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During our week at The Homestead, we got a chance to meet Philip Myers.

He’s a professional entertainer who performed several times during our stay. He’s performed with many big names, including Elton John, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, etc., as well as done the commercial jingles for Oreos, Nabisco, Coors Beers and others. He also does theater, playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and various other roles. It’s not every day you can say you got to photograph Jesus.

He was looking for some new headshots for his website so we made plans to meet up. He was a total trooper and met us early in the morning before his flight, after performing late into the night the evening before.

We didn’t have tons of time but managed to shoot a few locations around the hotel property. He may be coming to Minnesota this summer so maybe we’ll get some more time with him. It was definitely fun, he’s really an awesome guy.

Yesterday I got together with a group of other local photographers to do some more studio work. Several of them share a studio in St. Paul so they were kind enough to let a few more of us crash it. We had a few models scheduled to come but unfortunately, most of the either canceled or just didn’t show up so we had something of a paparazzi situation with lots of us shooting only a few models.

Kasidy, however, was good enough to show and modeled for us for quite awhile. We started off in the studio but then ventured out into the rest of the warehouse which was full of empty, gritty goodness.

Also, my sister was a total rockstar. She’s modeled for me a few times and even for two of my friends in the comfort of my home but this time, I dragged her out to spend the entire day posing in front of a group of guys she didn’t know. She was a super good sport, despite not having any modeling experience.

Bill, Andy, Pat, Scott, Jaime, Adam, Dave - it was nice to meet you guys! Kasidy and Sara, thanks for modeling.

For the past few months, I’ve been getting together with a group of other photographers to work on studio lighting. The group is a local offshoot of the increasingly popular Strobist website which is all about inexpensive, portable, do-it-yourself lighting. It’s been fun to get together, have a chance to work with models and see what sort of ideas other photographers have. This past weekend, we met in a warehouse which definitely gave us a chance to do some unique setups.

Doing studio work has been a nice way to pass the crazy cold months we’ve been having!

Tracy is the first male model I’ve shot. Luckily he has lots of experience and was great to work with.

There was a really cool old elevator in the building we were shooting with but unfortunately, it was closed. And since we could see the two little clamps that were holding it up, we didn’t chance it. But we did open the doors and sneak a few pics in front of it.

Joanna is just getting back into modeling and was really fun to photograph. We didn’t spend a lot of time shooting but will hopefully be getting together again sometime soon!

Yui is a dance student at the University of Minnesota. Originally from Japan, she lived in Hawaii for seven years prior to doing an exchange at the U. She liked it so much, she moved here to finish her education. She was super cute and fun to photograph.