JACKIE & CHRIS
August 15th, 2009
St. Anthony’s Catholic Church
Infusino’s Banquet Hall
Kenosha & Racine, WI

We had the amazing pleasure to have our dear friend Amy Johnston of Photo98 second shooting with us this weekend! Glad she made the 4 hour trip up from Illinois to hang out. As always, we have a blast hanging out with her. Here are some of her shots from the wedding.

Indeed, we had a full crew with us to shoot the wedding. But we had an awesome time with Jackie, Chris and their families!

Trevor handling his organizational responsibilities. He made the day flow very smooth for all of us!

Rob always seems to do this crazy stuff at weddings. What….??

Oh, ok. Here is his handy work in action. Nothing like a super high, super wide angle shot.

Amy and Rob.

Hmmmm…

CONGRATULATIONS!! We had a blast!!
~Dave, Trevor, Rob and Amy

Dubuque, IA has been and still is a second home to me, so to speak. Ever since a cool guy by the name of Jack found me on Myspace a few years back and asked me to shoot his senior photos, I’ve built and have continued to maintain business relationships within the community there through shooting various projects. If it wasn’t for Jack’s mom hanging a couple of photos from his shoot on the wall of her office at Loras College, I wouldn’t have landed several commercial projects, senior portraits, family sessions and band promotional gigs. You see, things snowball.

The marketing director at Loras College saw the photos I had shot for Jack in her office and identified a unique quality in them. It struck a cord with her. Even though my photos weren’t the “norm” for most senior portraits, it was an image she was seeking for the college and their promotional material. It wasn’t a few weeks later that she called me to inquire about shooting her daughter’s wedding and eventually a commercial shoot for the college. Since then, I have been a regular at the College and have booked another huge commercial project with them for 2010. And that lead to several band promotional shoots amongst other projects along the way.

Never discount the power that your photos will have on someone’s life. A senior shoot can turn into a whole string of larger projects and a potentially career defining body of work.

Over the weekend of July 24th, Trevor and I traveled to Dubuque to shoot Erik and Laura’s wedding. Laura was a student at Loras College, who had volunteered to play a roll in the various shoots spanning two years. As a note, she saw my final work for the college and subsequently booked her wedding with me. It was Trevor’s first time to Dubuque and I was eager to show him the city, much of which was still new to me. It was the first day in town and we wanted to get out and hit the streets to find something new and different. While finding a place to have dinner after our four hour drive and some location scouting, we came across a business downtown that had an interesting facade.

The place I speak of is called Matter. Before hitting the food we figured we would go check it out, as we are both avid enthusiasts for innovative design work. What we didn’t realize, was that Matter is a non-profit organization for the Dubuque area art community. That’s when we met Jordan, the project coordinator. We mustered the guts to introduce ourselves and eventually spent an hour hanging out with him during a brutal storm talking about art, community and life. We built yet another relationship.

Matter has been impacting the local community by showing kids, families and the elderly that art can change lives. It’s an idea that has tugged on my heartstrings for a long time. Art can change people. Art can inspire. Art can make a difference.

It was at that point we asked what we could do to help their community and Matter as a whole. Albeit we live roughly four hours from Dubuque, there must be something we could do to help them out. Yeah right, two dudes from Appleton, WI can help out a non-profit organization some 300+ miles away? After some conversation, Jordan explained they were in need of product shots for various items they are selling in their store to help generate awareness and funds for the principal ideas they are advocating.

Jordan was excited to explain that Matter sells these rad handmade recycled light fixtures made from Ball canning jars and energy efficient light bulbs. They come uniquely packaged with recycled cardboard sleeves and various colored power cords. Once he showed us, we fell in love with them. He tossed some wild ideas at us for an advertising campaign. At first Trevor and I felt the ideas were far-fetched, but fell in love with the concept of actually making it happen. We looked at it as a creative challenge and decided to offer to do it for FREE. At zero cost them. After exchanging some contact info, he agreed to send us a handful of these lights via FedEx. We received them last week.

As an artist myself, I immediately solidified a relationship with the idea of giving back to the art community. It’s just some cool-looking lights. It really is a simple project, right? How can I use my photography to help a community and make something beautiful? Can my photography make any kind of a difference in people? What if I fail? How do I take this project on, especially with three little girls at home, a wife that is teaching full-time and a business that is already requiring me to forfeit precious time with my family? For no money? But I have committed myself. I must follow-through otherwise I will look like a fool.

These things have sat in a gnarly mess on the floor of our office for nearly a week. We step over it every day hoping not to break anything while handling the day-to-day needs of the business. Editing, proofing, print orders, responding to emails, devising new marketing plans to wedding clients and the list goes on..

At the moment, this is all talk within our own camp. I’ve tested the water. Now is the time to get off my a$$ and jump in…

~dave

We all stand on the dock from time-to-time (me included), knowing we want to get in the water and swim. The hardest part is taking that first plunge into the cold and even more so, keeping our head above the surface. For those who have been following my friend Zack Arias’ blog know, he has recently written a series of blog posts regarding just that. Take the time to read through his series of highly inspirational posts HERE, HERE and HERE.

Regardless if we’re a beginning photographer or an experienced professional, we often find ourselves either stuck in a creative rut or holding ourselves back from following our hearts to create something original and fresh. We know what we want to create, but we don’t quite know how to make it happen. As a result of that frustration, we simply put it on the back burner or give up all together. Sometimes the pace of our lives and the pressure of a paid job can cloud the way we approach our work. Or worse, we simply avoid getting out of our safety zone and we eventually give up the ghost.

Yesterday as I was archiving some old SIMPLE+DIRTY work, Trevor and I came across some of my very first photography work from 2004. Although we shared some tear-inducing laughs at my old stuff, it struck me that I would not have gotten to the point I am right now without busting my butt, day-in and day-out, screwing up hundreds if not thousands of photos along the way. I came to the realization that if I had not stuck my neck out there, I would never had made the mistakes to learn something new. At the time, I had no clue what I was doing. But I did it. Although in hindsight my photos sucked and frustration was abundant, it made me push myself to new personal goals with each click of the shutter.

When I first started out, I had a deep interest in shooting band promotional photos. The problem was I compared myself to all the other amazingly talented photographers out there and as a result, I told myself I couldn’t do it. That I couldn’t match up. After talking myself into actually doing it, I shot my first series of band photos for free. Having blindly jumped into it, I did the best I could do. Even though the photos were….. well…. gross, I was proud to call them my own.

(Remember The Day – first promo shoot, circa 2004.)

Then the frustration set in. I hated my work. I told myself I could never make a decent band photo, worthy of anyones appreciation. As a result of that frustration, I became pissed at myself. I was at a point in which I decided I needed to do something different with my photography. It was a long, teeth grinding process of finding my creative vision, but it eventually came as I developed new skills.

(Sunday Flood – 2009.)

(Sunday Flood – 2009.)

In Zack’s latest BLOG POST he challenged all of us to make that first plunge. To try something new for ourselves, but more importantly for someone else. That’s where I stand today. I need a challenge. I want my photography to grew to new markets, to new clients and set myself apart from others. But I want it to somehow make a difference.

And that’s what I intend to do. I’m taking on Zack’s call to action. I’m going to serve someone with my camera.

I intend on taking you through the process on this blog over the next month. My goal is to tackle a product advertising campaign at zero cost for a non-profit organization that we recently became acquainted with in Dubuque, IA. I’m excited to take this on, but my frustration is that I want this to be different, yet awesome. I want it to stray away from a simple product shot, yet have value to a client in need. I have a few ideas in my mind, but I don’t quite know how to make it happen. In fact, it may not work at all. But I’m going to try even if it means I end up on the dock, soaking wet.

Thank you Zack, for giving me another shove into the water.
~dave

Characterized as “demolition by neglect,” the Eschweiler Buildings on the Milwaukee County grounds in Wauwatosa lay to waste having stood vacant and crumbling for several decades. Designed in the early 1900s by architect Alexander Eschweiler, the property was designated as the School for Agriculture and Domestic Economy. After the school closed in 1928, Milwaukee County used the buildings for various purposes, including a tuberculosis sanitarium.

The five remaining buildings on the property have since been heavily secured, preventing any access to the interior.

~dave

Known as the former Milwaukee Coke and Gas Company.

~dave