Brady Whealon Photography » Personal

Photo Book Ideas : Revisited… Again…

Brady Whealon — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:53:40 +0000

In looking through my older photos from years past I realized that I need to find a goal for my work. So much of what I do has been personal work up until mid-2007. After that time almost all of my photographs had been centered around work or assignments. So in the spirit of revitalization I have decided to publish a photo book with the help of a few other photographers in the Winona area.

What exactly the book is about I am not sure yet but I know that I need to participate in more personally motivated work to instill more creativity into my wedding photography and beyond. I have had a few ideas for books but I am not sure if they have been completed yet. I would like you guys to vote for your favorite ideas and let me know if you want to help at all or be featured in it. So here are the ideas:

What is your greatest desire? The feature photo for this entry was taken during one of my Visual Communication classes in College. The assignment was to have a short conversation with someone about their greatest desire in life or their greatest goal and to convey that in the photo. Pretty interesting stuff. I think I had about 10-15 really interesting portraits using the cardboard method suggested by my teacher. I think I might keep using my friends and family to keep building an interesting group of photos. In this case I had Pete Boysenpose for probably one of my favorite photos of all time.
Time Perspective This one is a bit harder to explain.. And possibly a bit more ambitious as well. Basically I am interested in how things change over time. But this is not limited to time as we know it. I was also thinking about exploring Day and Night and the 4 seasons. So basically I would take the same photo at the same location at two different times / seasons / or conditions to demonstrate the power of our planet and mother nature.

I know I had a few other ideas but I cant remember them right now. I will add them as I remember. As always feedback is always appreciated

Plans for Summer – Revitalization

Brady Whealon — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:51:35 +0000

With everything going on in my life right now it is hard to answer open ended questions like: “What are you going to do over summer vacation?”, The fact of the matter is I don’t have the foggiest idea yet. What I mean is I am planning on one thing and one thing only – Revitalization. It is a term that my good friend and colleague Scott Werley uses a lot in his speech and also his fantastic work as a DJ. This goal is not something that is put into a day planner and simply checked off your to do list. There is a lot more to it.

My goal this summer is to help myself understand how I work. Why I feel the way I do and what I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. So much of my life has been focused towards others needs that I have severely neglected my own. Even in the past where taking care of myself was a weekly assignment from my boss called “sharpening the saw” I seemed to find a way out of it. Or use a lame example that wasn’t true to myself. I think at the end of the day there is only one thing that will allow me to keep doing what I am doing.. Vacation. Now my father probably won’t be all for this idea but I need to start living my life instead of letting it slip through my fingers. I plan on spending a great deal of time outdoors and taking photos for myself and my business. Keep in mind it won’t be all fun and games. In the evenings I plan on working with High School Seniors on their Senior Photos and also taking photos for local amateur sports teams. Summer leagues should provide ample opportunity to make some money and relax at the same time.

Now about the photo. One of my favorite memories from the last year was going kayaking with my good friend Andy Hamilton on the Mississippi River near Winona Minnesota. This photo was taken with an old Mamiya 645 Medium Format camera and a 35mm lens. The spots and specks you see on the film itself is residue from the river when I fell in camera and all. After this day I got insurance on all of my equipment and decided to be a bit more careful when getting out of the water. Thanks again for stopping by. Keep looking for more updates.

Cautious Cats…

Brady Whealon — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:35:09 +0000

Looking through the rest of the pictures I had taken with the 300mm f/2.8 lens from Sigma i found one that really stood out to me. Just after dusk there was a cat walking though campus. Curiously and cautiously poking around the freshly fallen leaves it found its way into the bike racks around Phelps Hall. I followed the cat for a bit to see how close I could get before it would notice me. After it scampered away the first time I saw it stop on this window well on Somsen Hall I snapped this photo. Pretty cool looking with the fall colors… Anyway.. Just thought I would share a bit more from my latest misadventures. It always pays to have a camera with even if the girls on campus think you are a creeper. hehe.

Tom Wilder : Man With a Mission.

Brady Whealon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:26:19 +0000

Over Halloween my good friend Tom Wilder came to visit us on his vacation from vacation… He recently spent a few weeks out in North Dakota and Northern Minnesota duck and pheasant hunting with his dog Ranger. Don’t be fooled, last summer he worked his butt of so he could enjoy life a bit after he graduated. I have to say that he is one of my greatest role models in the sense that he is enjoying life to its fullest extent. I am glad he started to miss all of his friends in Winona because it was a blast having him back in town. I happened to snap this portrait of him while he was checking his Facebook profile no doubt. In the near future he plans on heading to New Zealand for a few months. You better take pictures Tom!

Summer Dreams…

Brady Whealon — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:47:39 +0000

I have been working so hard on my school work I haven’t had time to post lately. I apologize for that and I want to share some more images that have slipped through my filters the first time through them. This image was taken a number of years ago in Thomas Lake Park. There was one little patch of Tiger Lilies that really caught my Fathers eye and he showed me where they were. I love looking through older images because it almost always brings back all of the wonderful memories that I have from the last few years. Thank you to everyone who has helped me both make and remember those memories!

Memories of Better Times

Brady Whealon — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:13:25 +0000

Looking through pictures that have been taken over the years there are a lot of good memories. I think that I have a photographic memory for photographs but nothing else. I can look through my pictures and tell you a story about almost every single one. Other things in my life are a lot harder to remember. I dont understand why photographs have such an impact on my memory but I would have a lot fewer cool stories if photographs were not a part of my life.

This picture actually was not taken by me but my girlfriend Lisa. My sophomore year my staff and I put on a fund raiser right before finals to help relieve stress. Pay a dollar and Pie your RA (Resident Assistant). Lets just say there was a huge turnout and a few bloody noses but it was all worth it in the end. It lives on through the pictures.

Yesterday evening I found out that another one of my friends had something terrible happen to them. This is the message that was shared with his friends.

Last night during Ultimate Frisbee practice, Oliver passed out and went into cardiac arrest. He lost his ability to breathe, and for a while lost his pulse. Paramedics are estimating that his heart was stopped for about 10 min. The ambulance was able to stablize him, and they rushed him to the Emergency Room in Winona. From there, he was given a CT scan. His brain is ok, but there is a probability of brain damage. He’s still unresponsive or able to breathe on his own. They flew him to Mayo Clinic at St. Mary’s where he’s in critical condition. Right now they’re cooling his body to minimize brain damage and they won’t be warming him for another 24 hours. He’s been sedated and paralyzed and placed into a drug induced coma. After they start warming him, we’ll be able to figure out the extent of damage on his body and his brain and then they will be able to add more pieces to the puzzle.. As of right now his heart is unable to function normally, and has a very weak and unstable beat. He has suffered a heart attack at the age of 22. The Dr.’s have no clue as to what happened, or what is happening. After his body reaches room temperature, three things can happen: #1- He won’t wake up and will be declared brain dead. From there it’s up to his mother as to whether or not put him on life support, #2- He can wake up, be rushed into heart surgery and suffer serious heart conditions his whole life, and #3- He could wake up, and all of this could have been caused by a virus. (Obviously #3 is the one that we’re hoping for.) Of course with all of this brain damage is likely due to the amount of time that his heart stopped. However, Dr.’s are hopeful due to his age and his health, and the fact that he’s a fighter. Right now Ollie, his family, and I really need everyone’s prayers. He is my everything, and I don’t know what to do. -Nicole

This morning Oliver was awake and sitting in a chair. The doctors don’t know if he has any serious brain damage though. He will be under a long series of tests today to see what is going on with him. I wish both him and Nicole his finance the best.

I am sorry for those friends that I lost touch with over the last year. We need to hang out before the end of this year. Reunite and relive all those great memories. Peace + Love

Outstanding Individuals

Brady Whealon — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:54:13 +0000

All in all this has been an interesting week. Finals are coming up in the next few days for me and I am pretty excited. I feel confident that I will do well on the finals I have left. I am most worried about my Pathophysiology final. I have received a number of new orders from my High School Sports Galleries and I want to thank all of the parents who have supported me.

A student here at WSU was reported missing on Thursday of last week by his family and he was found on Friday afternoon. This is what the school released to the student body

Winona State University regrets to announce the death of one of its students, Matthew Alexander Gille, a junior from Rockford, Illinois. His body was found this morning near the Garvin Heights Overlook in Winona. The body was recovered from a wooded area later in the afternoon. The exact cause of death is not known at this time. The Winona Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol and the Winona County Dive and Rescue Team assisted with the recovery of the student�s body. More details will be provided pending investigation by law enforcement officials. The student was reported missing on Thursday. His family, campus security and law enforcement officials were notified shortly thereafter. A search began on Thursday evening and was narrowed to the Garvin Heights area after his car was found near the overlook. The search resumed on Friday morning, leading to the location of the body.

Freshman year I lived down the hall from Matt and got to know him in passing. He was a nice guy, well loved, and he will be missed no doubt. It is pretty scary to think that this could have been anyone that I know. There has been a huge outpouring of support for the family and through Facebook people have started to collect and assemble a storybook of his life experiences as seen though others eyes. Pretty amazing how many people one person could touch.

Wish me luck on finals and I will keep you as updated as I can. I leave for Arizona on the 15th of December!

Fresh Baked and Home Made…

Brady Whealon — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 18:58:55 +0000

Last night Lisa and I decided that we really really wanted some fresh baked bagels. The only problem with wanting fresh bagels in a small town is you just cant get them. Walmart brand bagels did not sound so great either. Searching online we found that just making them is pretty easy so we got everything we needed and got the ovens stoked to cook some fluffy goodness. I thought that it would be harder to do but the whole process was easy to do with two people. After making the dough and letting it rise we cut it into pieces, rolled them out, and made rings and twists. After boiling them in sugar water and flipping them we baked them for 30 minutes till golden brown. It was a bit of work but our efforts paid off because there is nothing better than bagels fresh from the oven.

Hunting Season…

Brady Whealon — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:41:08 +0000

So last night I took about an hour out of my evening to chase around a bunny rabbit. They are really really hard to even find in the dark much less get close enough to take a picture. Their extremely round eyes make flash photography almost impossible because of the redeye. I was about 5 feet away when I took this picture. It is the best one yet but they weren’t exactly ideal conditions. I shot this at ISO 3200 because of the distance to the subject. I think I need a better beamer to get a little bit more reach out of my flash.

Thankful for Sunrise…

Brady Whealon — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 23:53:59 +0000

Over Thanksgiving break I ended up staying in Winona working for the University. So far it has been really really quiet around here and I am really missing my friends.

I am not really looking forward to having to go back to school so soon but it has been a joy just to relax for a while. Thanksgiving dinner was filling even though I could not spend it with most of my family. I am still thankful for everything that I have and I couldn’t wish for anything more. I think I am going to go to bed early again tonight so that I can see another pretty sunrise like this one that was taken this morning. Best part about waking up to the sunrise is you have a lot more of your day to spend slacking off or napping.

Summer Sun Showers

Brady Whealon — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:04:55 +0000

Here is another picture from this last summer. I purchased a cheap Canon 80-200 lens for 80 bucks at Walmart and found it to perform like a champ. The lens was not the fastest or most accurate at focusing but the optics are fantastic for the price. This picture was taken in the middle of a summer sun shower. The backlight makes for an amazing quality of light and it highlights only some of the leaves in the background. In the full size version you can see raindrops streaking across the frame.

I cant wait for Spring to be back…

Winter is here!

Brady Whealon — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:28:09 +0000

I am happy to announce that the winter months are finally upon us. That means more time to edit images and update content on this webspace. Last Christmas I shot this image and I really love it so I wanted to share with you. It is amazing to me that you can give a professional photographer a little point and shoot camera and within reason they can still produce wonderfully beautiful images that an amateur could not have taken. At the last wedding I shot I noticed that the Digital Rebel XT was one of the favored cameras among the crowd and that is the same camera I started my professional digital photography career with. There are a lot of factors that go into a good photograph and to be honest equipment plays a lesser role.

Bowling Extravaganza

Brady Whealon — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:59:15 +0000

Last Saturday I helped put on a fun program for Winona State University called The Bowling Extravaganza. The University rented out an entire bowling alley and hosted a private event for all of the students that attend the University. I brought my camera with to capture some of the action and to play with my flash and some of the cool features.

The 580EX has a neat stroboscopic function where it can create short and fast bursts of light to create a kind of time lapse stop action effect all in one picture. When using this feature you want to make sure that you use a slow shutter speed with a steady camera and a fast moving subject.

I am still trying to learn the best combinations to make the correct exposure in certain situations. When I am successful I will be sure to post my results. I don’t know what kind of applications this would have other than showing bullet paths in mid air or showing the movement of a basketball player going up for a basket. Actually that is pretty sweet.

I am looking forward to my time off for Thanksgiving Break this next week. I could really use the time to recoup some lost energy.

Birthday Weekend

Brady Whealon — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 05:13:40 +0000

I am pretty excited to go to Wisconsin this weekend to visit my Grandma for her Birthday. She is turning 75 this year and I am proud to be her grandson. I think that she will really appreciate it. I think family is one of the most important things in life. Social support is once of the best things you can have in life as the human was not intended to be a solitary being.

Anyway I wanted to share this picture of Kayden. He is one of the cutest kids that I have ever seen much less photographed. I really have taken a liking to photographing people and doing portraiture. With spring just around the corner I am really ramping up for Senior Portrait Season. Thanks for stopping by!