Shooting for fun - The Itallian Ponies(Ferrari's)

308 GTB/GTS Quattrovalvole

As a Photographer, I spend a lot of time prepping for a photo session, executing said photo session, editing and then delivering said session. Every now and again it becomes about getting out for yourself.
On Sunday I had that opportunity, no plan, just a phone call from a friend saying “hey there are about 20 Ferrari’s down here on the square.” If there is two things I love in this world it is photography and cars mainly classic cars, American Muscle but also a special place in my heart for something that was created by Enzo Ferrari. The lines on those cars are simply amazing its like a work of art or it like watching a surfer carve his way down a massive wave or a snowboarder slice down a freshly snow covered mountain. .
You maybe asking yourself okay Wisconsin Boy why the Ferrari? I born in the mid 80’s and remember in the late 80’s and early 90’s watching Magnum PI with my dad and I always thought the 308 GTB/GTS was a neatest looking car, how can you not fall in love with something like that. Also hey they happened to have one there yesterday with the correct license plate.

Dino 246 GT

There was, at least to me a lesser known Ferrari there the Dino 246 GT I had never seen one but that was a neat find. The one thing the owner told me was until recently you could pick them up fairly cheap becasue they weren’t a highly sought after car.
Fun little fact about this car is even though it was made by Ferrari it was sold under the name Dino. It came into existance in the late 50’s because of the creation of a smaller V6 engine. The name Dino was used on these cars from 67 to 78 when it was dropped for the full Ferrari name. Also the Dino was semi created by Ferrari to offer a low cost sports car that normal person could afford.
While most of Ferrari’s there were newer ones and some that just rolled off the tine this year but it was cool just to look at them. The owners most of them out of Illinois were some of the nicest car enthusiasts I have ever met. Thanks for passing through town and stopping to have lunch at The East Troy Brewery it gave a lot of small town people a chance to look at some really nice car.s

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Opening under Coivd-19 in Wisconsin

As of today(2020/05/14,) well technically yesterday afternoon May, Vagabond Photography can start taking clients again. It feels to good to be able to start providing services again to you our valued customers. While I understand it may not be ideal, here is the tentative plan moving forward for how I am going to be conducting business.

1. Photos done by Vagabond Photography will still remain on location as I have always been an on location photography service. I have some great locations picked out and are ready to go.

2. Consultations for weddings, family/senior/modeling/headshot portraits, aerial and event photography will be done over the phone/email for a just a little while longer. If the conditions are agreed upon by both parties a PDF contract will be email to you to be signed electronically or to be printed and mailed back. I’ve always been a hand shake type of person, two parities agree to the terms shake on it, sign the document and then its off to the races, but I understand the handshake will have to wait for a while long.

3. During the portrait sessions I will do my directing from a distance of how I would like you to be posed. Normally, I like to be a little closer to make some of those very fine tweaks but I know for the safety of our clients this is best for the time being. As for clothing options that will all be discussed prior to the session.

4. Viewing and ordering of prints will be done through our websites client's galley as opposed to our normal in person sales. I can also do a viewing over the phone and internet in case there is a few alterations you would like to have made to an individual photo. I have with my client gallery services to see the same thing at the same time as you so we both can be looking at the same image and be on the same page.

5. As for payment I'll be doing Paypal or Check, for the time being I won't be taking cash. I am also still trying to figure out though my website provider how to set up credit card for services rendered instead of per-photo and once I get that figured out as a viable option, this will be an option as well.

I look forward to being your photographer again and getting back to providing you the best services I can.

Tim Gumz
Vagabond Photography
05/14/2020

Chasing and Capturing Dreams

     Last week I had the opportunity to capture what most likely will be a once in a life time event. This event was to photograph the Union Pacific’s 4014 Big Boy steam engine passing through Wisconsin. On Thursday the 25th Big Boy traveled from Adams Wi to Butler Wi with making a stop in Friesland for public viewing. The Big Boy is traveling though the Midwest to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the joining of the Transcontinental Railroad.

4014 crossing over Lakeview Drive in Packwaukee WI.

     As a child I loved to watch trains pass though my home town (GB&W, CNW, Wisconsin Central, Canadian National). Many of mornings while eating at a The Little Pink Restaurant I could watch to my hearts before heading off the school. Also having gone to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay and seeing the 4017 Big Boy made the child hood me love them even more. So, having the ability see one riding down the rails was something I could not pass up.

     There is a lot that goes into getting a shots like these, because in a way it’s like wedding photography, you only have a moment to get that one perfect shot. For a shoot like this it starts out with looking at maps (google earth) and figuring out where along the line is a good place to set up. Second, is to actually scout the location (ahead of time if possible) to see if what you see on the map is actionable in real life. Then third put your plan into action on the day of and hope it all works out. But always have a back up plan in play.

4014 crossing over Lakeview Drive, Packwaukee WI.

     I chose the bridge crossing at Buffalo Lake in Packwaukee Wisconsin. The for this location is there trestle bridge there along with a big enough body of water that it would keep crowds away and it would easier to edit out the possible one or two boats. I originally wanted to be able to photograph from the waters edge with my camera while flying above with my drone so I could have two view point.  Unfortunately, the owner of the property wasn’t willing at the time(day before) to let people be on her property because she didn’t want to be held liable if they were to get hurt (side note: day of she was letting people on her property, but there were too many that I stayed in the second area). So, I was left with the option of flying my drone from the road and forgoing the ground shot from where I had intended to shoot from. For the ground shot I was left with a small 30 ft opening where it was going to be passing on the small bridge going over the road I had parked on. This place turned out to have a cool photo in the end.

     With events like this there is always the unexpected or multiple unexpected things. First unexpected event was there was another professional drone pilot there and one amateur. After talking with Tom(professional pilot) who runs Dairyland Drone Solutions we were both able to formulate out a plan so we could both fly and get the shots we were looking for. Both of us never did find the amateur pilot connected with the drone flying when we first got there but he/she was far enough away from us not to cause a problem. The second unexpected thing to happened to us was a circling T6 Texan manned plane most likely in route to EAA Airventure. FAA says we have to make way for manned aircraft, problem is when you and your new drone pilot friend are nestled between some pine trees it is almost impossible to land or move to a safe distance away from a circling plane. Thankfully the T6 vacated the area right before the train arrived and we were able to get out shots.

     It was a great time getting to see an old girl ride the rails in an area that was not its normal stomping grounds back in her time and being able to work with another operator to both come away with stellar photographs is something I’ll remember for a long time.

Big Boy 4014 crossing over Buffalo Lake Bridge in Packwaukee Wi. July 25th 2019

Water Leaders Summit 2019

     Right before the fourth of July, Vagabond Photography had the pleasure to work the with The Water Council at the Water Leaders Summit for the fourth year in a row. It is always a fun and educational experience to work with them. This year’s summit took place at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 26-27th.

Charles Fishman - During opening statements

     Normally as photographers, we go to a conference or seminar to photograph the event but we always seem to come away with something a little more tucked away in our brains by the end. This year, main take away was during the opening statement by events the MC Charles Fishman, “Every time we do a search on Google it uses two tablespoons of water.”  As a photographer I use the internet a lot to look up how to fix camera/lighting equipment, learn new techniques, to my guilty pleasure of looking up Babylon 5 and Star Trek memes. Never in a hundred years would I have thought for one minute that we really use water in that process. But Google and all the internet search engines do, its used in keeping the servers cool. It also made me think how much water goes into making a camera? So I did some searching and didn’t come up with an answer but I would wager it is many, many of gallons between the circuit boards, plastic, metals and glass in a camera.

Eleanor Allen & Charles Fishman

         It was a great day filled with great speakers from all walks of life. Touching on multiple subjects from Rethinking Water for People, How actions and awareness are no longer the domain just of the water sector and Rethinking Water Use: Risk, Stewardship and Value Creation and Rethinking Water in Corporate Governance. This year focused more on how we use water and the risk of pollution and running out.

     Eleanor Allen spoke with Charles Fishman to talk about her work when with the peace corps to bring clean water and better out houses to communities to prevent the transmission of disease to people in foreign countries. She went on to explain how some communities for all for clean water while others didn’t really care but once one community got on board with the project others seemed to be more receptive to it.

     During the last panel of the day they talked about rethinking water in corporate governance and as a person who has worked in many fields from photography, to industrial, and farming to commercial it really got me to pay attention while working the rest of the event. They noted if companies really had to pay for the water they use, items we use would cost us a whole lot more money but the companies would also be a lot more apt to stop leaks and save themselves money. One of the speakers stated that one of the biggest leaks for a plant is in its fire suppression system and that was mainly due to leaky valves or connections in pipes.  It was interesting to hear them talk about how Ford Motor Company managed to reduce their over all use of water in manufacturing use to help water stressed areas be more sustainable.

So think of how you use your water.

Xiaofeng Zhao and Valeria Orozco

Photos you should ask to see before booking your wedding

     When it comes to weddings you want to know your photographer is the best at what they do. When you sit down and meet with them, you see all the previously perfectly posed photos that could soon be of you and your spouse to be.

Discovering Grand Dad’s Dog Tags

     Though, what is it a photographer didn’t show you during the meeting and maybe something you should ask them to show you? Here’s what it is, during the meeting they rarely ever show you the party photos, the cake cutting(maybe), and the candid’s that comprise around 60 to 70 percent of the what is photographed on you and your loved one’s wedding day.

     Now, you may be asking yourself, Tim, seriously, why are you telling us to ask photographers to show us another person’s wedding candid’s?

    Here’s the reasoning behind it. Posed photos are great, they sell really well as images that will adorn your walls for a very long time to come. As time has passed, from the wedding day to the first showing, I find loved ones spend more time looking at the candid’s and remembering those once in a life time moments with friends and family that aren’t staged and try to figure out how to work them into albums and as small mementos.

     I will admit, at first, if a potential client came to me and said those posed photos are nice but show me some candid’s. I would have probably freaked out in the beginning or even recently because I would be worried about what they are looking for in those. Now, I understand they want to be able to see if us as their photographer can capture those special intimate moments with friends and family that weren’t stages and happened by chance. Those moments that come and go as quickly as the wedding day does.

Blink first you lose.

     This may not be something that you would of thought to ask of your photographer but I encourage you too. As a client I would want to know if they possibly got the shot of the bride and brother noticing that grand dads dog tags were on memorial display which were just added by the husband mere moments before they walked in the room. Or that bride and her best friend were having a stair down right before they busted out so weird hillbilly dance on the back of an old farm delivery truck while laughing uncontrollably. Those are the memories you also want to know your photographer can capture and save for a lifetime.

Family moments

     With the two short scenarios from above think back to a close friends or family members wedding that you attended and then later were at their house and ended up looking through their album or box of wedding photos. Chances are you looked at the posed photos but you held on looking at that candid moment photo or page just a little bit longer and relived it and just maybe busted out laughing or started to tear up.

     Posed and candid photos have the power to relieve special moments in your lifetime make sure you have a photographer that can do both.