Bill Konway’s Photography Blog

Been a while since I have had, or taken the time to post anything here.  Between the ATA and SHOT shows, being under the weatehr, quitting smoking, and some other work in the background, time has been tough to come by.  One of the projects I’ve been working on for a while now is some new photos for Staywoods, which is the maker of the Warm Bag.  This is a very cool product.  Light weight, easy to carry and easy to use, the amount of warmth you’ll get from it is really amazing.  Here are a few of the photos we’ve done for them.  I’m also trying to pull together a bunch of other projects and events that will occur at different times throughout the year.  This summer I’ll be doing a couple of hours of instruction on outdoor lighting for the Professional Outdoor Media Assoc. event which as luck would have it, is taking place only about an hour from home.  Making plans to head to Beaver Island in Michigan around early June for some flyfishing for carp. 

The ATA and SHOT shows went well, I think.  You never really know until the phone starts ringing and that can take some time unfortunately.  I think I had a strong presentation, talked with the right people and had the answers that many of them were looking for.  If that translates into business is hard to tell though. 

For the last couple years, most if not all my work dealt with hunting gear.  Clothing, weapons, accessories, etc.  Some of that work has come from Rivers West.  Recently Rivers West asked me to shoot for one of their other lines of clothing which is still based in the outdoors, but there ain’t a bow or camo hat to be found!  Their outdoor line is more for the outdoor worker, or nature enthusiast.  At first it seemd as though it would be fairly easy, conceptually anyhow.  But I found that I have acquired this habit of seeing scenery with hunters in it, not everyday folk.  By changing my thought process, if you will, we did manage to nail some images that they are quite happy with and will be used shortly for the Outdoor Retailers show and their catalogue.  Here are a fw more.  Happy New Year to everyone.

The ATA and SHOT shows are right around the corner.  I’ve put together a new DVD slide as I have in the past but this year I’m also hoping to get it up here, online.  If that happens, I’ll let you know.  It’s sort of a compilation of what I felt was my best work from the last year.

A good friend, Chris Brackett, came into town for a few days along with a great deer he killed in Iowa for a few photographs.  The weather has just turned colder here and it made for some great shots.  Here are a couple of them, above, and below.  Work has been getting pretty busy with several clients all needing last minute stuff for the upcoming ATA and SHOT shows.  I’ll get a few of those photos posted here soon as well.  I think deer hunting season has now come and gone for me.  Although I only killed a single doe back in September during a special doe season in Michigan, I think it was one of my best and most enjoyable seasons ever.  Anyhow, in case I don’t have a chance to post again before Christmas, I want to wish everyone the most joyous Christmas season ever. 

Working at the newspaper had, uh, stressfull moments, to say the least.  However, little did I know how stressfull working for myself could be at times as well.  Here is what I’m in the middle of.  I am in Michigan to shoot for a client that needs their photos taken in the snow.  We have a bit of snow here, but also 30mph winds and looking for a high of maybe 10 degrees, before you add in the wind chill.  I’m also looking to be shooting for another client that has some clothing that needs to be shot like, yesterday…  OK, in a hurry anyhow.  Unfortunately, their clothing was shipped to my Kentucky farm, not the Indiana home.  So now that package is working it’s way from KY to MI.   Apparently KY doesn’t offer overnight shipping from all places.  Who knew?  OK, so maybe it’s somewhat understandable.   

So to top off this, I have a Pocket Wizard that’s been acting up so I ordered a new one and had it shipped to me here in MI.  All’s well except that the package has to be signed for.  They offered me an arrival time of 12/10/2009, between the hurs of 8am and 7pm.  How helpful is that?  I tried to get it changed to no sig required, but that can’t happen till after the first delivery attempt has been made…WHAT???

Alright, so now I have to get to the farm in KY to get some work done there, I also have a friend that has killed a decent deer in IA earlier in the week and since I couldn’t make it there for photos then, has frozen the deer in position for photos. 

Did I mention that I have to be in Galen, IL for a wedding this coming Friday?  ATA in Columbus, OH in  like 3 weeks, SHOT in Vegas in 4.  I need more time!

Have a great Christmas and New Years!

Realtree.com is currently running a photo essay I shot with Chris Brackett earlier in the year.  If you have a moment, check it out.  http://www.realtree.com/community/photoEssay.php?ID=356

I guess it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on here new.  Some of the things I’ve shot recently have been embargoed, which is common.  I’ve also had a bit of a break, so to speak.  I’m coming to the end of what I think has been my longest stretch at home, about 4 weeks.  After going full bore since about March or April, I almost don’t know what to do with myself.  Been shooting some jobs here at home and doing a bit of hunting as well.  Thankfully work has been going better than the deer hunting part.  My wife Stacy on the other hand killed her first deer, ever, last week here at home with a muzzleloader.  Me, I’ve passed up several small bucks, and at least one that I’m about to start regretting that would have scored about 135 inches.  Hopefully with winter moving in closer each day, I hope, I’ll be right back into the more hectic work, even if it means having to travel through snow covered roads.  I have at least a couple jobs that are waiting for snow.  Below are a couple shots of the final uses of a few photographs I made in the last couple months.  The Rivers West shot was done about 2 weeks ago.  We had to add a bit of extra rain via a hose to get it to look right but it was worth the effort I think.  The others are shots of packaging for Dogtra and their new line of “E” collars.

Recently I had the  opportunity to photograph friend and Christian music star Daniel Doss.  Daniel is also the worship leader at my family’s church.  We wanted to try and keep everything simple but still somewhat dramatic and eye catching. We set the lighting up similar to what I have been doing lately with some of my hunting industry clients except for the fact that I went with a more direct, hard light rather than a modified light.  I’m pretty happy with the results and Daniel seems to be as well.  The aperture spots have never really bothered me much, just part of the deal of shooting back into the sun, but I’m starting to wonder if maybe there isn’t a way to get the same image effect but to minimize the spots?  Below are a few more from the shoot.

Just got home from the early muzzle loader season in Kentucky.  Got to hunt a few times with my usual, not so good, luck.  Did have a great time with some friends and shot a few pretty cool pix.  Some will end up at Alpen Optics, some at Prois, some, well who knows.  Currently I’m waiting to hear if I need to be in Nashville tomorrow to shoot with a singer.  Also heading at some point to a couple places in Illinois to shoot for Prois and another outdoor personality.  A text from a friend Tony Smotherman last night along with a cell phone pic, proved he killed a really nice 12 point deer on his farm in Illinois.  Way to go!  Working on plans for shoots for Bowtech, Warm Bag, and Prois, along with possibly CVA.  Warm Bag is going to be cold, I know that, hopefully it will be warm in GA for CVA.

Spent the last few days in southern Minnesota with Pat Reeves and Nicole Jones of Driven Hunter TV fame, (http://www.drivenhunter.com/).  We shot together for several days back in the early spring and made a return trip to try and get some fall colors.  Although the colors were not quite “peak”, we did get some decent shots.  The first morning there I woke up and found my windshield was completely covered in ice.  Not frost, but ICE!  Arrghhh!!!!  The temps did warm up into the upper 40’s and 50’s by mid day.  Had a great time.  These people are a class act from the word go and have a work ethic and level of determination that makes me jealous, even if they are Viking fans.  GO BEARS!!!  Anyhow, here are few of the shots we made together.  Most of them were shot with off camera flashes and reflectors.  Someone needs to make a portable light stand that will extend to the level of a treestand so that I don’t have to use up all my duct tape and clamps to get a light up there….

Spent the last couple days with Chris Brackett, working with him and country music singer Mark Wills who’s had such hits as Jacob’s Ladder and Don’t Laugh at Me, working on the music the video for what will be his next  single release, Crazy White Boy, from the album Familiar Stranger.  Mark said that in all his years of making videos he’s never had such a great time.  I agree 100%!  If the combination of great music, country living, bonfires, guns, bows, and flying fish are of any interest to you, I gaurantee you will enjoy this video.  It will begin appearing on CMT and GAC around the end of October.  Below are a few shots from the adventure.