wisconsin « The F-Stop Chronicles

Wisconsin Photography

Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 28, 2010

The challenges to photographing in Wisconsin are myriad but the rewards are great too. When one chooses to live in a place situated in the middle of a continental landmass one can expect to endure both the extremes of heat and cold. Thus it is with Madison. Equipment cannot be left in the car in winter or it will get so cold that setting up requires gloves. The summers are very nice and one of the reasons people choose to endure winters here, but the humidity and extremes of temperatures can rival that of the Yucatan Peninsula.

But we love out midwest. The people have a fortitude and a humility that can’t be found anywhere else. Winter hardship reminds us daily that our lives are fragile and that we exist at the whims of nature, and so we acknowledge and celebrate our climate, overcoming its inconveniences and, where possible, getting out into it.

Ice fishing is a big thing here in Madison. What in the world is appealing about sitting on a bucket staring into a hole in the ice for hours on end, you might ask. I might ask the same thing too. But the draw of this activity is undeniable. As I drive past lake Monona every day, there they are. Dozens of blaze-orange snowmobile-suited men (and some women) sit in reverie, waiting for lake perch to make themselves known. These folks are widely dismissed as crazy but are fixtures of the season and would be sorely missed should they all spontaneously decide to abandon their hobby.

ice fishing, lake monona, winter, wisconsin

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Photographing the President

Posted by admin in Uncategorized on November 12, 2009

It isn’t often the the President of the United States comes to Madison, Wisconsin. As a matter of fact it was apparently Harry Truman who last did so. So when I heard that Barack Obama was going to be at Wright Middle School here I called in all my favors and got press access to the event. Previously I’d photographed the President in Green Bay and knew that I wanted to be able to get tighter pictures of him this time, so I rented and enormously expensive 600mm lens from Calumet in Chicago. The lens arrived early on the morning of the President’s appearance.

Lens in tow, a fellow photographer and I had sweaty palms as we moved past all the police barracades up to the Secret Service checkpoint. There was always this sense that maybe we would not get it somehow. But we succeeded. Once inside there was a terrible crush in the press section, which was way in the back of the gymnasium on some low risers. Everybody had an idea of what territory they were going to stake out and, in order to hold that territory one had to literally stand in place for two hours.

Once the president arrived it was go-time, a frenzy of attempting to shoot at the exact right moment, keeping the autofocus rectangle on the bridge of the President’s nose, recomposing and then firing off volleys of shots. The buffer on my camera soon filled up as my camera isn’t really optimized for sports shooting, and I would have to wait for the images to write to the card. Despite all of the visual and technical machinations occupying my mind I was able to listen to the speech, which I found to be articulate, intelligent and moving. I am very much a fan of our President.