The Lakes Community Health Center

I did some more work this week for the good people at the Lakes Community Health Center. These shoots are always great. Nice people to work with, interesting settings. But the challenge is always the same: working in a really small room. Dental and medical exam rooms are not really designed for photography. They're small and they're full of really shiny surfaces that glare and bounce light in all the wrong ways. These rooms are designed for medicine, which makes sense since that's what they're used for 99.72% of the time, but that means that the .28% of the time that I'm working in them is pretty tricky. I usually end up cramming myself into one corner, filling another corner with lighting equipment, and then telling people "just act natural." Not exactly easy to do when your in a room full of blinking lights and there's a strange man cowering the corner brandishing a camera. Still, we always come away with some great images. Watch for more as the winter goes on.

Amazing Racers.

One of the incredible things about being a photographer is that frequently people call you up out of the blue, tell you about something absolutely amazing that's going to happen, and then ask if you'd like have a front row seat to watch said amazing thing happen. Do I want to come watch the Paralympic World Cup? Sure, that sounds awesome. Would I like a press pass so I can get down on the course? Did you even need to ask?

From the get go I was pretty excited to go watch this event, but I didn't realize how incredible it was going to be until I got there. First off, there are teams from all over the world Russia, Canada, Italy, France, Japan. It's always cool to hear coaches yelling at their athletes in different tongues. But on top of that it turned out to be hands down the most impressive show of athleticism I have ever seen.

The first event I caught was the biathalon (skiing and target shooting) for seated skiers. If you're not familiar with seated skiing Google it. It looks really hard. And not like, "oh, I'd be slower than that guy, but I could probably do it" hard. I'm talking "I couldn't do that...at all" hard. I know I'm not a body builder (I know, some of your are probably surprised to hear that...it's true), but I'm in okay shape and I don't know that I could actually propel myself this way on flat ground. Much less up hill. And there were some serious hills on this 7.5 KM course. Yeah you read that right 7 point frickin' 5 K's. Insane. So on top of skiing this difficult course you then have to stop every 2.5 KM to lay down and take 5 pretty difficult shots at a target while your heart is racing and your breathing like...well like you just pushed your self around a 2.5KM course with just your arms. And a bunch of the athletes had perfect shooting records for the day. So with out rambling, let me just say I was pretty much blown away. 

Then came the division for skiers with a visual impairment. And remember that this is a course with some pretty big ups and some pretty big downs. Now imagine navigating that course by following the voice of your guide skier. I would just lay down and give up. They were flying. Then they did their shooting. These athletes shoot with a laser system that gives a tone when they are lined up on the target. I never got close enough or got to talk to anyone about how exactly it worked, but it seemed pretty cool. How often to get to watch blind target shooting? Amazing. Long story short if you ever get the chance to go to a Paralympic World Cup, Go. Where ever your seats happen to be.

More from Marvin.

I've really been getting into this new technique over the last week or so. Here are a few more images from Marvin, the 1949 Kodak Dualflex II. I've been honing this style a little, figuring out which configurations of equipment and settings seem to be working the best. I've even been making some custom pieces for the camera to block out unwanted light. I'm sure I look relatively insane trying to use this two camera contraption, but I don't care. The results are worth it.  There's still more tweaking to be done, but, for the most part, I think I have it figured out. Now I just need some people for a few photos; models if you will. But not the prima-donna "I simply won't work without a bowl of peeled grapes and bottle of san pellegrino" kind. I need the northwoodsy, down to earth kind. Potentially, the kind that come with their own massive beard and shotgun accessory package. I have a couple ideas. Also, anyone have a classic three piece suit? Send me an e-mail and we'll set up a time. ((**WARNING: If no one volunteers, I will be forced to continue posting random images of myself and other inanimate objects. And nobody wants that, people. No body.**))

Redesign.

It's 2012. And that means it's time for some changes. Especially here on hiredlens.com. Like shaving off the itchy, frazzled whiskers of an overgrown beard, we've trimmed down to a cleaner, more streamlined, and, I dare say, more handsome version of the same, good-old site. Wielding HTML like a fresh razor and Adobe Flash like warm shaving cream, we've managed to scrape away the superfluous chaff to get down to what really matters. But much like shaving off an unsettling large amount of facial hair, you're bound to miss a little here and there, so bear with us as we find and remove those last few scraggly wisps of the old design. And keep checking back to see what's new in 2012. In the mean time, keep it real out there, people.

The Original Hipstamatic. (aka a camera).

Was that photo taken with an iPhone and the hipstamatic app, you ask? Oh, no. That's a real photo taken with a real F#$%^ camera, my friends. Remember those: little black boxey deal, you put a roll of this plasticy stuff in the back and then used them to make photographs. Anyone? No? Hmmm. Okay, to be fair I didn't shoot these with film, but I did use an old camera. I fanoogled a way to shoot through the old body and lens (complete with 60 years of true grit) using my current digital SLR. Pretty sweet. This particular one is a Kodak Dualflex II circa 1949. It's amazing the things you can find in your parents basement. Watch for some new stuff from this little guy ( I think I'm going to name him Marvin) in the next couple weeks. I've got big plans.