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!

Smithsonian Aerospace Museum

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

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

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.