Tag: jonkphoto

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Getting into Character

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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

poster_WEBRES

 

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Windy Travels Part 2.

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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

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Reclaim Detroit

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In case you haven’t heard of the “Idle No More” movement, it’s essentially a continent-wide collective of all indigenous peoples, who are now using their numbers and modern media channels for a wide array of purposes.  These may include forming political pressure to have sacred locations renamed, re-appropriated, and/or recognized as such.  There is also an internal movement designed to teach their own members ways and reasons to respect their heritage and culture.

There is also, of course, the long standing cause: to finally get legislatures’ attention regarding their complete and utter disregard for nature.  Well, as we all know, short of a smack in the face (that might not even work) the only way to get noticed when it comes to creating new policy is by getting EVERYONE to say something about it.  This is where Idle No More comes in.

For quite a while now, the movement has staged “protests” in cities across the continent, drawing attention to the people and the problems.

Today (Sunday, January 20th, 2013)  they held an event in Detroit, discussing their cause, giving a blessing to the Detroit river, and presenting in front of Cobo Hall.

Here’s some of the goings-on.

– Jon

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OH MAN!! I am pumped… like REALLY pumped.

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JonkPhotoClasses_Imagery__DSC3810

So, you see that big star-looking thing over there on the right, sticking out of the button that says “CLASSES?”   Well, I’ll betcha you’ve already figured out what’s going on.

I’M TEACHING COURSES!!

There are currently 6 courses being offered at 5 venues in the metro area.  The site is chock-full of all kinds of handy info, like course descriptions, info about all the venues, links to super-talented photographers, and lists of local and digital photo stores!

In the next few weeks, I’ll be adding…. well heck!  All this stuff is over THERE.  Go check it out.

And if you’re interested, join the mailing list and be the first in line for info on all the new developments!

– Jon

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The Retriever Cometh

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You may have been on the internet recently.  Heck, you may be on the internet RIGHT NOW.   So in all likelihood, an internet aficionado like yourself may have noticed 1 or a few hundred thousand trends rocketing their way around cyberspace.

Ignoring “Grumpy Cat” (whose name is Tartar Sauce), Gangam Style, and Reality TV, you’ve likely noticed there is a – close to overdone – trend rocking Youtube.  I am, of course, reffering to Electronic/Dubstep-soundtracked montages of things like action sports, skate boarding, or people hurting themselves.

Well, try as you might, you’ll never leave ME out of the loop!

Unfortunately I am not mind-bogglingly athletic.  I am neither surprisingly, moderately, or remotely athletic.  This isn’t to say I weigh in at a svelte 750, but more that if I attempted an inverted kick-flip followed by a dark-house nose-grind, I’d likely find myself in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the half-pipe, soaking in the snickering humiliation of 2 dozen overly-developed tweenagers.

But back to the point…

I don’t have an affluence of athletic ability.  I DO, however, have a golden retriever.

His name is Murphy and he is possibly the coolest person you’ll ever meet.

SHUT UP!

He is TOO a person…

Enjoy.

– Jon

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NAIAS And a Total Lack of Interest in Cars

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I’m not a big “car guy.”  If you know me at all, you probably already knew that.
Well, last winter, a group of fellow photographers went downtown to ogle the curves (both the cars’ and the models’).  In the spirit of journalistic creation, I joined in.  As expected, once I arrived, the seething mass of “aficionados” easily overwhelmed the subject of the event.

As with any large public gathering I attend, my focus was on the people looking at things instead of the things they were looking at.  Oddly enough, a lot of people looked really bored (most of them were working the booths).

Here are some shots – sorry they’re nearly a year late…

– Jon

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I Made a Book!

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Hey!  I made a book!

 

In fewer than 2 months, a handful of things will happen: Christmas pandemonium will be upon us, I will engage in my first “holiday break” in years without molecular bonding between myself and a Zelda game, and I will participate in a portfolio/career show – where I will be presented to prospective contract-ees much like a slab of cow-meat is waved at overweight Americans on the 4th of July.

But I suppose I’m clinging too strongly to my personal feelings about the whole thing.  In the end, I could wind up in a contract with Diesel Jeans or something… I guess we’ll see.

The super-awesome-fantastic-great-plus side of the whole ordeal is that it has forced me to finally make the portfolio book I’ve been avoiding for quite some time (years).  Of course the benefit of me waiting this long is that the thing is rather up-to-date.

I could explain the finer aspects of the ProLine Paper, the beautiful image-wrapped cover, or even the hours of nervous twitching as I meticulously determined which image to place next to which.  But, in the end, you probably don’t care and may not ever touch, caress, stroke, or in other words fondle this glorious, printed, eye-seducer.

So, I’ll just show you an Issuu render of the thing.
Enjoy!

– Jon

(OH- and in you’re interested in a superb coffee table book, shoot me an email and we’ll make some magic happen!)

 

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Windy Travels Part 1.

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As some of you may or may not know, I was busy being a tourist in Chicago until this past weekend (hence the lack of posts over the past couple weeks).
I, of course, took a picture or 2.  There’s been a bit of back and forth in my head about how to display them, especially since most of the shots fall more into my fine-art style rather than commercial.

But enough of the speculation.  Let’s break down the trip a bit.  You may say to yourself “Self, why won’t he just skip to the goods?”  Well, to that I say:  shock and awe.  No, not the tactical military scenario, but my reaction to a handful of things in Chicago that you, who may travel there, should certainly know about.

If you are avid travelers or simply have been to Chicago recently (I don’t get west  very much) you probably already know.  Back in 2008 or 9 or something, The city of Chicago sold rights to all the parking in the city to Standard Parking (effectively creating a monopoly).  While the city got a little over a billion smackers out of the deal, they now have to deal with astronomically high parking rates – to the tune of $20 or more for even 15 minutes of parking.  Oh, and did I mention that the contract is valid for 75 years?

Of course, as it happens, now that I’m back in Michigan, I came across a news article from yesterday, mentioning that the city will be auditing Standard parking to ensure responsible use of city funds.  In the meantime, there are a few little tricks to get around this catastrophe.  A number of people have suggested parking outside the city and taking in the bus.  I like this idea, but if you are on a schedule and have to park downtown, I happened upon 2 options that seemed reasonable:

1. Parking in Chinatown is a decent way to go.  The main lot is less than half the cost of parking downtown and it sits immediately under the “L.”

2. The Adler Planetarium is nestled in the museum campus right on the edge of the city and the road to the front door is lined with parking meters that cost a quarter of the price of parking in any structure.  The downside is that there is a VERY limited number of spaces.

I’ve still got a whole ton of other neat tips and tricks for you (Next post: the best hotel to stay at if you’re a visual artist).

For now, enjoy a selection of city shots from Cloud Gate to Chinatown and plenty in-between.

– Jon

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The Way of the World

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Much like birds and whatnot on National Geographic, people do things to attract attention or show off.  For the most part these things can be summed up in a word:

“Style”

Sometimes it’s clothing style, cosmetic style, artistic style, or personality style.  Many times, these days, it’s hairstyle.

Recently I did a photoshoot for a long time friend of mine, who happens to be a top-notch stylist.  By “top-notch,” I mean Redken Certified.    If you know what that means, you know how prestigious it is.

Anywho – she has had her styling fingers in many heads of hair and, as such, has developed her own unique style of cutting, feathering, trimming, coloring and other verbs that I don’t actually know.  The point is that she’s good and has something to show off.

 

That’s where the actual photography comes in.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Check it out.

However, the whole point about trends in style all filter down to the point of the whole post.
The Pack

Much like with wolves, if you don’t keep up, you fall behind to get eaten by crows and such…  OK, maybe not to that extent, but still – there are ramifications.  Really what I’m trying to say is “beauty is determined by the determiner.”  I know that sounds convoluted, but its just the case.  This model is beautiful.  She’s beautiful with the retouching and she’s beautiful without the retouching.  In fact, she’s flat-out hilarious (one of the most fun people I’ve worked with in quite some time.)    Just to drill home my point – she busted out the robot in the parking lot for the sake of a funny portrait.  Awesome.

However, people that look to style mags demand a more “commercial” level of beauty, and so the process of retouching begins.
Now, I know what you’re saying (or at least should be):  “Jon!  Didn’t you write a post a few months back about not doing this exact thing if at all possible?”

Well, yes.  Yes I did.  But in the same breath as condemnation, I will always stand straight up and say I will break my own rules to help my friends succeed.  Also, I like paying my bills… well not… I… YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
So yes.  I am conflicted and my brain doesn’t quite know which side of the fence to come down on… So I sure wouldn’t mind some opinions.  There’s a comment box down there somewhere…
But, because I know you’re looking for it, here’s the before and after:

– Jon

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Danger Time.

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Back in the day, when I first began my educational journey into photography, I met two people about a week apart.  Ashley Lawler and I became “significant others” and have remained that way for the better part of half a decade.  Carl Amyoni and I have remained very close friends and instigators of each others’ bad habits for a similar time frame.

Now – this is all nice and nostalgic, but personal relationships aside, we also make up a trio of photographic entertainment.

In the early stages of our acquaintance, we decided to start a series we initially called the “Canadian Olympics.”  It would consist of ham-hocked trials, regular risk of personal injury, and a lot of plaid.  In the end it will probably be a series of images of people doing incredibly stupid things.

As is the case with too may things these days, the concept fell through and all we were left with was a series of “promo shots” and one very elaborate and flame-filled take on the luge.

Recently, I have been wrapping up a series of time-sucking endeavors and can see a gleaming orb of free time rising on the eastern horizon.

Furthermore – I feel that if I stick this in the world-wide-web, it will prompt people to bother me about new pictures.

YES YOU!  I AM RELYING ON YOU TO PESTER ME FOR WORK.

In the meantime – enjoy this blast from the past with a special guest appearance by my cousin, Mike Strong.

– Jon