A Tour Filled Weekend

I've produced 8 videos for the 2011 Homes By Architects Tour.

This year's videos give you a taste of what you'll find on the tour, as well as provide insight into the design process and relationships built between architects, builders, and clients. All of which are viewable on the HBA Youtube Channel.

Here are a few of my favorites.

This weekend, Sept. 17th and 18th from 10am-5pm you can visit 14 spectacular homes designed by Minnesota Registered Architects. I'll be there to meet visitors and get their impression of the tour, the homes, and tidbits from the Architects who will be at the homes they designed all weekend long.

If you're looking for me, this is my Route:

View HBA 2011 Tour in a larger map

D1 10:00-10:45 Home #2:
Habitat Architecture, Hamid Kashani10303 Bittersweet St NW, Coon Rapids, MN 55433
    
D1 11:30-12:15 Home #3
Landschute Architects 20260 Lakeview Ave., Deephaven, MN 55331
    
D1 12:30-1:15 Home #4
ALTUS Architecture + Design, Tim Alt 4016 Baker Rd., Minnetonka, MN 55305
    
D1 1:30-2:15 Home #9
Peterssen Keller Architects, Lars Peterssen20 Park Lane, Minneapolis, MN 55416
    
D1 2:30-3:15 Home #7
CityDeskStudio4108 Grimes Ave S., Edina, MN 55416
    
D1 3:30-4:15 Home #5
Quigley Architects, Tim Quigley5000 Arden Ave., Edina, MN 55424
    
D2 10-10:45 Home #14
SALA Architects, David O'Brien Wagner N1516 Pepin View Lane South, Pepin, WI 54759
    
D2 11:35-12:15 Home #13
SALA Architects, Eric Odor 6368 Oak Meadow Ln NW,  Rochester, MN 55901
    
D2 1:45-2:30 Home #10
David Heide Design Studio, Mark Nelson 977 Summit Ave., St Paul, MN 55105
    
D2 3:15-4:00 Home #11
Acacia Architects, Jeremiah Battles9533 Keswick Ave N.,  Grant, MN 55082
    
D2 4:15-5:00 Home #12
SALA Architects, Michaela Mahady 11775 102nd St N., Stillwater, MN 55082

I'm going to be hitting up pretty much every home that we didn't film as part of this years promo. videos. It's going to be a pretty jam packed weekend and I look forward to a day of rest with the family. I hope to see you out there.

YELP's Deep Blue Sea Elite Event

My first 2011 project blogged is actually bow to my Sister Company, Capture M.O.R.

I'm finishing work on three commercial projects that will be posted before the end of January.

Photo by Ryan Siemers

As I've begun to split my event and family work into a new copmany of it's own, I will ahve a little overlap so that audiences get directed to the right place. Below is a highlight of the nights photos.

Here's the official blog post from Yelp about the night!

Here's a full gallery of the nights images and a highres version of the movie below.

Welcome to Capture M.O.R.

I've been hard at work on a new branch of business focused on providing candid a unique approach to Family Photography, what I call "Candid Life Events". Capture M.O.R. stands for "Capture Moments of...Relationships, Romance, Respect, Rejoice, R......etc"

Capture M.O.R.'s principles guide this style of photography to focus around the life of family and document events as it naturally occurs. In other words out of the studio and into life. 

Capture M.O.R. will now be where all Lifestyle and Event photography will be published and distributed. Allowing Ryan Siemers Photography and Design to be a dedicated location for all things Design. I will be migrating some galleries from ryansiemers.com but maintaining links to anything already posted for your reference. This will occur over time, when things are slow.

I'd love to hear from you if you are experiencing any issues or problems that you think should be addressed. Contacting me here, will provide the best way of tracking issues.

Yelp! Chillin' Like a Villain: Yelp Halloween Party

"A costumed event where elite members dressed as favorite villain or femme fatales! Genghis Khan, Bonnie & Clyde, Voldemort, Catwoman, Cruella De Vil, Yosemite Sam, Darth Vader... we're gonna have a whole lotta badditude up in Minneapolis.

The chillin' part of the party features pH OREM, one of Minneapolis' classiest modern spas. They'll be showcasing a few fabulous mini spa services, and making mischief with us in their industrial-chic space.

The like a villain part of the evening includes a sneak taste of donuts so good they're bad---from the much buzzed-about bakery, The Donut Cooperative. The Donut Co-op hasn't even opened yet, but they specialize in regular and vegan doughy bites!

Mustachioed nonprofit Movember will be on-site (with a whole lot of mustache love fit for you rascals) to chat with the Elite villains about how growing one can save lives in November. They'll be hosting a very special costume contest as well... so that's one more reason you should dress to kill! (Mustachioed ended up having a little bad luck with the weather, namely their Frame and it's attached mustach was the victim of tonights hurricaine like wind storm. But we made the best of it.)"   -Yelp Twin Cities 

Don't have Flash available? Check out this link to go to the full Flickr Gallery

FOLLOW UP (10/29/2010):

I learned yesterday that Philip Bloom, a film and photography industry icon joined the Movember Movement. I really got a kick out of the video he produced. According to him, he produced this with the Canon 60D.

Movember: Team Bloom 'Tache video 1 from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Very OTT and silly first film from my attempt to grow a moustache for the whole of Mo-vember to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Want to donate or even join my team and grown your own 'tache? Then go to www.philipbloom.net/movember

Shot on Canon 60D with 100mm F2.8 Macro and 24mm F1.4

Music by James Miller from www.millerandmiller.co.uk

Get Ready... Set...... GO!

So over the next 2 weeks I will be attempting to post many of the projects I've been working on over the last 2-6 months. Starting with a teaser that will announce a new division of Ryan Siemers Photography and Design, which will launch in November of 2010. It would have been fantastic to launch on 10-10-10 but I'm afraid I just wasn't that clever (and just slightly too busy). 

In the mean time. I leave you with a little project I put together for a Cousin of my Wife's. 

Sarah and Ryan were united in July. I've already shared this with them and now I share it with you. 

When I photographed this wedding, I only intended for me to cover aspects that the Primary Photographer wasn't hired for. I wanted to catch the moments in between. The glimpses and emotion of the time for not just the bride and groom but their family and friends.

The ProExpo

On Tax Day 2010, Pella put on a great event for Architects and Builders in Minnesota called "TheProExpo". Held at the HHH Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN.

This 100% Free event consisted of Burgers, Brats and free drinks and was a great opportunity to learn more about fantastic products and services while also being very well entertained by some fun activites including a baseball and football challenges. On top of that, up to $10,000 worth in prizes were given out.

Another great draw for Architects was the opportunity to receive several hours of Continuing Education Units as part of the presentations.

These are just some of the highlights. I'll be posting a link to a full gallery for attendies to view if their interested.

Pella Promotional Piece

My work is being featured by Pella in new ad campaign for promoting their 2010 Archtiect Events. They are featuring 28 of the images I produced from covering their ABC days in the Fall of 2009. This image is the front half of the print piece and has been altered for publicaiton on the web.

Oil: A Love Story

Rochelle Gibbs and I were fortunate to cover another fantastic event organized by Solutions Twin Cities to entertain, inform, and engage. 

"Oil: A Love Story" was presented November 12th at 7PM at Intermedia Arts, in Minneapolis, MN.

George Henderson - Tuned our TV back to the past with "Oil Science Theater"
Matt Huber - Drove us to see how "Oil As a Way of Life" is embedded in our lifestyle choices
Bruce Braun - Reconnected us to Oil and the "Technological Unconscious"

After a quick Q&A with George, Matt, & Bruce The audience and speakers smelled Oil from around the world, made smoothies with their own energy, and learned how much pedal power was needed for light in incandescent and florescent light bulbs.

Matthew Schnider-Mayerson rounded off the evening by presenting the "Post-Carbon World" expressing both hope and realism in the effects of being caught off guard or well prepared.

For the official descriptions of each topic: click here 

Give and Take - October '09

They were so happy with the first, Solutions Twin Cities asked me back. Rochelle and I both covered the last Give and Take event for 2009. Speakers included.

Kaeti Hinck: who spoke on "Why health food is killing us".
Michael Tortorello: laid it out in "Is Gardening Worth It, Financially?" 
Chris Cloud & Kevin Albertson: revealed "The Secret of Mpls.tv"
& Ali Momeni opened our eyes and minds to: "MAW" Minneapolis Art on Wheels. 

Did you come? Like any of the pics? Leave your comments below!

Oakdale Nature Center

I've recently completed some initial processing for two photo shoots.

This is Oakdale Nature Center, in Oakdale, MN. These will eventually be reduced to the final selections. Which would you choose?

Pella - Builder Days Tour

Oct. 4th - 6th I went traveled to Pella, IA for the Pella Builder Days. I covered the event and had a great time learning more about the quality of their manufacturing process and the passion that Pella has for creating a series of fantastic products. Architects, Designers, and Builders from the Midwest and East Coast representing 1/2 a dozen cities were there.

While I wasn't allowed to document the factory floor or the testing lab, I think we were all impressed with the streamlined process of their methods and the quality they provide each step of the way. Three things I took away from the tour personally. 1) The dedication that Pella had to reducing the amount of manufacturing waste that gets recycled. 2) The passion that each employee had about what they do. 3) The catering that they have on site, is fantastic. 

I've broken the images I took into 4 parts. You can bypass any slide show and go the the thumbnail gallery by clicking any of the larger images. You may copy any images from here for personal use. However please contact me for commercial use.

Des Moines Art Center (For more info Click Here)

Pella Education and Exhibitions (For more on Pella Click Here)

Vermeer Windmill Tour (For more info Click Here)

Downtown Pella, IA (For more info Click Here)

Give & Take, Sept. 2009

When the Call Came in to be a last minute Photographer for Give & Take, I answered the call with Rochelle Gibbs.

Give & Take (produced by SolutionsTwinCities.org) is where Happy Hour Meets Show and Tell. 

"Give & Take subverts the traditional short-format presentation model that says information has to flow one way - from the presenter to the audience. We do this by asking everybody in attendance, presenters and audience, two questions:

    1) What do you know about?
    2) What do you want to know about?" - SolutionsTwinCities.org

Featured here are the images I made from the Event. Rochelle and my photos will be posted to STC's Flickr Site in the near future

State Fair - pt.2 (Sales)

So one of the greatest opportunities that the Minnesota State Fair provides, is to get the word out to the world about your product, invention, or idea. This series of photos was taken with that in mind. This is just a small selection of what caught my eye.

Every image you see in this set was taken with a fixed 50mm Lens usually with a shallow depth of field created with the aperture set somewhere between 1.8-5.6. I believe all the details are available if you click into my smugmug gallery. 

State Fair - pt.1 (3rd Lair)

This is the first set of photos I've had an opportunity to work on from the 3rd Lair set up at the Minnesota State Fair. These guys can definitely shred. I have over 400 frames shot that I'm working through. This is my first opportunity to use my D90 in this environment and I'm playing around with composite shots. The time it takes in post isn't exactly quick, but they're really fun final products. I plan to post more stills in a couple more days, just depends on how much time I have. 

Click on any of these to go take a look at the full size image. These should be able to be printed at about poster size for any of the guys like AJ who nailed his first successful front flip on only his 2nd attempt.

Give me a shout and tell me what you think!

Neighborhood Block Party

We recently had a block party and I took the opportunity to document the occasion.

All attending the party will be able to print any of the images by simply clicking on the large image in the slide show and going to my SmugMug page. It is unlisted for anyone not going directly to the gallery.

For privacy purposes, if anyone wants your photo removed please let me know and I'll take care of it.