Andrew Babcock - ROC Wheels

I met Andrew Babcock last Thursday for my first portrait in my new series. Although I've tossed around a few ideas for a title of this series, none have stuck. As with all my projects, I believe this one will become more narrowly focused as it progresses. For now, I'm simply seeking people in Bozeman, MT who are doing cool or interesting things that make a difference.

Andrew is the Executive Director of ROC Wheels in Bozeman, MT. Prior to the suggestion from a friend to photograph someone at ROC Wheels for my project, I had not heard of the organization. After checking out their website, I got really excited about the work they're doing. They not only assemble and provide wheelchairs for children (or very small adults) in developing countries, they also include educating the public and the recipients in their mission. The pediatric wheelchairs are specifically designed to be durable in the countries they serve. By providing the Bozeman community with the opportunity to volunteer as wheelchair assemblers, ROC Wheels educates the volunteers and also gives them a sense of ownership in the process of helping others by providing mobility.

ROC Wheels was started by Wayne and Lee Ann Hanson who began with the idea of Kid Kart and prototypes of jogging strollers. Kid Kart grew quickly due to demand from parents and therapists to best serve the needs of their children. The company was then sold to Sunrise Medical where Wayne worked in R&D. Eventually, he would found ROC Wheels with the focus of designing & distributing pediatric wheelchairs for children in developing countries.

Andrew, who when asked what his job responsibilities are smiled and said "everything", earned a business degree at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. After graduating, he moved to Montana and spent time as a self-professed "ski and fishing bum" and enjoying outdoor life in this beautiful state. He eventually felt a gnawing desire to do something more with his life...something that would allow him to help people and in his own words, "get back to using my brain". After searching for the right position, he settled in as Executive Director at ROC Wheels six years ago. Andrew does everything from working with volunteer groups to visiting the current manufacturing facility in Morocco (and later this year, the facility in Iraq), to working with their established networks in the developing countries they serve. According to Andrew, coordinating a wheelchair distribution can take 8-12 months. A team of 6-20 volunteers (and very rarely more than two staff people) spend 8-14 days traveling to remote areas to custom fit 20-40 people each day. The actual amount of mobility products distributed during this trip can range from 100-400, depending on the need in the area and the available funding.

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

The two portraits above obviously have a very different feel to them. In the top one, I wanted to express Andrew's passion for his work and for helping people. Therefore, I directed the light onto his face with a 10° grid over the strobe. I'm still deciding if I like the resulting effect and shadows. For the second image, I wanted to create a a confident feel with Andrew's stance and the camera angle. I chose to use a 60" umbrella on this photograph in order to light more of the background. Working in a warehouse type setting where some of the wheelchair assembly occurs did have its challenges but I'm fairly happy with these photographs.

After photographing Andrew on Thursday last week, I came across a little card on Saturday that said "Make your career matter." That's exactly what I'm trying to do and it's what brought Andrew into this type of work. 

How do you make your career matter?

My First Opportunity to Photograph Dance - IndepenDANCE

IndepenDANCE, an all volunteer, non-profit organization, was formed three years ago to give dancers over the age of 18 an outlet for dance and choreography. According to the group, there are not a lot of opportunities for dancers to showcase their talents outside of the university. I was hired as the photographer for the organization's annual show on June 23, 2011. This was my first time to photograph dance, but I really loved it! Since I was not familiar with these specific dance pieces, or dance in general for that matter, it was a lot of fun to hear the music and to anticipate the moves. It was a challenge to work with the pre-determined lighting sets, but the challenge was a good one. There was a total of 18 dance pieces, all of which were unique. 

Here are a few of the photographs I captured from the event:

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

If you are interested in seeing more photographs from this event, post a comment with your email address and I'll email you the link to the gallery. Prints are also available.

Guest Blogger: Photographer Juliette Osen

I recently asked Juliette Osen to write a guest post about her 365 Project. I cannot say enough positive things about this mature and amazing 17 year old who aspires to become a professional photographer. I first came to know Juliette when I contacted her family about participating in my adoption portrait series and multimedia project. You can see my portraits of Juliette and her family here and here which were part of my Forever Families project. Her already large family adopted two boys from the Philippines and Juliette's mom has home schooled all of the Osen kids, including the older ones who now live on their own. Juliette also recently passed her second degree black belt test in Taekwondo. She is so very hard on herself and she pushes herself to excel in everything she does. Enjoy Juliette's post and be inspired by her work.

Project 365
by Juliette Osen

I look at the pictures I take as a way of documenting parts of my life, as a looking glass that will bring me back in my life years from now. So to me the idea of documenting a year of my life with a picture every day made perfect sense. 

I started my 365 project on New Year's day. At first the project came easily to me and didn’t seem challenging at all. It forced me to work on concepts I had thought of but had never taken the time to work on. It was exciting to photograph every day and to actually have a purpose. 

Soon though, I ran out of juice and ideas. I had lost all interest in the project and landed in a rut. I was bored with my life so taking pictures to document it bored me as well. I realized, though, that completing this project was important to me and would be a major accomplishment. I am naturally not a quitter and I'm extremely dedicated to anything I start.  So, I made the commitment to finish the project, no matter how impossible it seemed.

Before long I regained my enthusiasm for the project. I again felt that passion, and strove to make each image beautiful and to represent each day well.   

There are still days when making that picture seems nearly impossible so the result is a far from perfect picture. Other days though, I get an idea and I'm so excited I want to try it immediately. Whether or not they turn out the way I want them to, I am still trying and experimenting and delving deeper into the world of photography. 

Today is day 179 of my 365 project and I have yet to skip a single day. This project has helped me work through stuff in my personal life and is teaching me so much about photography. I can see the improvement in my work since I started and I'm so glad I've stuck with it. 

I plan on continuing the project, making a memory for every day.   

Day 54 - ©2011, Juliette Osen

Day 141 - ©2011, Juliette Osen

Day 160 - ©2011, Juliette Osen

I encourage you to check out the remainder of Juliette's 365 Project on her Flickr stream here. Also, feel free to leave her a comment with a word of encouragement to keep going.

Fundraising Photo Booth

Photo booths at weddings and other events seem to be very trendy now. When I was recently asked to run a photo booth for an adoption fundraiser, I thought it sounded like a fun way to contribute. Since there was already an admission price for the music and art fair, we chose to offer the photo booth pictures for a small additional charge. Several people let us borrow costumes and accessories so people could dress up for their picture. If you are planning a fundraising event, I would highly recommend adding a fun photo booth!

Me with one of my assistants in front of one of the costume racks

 

The Emergence of Spring in Polaroids

Spring in Montana is really just an extension of winter. Late spring can be a cruel time of rainy days punctuated by a few warm, beautiful, and sunny days. The cruelty comes when the rest of the country is enjoying consistently warm, actual spring-like days and we are still having rainy (and sometimes snowy) days. When the sun arrives, the entire town is out enjoying the day. On one of these recent beautiful days, I carried my Polaroid SX-70 around my neighborhood to record a few glimpses of warm weather. When I lived in Memphis, Tulips and Daffodils would often arrive in February. Here in Bozeman, MT, Tulips are still in their prime now in the first part of June. The trees have just recently begun to be covered in green. These pictures are a reminder to me that on the cloudy, rainy, and cold days, the sun will shine once again. 

Blue Skies and Green Leaves

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

Tulips

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

Weeds

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

I chose my SX-70 for this little outing for a few reasons. First of all, I love square photographs. Secondly, I love actual prints so the SX-70 would immediately satisfy both of these things. Also, I love the color and slightly fuzzy style I get from my camera. Before I headed out, I knew I wanted to capture these glimpses of spring and summer. I also know that my style tends to be fairly "clean" in that the subject either fills the frame or is carefully and thoughtfully arranged and would work well within a square format. All of these things helped me to decide to choose my Polaroid SX-70 camera over any of the others.

It sounds like a big part of the southern U.S. is steaming hot today. Wherever you may be, what are you doing to enjoy YOUR weather? 

Guest Blogger: Photographer Kelly Gorham

Today I am extremely pleased to introduce Kelly Gorham as my guest blogger. Kelly has been a big influence as I've grown as a photographer. He has helped with advice, ideas, and encouragement. As an intern for Kelly at Montana State University, I observed and experienced lighting people in various situations "on the fly". In other words, I observed Kelly in vastly different situations and he always came up with a quick, effective, and beautiful lighting solutions. This helped to give me confidence when I was on my own assignments. The one thing I carry with me on every assignment is something I learned from Kelly - "Treat every photo assignment, no matter how small, as if it's the most important." Please enjoy Kelly's post today as he talks about something he learned about his own work and his encouragement to fight through the laziness. Be sure to take him up on his challenge at the end.

 

Zoom With Your Feet 

by Kelly Gorham

…my metaphor for photography and life

 When I was six-years-old, in the 1970’s, and got my first camera it used film and flash cubes and had a fixed focal-length lens. You may remember a flash cube only had four shots in it. After I threw many tantrums when I’d run out of film or flashes, my mother lectured me and instructed me to make each photo count instead of photographing everything as I did.

This trend continued through my life of photography as I used a view camera with prime lenses in college and a Pentax K1000 with one lens during my first two summers interning with a daily newspaper. It really forced me to think about my photos and zoom with my feet.  During these years I managed some pretty creative compositions and explored my subjects more thoroughly since I had to move my body to get different perspectives.

This all fell apart when I upgraded camera systems and got my Nikon N90s with 28-70mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f2.8 lenses. I was working for a daily paper in Nevada and found myself working much more quickly. This was in part due to my heavy assignment load but also because the zoom lenses made me lazy. For years I would get to a scene, have a look around, and then pick a couple good angle and fire away with the motor drive cranking like a lawnmower. There I was, just standing and zooming. Oh, maybe I’d take time to switch between the two lenses but the interaction I had experienced with my subjects from an early age was gone. I used the technology like a crutch and it made me lazy and as a result the photos suffered.

Fast forward twelve years and I’d been shooting digital for about ten of those. Yup, you guessed it, even lazier. With digital I could see every photo as I captured it. We call this chipping in the industry. It’s almost like a funny photo ballet. You really see it at sporting events with a row of photographers bobbing their heads in unison from the action to their LCD screens. So now, I’m still standing and zooming but have even less concerns because I can see instantly if I’m getting the shot. The challenge is gone. Even if it’s a poor photo I’d be in Photoshop trying to salvage it. Of course, photographers are famous for saying, “I never Photoshop, I’m true to the subject,” but let’s admit it, we’ve all gone through that phase of trying to squeeze every bit of information out of every pixel. Is the photo too dark? Fix it in post. You didn’t get close enough? No problem, crop it in post. Too lazy to wait for good light? No problem, shoot a bunch of bracketed photos and merge them in HDR (high dynamic range) software.

In 2008 just as my laziness-induced obsession with HDR imaging and zoom lenses was reaching critical mass, my 28-70 broke. Oh crap. It was a morning before I had several news assignments. The 70-200 would be too long for all these assignments. I grabbed the only other lens that was with me at the time, my trusty $89 Nikkor 50mm f1.8 that I had previously only used when shooting food and products and went off to the assignments.

Suddenly photography was tough again. I was crouching, squatting, laying on my belly and on my back. I stood on chairs and tables. Wow, I was moving again. This lens didn’t allow me to be lazy. I was thinking about my subject and interacting with it. I didn’t even chip. I just shot the photos and hoped for the best, just like the days of slide film. When I got back to the computer I downloaded the photos into Adobe Lightroom and was amazed at the quality. It was like the 23-year-old version of me walked into the room. The photos were interesting, well composed and perfectly exposed. I didn’t change a thing in the computer. I simply exported the images and sent them off to the editors. I was a photographer again.

Soon after, I went to Berlin to shoot a project about relics of the Cold War. I carried a 20mm and a 50mm. The project was the highlight of my career and has exhibited around the U.S. and in Germany.  Now in 2011 I carry a 28mm and an 85mm throughout the day. I shoot sports with a prime 300mm f2.8 and use a 1.4x teleconverter when I need the extra oomph. I still have a 70-200 and use it when needed but I travel light and think about my shots. Instead of researching cameras with bells and whistles and massive zoom lenses, I find myself dreaming about compact mirrorless cameras with prime lenses and very few controls. I treat every photo as though it’s the most important image I’ve ever captured. 

Here’s a challenge for you. Take one camera with one prime lens and go for a stroll. No filters, no gadgets. Just go and explore your subjects and force yourself to break from the restraints of technology. Enjoy life for what it is and make the most of it.

Getting to Know You

As I've read about best practices for running a blog over the past year, one thing I consistently come across is to know your audience and to always offer content that is of interest to them. I tend to mix the content of this photography blog between my current projects, things I find inspiring, guest posts from people I'd like to introduce you to, and how-to type posts with ideas or suggestions. 

I try to keep my reader in mind as I write, but I thought this would be a good time to conduct a short survey in order to offer better and more interesting content. So, dear reader, why do you read this blog (even if it was only one time) and what content are you most interested in reading? With your help, I can offer things that are beneficial and worthwhile to you.

I know there may be people who stop by and read an occasional post but never comment. So, if you have ever read any of my posts, I'd love for you to leave a comment below:

What do YOU want to read about and what would you like to see from this blog? 
Which posts have you enjoyed the most?

Thanks for your help! I sincerely appreciate your comments and your time, and thanks for reading!