Battrell Photography

Year End

2012-01-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you 2011. Hello 2012. It was a good year. Work was steady, and fun as usual, for which I am always grateful. Life was/is good. Finished off the fall with a nice trip to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. Wonderful philanthropy in the wonderful Golden Gate Park, with me laddie, me neph, and his lovely lady friend. Wonderful music, great weather. All free. Thank you Warren Hellman. Had great fortune to visit me other laddie in Granada, Spain, and take a road trip across Southern Spain. I posted a little album on FaceBook. I'm being told by my younger laddie that I should be migrating this over to FB biz, so, if I don't show up here anymore, go look there. Ciao. Oh wait a minute. Throwing in some shots of fabrics I did for Dezign Sewing this fall, a couple of on-the-fly location portraits that turned out nicely. Some jobs you have a lot of time for, others-you fly. Unlimited prep is a luxury, but on the fly can be fun. Also rounding the year out was a headshot of Barbara Geiger on the beach in Wilmette. Barbara is a neighbor, who, I discovered, will be guiding a tour in Italy for the Art Institute of Chicago, also teaches at ITT, and recently wrote a biography on OC Simonds, landscape architect. Check out her website for a schedule of speaking engagements.

Learn from the pros

2011-11-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

I have photographed a lot of athletes for Pro Tips 4 U, a website of athletic demonstration videos by professional athletes. This summer I was able to work with soccer star Abby Wambach, Logan Morrison and Brian Peters of the Marlins, and Earl Bennett of the Chicago Bears. We were shooting Bennett also for some ads for Position-Tech, which makes custom cleats for football shoes.

Farewell Summer

2011-09-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Cool fall weather has arrived. Good-bye summer. I feel like I got my money's worth. Many days at the dog beach, farmers markets and actually a couple of jobs shot in the wonderful Gillson Park. I had another nice portrait session with artist Cat Clausen, who continues to paint wonderful portraits of Native Americans and many interesting variations on Abe Lincoln. You can see her work at http://www.catclausen.com/ I photographed local bronze artist and craftswoman Denise Siegel this summer. We shot at Meskan Foundry in Chicago where her work is cast, and at the park in Wilmette. Check her out at http://www.denisesiegelbronze.com/ I used the beach setting for a portrait of a Wilmette couple that is being featured in an alumni magazine of the University of New Hampshire. Many days felt like they came out of the Terrence Malick movie "Tree of Life", and that is a good thing. One wonderful glimpse was my niece's daughter flying from the safety of her mother's feet. Had we not been laying in the grass looking up at the trees, we would not have had this fun little experience. Life is rich.

Not on the Fence

2010-10-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Recent shoot at RedStar Fencing for ProTips4U. I photographed Michael McCahey demonstrating various fencing moves and techniques for a video download site. Michael was a member of the 1984 Olympic fencing team. Thanks to Peter Habala of RedStar Fencing. In and out in 32 minutes.

Fun Jobs And New Website!

2010-09-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

I recently completed changing my website over to a LiveBooks format. Please note and visit my new site at BattrellPhotography.com, and please let me know what you think. A lot of you have commented on my iPhone photos, so, I decided to make that a separate portfolio of my site. I really dig the shots I have gotten with the phonecam. It is so wonderfully convenient to have a camera in your pocket all the time. How about those wacky Wilmette skater boys? (all black outfits). Good fun. As was a shoot I did for Zipfizz Healthy Energy Drink out in Hollywood. Not so much fun in that I didn't have much time with the spokesperson, actress Josie Bissett, as she had an insane shoot schedule for this commercial by Social Animal, a creative house in LA. Check out the production stills on my new site. Also, check out the commercial and the wild SA360 interactive system on Social Animal's site. Click and drag the SA360 window to get a live 360 degree view of the shoot. The video rolls, but you can pan the view anywhere in the space, hence the name. There are some shots of this "camera" in the production stills portfolio on my site. Quite an invention.

I am also showing a fun shoot I did on Wacker Drive in Chicago for Board Member Magazine. We photographed Paul Purcell, CEO of The Robert Baird Company. Paul does some serious commuting, and so has tricked out his van as a mobile office. Ciao.

What Has Been Fun?

2010-09-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Plenty has been fun. I had a shoot at Soldier Field in Chicago for AT&T: Great client, great art director, great crew. Now tell me this isn't fun: quite a few years ago I photographed little Megan Dawson in Chicago for an annual report for Waste Management. Over the intervening years I photographed her wonderful family, and, come this summer, little Megan turned into a beautiful bride, and I was chosen to photograph her wedding - a very sweet gesture on the part of her mother and father, Dr. and Mrs. Larry Dawson of Chicago - great, warm people. Megan is practicing dentistry in the Rochester, Minnesota area and married Dr. Robert Gray, orthopedic fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

I photographed new Chicago Bull Taj Gibson for ProTips 4U at a grade school in suburban Chicago. Great guy with ego in check - a pleasure to work with. Got a kick out of the camp kids piling in the gym to get a look at him.

Life is good

2010-07-11T18:42:00.000-07:00

Pleasant variety of assignments lately: Photographed the new CEO of US Cellular, Mary Dillon, and professional basketball player Sylvia Fowles, of The Chicago Sky. I did not dunk on Sylvia. There is no video of that happening. She has a wonderful natural enthusiasm for life to go along with her dominating basketball skills. Mary Dillon became the first female CEO of a major telecom provider when she joined USCellular, and was a pleasure to work with. Juggling two media interviews, two photographers, and the job itself, she was consistently personable, cooperative, humorously self deprecating, and unflappably cool throughout the nutty day.

And then there was the 120-person group portrait for Jones Lang LaSalle on Randolph Street. Good weather and a fairly well-behaved group of people helped make it happen. That and swapping out 30 heads in Photoshop to make sure everyone was at their best. I had a great time helping out creative colleague and Renaissance Man Marty Larkin, aka The Rock'n'Roll Chef, at the "Downtown Alive" festival in Aurora. Check out the RnR Chef website to see what all Mr. Larkin has going on, which includes the websites themselves. Marty heads up a great Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band called Creedence Again, and THEY ARE GOOD. Excellent musicians all, they had the people in Aurora on their feet dancing and singing along with the great CCR repertoire. I shot video on my new Canon 5dMarkII, along with 2 other vidmen and will post a clip when ML edits it all down.

I Slog, Not Blog

2010-04-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like there is a serious vortex lurking at the end of this post, should you be reading sequentially, which happens to be chronologically inverse. That, dear reader is my explanation for not having posted jack for about maybe 7 months. Nor Jill. But, I trust that you appreciate my candor and sincerity, for while in the vortex, I had to kick the butt of Andrei"The Pit Bull" Arlovski, keep Dickie Simpkins (ex Chicago bull) from going to the hoop, for ProTips 4 U, make my first snowangel since maybe the first grade, photograph the excellent painter Cat Clausen, take a wonderful job in NYC for TCW, and brush my teeth while on a 12-city job for CDW. Watch your step, it's October 2009 on the other side.

Network Security

2009-10-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun with a recent assignment for CDW, a gigantic resource for all things computed. I have been fortunate to illustrate many feature articles regarding their vast customer relations experiences. A recent assignment took me to GMR Marketing in New Berlin, Wisconsin, to create visual content for services CDW provided to GMR regarding network security. The gods/Spirit/Universe/Source was smiling on me in the form of providing these classic "security" guys: free-standing life-size models of security characters that are in GMR's lobby. It was a no-brainer. I photographed Scott and Tony, IT guys, and the 2 heavies in various environments. Photoshop-enabled creativity.

Personal Work

2009-10-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

I am incurably fascinated by forms in nature. The beauty of the design is to me transporting. When I see something that catches my eye, I usually spend many frames investigating the possibilities of viewing the essence of the form. That essence is usually infinite, and I simply stop at some point. Or my material dries up and my time is done! Enjoy.

iPhone Fun

2009-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

OK, so I don't always have a camera with me, but, actually I do, thanks to the camera within the iPhone. It is great for the quick grab of something you want to remember. As a result, I have compiled quite a few images on my phone. Given the "quick grab" nature of this camera, many of the photos have a fresh spontaneity about them, which is an upbeat energy IMHO. So, click on the title of this post, or right here, to access a recent compilation of my iPhone photos. I hope you enjoy. There are insanely small tools in the lower right corner of the slideshow page that allow you to scroll through the photos, rather than trying to decipher the insanely small thumbs.

San Diego

2009-07-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished shooting an annual report for the McCormick Foundation, based in Chicago. Two grant recipients happened to be in the San Diego area, and I was willing to go there. Yes I was. Sheryl Oring created an interesting project called "I Wish to Say", which involved setting herself up in public spaces with a typewriter and offering people the opportunity to send a message, via typewritten postcard to the president of the United States, who, in 2008, was our beloved GW. A wonderful collection of insights from the populace. I'm showing an outtake here. While I like to shoot strong location portraits, I also like to experiment with multiple-image compositions like this one. Nick Schuler is a battalion chief with the San Diego County Fire Authority. Our shoot was interrupted by a traffic incident in which a driver had a diabetic event while driving and went off the expressway into a ravine, rolling over a few times, and ended up walking away from the wreck, all airbags deployed.

Good Fortune

2009-04-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

This is a great profession, did I mention that? I recently photographed (again) world-class harpist Yolanda Kondonassis when she was in town to play with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and to stop in at harp manufacturer Lyon & Healy in Chicago. Yolanda and I have developed a great creative relationship regarding her images. I get the bonus of hearing her play. And the added bonus of working with her husband, Michael Sachs, of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Another great experience was to work with Nichole Manning, Director of Game Operations for the Chicago White Sox. Yes, that is the World Series Champion ring on her finger. This assignment was for a publication of Nichole's alma mater, The College of William and Mary. This was one of those assignments that doesn't have a significant budget, but has plenty of non-monetary benefits. It was fun to roam around US Cellular Field with Nichole, who was extremely generous with her time and an enthusiastic partner in the creative process. Another bonus? The low budget dictated "hiring" my 14-year-old son, Ellis, a serious sports fan, to assist. All good.

Where was I?

2009-04-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Oh yes. It was cold. And it still is. But enough of that. Literally. Jumping in to the goldmine of cliches, I shot for Manitowoc Company's Annual Report at their state of the art kitchen in Tampa, Florida. Yes, there was more than one chef in the kitchen. And yes, I withstood the heat and remained in the kitchen. Lesson learned: be nice to your chef - for they carry dangerous weapons.

Cold?

2009-01-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Me too. Oy. Chicago. Very tough town for winters. And for citizens' endurance of their elected leaders. Plenty of other blogs to cover that topic! So, it's cold. It serves no purpose that I can fathom, but, in the words of our national leader,"so what?". Stop me. No more politics. Personally, I have lost faith in the system, (did someone say "duh??"), so let's talk about winter. There is something nice about the quiet, when the wind isn't ripping your face off, the sky is clear, the stars are out, you wonder about the Native Americans in their time. This channel near where I live was creaking and cracking one cold night when I was walking the pup. Speaking of the pup, he is digging it. Almost as good as the dog beach in the summer, but, uh, perhaps not quite. I hope anyone who is reading this has a good new year. It's sad that so many of us suffer the consequences of an illusory economy. Hang in! I'm hoping the shake out will produce a sliver of civic consciousness that miraculously alters the ways of human beings, and a sense of the common good emerges in our policies and plans. but then, I have always been a naive optimist. Cheers!

Goodbye Summer Hello Fall

2008-11-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

I will take Fall. I am not ready for Winter. Quick post, then back to work. Just came off of a job in northern Wisconsin for CDW. A six-hour drive each way from Chicago. As usual, I had fun and was challenged by the assignment. A lot of institutional IT products live in closets. Fortunately the story goes beyond just the hardware, enabling me and the subject to get out and breathe a little. It's always fun shooting in a school. The trip produced some nice bonuses. Accidently discovering the Fred Smith Concrete Park in Phillips, Wisconsin, was a real treat. Driving on remote highways out in the country works for me also. I lose time by pulling off the road to shoot, but it's too painful to not stop. So, I stuck my face in some richly-colored leafless bushes to shoot the amazing world of macro/shallow-depth botanical details, which I could do forever. Soon after, I had to document the insanely dense grove of small trees. Crazy and hypnotic. ciao.

Sweet Summer

2008-09-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

It has been a really nice summer. My family adopted a dog. And the dog, Aaron, hit the jackpot. We live near a great dog beach, so, the pup has gotten to run free and socialize all summer. Great therapy for us, too.
I got to shoot a really nice campaign for BDO Seidman. A rare in-house, employee-based, poster campaign. I had great subjects in great locations, due to the personalized aspect of the campaign. We shot in Chicago, NYC, Orange County and Portland, Oregon, much to my delight. Here are a few of the shots, including the wonderful Multnomah Falls, and me showing my fashion sensibilities while instructing Cindy how I wanted her to cast.

Mr. Quarterly

2008-09-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

You know, time sure flies when you check on your own blog. Who wants to hear me blab everyday anyway? So, getting right to it, yes, there has been more photo phun added to the image universe. Like, a nice trip to Southern California for a company that makes spine repair hardware. For me it was tailor-made: lifestyle shots, product shots, cool manufaturing shots, art shots and excellent downtime shooting like the father teaching his son to surf. Prior to that job, I worked with a wonderful TV spokeperson, Danielle Hirsch, who demo'ed some cool USG textured-wall products. Danielle was a pleasantly grounded human being. In SoCal, I can highly recommend Leucadia Donuts and the Hideaway Cafe - both gem finds.

Here and There

2008-05-04T11:08:00.001-07:00

Okay I am bad at this. Last post January! So, here and there since then, one neglected blog entry was of my shoot for Jazz Pharmaceuticals for their Narcolepsy Awareness campaign, this time featuring actress Kate Walsh of Grey's Anatomy fame and Private Practice. A pleasant experience. I couldn't resist the production outtake while waiting for the crew to do their thing. A previous spokesperson I shot for Jazz was Isaiah Washington, seen elsewhere in this blog.
I photographed Sam Harris, who survived being a child in a Nazi concentration camp, and today is building the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois. I also photographed an interesting object at an undisclosed location...
A fun aspect of shooting in Chicago highrises is the many cool views out the windows, such as this fun shot of Cloud Gate, otherwise known locally as The Bean.
Yet another fun shoot was photographing the Beazley Phillips Band. I asked about themes, song titles, etc., to get some ideas going and all it took for me was a title of one of their songs: "Bring The Angels Down". Short of dressing someone up in wings, I decided on making it subtly abstract by incorporating my light source in the frame. I took the liberty of placing Beazley off to the left in this alt shot, rather than front and center as might be expected.

Work & Play

2008-01-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

I had a very nice assignment for Allstate's 2006 annual report. We shot in New Orleans, Portland, Omaha, Denver, Georgia, and a few other places. Including here, Welvin and his princess. Lauren in Portland. Homer and Larry in Portland. I like Portland. Personal work here, the euro shot, and Albert, from Canada and everywhere else.

On a Roll

2008-01-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots of Tyrus Thomas, who plays basketball for the Chicago Bulls. His arm tattoos say "No Struggle No Progress". I'm happy with the shots. A good yield in a short amount of time and too many people in the studio. Then there's Nephew Matt at the folk's home in southern California. Matthew is a graphic designer/artist/musician/surfer/good guy. Check out http://www.knudsenkares.com and look for Matadon in SF. Matt's buddy is my former assistant, Vince, artist extraordinaire. He is in NYC right now, most likely overdosing on osmosis.

benign neglect

2008-01-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Alrighty then. 5 month lapse. Anybody there? Tell I'm new to blogging? This lapse suggests that a non-chronological approach to communicating here might be a good model - whaddya say? Here we go: Things have been good. It all depends on your perspective, doesn't it? My "good" is someone else's drag, someone else's most excellent. That's my range of interpretation. Personally, I feel lucky to be able to do what I do for a living. The life/person-to-person experiences are great gifts. I'm grateful to and for my clients and family and friends. Tell you what, I will just throw up a few shots and move on. I have a tendency to write too much. The work is for The Salvation Army, Cantigny, myself, Eddie Thomas Productions, Yolanda Kondonassis and Michael Sachs (Harp, Trumpet). All great assignments. If I could figure out how to link you on this site to these people I would. Just google them until I figure it out.
The Salvation Army is building an incredible community center in the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago. At $150M, it stands to transform the lives of many, many people. It should be a great model for what societies can do with their resources. Joan Kroc donated $100M to this project. The boys pictured were studying music at Camp Wonderland, in Wisconsin.
Cantigny is an amazing place, housing the First Division Museum, the Robert McCormick Mansion, Cantigny Park, and the amazing Cantigny PUBLIC! Golf course, home of the US Amateur Open. The uniforms pictured have hand-stitched red numeral ones (for the First Infantry Division of the US Army) on the upper arm. Mesmerizing to look at and contemplate the life of the kid who wore it and whoever stitched it.
The circles have been a joy. My son Ellis (13) knew immediately that I should photograph them and he was right. They became wonderful ways to explore form and space.
Eddie Thomas, Eddie Thomas, Eddie Thomas. I need to make his name active. A great, soulful, caring, kind, loving man. Record prodeucer with Curtis Mayfield and many others since then. Impressions are pictured.
Yolanda Kondonassis is only a world-class harpist. Me and my Make-up Artist, Karen Lynn, who deserves a hyper-link which Mark can't figure out, asked and were granted 2 songs by Yolanda in the studio after the shoot, which produced many nice shots. Go to her website (in February-they are updating it now): http://ykharp.com. (Maybe that will link.) OK, and she's married to Michael Sachs, who plays trumpet for the Cleveland Orchestra and is very photogenic. I bet he would take a booking if you had a good spot for him.

Grinnell College Magazine

2007-08-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Some assignments aren't as lucrative as others, but they become rich experiences of human contact. Such was the case for the jobs I have recently shot for Grinnell College in Iowa.

Edith Smith is a 92-year-old graduate of Grinnell, celebrating her 70th class re-union this year. She volunteers at the Art Institute and is full of sparkle. We had some time to kill waiting for a friend to come to the house, so I got to hear many amazing stories from Edith, going back to her grandfather's escapes from slavery.

Diane Christiansen is another alum from Grinnell. Our time in her studio was a non-stop flow of stories of serendipity and spirituality and the human condition, all within the walls of her art, and all punctuated by D's wit and tactile energy. The resident presence in the space is the wonderful Cocoon Girl, Diane's manifestation of one of self-awareness's many gifts. Besides being a skillful artist, Diane is co-founder, along with her husband Steve Dawson, of the musical group Dolly Varden, based in Chicago. The shoot was monitored by some weird little dog named Neville, who gave approval most of the way, so long as his excellency was regularly recognized.

Zappa Plays Zappa

2007-08-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have recently contributed photos to the current Zappa Plays Zappa tour promotion. The tour is in it's second year, and the performances have been enthusiastically received by the many Frank Zappa fans around the world.

Hello From Mark Battrell

2007-03-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

HELLO EVERYONE! My old pal The Rock & Roll Chef® (right) has been encouraging me to start doing a blog for awhile now - so here we go!

If nothing else, this site should be subject to a wide range of topics and people. Being a professional photographer has been the ticket to experiencing the wide spectrum of life, so, in reading about my assignments, you will hear about the people I am lucky to meet. Since I am starting this site in 2007, I may go retro now and then to talk about cool things from the past.

Feel free to contact me anytime (note anti-spam/spelled-out version - you know what to do): mark @ battrell dot com (for photo-related projects, compliments, comments or suggestions. My website address is http://www.battrell.com