Moving over

Hey folks! I am moving my blog to http://www.valophotography.com/blog/simon - go check it out. More info on what is happening to come!

If you have a wedding booked with me already, I will send out an email letting you know what is going on, for other people interested in booking with me, still send the requests to me, but we will book you under the business Valo Photography.

Expect big things!

Jus Sayin...

I really need to get more sleep.

Cameron - Senior '09

What do you do with a broken camera? I don't really know, but you can't really use it... I need to get my main camera repaired and just sold my back up camera, so I had a shoot and no camera. That was not so fun. Lucky for me I know a few people and Sam Dodge came out to help with my shoot and he let me use his D300 (shiver... Nikon) for the day. Everything was backwards, but all in all, I was able to turn the camera on and switch lenses by myself at the end of the shoot.

Cameron was pretty much the coolest girl ever. I showed her one of the photos and she told me that she looked like she was the ruler of the universe in it. Awesome. She was super fun to work with and we shot around Havenwoods State Park and a few streets near by. I was having a ton of fun with Sam's wide angle lens and ended up taking some of my favorite shots to date for senior photos. Check them out and let me know what you think!

Whats the Story...

Sooo... I have been talking with Erin Richards, a journalist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who was writing a story on Senior Photos and the trend of seniors wanting a more personalized shoot. I wasn’t sure when the story was going to run, so I didn’t post anything about it here, but one of my friends sent me an email telling me that there was an article in the paper that I was in. It is pretty cool having some of my photos online and my name in the paper.

If anyone reading this blog found it from the paper, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

In addition to Seniors, I shoot Weddings, Headshots, and Families. Check out my site at www.simonmcconico.com. I am booking fast for 2009, so get in quick!

Check out the article here: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=807756

Lauren and Lucy

Yee Haw!! I don't know about you, but I like horses. I have had many an experience with horses, mainly good, but some bad (like when I was walking behind one and it decided to relieve it's self). I got an email from Lauren's brother, who's wedding I will be shooting in the Spring, saying that his sister needed to get her senior photos done. I jumped at the chance and was even more excited when they asked me to come out to the horse farm where Lauren rides. They own a horse named Lucy, who is absolutely beautiful. We brought Lucy out to shoot with Lauren and ran around the farm and took a ton of shots. It was a lot of fun seeing all the different horses named Meatloaf and Big Mamma... Here are some of the shots from that day:

Seth - Senior '09

Walk tall... hmm... well, that wasnt an encouragement to stand up for what you believe in (which you should do anyways), but was rather a reference to the front cover of the movie staring the Rock. Seth came out early one Saturday morning and we shot in Walkers Point, which is just south of downtown Milwaukee. As I was flipping through his pics I saw a photo that, if he had a 2x4 in his hand, looked just like the cover of that movie.

Seth was a cool dude. We were chatting about a ton of random stuff from Halo to walking like a Monkey at work. It took him a while to wake up, but once he did we were running all over the place. Kicking fences and jumping off walls, it was a blast until... the cops showed up.

Well, it really wasn't a big deal, but Seth brought his truck and I had his sister park it on the sidewalk because Seth does what Seth wants (or something like that?). His sister just moved the truck and we were all good. Check out the sweet photos below:

Ally - Senior Photos

You might remember rainy day Ally from a few posts before. The Saturday we were going to shoot it was rainy and gray all day. No one likes that! Unfortunately she needed a photo for her yearbook and I was going out of town to San Fran the next week. What a conundrum!

Well, me, being the king of all things Ghetto when it comes to setups didn't let a little bit of rain stop us. Ally and her mom came over to my house where I set up a small head shot studio in a spare bedroom and we got her head shot. After the shoot we rescheduled the shoot for a later date and off they went.

I got back to Milwaukee in one piece and we met on Friday in New Berlin at a golf course behind a Walgreens. It was an interesting place, but we got some great shots there. After we ticked off the many golfers on the course (I think we saw one...) we went to a hotel across the street that had a gazebo in the back and a small courtyard area. We shot a bit in there then moved to another hotel that had a Grand Piano in the loby. Ally is a singer and loves music, so she wanted to get a shot with a piano. We got in the hotel and they were having a huge convention or something like that. There were people who looked like they just graduated from college or something like that and a bunch of business people milling about. Lots of people generally does not equil good for photography (specially when you are in a hotel lobby). We got in, I got set up, and banged out a few shots and got what we needed then moved out like a ninja. All in all it was a very fun shoot and it was hard to pick what to edit for this post. I can't imagine how Ally is going to pick the shots to order... Crazy!

James the Kidzilla

James is awesome. I shot him at a rock star event that I was the photographer for and he was kinda mellow until he got on stage to rock out. He jumped up and his hair was everywhere. I was jealous. Well... kinda. I don't think I could pull off hair that long.

We went out and shot at Frame Park in Waukesha, WI, which had a lot of really cool things around to shoot on and in. We ran around for about an hour and made some amazing photographs. He was open to do whatever, which generally ends up being a recipe for great shots. Once someone can get past their inhibitions in front of the camera, it makes the photo process so much easier and generally better. Here are a few of the photos we made:

Seniors!!! 2009!!

Ahhhh!!! This past week and a half has been crazy busy. I have shot quite a few seniors and am still getting requests for more. The thing with seniors, and I get this, is that they like to wait till the last second to do stuff... well, at least I know I did. I got my senior photos shot at a studio in Minneapolis, one of the cheap studios, right before they were due. I enjoyed my shoot and the shots that I had, but looking back on it now, the photos really were not that great. I got a change of clothes or two and got to bring in my guitar, but they just ended up looking blaa now that I look at them.

Anyways... I digress... Seniors, if you are waiting for your photos, and you shot with me in the past week or so, I will have your photos up with the speed of Michael Phelps... or something like that... Anyoldways...

It rained yesterday and that was kinda annoying. Granted, I cant complain because I am not in Texas, where it is pretty crazy right now, but I had a shoot to do. Because I work during the week, weekends are my bread and butter. If it rains, I am kinda screwed. Well, yesterday I improvised and set up a studio in my spare bedroom at my house and shot some head shots for the yearbook. My senior was amazing! A lot of fun and I am looking forward to the real shoot, that will be coming up in a week or so (if it doesn't rain). Aight... enough rambling, I need to hop in the shower and get going for the day! (p.s. I do not encourage hopping in the shower... you could get hurt)

Mariah - Senior Weekend 1

Mariah was a super sweet girl. We shot early in the morning at 8:00 a.m. (That is early for me on a Saturday). There was some great light and we were able to make some amazing photos. We shot at Doctors Park, which is a great park on the North East side of Milwaukee. I shot another senior that evening that I will post really soon, so in the mean time, check out these shots!









Vote for me as the best photographer in Milwaukee

Amanda - Senior Shoot

Rebekah

I love shooting Seniors. I think I have said that before, but I really do mean it. They are so much fun! Rebekah was the sister of Amanda, who I shot a while back. It is fun to hear peoples story and how they feel about their senior year. I get mixed reactions... some love, some hate, some just don't care. (I think I was in the don't care category when I was in HS). Asking the what next question always generates interesting responses and kinda gives an insight into who people are.

Rebekah is going to go to school for cosmetology somewhere quite a bit warmer then here in Wisconsin. I am secretly jealous of her, but I don't know if I could give up hot chocolate and snowball fights. Her hair was pretty fantastic on the shoot. I think she is gonna do well in that field... speaking of which... I need to get a hair cut. Check out the photos while I go do that!

Katie - Senior Shoot

Today I got to shoot with an amazing senior. We shot over in Walkers Point, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to shoot, and on Bradford Beach. We had fun trying to chase Seagulls, falling through trailers, and kicking rocks. (I got some bruises on my shins from the trailer incident... but according to Katie, it looked like something out of a movie.)


When I got home, I removed my camera bag from my car. I grabbed it by one of the straps, but didn't realize that it wasn't zipped up. Tumbling out came my camera and a lens onto the concrete. My UV Filter shattered, but the lens works, but I cant get the broken piece off the lens. If you have any suggestions about that let a brotha know. Yeesh... not too fun.