we're a small engineering company, and we need some product photos of our equipment; we get that all the time".

Oh. I can do that!

Turns out, they design & build equipment that tests various electronic equipment on airliners.

When I called my assistant Kevin about planning the shoot, he shouted "Who!!?". Heh, heh.