Thursday, December 15, 2011

Kind Regards to 2011… bring on ’12!

2011 is winding down, the fast pace of June through November has slowed. I continue to tweak the new office space as I try and figure out how to make things flow with greatest ease. I easily have four or five times the amount of space compared to our townhouse. While I still need to buy carpet, install some shelves for my old camera collection and refurbish some cabinets with fresh paint and and new hardware, it’s already a far step ahead of the old space, and my used Hermann Miller chair is way more comfortable than the wood pottery barn chair I had prior.

I’ve also been busy upgrading some equipment and figuring out better than the old gear. BTW, if you know anyone looking for a Canon 1DMKIIN and a EF 70-200 USM f/2.8 I’ll have those for sale after they get back from Canon Professional Services.

That said, new photography is happening, just smaller shoots most of the time. Some baby and family photography, a little Chicago Tribune photography, as well as some professional head shots for a local businessmen as well as event coverage for another client.

As I get ready to close out 2011, I’ve seen nice growth this year with a few new clients and I continue to find better ways to do business and will continue to tweak business processes to make my business more efficient, more profitable and of course produce great images for my clients while giving them the best customer service. As with everything I continue to learn at what it means to be a small business owner.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Crown Royal Sushi from Wilde & Greene Restaurant and Market

I have yet to try beef tongue, but I keep swearing I will. I use to like calves liver, but a stray case of gout has kept that off my plate for a while. I’ve had caviar, but would rather just poor good sea salt on my tongue. Lamb shank was a tad greasy for my liking… basically, I’ll try a lot of things, but Sushi with various types of eel rowe and bbq’d eel, I’ll just leave that for those with the more adventurous palette. I guess you could just say my taste for swimming based protein is a bit…. watered down!

But I’ll say something about BBQ’d eel and in this case the “Crown Royal” from Wilde & Greene in Skokie, IL… it sure does photograph nicely! I’ll shoot sushi any day along with nice daylight and a macro lens!

Crown Royal sushi from Wilde & Greene in Skokie

by Shaun / 2 Comments / Add a Comment

Monday, November 14, 2011

Aerial Photography Adventures Pt. 1

When a client calls, it’s always a good thing…well almost always! In this case it was very good, a question I had wanted to hear from someone, “Do you do aerials?” Now as I heard the words I was definitely yes in my brain. I have been wanting to add Aerial Photography to my offerings for a while.

Despite a mild fear of heights and not being a huge roller coaster fan…. helicopters are completely different to my brain cells! The last time I went up in a helicopter, I was hanging out with Kansas Air National Guard members in a UH-60 Blackhawk doing night vision training while back in my Topeka days. The KANG was getting ready to deploy for a tour in Bosnia and we went out over the fields of Northeastern Kansas to see what farmers and cattle were doing.

I needed to make a few phone calls, including to my insurance agent, a few more calls to make sure I was covering all my bases, then more calls to check for availability of helicopters and pilots.

After a few weather delays, the day finally arrived, We were also waiting for the leafs to turn to their penultimate colors. In the end, based off of referrals and the size of the helicopter I chose to rent from Sun Aero Helicopters who fly out of Lansing (IL) Municipal Airport. We’d be going up in a Robinson R44 Raven II aircraft. It was a great day to fly, lots of visibility, mild temps and a nice pilot didn’t hurt!

We arrived on scene about 25 minutes after liftoff… did I mention how cool it was to fly… with the door off my side? I guess watching M*A*S*H with my brother all those years paid off! I made some nice pictures which shows the client’s campus in perspective to their downtown area as well as a view of the Chicago skyline in the distance.

If you want aerials of your buildings or property, let me know, I’d be happy to go flying again!