February 2013 – JonKPhoto

Through a fortuitous chain of events, I was recently introduced to an acting group in the Canton, Michigan area by the name of the “Spotlight Still Got it Players.” They are the senior acting troupe associated with The Village Theater At Cherry Hill. Recently the Still Got It Players, picked up a stage play by a Mr Howard Kingkade called “One Foot In The Gravy.”

They, being performers, and I, being a photographer, naturally found ourselves in a mutually beneficial situation. A couple nights ago, I stopped by the theater to get some headshots and a few candids for their promo in the local news outlets. Of course none of this seems terribly interesting, but please try to remember that I am (somewhat) unused to the presence and mindset of actors, backstage.

I arrived before my contact – the only person from the group that I knew or had ever even spoken to. When I went in to study the building and find the best place for lights, I met a rather friendly gentleman who had no idea who I was, why I was there, or even that I was planning on taking pictures.

He also happened to be holding 3 incredibly over-padded bras, trying to decide which was the best fit… Also keep in mind that I had no real idea what the play was about or who the actors would be portraying.

So of course, as friendly custom dictates, he inquired as to my opinion on the bras and which he would look best in. That was my introduction to these people.

These folks are HILARIOUS.

We started off with the head shots and I don’t even want to elaborate anymore. They each sat down, INSTANTLY got into character, and I got awesome shots in less than a minute per person. Straight “pro” all around.

Check it!

– Jon

Back in October, I took a trip to Chicago. Afterward, I processed my 17 gazillion images from the adventure and wrote you fine folks a blog post about it. At the end, I mentioned that more images were to follow and that I would relate my experiences with my new favorite hotel chain.

Promptly after writing the post, I completely forgot.

My bad.

So, here we are. 4 months have passed and you still wake up in the middle of the night wondering whatever became of that followup post… OK That’s probably a bit hopeful on my part. But still – true to my word, I shall visually enthrall you with more optically-dazzling imagery.

FIRST – the hotel. For those of you that spoke with either myself or my lady friend, you know that Ashly and I had been planning this trip for something like 5 months. However, when I say “this trip” I mean a trip. Somewhere. Anywhere.

In the end, we actually planned out 5 different trips… in about 3 weeks. We considered Maine, Kentucky, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a perimeter-tour of the lower peninsula, and Chicago. Chicago won out simply because of the mind-boggling selection of educational day-trip destinations.

We like our learnin’.

That little back story may not seem relevant, but oh how wrong you are. See, 5 days before we left for Chicago, we hadn’t even begun considering going there. We were still in the planning stages of a Michigan road trip. I don’t really remember how we ended up switching to Chicago, but it happened and we found ourselves with slightly over 72 hours of time to organize an itinerary, buy tickets to stuff we wanted to see, and find a hotel whose room fee didn’t require a bank loan, gold bars, an arm and/or a leg, or a first-born child.

In the end we ended up staying damn-near 45 minutes outside of the city. Were it not for the downtown parking situation (which were completely unaware of) it wouldn’t have been an issue. In fact, all things considered, it was one of the better snap decisions we’ve made.

We found ourselves at an Extended Stay out past Downer’s Grove. At first glance it looks like a normal over-niter for business travelers. We found out that (as the name suggests) it’s designed for people to stay for over a week or 2. But enough rambling, here’s what makes it so awesome.

Long-term stay means people need more elaborate forms of equipment to use. Example: A FULL KITCHEN. Now, this might not seem like much to you, but I cook. A LOT. It was awesome.
No explanation needed: It was one of the cleanest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Period.
Lastly and most importantly: In order to keep the charges down on a room rental that may go past 3 weeks, the hotel got rid of one of the staple functions of most chains. There is absolutely no maid service. While at first you may think that seems cheap, remember that I am a visual artist in a digital age. I take a LOT of really EXPENSIVE gear with me everywhere I go. I don’t need to drag my lights and laptop with me every step of the way. The fact that no one (trustworthy or otherwise) would NOT be coming into to move things around took my nervousness level from my standard 362% to effectively zero.

And also ’cause the per night price gets cheaper the longer you’re there, our week’s stay cost us something like $50 a night.

Conclusion: Extended Stay: Do it.

Oh and hey – MORE CHICAGO PICTURES!!

– Jon