Last week, the nation’s eyes were focused on Jacksonville. News media outlets consisting of large and small converged on our town for the final debate before todays primary, and its clear that this Republican primary and general election are going to be close.  I had the unique opportunity to shoot this event for my client, The University of North Florida.  My main goal for this project was to show the student and faculty involvement with the many guests on campus.  My secondary goal was to capture images that show the historic nature of this event in relation to the UNF campus.

Satellite City

The CNN army transformed the Lazzara Performance Hall (the site of the debate) into an amazing set of light, shapes and color, and turned the student union into a media bee hive. (There were more iPhones, iPads and Macbook Pros than a shipping container from Foxcon)  With classes still on schedule for the day, the campus was a flurry of activity from the students and protestors gathered on the green, trying to get on camera in the background of Wolf Blitzers, “The Situation Room“.  There was security personel in their bright yellow shirts littering the entrances to the venues.  Reporters and satellite trucks set up in any free space on  campus doing what seemed like one continuous live interview.

No still photographers from any media outlet were allowed inLazzara during the debate. They were however allowed in for a short period, (about 10 minuets) after the candidates took the stage but before the debate started, which is appropriately called the “spray”, because they are all in the front row, spraying the candidates and anyone else within reach of their lenses with rapid fire, trying to get “The Shot”.  I, on the other hand had clearance to shoot during the entire debate, with a few small requirements:

1. I had to stay in one prearranged spot.  (No problem)

2. I had to wear black so that I blended in with the background. (Those that know me personally know that wearing black is part of my trademarked “look”)

My "Dress Shoes" Black on Black Vans

3.I had to be discrete and respectful of the audience. (Also not a problem, discreet is my middle name)

I took my spot on the balcony level of the auditorium, to the left of the stage, about 15 minuets before the start of the debate. I was all set up camera was ready, extra lenses and memory cards out, fresh batteries, in the camera, the iPad was up and running connected to the Eye-Fi card and ready to stream real-time photos to the UNF social media team.  As the audience was taking their seats a CNN staff member approached me with another man carrying a camera and camera bag, and says to me “this is David Kennerly.  He’s going to be shooting here with you.  You guys are a team so stick together” I thought that’s cool, I can share my spot with an amazing, well traveled, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer (as long as he doesn’t get in my way).  This arrangement worked out great, he stayed out of my way, I stayed out of his.  I learned that not only is he an accomplished photographer, but he is also a super nice guy.

David Hume Kennerly

As the debate wound down, the candidates headed over to the spin room to give their synopsis on the night’s events and why they thought their candidate did better than the others. I followed suit, packed up all my stuff and headed over there for a few more photos, but not before I got a few shots of Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer together on stage for the start of “Anderson Cooper 360“.

CNN Dream Team

The Spin room was bustleing with activity, but emptied out and quieted down almost as fast as it filled up.  This left just three local Jacksonville news channels in extremely close quarters broadcasting the nights news from the balcony outside the spin room.  If it was a scene from “Anchor Man” the movie, there would have been some serious antics going on.

channel 4 and Channel 12 broadcasting together

All in all it was a great night.  I filled up a few 16GB memory cards to get all the shots I needed.  I packed well, using all the equipment I brought and carried on my back (it was heavy no joke). I got out of there before midnight but was pretty wound up from all the caffeine and excitement.  Thanks to the PR staff from CNN who gave me the access I needed to create the photos that I created.  Additionally, a special Thank you to Cathy Cole and the whole Marketing and Publications Department at The University of North Florida for recognizing my talent and seeking me out for this amazing shoot.

Decision 2012 is here.  The political ads are rampant, the signs are starting to litter the sides of the road, and I’m starting to block more and more people on FaceBook who think differently than me. (just kidding) This week, I’ll be shooting the CNN Republican debate with Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul here in Jacksonville at the University of North Florida. Whats particularly interesting about the four front runners is that of the three primaries already held each has been won by a different candidate. This puts next Tuesdays primary here in Florida in spot to give the winner enough momentum to carry them through  the primary to the Republican nomination.

My job on this shoot is to capture images that show the role UNF students are playing behind the scenes in the debate. Hundreds of students are volunteering, performing all kinds of jobs to ensure that the debate runs smoothly.  What a great experience for the Political Science majors to see a big part of the American election process happening right before their eyes, on their campus. With an army of CNN staff on campus, Communications Majors are getting awesome real world experience as well.

Last Saturday, January 21, 2012 as the polls closed in South Carolina a CNN focus group of 40 undecided Republican voters was on Campus at UNF doing live polling, as they watched the candidates give their victory and concession speeches. UNF student volunteers were there to help the CNN army with whatever task needed to be done, and I was there to capture it. Attached are a few photos from that night and after tomorrow’s debate, I will update this post with a few more. So turn on the TV Thursday January 26, 2012 and don’t worry about the candidates; look for me somewhere up front taking Photos.

2011: What a year!!

“Relish the transitions in your life they will happen regardless”: This little bit of wisdom made its way to me via a fortune cookie, and has come to take on real meaning over the last 12 months.  The year brought about change that I wasn’t expecting or ready for, but as I make my way through it I am realizing that it will make me better at everything I do.

In the meantime it was business as usual shooting doctors, musicians, business men (and women), kids, animals… I’ve worked all over Florida and the Southeast, and traveled to the Midwest and California to create lasting images for my clients. I am the first to admit that I have neglected the blog and my Facebook page with the current stuff I have been working on. So to kick 2012 of to a great start, I promise to keep you updated on my happenings. And to prove to you that I was as busy as I said I was in 2011, I have included a few images from last year and will share a link to my 2011 year in photos in a future blog post.

So its been a few weeks since my last post.  I have some pretty good excuses why but you dont really want to hear it you just want stories to read and photos to look at. You have my deepest apologies and I will try harder to post on a more regular basis.

My everyday work doing corporate and commercial photography allows me to be creative and I am very grateful for that, but there are boundaries that I must work within. Every once in a while (like everyday) I try to break out of those boundaries and take pictures just for me of whatever I want. Whether I’m walking down a familiar street with a camera over my shoulder or riding in the car snapping away with my iPhone I’ve always got my eyes peeled for interesting juxtapositions.

A few weekends ago I saw a short documentary on Sally Mann.  Regardless of how you feel about her work and if she exploited her children or not, when she started talking about “Art for Art’s Sake” I got inspired and went out the next morning just me my camera and a 50mm lens wanting to create. What a freeing experience. Shooting like this brings me back to the time when I was discovering photography and becoming aware of light and shadow, architecture and interesting people all around me.  For someone who draws or paints they must constantly sketch  to stay on top of their craft. As a photographer I take a lot of photos with all kinds of cameras, store them and share them in all sorts of places and use them as a visual sketchbook to stay tuned to my craft.

My instagrams I keep on my tumblr site (I love instagram except for the fact that there is no web interface to it iphone or iPad only.) Ive got more photos on my twitpic site.  Some older stuff is here on this photoblog.

listen to the hands

Last year I was contacted by Arise Virtual Solutions looking for a photographer to create images of their management team for a website rebranding.  We talked about formal headshots and some less formal photos showing energy and  interaction.  After a week or so of emails, phone calls, job estimates, and portfolios being shipped out the job never made it to the calendar.  But I never forgot about them.  I kept in contact via my monthly email promos and my persistence paid off.  About 7 months after my initial contact, Arise asked me to come down and shoot at their offsite corporate meeting in Ft. Lauderdale.

As I loaded in the car to head south for the shoot it was an overcast average winter day in North Florida with a temperature in the 50′s (but it felt a lot colder) by the time we arrived in Ft Lauderdale it was sunny and 80 degrees with a nice ocean breeze… What a difference 300 miles can make.  South Florida is a great place to visit for the warmer temps especially in February, but the weather is not to be outdone by things like getting run off of I-95 by an orange Lamborgini going 110mph, or cars honking at me as I walk across A1A.

After a nice dinner and restful nights sleep we were ready to shoot at 8:00 am.  It was a long action packed day. I don’t think the shoot could have gone any better.  Arise is a great group of people to work with. I ended up shooting 32 headshots on the white background, another 13 portraits in an environmental setting and topped the day off with a 160 person group photo for a total of over 3000 images coming in at just under 44 Gigabytes.

Job complete images backed up (twice) we loaded up and hit the road scheduled for a late arrival back in St. Augustine, but not before breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel and a quick Skype video session with Mama and baby from my iphone to say goodnight. I’m Looking forward to a new long term working relationship with Arise.

"Run 5 To Keep Kids Alive" {{Click to see LARGER}}

Last year was the 55th anniversary of Wolfson Children’s Hospital.  To celebrate they organized a 55 mile Ultra Marathon and fundraiser. Fifty five children were chosen to represent the diverse patient base and show the range of treatments available at Wolfson.  Each mile of the marathon was dedicated to one of the children, and each child had a variety of sponsors to raise money for the hospital.    The Milestone 55th anniversary event was such a success last year they brought it back this year turned it into an annual event.

For the two last 2 years I’ve donated my time to Wolfson photographing the 55 children involved. It’s been a great experience working with all the children and families who have had their lives changed by Wolfson.  Each child and their story is so different and interesting. It is truly a honor for me to be a part of this.  This year had extra meaning for me because my daughter sweet little Eve was one of the children asked to participate.

Sweet little Eve

Last July Eve underwent surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoids and have tubes put in both ears. Surgery was the last resort in a 6 month ordeal that involved constant ear infections, tonalities, a bout of mono (yes, apparently babies can get mono too) and very little sleep for Mom and Dad.  As routine as a tonsillectomy is, when its your little baby on the operating table there is nothing routine about it. The surgery was a success, and to date Eve has not had any more ear infections or been as sick as she was is very healthy little girl.

This year the event was held at the landing with the ultra marathoners starting at 3 in the morning, a Celebration lunch and party starting at 10:00, a one mile fun run at 1:30 and a five mile “Run 5 to keep Kids Alive” at 2:00.  If you were in Jacksonville 2 weeks ago on Sunday 01/31/11 you know what a beautiful day it was.  There were nearly 1000 runners in the 5 mile run and many more enjoying the activities, music, clowns, and food along the St. Johns River.

Ultra-Marathoner Paul with his Family after finishing the 55 mile run

All the Wolfson 55 Kids in front of the Giant Birthday cake

"Run 5 to keep Kids Alive" runners ready to go....

With more money raised, more runners registered and another successful party this year I’m sure there will be a 3rd annual Wolfson Children’s Hospital 55 mile Ultra Marathon and celebration in 2012 and I hope to be a part of it again.

Check out some of the portraits of the children below:

Wolfson 55 2011

Wolfson 55 2011

Wolfson 55 2011

Wolfson 55 2011

Wolfson 55 2011

Wolfson 55 2011

A small perk of working for mainly corporate clients is the hours.  For the most part I work Monday-Friday 9-5  hours.  This is great because it leaves me time in the evenings and weekends to be with my family.  Of course if I have the opportunity and the work presents itself I work outside of these hours. This Saturday was one such occasion. I photographed a custom made black walnut Victorian Highboy of a truly grand scale.

A few weeks back I was approached by a PhD Physicist who works at a Jacksonville area Hospital to photograph a large piece of furniture that he built from scratch.  Now when I say from scratch I mean Scratch.  The wood for this piece came from a black walnut tree that had to come down to make way for new utility line going in. Instead of letting it go to waste it was cut down and milled into lumber onsite with a portable mill and then dried in a kiln for over 6 months. The piece,  is truly amazing. Checking in at nearly 8 feet tall at first glance it immediately demands your attention and rightfully so.  Upon closer inspection the craftsmanship and detailing are beautiful. Its hard to believe that this desk was completed over the course of  a year and a half in a garage and not in a professional wood shop by a full time craftsman.

This desk took on a few photographic challenges different from my everyday work. I used a skill set I learned from  Tom Crane and Jeff Totaro (the two best  chek’em out) shooting architecture/interiors on location and products in the studio in Philadelphia before my move to Florida.  A much slower more precise process using hot lights(a lot of them), small apertures and long exposures. Due to the height of the desk we had the seamless as high as it would go up to the top of the 10ft ceiling. We chopped 12″ off the seamless with a compound miter saw (the same saw that was used to build the desk) to make it 8ft wide and fit in our makeshift studio better. Thirteen lights and four hours later we had a total of six different shots including details of some of the hand carving and secret compartments.

Nate Lewis worked with me again. I tried to get him fired from his other job(not really just kidding) by taking longer than originally planned getting back to St. Augustine.

See for yourself, check out some images of the desk below:

Victorian Highboy Desk 3/4 view

Victorian Highboy Desk Front view

Victorian Highboy Desk secret compartments

Victorian Highboy Desk hand carving

Victorian Highboy Desk photo shoot production shot

One of the best parts about what I do is getting to go to new places and meet new people.  I did a shoot yesterday for an Orthodontist journal published by Faran Media called Orthotown.  This took me to the Office of Ford Orthodontics in bustling little town of Ocala, FL.  My favorite thing about Ocala is the drive over there.  I drive a lot, but most of it is on the interstates with a million other cars all going at breakneck speeds trying to get where they are going.  A good portion of the drive to Ocala is through the Ocala National Forest on a two lane County road (Marion County 314).  The rest of the drive is through parts of the old florida like Silver Springs, Palatka, and Salt springs where you see things like a man and two white poodles ridding a scooter, a giant WWII V2 rocket outside the local VFW, or customized Bear Crossing signs.

Yesterday I also got to work with my good friend and amazing Artist Nathan Lewis.  We spent a total of 4 hours in he car so we got caught up on all the different projects were involved in like the short film that Nate and Dustin Miller are working on and the exciting late night water line break I had at my house the night before. Nate and I have similar asthetics and tend to see the same oddities in the ordinary so I love getting to spend time together and bounce things off of him and vice versa.  On a side note Nate is heading up a community art class at The Foundry in St. Augustine, get in touch with him if you are interested.

So check out this little collection of images from our trip To Ocala and back yesterday.

Dr. Ford shot for Orthotown Magazine

light shadow color composition

WWII V2 rocket rocket outside the Local VFW

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Customized bear Crossing

WWII V2 Rocket

The Legrandphoto FIT in OCala National Forest

Poodles on a scooter

I had the Pleasure to work with the Great group of people last week at Lakeview Health Systems.  Lakeview is a Drug & Alcohol Rehab treatment center here in Jacksonville, FL.   I was contacted by Peter Leshaw (follow him on twitter@peterleshaw) in the marketing department late last year to help rebrand their website with photos that more closely portray the facility and highlight the caregivers.

We arranged a variety of shots over two days at three different locations, Inpatient facility, outpatient facility and off campus apartments.  I am looking forward to building a longterm working relationship with Lakeview and working together on many more projects in the future.  Here is a quick preview of a few images:

So this will be my second official blog post.  What do you think so far.  This is just another test.  It is quite possible I will delete this one as well.  So unless you get in on the legrandphoto blog early yo may miss this awesomeness.  The Photo included in this post was me having a little fun on a shoot I did last year with the News team at WJXT Channel 4 in Jacksonville.

Where's Mikey