Thursday, November 12, 2009

Leave.


Nothing subtle about this. I am migrating to my new site for good now. The new website has a blog incorporated into it, rendering this page useless to me. I will maintain it for a while, but will not post much content here.

For those who have followed, I sincerely thank you and invite you to join me on the new site:

www.studiobluempls.com

The good times are still rolling, just changing the address. See you there.

Best,

T.C.

Monday, November 2, 2009

National Sports Center Velodrome Promo



I promised I'd show the images once they were released to the public, so here they are. You may have seen them on posters in bike stores around Minneapolis and St. Paul. I really like what Chris Verbick did with the poster design-work around the images. He's a talented man - off educating himself in England as we speak.

Anyway. It's too late to visit the Velodrome to see some racing, but come spring you'll get our chance again.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

More Rendezvous- 08



"Hannible" sold knives, furs and such.



They didn't have hoop and stick yet...



The missing end of the card was shot off by this woman's musket ball. The skinny side facing her! Quite a shot, this one.



Blackpowder musket.



A trapper's bedroom.

Last summer I shot an assignment for the NY Times on a group of people that get together to reenact the ways of the fur trappers that settled parts of Minnesota way back when. It was an interesting job for sure. All around me people were dressing and acting like they were living a century ago. Kids threw hatchets, men fired black-powder muskets and ladies cooked over open fires. These are images that were never published.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Pears.


We try to grow as much food as we can on our little Minneapolis lot. We have a garden with over a dozen different things, as well as 7 hens (one laying blue eggs) that give us fresh eggs daily. We try to keep our foods' distance from our plate as short as possible - except for coffee. Mmm...

This summer we noticed that several neighbors had fruit trees that they did not utilize. We saw them picking up fallen, rotting fruit, but never taking the good stuff to use. So, I started asking if we could take some of the fruit off of trees if they were not going to. It pleased them all, and so we did. We got home grown apples and pears, which we either ate fresh or canned for later. The pears were especially beautiful, so I could not resist taking just a quick shot of them.

I'm told this was a great year for apples. It's not too late to find out for yourself. An apple a day...

Thursday, October 1, 2009

NY Times: Home = happy foreclosure story




This last weekend I dodged rain and 30mph+ winds to finish my latest assignment. A little rosier way to look at the foreclosure mess our nation is in, was to pick a home that was bought cheap and made into a pretty sweet place.

If you want to read the article: NYT Home Section

View: Slideshow

The home was okay, but the real gem was the yard! The property includes the following: 2.5 acres of land within city limits. A large garden, and new fruit tree (pear & apple) orchard. It also had a view of both St. Paul and Minneapolis skylines, and a detached workshop with a bar (although not currently functioning as such).

So, the moral of the story? Foreclosure is not always bad. I guess.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Energyprint & Envirobate- executive headshots

I had the pleasure of working with a few brand new companies this last month. Both needed headshots of their executives, and management teams.

The first, Energyprint, specializes in software that helps your company track its consumption. They help you by road-mapping your consumption, costs and carbon in an effort to save you money and keep your business operating efficiently (and thus greenly - is that even a word?).

I am really into the idea of operating efficiently as a means of reducing consumption. It is not as hard as it seems once you get into it. I like what they are doing.



The above image is of Priscilla, the COO at Energyprint.

THe second company is Envirobate. This company takes care of the abatement of things you and I ought not try to remove ourselves. Things like mold, asbestos and more. If you have an older home like I do, you might find yourself needing their services at some point. Top shelf stuff.




This is Mike Sherek, Project manager of the commercial wing of asbestos removal.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Gear review- Thule Roof Box


For several years I have worked with writer, Stephen Regenold, of The Gear Junkie - a website and syndicated column in several papers nationwide. Recently he asked me to test (and in this case photograph as well) and review a few items and write about them for the site. This is the first of those. Have a look around his site - lots of outdoor toys, stories, photos, etc...

Here's the link to the review: Thule Boxster 611

Friday, September 11, 2009

So long summer and Beautiful bikes





It saddens me deeply to see summer go away soon. I absolutely love summer and being outside and grilling and tan. Alas...

Fall is amazing, but amazingly short here in MN, and then winter. Long, Long winter. Beautiful, yes, but so very long. So here is an image that I found and love. It says summer so well and is really simple and beautiful. I wish I knew who captured this image. Well, done, sir (or Ma'am).

And soon, so long to road bike season. I will trade my skinny tires for wider, Cyclocross tires and layers. So, here are a few nice rides to remind us of the fun of bicycling in the summer. I am not a fixie freak, but I like these bikes a lot. Gotta' say, the fixies look great - I just keep mine for the track. And I never tire of seeing pursuit bikes. Those frames are so agressive looking! Again, I did not take these, so props to those who did.

I had a good trip to Tucson, AZ this week. I was working for Everlast Climbing Industries -- my longest standing client. I will post images when I am able to.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Aton 24hr Mtn bike race

I drove out to Afton last weekend to cheer on a few teammates that were racing for 24hrs. Sometimes people will do these races as a team-- relay style. Not these two guys. Jeff and Tim (Super Rookie) went from 5pm Friday till 5pm on Saturday. While we were all snug in our beds, the racers were doing laps around a ski hill.

When I arrived at the course there were about 6 hours left to race. Tim looked ragged, but was still on the bike and doing well (5th at the time). I offered snacks, but he graciously declined. (I never actually saw Jeff).

I did not stay for the finish, but Jeff ended up taking 2nd place and Tim took third (and 1st place single-speed). Could not be more proud of that kind of racing. Well done, gents.

Here are a few quick shots I took at the race.

Unidentified racer descending the ski hill towards the finish.


Tim climbing away from the finish area with 5.75 hours to go.


Tim was gentlemanly enough to exchange pleasantries with my boys while he climbed his single speed up the ski hill.


Jack (the PIRATE) doing a wheelie half way up the ski hill on his Surly Puglsey. He is either super tough or insane to race that bike!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Wall Street Journal!




I got a call today from an editor that I knew from the NY Times. Turns out he had moved over to the Wall Street Journal and wanted to hire me for a shoot. It also turns out that the shoot was today and I had about 2 hours to get to the location, shoot a portrait and edit, caption and upload the images to him. Honest injun, I was sweating.

It was cool though. I really love that I never know what I am going to do from day to day. Being a photojournalist is a wild occupation sometimes.

If you would like to see why the WSJ was interested in Minneapolis, go here: Article

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Southeast Vacation

We took a 2500 mile roadtrip this last week. Almost entirely for fun, with only a small amount of business. We made stops in Kentucky, West Virginia and North Carolina. Here are a few images of the boys, their cousins and some of the activities we enjoyed. (Most of these were taken by my wife with her point & shoot.)

Jumping on a Hotel bed is a true sign of vacation.

Little boys in rubber boots = awesome.

Boys go to water like magnets.

Jack caught a 2' catfish- his biggest yet.

The dollar store yielded these silly teeth.

Boone shot a .410 shotgun to make his southern vacation complete.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Thursday Night Lights

Jason loosening up.

Fil positioning.

Our LGR kits are fancy.

Good thing LG brought his plumbing equipment.

LG about to achieve perfect "Flyer" pressure.

Feelin' the g's.

Don't mess wtih Texas.

Pat has a sexy bike!

Please God, let Hall win some points tonight.

"Please God, let me win some omnium points."

Hall Wins!

Why is this man smiling?

Tom and Andy giving it 100%. Nice pain faces.

Casper at speed. Guy's fast, but Timmer got the best of him last night.

More action at the Velodrome last night. It was a perfect night for racing. Windless and comfortable temps. Had a great time watching teammates and friends racing. Here's a few images.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Good night for a race



Thursday Night Lights happens at the Velodrome in Blaine tonight. I've been a stranger at the track this whole season. I've been racing in the dirt- when I do race at all. But tonight I will be there to cheer on my teammates and probably shoot some images.

These are two that I took while shooting for the Promo / Poster for the NCS Velodrome this year. It was a fun project. Dig these photos that did not make the cut. Soon I'll do another post showing the images that they ended up using.

The track stand superstars: Chris and Gabe. Sprint monsters: Tom and Ted.

See you at the races?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Reasons to hate Dave P.



Well, here's a few. His motorcycles are not only cooler than mine, but more numerous. Down with Dave.



Aw, Dave. I didn't mean it. Chin up, big guy!

Dave P. is actually a very talented man. He's built more beautiful motorcycles than a man his age ought to have. There's another in the oven right now. Hopefully it'll be up and running and we'll shoot it for a magazine real soon. That is if Dave will talk to me after this.

July 4th in Peru, Iowa = Hot Dang!

Our friend Leah grew up on a cattle farm in Iowa. She asked us to go back with her sometime and kick it farm style for a weekend. We chose the weekend of the 4th. Her brother served in Iraq for several years and so to this family the 4th had a little more meaning.

Fun times. I rode a 4 wheeler, shot rifles, drank gravy from a mug, ate the freshest steaks I've ever had, hung out with Iowa good 'ole boys, and much, much more. Here's a photo walk through the holiday weekend.

Abbie is the sweetest dog I ever met that lives in a barn.

Nothing is more American than an Iowa farm.

Nobody ever sits here anymore.

This whitetail antler was nearly as thick as my wrist!

Kona. We found that she likes to roll in horse poop.

Jack takes careful aim at a charcoal brick.

Boone, 5 yrs, loading his .22 rifle.

Mitch and daughter. She was kind enough to hold his Schlitz while he prepared for another M-80.

Boone between rounds.

Caiman skin boots

Mike is so funny?

Matt and Mitch singing "Folsom Prison".

The boys caught a firefly, or lightning bug - whichever you prefer.

Fireworks out of the back of a Chevy. As it should be.

A few bottle rockets...

Mitch, WD40, lighter + those bottle rockets = the best show going!

Independence is sweet.

Genuine Iowan Ditch Weed - not for smoking, kids.