In December Investment Advisor Magazine hired me to photograph Mark Travis. Mark’s a great guy, I’ve photographed him before for Barron’s. Investment Advisor wanted to create a great personality portrait of Mark, and do something different than I’ve done of him before. He’s a man of many interests. This time around we had an opportunity to photograph him just before he went to compete in a skeet shooting competition; guns, gear and all. I was already booked for another shoot in the afternoon when he was going to be at the gun range, so we met early at his office to do the shoot.

As usual I often create a “safe” shot first while the subject warms up to the camera and then I move on to more interesting ideas. This time was no different. We photographed Mr. Travis in his conference room in a suit. We got some good takes from that. Pretty run of the mill, but good.

Then we moved on to the skeet shooter portraits, which we created looking just out the front door of the office. The weather was rainy and overcast, adding a bit of drama to the images. We ended up shooting a good variety of angles and options with the gun and shooting gear.

After the shoot, the AD informed me we had some time before this published and there was no rush. Happy Holidays we’ll talk after.

Then the Newhaven CT school tragedy occurred.

As I imagined, the magazine was having internal discussions about whether or not to publish an image so focused on a gun. There’s nothing malicious about the shot, nor Mr. Travis, however, the editorial staff decided it best to run the safe shot instead. With the heartbreak of that school shooting so fresh and the current political climate surround the gun debate it was probably the right move.

Below you can see both the original spread to be published with the shotgun (which was not published) and the spread that was published.

Boom!

Recently I got a little out of my element and had the opportunity to photograph some horses. The owner, Pat, is super nice and teaches kids how to ride horses. It was great to have such close access to these animals.

Danny the cat keeps an eye on things.

As a child I remember visiting Saint Augustine with my family, having a wide eyed view of so many amazing sights. As an adult, living less than an hour drive from the oldest city in the US has left me with an often stale impression of its potential. While it is a beautiful city I’ve often gotten too caught up in usual flow of tourist foot traffic. Surprisingly, in more than a decade of residing on the First Coast, I’ve seldom taken any serious photographs of this beautiful city. Not long ago I had a couple of opportunities (and one assignment) to really take my time and see Saint Augustine fresh again. While much of the subject matter in these images isn’t new to me, the approach was. Capturing the beauty that this city has the potential to show has made me fall in love with it again. See more of the images and buy prints here.

Sports Illustrated hired me recently to photograph Chris Duhon of the Orlando Magic for an advertorial feature. We shot on location at the Amway Center in downtown Orlando. Chris was great and very personable. Job produced by awesome photo producer Anastasia Pleasant. Here’s a tear from the magazine and a few of my favorite outtakes. On newsstands Monday March 26th.

Chris was a real sport too and posed with “Flat Sandy.” (More on her in a later post) … and that’s a wrap. Great shoot!

A few weeks back I received a call from Malcolm Macdougall of Salt Pond Creative. He enlisted me to help create some new imagery for Citibank’s new internal campaign called “Everyday H.E.R.O.” The campaign is geared at promoting a new customer service team inside Citi who’s mission it is to revolutionize their customer’s experience. The images we created, with the direction of both Mal and Bill Wosar (the AD), are to be made into posters with a “mad libs” style worksheet which highlights the featured employee’s thoughts on this new customer service team and will be hung inside the Citi call center. The in-house video crew captured some interviews of the subjects that also highlights some behind the scenes shots from the photo shoot.

The end result looks really good by my humble opinion…. and that’s all highly due to a great creative team working together towards a common goal.

Behind the scenes look at the setup. iPhone instagram shot.

This is a follow up post on The Fighters. I created this video to highlight the overall event including some time lapse of the stage setup. The 2nd Annual Fight For The Veterans event was held on January 21st, 2012 at the UNF arena. The event benefited The Veterans Farm in Jacksonville.

Last year, after photographing the Veterans Farm for Parade Magazine,  Adam Burke (founder of the farm and a veteran himself) asked me to photograph the 2nd annual “Fight For The Veterans,” a mixed martial arts tournament raising money for the Veterans Farm. Of course I was excited to hear about the fight and was really looking forward to documenting the event and the fighters.

First things first, if you haven’t checked out the Veterans Farm you should. They are doing some great work, helping our veterans find a peaceful and meaningful path after returning from active duty and often times struggling with PTSD and other issues.

Ok, back to the fight. In addition to photographing some of the fights and the event that I wanted to capture compelling portraits of the fighters themselves, before and after their fights. I was trying to capture some unfiltered emotions: intensity, excitement and perhaps even nervousness. Pleasantly I was surprised to see how jovial many of them were. Winning and losing, most of them all were in great spirits, simply happy to be there putting forth their best effort. A good many of them were excited to have their photo taken. A few turned me down, more focused on their fights or just not interested in being photographed. However, the ones that did made for great portraits.

After such a great shoot one of the hardest things is editing down the photos to get the best of the best. Each image has its own merits. Here’s a few of my favorites that made the cut.

Also just wanna do a quick shout out to Monica and Frank for helping me make this shoot great.

The rest of the photos (the fight and the figthers) can be seen here: bit.ly/fightfortheveterans.

In between travels last week Team Ketterman was able to get over to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. It was already dark, but because its the holidays they’ve got the falls lit up with some rather intense lighting. Naturally I set up the tripod and took a few shots. It was a tad bit cold for the Florida boy that I am, however it was still quite impressive.

Want a print? Sure, get one here.

So much moving water…

Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada

Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada

Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada

Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada