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

Why Can't I Fly There... Without a Waiver

Vagabond Photography(VB): It’s great day, we at Vagabond Photography now offer UAV(Drone) services to our clients and we can fly anywhere we please. Today we’re going to fly the port of Milwaukee.

FAA Rep: Not so fast Mister.

VB: why?????

FAA: because where your client would like you to fly for their assignment in located inside a restricted flight area. You’ll have to apply for a waiver.

The above is true for a Part 107 pilots, as certified pilots we cannot just fly anywhere we or a client would want us too. In much of the Greater Milwaukee area we have to work around controlled airspace via General Mitchel Airport(class C), Timmerman Airport(class D) and Waukesha Co Airport(Class D with a Class E extension) (see map 1).  To fly in those areas, we would need to obtain a FAA waiver under part 107.41 requesting airspace authorization.

Restricted flight map of Milwaukee

Say a client was to approach us and says we would like you to photograph our new building project on Jones Island and can you do this in the next 20 days? First, let’s refer to the map the little red dot in the shaded purple circle represents where said client would like us to fly. This helps us answer our clients question a little, the right off the bat answer is no not currently. To fly in that shaded area we must apply for a waiver from the FAA. Then provided the FAA gives us permission the answer is yes but it sill could exceed the 20 days the client had requested and take as long as 90 days for a yes, no answer. Also the waiver is time sensitive which mean the pilot in control has to fly at the time requested on the waiver or on the backup date during the approved time.

You may ask what does a waiver do for us and why does the FFA require us to obtain one? For the proposed Jones Island assignment there are a few answers. 1. Provided we are granted a waiver, it allows the FAA and air traffic control to notify incoming and outgoing air traffic there is an unmanned aircraft working the vicinity of the airport to the Northwest. If you refer to map 1 again, you will notice that the proposed location is adjacent to the inbound flight line for runway 19R(marked in gray). 2. In the waiver we must explain to the FAA how we plan to ensure safety going above and beyond what part 107 requires. This can be done by adding additional spotters to notify the done pilot of incoming aircraft or by making the drone more visible to oncoming traffic and explain that we do not place to fly outside of a certain radius keeping us away from inbound traffic. Also, that we are not a distraction to other pilots.  3. It saves the pilot and customer from a fine from the FAA if caught flying without a waiver. Through some research the fines that have been given out range between $400 to $18.700 with one outlier being levied at $1.9 million (story here) and also for the pilot it can also mean revocation of his/hers certificate.

We've obtained a waiver now what? Great the FAA decided to grant us a waiver and now we can fly, though there are going to be some stipulations on the when and possibly from how long. Also make sure you have planned for a secondary date encase of inclement weather.

I understand the a potential client this may seem like a lot of work just to go though to fly around and photograph/video a building or a job site. Though, it is something unmanned pilots and I know is necessary, for safe flight operations for those on the grounds and flying in the sky and at the end of the day you’ll be happy you have an unmanned pilot that took the time to do it right.    

Alyssa's new gear

     Last week we received a phone call from one of our good friends and the subject of a few of our blog posts Alyssa Fencil. She called to notify us that she had gained another sponsor on her road to becoming a Paralympic athlete in the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo Japan and that she would be needing new uniform photo.  As she described her new sponsor the TKDSCORE which is the Midwest distributor for Daedo, Wacoku and Truescore athletic gear for competitions, we could hear the joy in her voice as this is one thing off the list of things she doesn’t have to worry about.
     It makes us really happy at Vagabond Photography to see one of our long-term friends and clients making head way as an athlete in their sport. We also hope you'll take the time to follow her journey on her Facebook's athletes profile.

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.