Places we used to farm

     I am happy to announce that for part of the summer some of my artwork will be shown at The Hive Taproom in East Troy, Wisconsin.  The series is called “Places we used to farm.” The project consists of farms and farming equipment that until recently were still in use. It was one of those things you didn’t notice it until they were gone.

Resting Peacefully

    I first move to the area full time in 2002 to attend college and never really left. When I moved down from central Wisconsin, there were a few more operational farms than there are today. While in college I had several photography classes and with them came projects. Because of these projects I quickly became acquainted with the backroads of Walworth and surrounding counties.  

     This spring I was out driving around the county doing a few bids for the aerial part of Vagabond Photography and started to notice some of the buildings I photographed in college were gone and with the looming reality of what is coming in the future on the family’s(uncle & cousins) farm in Central Wisconsin I decided I wanted to capture some of these farms before they are lost to the ages or swallowed up by bigger farms or turned into a dreaded subdivision.

Forgotten Barn

     In Wisconsin alone we lost some 300 farms from January of 2019 through May and 700 farms in the 2018 according to the Journal Sentinel in a recent story “Struggling to tread water: ...” published on May 18th. Much of this is because of the lower demand for milk and dairy related products and some of the trade war related matters. Its sad, but my hope is that even though those stanchions are no longer filled with dairy cattle, the farmers can transition to crop farming or beef. With the way the weather has been out west in the plane states this spring and early summer they may be needed.

   This is a project that I intend to keep after because it has meaning and I think it bears remembering where we came from. What is currently on display at The Hive Taproom is just farms from Walworth Co. Wisconsin as I have more time to travel an explore, I intend to capture more and more of these farms before they are lost.

     I want to thank Tim and Ayla owners of The Hive Taproom and M-Jai (manager) for giving me a place to showcase the more artistic side of my business which I feel I don’t get to show enough. The Hive Taproom is a great place to hang out at, meet new people and enjoy a cool alcoholic beverage made with honey(mead). They are open Thursday through Sundays and the art on the wall changes regularly with other local artists showcasing their work.

Turn the screen off & treat it like film Challenge

A little Challenge: Turn the screen off & treat it like film

I went out in the city of Milwaukee last night to scout a few locations for an upcoming session and I noticed a few other photographers out and about doing their thing and having a good time.

The one thing I noticed though, is almost everyone out there was looking at the back of their cameras on the LCD screens to see if the photograph was the way they wanted it every time they clicked the shutter button. It got me thinking I started with film, moved too digital and now I do the same thing, it's kinda interesting how the times have changed. Also, it’s a little sad, because there was a time we could not see what our images looked like until we developed the film and then went into the dark room and created out prints or had that dreaded W store develop our prints for us. I do miss the darkroom some days.

So what if we found a way to turn that little screen off or temporally black tape over it so we cannot instantly see the result to know if we have to shoot it again or not? Think of it as getting it right in the camera without the instant gratification like we used to have back in the film days.

I’m not saying to do this right off the bat on a payed gig but on a test/fun session just to see how things turn out. I’m willing to bet the first time or two we might need to go back and possibly try again or modify it in Photoshop or your current editing software more than you needed to over just looking at it on the screen. I think in the long run it would give us a more intimate understanding of our cameras and accessory gear.

Give it a try for one or two fun sessions I encourage you and I will try this myself to only look through the viewfinder and not at the LCD screen on the back, wait till you get home to see if you got it right like in the days of film.

I would love to see what you come up with right out of the camera leave a photo in the comment section below.

Best,
Tim Gumz

Summer Travel & on Site locations

t Vagabond Photography we are known as a on location photography company. If there is something we love to do whether it be with work or personal time, its traveling. Traveling and scouting for new locations is something we just like to do in our free time when we are not working on photo shoots, editing or that dreaded thing called paperwork. Over the years the great thing we found out about traveling to a location is you don’t necessarily have to go far to feel like your half a world away from your daily responsibilities.

This is something we also like to work into our photography sessions as well. When talking with our clients we like to get a feel for who they are where they like to travel to and relax and play. Especially if it is some place close by in Wisconsin and we can find a way to work it into our clients session for their senior portraits, engagement session, family shoots or something that is just for fun.

Below is a few of our favorite places we like to work at during our photo sessions. In the comment section below we would really like to hear some place in Wisconsin or anywhere that you would like to have a photo session at.

Spring is here, finally and hopefully summer is not too far off which means some of our favorite locations are about to be usable again. Which means we can finally start photographing on and around Wisconsin many lakes are waterways. We love Lake Michigan beaches on the western shores because they are great for sunrise photos especially if you go just north of Milwaukee. We also have Lake Geneva with is beautiful shores and nice small town which is best if you shoot a session there before memorial day or after labor day before all the school gets out or midweek during the summer months. Also we have the Wisconsin River between Steven Point and the Wisconsin Dells the rock formations along many stretch of this beautiful river.

As for urban areas we really enjoy working in and around the greater Milwaukee area. We like to work around Discovery World, Riverwalk, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the historic third ward.

We also like to spend our time in nature and in southern Wisconsin we really like to spend time in and around the Kettle Moraine State Park, the trails around the ATV routes around Black River Falls.
In the Kettle Moraine we really like to use Paradise Springs Park just North and West of Eagle. It’s a great place because of its streams, old bath house and large prairie land across from the parking lot. Pewits Nest around Baraboo and the Wisconsin Dells is another great place that we love to use as a shoot location its tall water carved walls give great texture and depth to pictures.

Those are just some of the areas we like to work on with our sessions. We would love to hear from your our friends and perspective clients on plaice you like to travel to and some places that you would love to do a photo shoot.

Have a great weekend it’s finally supposed to be nice out in Wisconsin.