Last month the Disclosure, the Madison, WI-based thrift rock supergroup consisting of Chris Morris and Chad Helminak, released their first album! It is the product of months of work by two dedicated guys, and it’s pretty great! Check out how to buy your copy here.
The CD release part was held at Brocach Irish Pub right on the Capitol Square in Madison. It is one heck of an awesome place with great atmosphere and really fantastic corned beef.
The Disclosures entertained the crowd with by playing the entire CD start to finish. They were introduced by Chris’ youngest daughter, who did a bang up job. The duo then proceeded to tell the stories behind their songs and rock the crowd. I’m a bit biased, but these guys are fantastic and are only going to get better! Since the CD release party, the guys have received all sorts of industry and mainstream media coverage and are getting alot of traction. Very exciting stuff!
Enough gushing…here are some photos from the evening!
Early in March I was back in Madison, WI for my day job. Luckily I happened to be there during the height of the political protesting and the Scott Walker fiasco. I don’t claim to understand everything that was going on, but the constitutional libertarian in me calls it one of the biggest dick-moves in history. All of that aside, it was a very interesting time to be around the Capitol Square. Thousands of people from all over the state were out in force and there was no shortage of interesting things to see. I walked around for a bit on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and captured some photographs including some cell-phone pics inside the Capitol.
Oh, and inside the Capitol was insane. People had been camping in the Rotunda for days…and it smelled like it.
One of the highlights of my time there was getting onto the roof garden of my company’s building and creating a huge panoramic photo of the square. I have turned this photograph into a fine art print that is absolutely beautiful at 16″ x 24″.
Clicking on this image will take you to my website where you can order a copy!
Madison is awesome for so many reasons, not the least of which is there is always something interesting to see!
I finally finished editing photos from Jill and Chris’ wedding and it has been a joy. The event was fantastic and I think the photos turned out really well. Let’s start from the beginning…
Chris and Jill chose Cranky Al’s in Wauwatosa for their rehearsal dinner. Cranky Al’s is an amazing little place. In the morning it’s a bakery and coffee shop and in the evening it adds fantastic pizza to the menu. Nothing like topping off a pizza dinner with and awesome donut or cupcake! I can’t say enough about Cranky Al’s, although Al himself was in a pretty good mood that night.
The bulk of the wedding party stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel Milwaukee in downtown Milwaukee. It was an extremely nice hotel with some of the most interesting modern design and decoration I’ve seen. I did some scouting for locations for photos on Saturday morning and determined that I could shoot in that location for hours and not get bored. Unfortunately Saturday morning was pretty tight, but the family formal photos went off without a hitch and the couple had a lovely and quiet place to meet each other.
The wedding ceremony and reception was held at the Lake Park Bistro right on the shore of Lake Michigan. The Bistro is a wonderful little French restaurant with beautiful light fixtures, copper accents and a knockout dining room overlooking the lake.
The Ceremony was highlighted by a beautiful wedding party, a string trio that accompanied Jill’s niece in singing Ave Maria, some very funny and heart-felt vows and a unity candle that just wouldn’t cooperate.
The Lake Park Bistro really showed their stuff with the reception lunch. Wild mushroom soup, coq au vin, beef tenderloin and pasta, followed by an apple tart…Sacrebleu!
Toward the end of the afternoon, I was able to steal Chris and Jill away and I dragged them out into the 20 degree day for some portraits in the snow. It was totally worth it!
Again, it was a fantastic event and I am so pleased that Jill and Chris chose me to document their day. Everything about it, from start to finish, showed their personalities and their lives together. The food was delicious, the settings were beautiful and people were delightful! Congratulations!
This weekend I was in Milwaukee to attend and photograph the wedding of my good friend Jill to Chris. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and I am so honored that they chose me to document it.
There will be a much longer post discussing the entire event coming up soon, but I wanted to put a few sneak peeks up as soon as possible! Like I said the wedding was beautiful and I’m going to have a very tough time narrowing down the images. It’s a good problem to have, though!
Coming up next week is an event that I’m really excited about. My good friend and co-worker Jill is getting married! That would be pretty cool all by itself, but on top of that they’ve asked me photograph their big day! Like I said, I’m pretty excited! I’ve known Jill for many years now (time does fly) and was really happy to hear that she had been dating someone. When I met Chris one night at Leff’s (love that place) I thought he was pretty cool and seemed to fit in really well. Then one day while in Milwaukee I was talking to Jill and noticed a ring on her finger!
The only problem with their relationship is one of small mammals, mainly badgers and gophers. You see, Chris is from Minnesota and is a Gopher, while Jill is a Badger from UW. That may seem like the end of the relationship, but they make it work
For their engagement session a few months ago, which was really just an excuse to hang out with them and have dinner and some drinks, we went to where they met: the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. It’s a great place with grounds that are really beautiful, and we took full advantage of it. We made a big circle of the place and took photos until it was too dark to see through the viewfinder!
Jill and Chris were very good sports about all of the situations and poses I put them in, and I think the photos turned out really well. On to the pictures!
Even though the wedding is in Wisconsin in January, I am really looking forward to it! It promises to be a really wonderful event with lots of really fun people. More to come next week!
One of the best things about being a photographer is the friends you make and the relationships you form. When you photograph the same family over a period of time you get to know them pretty well. It’s also very nice to see how people change and grow. Nothing quite matches the first year of life, though. Last December I photographed Tyler when he was only a few days old. Over Thanksgiving weekend this year I get to take some more photos of him. He’s such a cool kid from a really great family!
Tyler at 5 Days Old
Tyler at 1 year old!
Such a Cutie!
Tyler and his Siblings
UPDATE: I just got a christmas card from the family using these photos and it is absolutely fantastic. I really liked the photos before, but now I absolutely LOVE them. So Cool!
A few months ago I found myself in Liberal, KS and had the opportunity to do a senior session with Jimmy. Jimmy is a senior at Liberal High School and is the son of my Mother-in-law’s best friend. I am always excited to do a senior session, but this was extra cool!
Jimmy is very involved in the arts at his high school (very much like I was). He is in the band and the drama department and we got pretty good access to the school because of this. It was really fun shooting in the theater, the band room and the halls. Then we moved on to an area in downtown Liberal with a great alleyway (photographers are weird sometimes) and a fountain.
Jimmy has got alot of irons in the fire between all of his extra-curricular stuff and just finishing up school. He’s got a ton of potential and I wish him the best! Thanks to Jimmy and Kay for letting me document a small part of Jimmy’s life! Now on to some pics!
With the upcoming wedding season, I want to give potential clients an idea of what they can expect when they hire me. I plan on doing this through a series of blog posts titled ‘Expectations’. You will find a listing for ‘Expectations’ in the Categories list to the right. Check it out!
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As part of my base package for wedding coverage, I provide you with a ’slideshow DVD’. This DVD is formatted for a DVD player and contains all of the final retouched photos and video clips captured during the event edited together and set to music. This DVD is designed, very much like the album, to tell the story of your day and give you a feeling of what it was like to be there.
The DVD can range in running time depending on the length of the event and the number of photos that are chosen. The DVD is then custom labeled, printed and packaged in a keep-case.
Here are some images showing a previous wedding DVD. This wedding had an ‘old Hollywood’ theme. The event was even held in an old theatre so I tried to go all out with the DVD and case and make it look as much like a commercial release as possible.
Enjoy the photos and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me! 719-287-3469 or me@dustinstone.com.
A few weeks ago I was asked do the Senior photo session for Julia. Julia, her grandmother and I hung out for a few hours and got some pretty good photos. We started at Memorial Park, which has a great little lake (and all kinds of interesting Olympic stuff, which I really need to explore more).
We then headed over to the Printers Union Home, where we were asked to leave. Who knew you needed permission when the sign out front says ‘Open to the Public’. Oh well. We moved over to the downtown area to the roof of a little used parking garage.
Here are a few of the photos from the shoot!
As part of the session, Julia ordered an album which is a fantastic way to have a copy of every photo in a format that you cherish for the rest of your life. You may not be able to easily look at jpg files from a disk in 30 years, but the book will always be there. Ok, end of rant!
Here’s the book! Click on the image below to turn pages.
Thanks to Julia for hanging out with me. I had a great time!
