The Adventures of Mike's Camera- the blog of Michael Hudson Photography
Viewing entries tagged
commercial photography
At 5:45am, my wife and I arrived at the college’s dock ready to go, with cameras, lenses and a drone. An hour later, we disembarked on Great Duck; the island is about 200 acres all together. There’s also a private home owned by a local couple who rent it out to visitors, though I was told they’d been living there for the last couple years to ride out Covid. There is also buried treasure on the island, though that’s another story for another day…
Ten days ago I received a somewhat frantic call from one of my clients; their staff photographer was sick and couldn’t make it for a four day video shoot they were doing the following week… and would I be available to be the on-set stills photographer? I couldn’t do all four days, but fortunately my schedule worked out to make it the last three days.
The client is a large healthcare provider in Illinois and they were shooting a community benefit video to show how they’ve partnered with healthcare organizations and churches in some of Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods. We interviewed healthcare CEO’s, doctors and pastors and shot in clinics, community centers and inner city churches.
I’ll post link to the video when it comes out…
I’ve had an Instagram account for years, but didn’t start posting anything until a couple years ago on my Images of Acadia account. It’s really taken off, with almost 2,500 followers and some images tallying as many as 4,000 likes.
But earlier this year, I realized I needed a new account to feature my commercial work, so I opened a new Instagram for my commercial photography and video work.
Stop by, follow me, see where I’ve been.
Thomas Dambo is an internationally famous Danish artist who’s known for his large wooden trolls. In 2018, one of my regular clients, the Morton Arboretum, commissioned Dambo to build several of the trolls to place around the grounds. A team of several builders lead by Dambo built the trolls on site, then installed them after a couple months of labor. I was asked to shoot them three times– first as they were under construction, then after they were in place (using my thirteen year old daughter as a model), and finally with a group of kids and their moms from an agency as models.
Since they went up, the trolls have been the biggest thing the Arboretum has ever done, shared all over social media and bringing in tens of thousands of visitors and boosting membership in a big way.
The best part for me though, was when I found my daughter’s picture was being used on a brochure for the Arboretum. I brought it home and showed her and she got the biggest kick out of it. Serious dad points.
Gear | Canon 1DX Mark2, Canon 5D Mark 2, 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 24-105mm f/4L USM, fill flash
My favorite picture of the day, when one little girl was left behind by all the other kids. Then her sister came up behind her, put her arm around her and ran the rest of the race as her guide.
Yesterday I photographed a 5K run for one of my local clients. After the adults ran, there were several heats for the kids. The excitement was high for a lot of the kids, but it was heartbreaking to see some small kids in complete and utter terror as the race started and all the sideline parents screamed ‘encouragement’ to their little cherubs. In the final race, the 7-10 year olds, thirty kids tore out of the gate in one huge pack; it was scary to think what would’ve happened if one of them had tripped, as someone did in the 4-6 year olds’ race, when a little person pile-up was narrowly avoided.
At the end of the day, fortunately, all of them made it back to their parents, and the event was a success. At least I think they did. I left before all the 7-10’s made it back to the finish line. Hmmm…
One of my favorite clients is the Morton Arboretum, who I've been shooting for for about the last ten years. One of the cool things about the Arboretum is the yearly installation exhibits they've been doing. I've shot Steel Roots (steel piping twisted into the shape of tree roots), Legos, metal frogs, even large scale origami art, but I think this year's takes the prize for the coolest. For the last couple months, artist Thomas Dambo from Denmark and his team have been constructing gigantic trolls from reclaimed wood, and placed them in fields, in the woods, overlooking the highway and elsewhere.
I spent a couple hours photographing the trolls under construction in late May. Now they're finished and I'm heading back this afternoon to photograph the 'official portraits' of the completed trolls, with people to show the scale of the giants. Should be fun.
The trolls are on display for the next 2-5 years, depending on how long they last in the Chicago weather. If you're in the area, go see them; you won't be disappointed.
My wife Wendy is a good baker. A very good baker. For years, she's baked shortbread, toffee and peppermint bark for Christmas presents. Recently she started selling her treats and the response has been tremendous. The "bakery" is in full swing right now. On Monday she took the day off her day job to work on two very big orders, baking over thirty dozen shortbread cookies by mid-afternoon. And yours truly was there to document the big day.
One of my favorite clients is Naperville Magazine, who I’ve been shooting for since 2007. The magazine has a circulation of over 40,000, and is bundled with the Sunday Chicago Tribune. My assignments have included shooting CEOs of multinational corporations, interiors of beautifully renovated homes, working with dozens of models for fashion spreads, shooting in restaurants, colleges and on the streets of downtown Naperville and other Chicagoland locations. It’s been a lot of fun and the variety has been great.
Not too long ago, I photographed one of my favorites shoots for the magazine which also came out as the cover story. In late November, we met up at Toyota Park to do the shooting with Casey Short, who plays defense for the Chicago Red Stars soccer team and has been invited to try out for the USA national team.
Casey couldn’t have been more easy to work with. We had the stadium to ourselves to work in and around, so we shot the cover image in the tunnel leading down to the field. We also used the field as well as the Chicago Fire (men’s soccer team) locker room. Most of the shots were taken using basic lighting– a medium soft box, with natural light allowed to fill in the background– and a Canon 1DX Mark II camera. I used a 70-200 f/2.8 lens for all the pictures except the action shots, which were taken on a 300mm f/2.8 lens.
