Chicago shoot

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.

Sunset

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

Oregon vacation

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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!