Party Time

Last night I did a late-night shoot at Tiger Sushi, an Uptown Minneapolis sushi restaurant. A departure from my "typical" assignment to be sure. It's easy for me to take good pictures of interesting people having fun. The pictures seem to jump in front of the camera and ask to be taken.

"Daisy"

A few weeks ago, Carlye, a former portrait client contacted me in the hopes that I would photograph her dog, Daisy, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. I had previously photographed her four children when they were babies. Her twins which are her youngest are now juniors in high school. Seeing them made me feel old.

She lives in Los Angles and was calling me on the off-chance that I was going to be traveling there from my home base of Minneapolis. It had been about 4 years since I have been back to LA, but coincidentally I was going to be there in a few weeks. I felt like it was meant to be.

Normally, I don't have any desire to photograph animals, but in this case I made an exception and I am so glad I did. Carlye really values the photos we had done of her children and I know she will feel the same about the photo of Daisy.

Salvation Army Video with Aaron Neville

For many years I have done work with The Salvation Army. Even though they are a large organization, it has the feeling of a intimate operation in the way they help people. I've said this about my work before, but it is my role to just stay out of the way and make images that reflect the good work that is taking place and the result of this effort.

The Salvation Army recently put together a video with Aaron Neville using still images I have taken for them.

Click on the title of this post to be taken to the video.

Chop Suey

A shot I took in the "Little Tokyo" neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles last week.

Los Angeles and The Union Rescue Mission

Yesterday I spent the day at the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angles, which is the largest shelter of its type in the country. At this, their annual Thanksgiving-week meal they served over 4000 meals which is incredible. Witnessing the logistics of the production...cooking 200 turkeys....etc...was impressive.

Having done this type of work for some time, I have noticed that the number of families with children increase dramtically which is really sad. It really started to get to me as the day went on. What it would be like to have a family and not have a place to live...can't imagine it.

Senator Al Franken

I photographed Senator Franken this past Sunday while he visited Childrens Hospital in Minneapolis. This shot was taken in-between the "photo ops" which is where the good stuff lies.

For me, the moments when a photo is expected to occur end up in a result that is not as interesting as taking them when they are not expected. I've always felt that a good photo of a person is one where they appear as if they are not "trying" to do anything. Once they start to pose, you can almost always see some sort of effort being displayed in their expression. All that being said, it is impossible for someone to not notice the camera. What is important, is for them to be comfortable with the photographer and "let" the photos happen.

The Motorman

John Reinen is a first year motorman for the Como-Harriet trolley in the Linden Hills (where I live) neighborhood of Minneapolis. I first met John because our kids went to school together and recently saw in him dressed in his Trolley uniform at a Halloween party. To me, he personifies the job...almost a character out of a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood episode.