New Business Cards

I was creating some luggage tags for my photography gear bags, and decided to try a new concept in business cards. This is along the same lines as the Moo cards, which allow you to have a different picture on the back of a number of cards, so they become more personalized. I took my standard card that I normally purchase from VistaPrint, and copied this to the front of a ID card stock. This card is the same thickness as your credit card or driver's license, so it's pretty bulky. However, I feel that this will make it stand out and look more professional. Currently, there are 13 different pictures from my portfolio that I'm showcasing on the back of these new cards. If I'm working with a prospective wedding client, I would probably give them a card with a wedding picture on the back. I really like how they turned out, and have gotten good response from friends and clients who have seen them. Since these are like collectables now, I'll probably print different pictures on the back of future cards, to keep them fresh and unique.

Maximus: Boundary Waters!

I took my dog Maximus to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area last week in Northern Minnesota. Unfortunately, Max is afraid of the water and doesn't like to swim, so I was hesitant to take him and didn't know how he'd react in the canoe. Partnered with a new Sport Dog training collar to help persuade him to sit low in the canoe, Max figured out really quickly that staying down on the bottom of the canoe was the best action. It rained the entire first day, until we reached out campsite and set up our gear. The sun came out for a while, and Max decided to get warm by sitting on the top of the hill overlooking this private bay. It's one of my favorite shots from the trip, and I'm glad that I took him with.


For additional images from the Boundary Waters Canoe trip, please click here.

BWCA: Panoramic

This is a photomerge from a Warrior Hill on the Canadian side of the Lac La Croix flowage on the north side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Individual shots were captured with a Canon Powershot G9.

m2 Photography now using Google Voice!

I have received my invite to Google Voice recently, and acquired 765.35.PHOTO as my number. Google voice is terrific as it will transcribe voicemails and e-mail them to my inbox. It also allows you to create custom greetings for different callers, and move from one phone to another without losing the call. Being able to pick my own number was also a big deal, as I wanted one that ended in Photo to make it easier to remember. Request your google invite today!

BumbleBee: Right Place at the Right Time

So much in Photography is related to being at the right place at the right time. In this photo, I had seen a few bees land on the floral settings at a wedding I was attending over the weekend, so I was ready to capture the next one that landed. Had to wait quite a while, but ended up getting a couple shots of this little guy.

BWCA: Time lapse

I had the Canon G9 in the waterproof enclosure, and brought it with me to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area last week. I decided to try and use the CHDK / SDM script that I normally use for Kite Aerial Photography, and capture a time lapse sequence of us canoeing through the BWCA. I ended up with 3 different sets, and I think that they turned out pretty good. Please be patient while these load into your browser.

Nature Boy sneaks into DMB, gets to 4th row...

We had a large group congregate for the annual Dave Matthews Band concert at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin. Eric Brown, A.K.A. "Nature Boy" flew in from Seattle to come back to the DMB show after a 4 year hiatus. He did not have a ticket, and the show was sold out. There was a lot of people looking for tickets, where the going price was $150 for lawn seats, and those were few and far between. The story gets interesting as they were back at the car after the concert started, and decided to go take a walk on the gold course to see if they could hear the concert better. Strangeness occurred, and by some blind luck was able to get into show through some back entrance by sweet-talking security and others. Long-story short, they got to see the encore from the 4th row. Their mini-adventure took them from totaly depressed for not being able to see the show, to glorious euphoria for getting into the back entrance for free and seeing the last 2 songs. Simply amazing...


For more images from the Alpine Valley show, click here.

Collaborative Mock Rescue: Madison

The Maple Bluff Fire Department set up a "mock" rescue today on Lake Mendota in collaboration with the UW Lifesaving, Madison Fire Department, Dane County Sheriff, and McFarland Fire Department. The scenerio that was set was a boat collision somewhere on Lake Mendota, and for us to respond as normal. We arrived on scene with at least 3 people in the water. We learned the they were pretending to be drunk, and that there was one person missing and presumed underneath the water. UW Rescue took the one person who had a back injury and proceeded to enter the water to put this victim on a backboard. As far as I know, in 100 years, no one has had to enter the water for an emergency like this, but it was good practice.



We had enough Lifesaving staff so that I could document by taking video and pictures with the Canon 5D Mark II with a 70-200mm lens. I would have probably not used this lens knowing that most of the video wasn't as far away as I expected. The DC Sheriff is our main contact on Lake Mendota, and they monitor our frequency while we are in service. The were able to get the 3 other victims out of the water and back to safety of Tenney where MFD ambulances were waiting, while we backboarded our victim.


Channel 15 News was also on a MFD Dingy, and somewhat comical with the horsehoe personal floatation devices. They were going to run a spot on NBC 15 at 5 10. Here is a link to the full story.


After the training session was over, all of the departments working together on this met at Burrows park for a de-briefing to talk about how we did, lessons learned, and what we could have done differently in the future.


Everyone was very complimentary of the other services, and the biggest issue was communications between the different departments.




Maple Bluff Fire Department got a new boat this year, so I made sure to get a decent shot, in front of Maple Bluff, of course.


It's amazing to me that we've all been working on these lakes for decades and haven't done a collaborative training like this before. I think that everyone learned something, and having a beautiful sunny and warm day made it enjoyable for all who participated. I hope that we do this in the future.

For more images from the training exercise, please visit m2 Photography, or click here.

Sunset after Storm Pictures

Storms rolled through Madison recently, and I was lucky enough to get out on the water and snap some shots of the spectacular clouds and sunset.