Sounders FC Goalkeeper Kasey Keller
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Editorial
It’s almost time for my two favorite professional sports. Lawn darts, and baseball. Just kidding! Soccer and baseball. Although we may be watching lawn darts if MLS and the union don’t come to an agreement soon. Aside from that, it is pretty exciting to be a soccer fan in the Pacific Northwest right now with how the Sounders have taken the country by storm. The first game of the 2010 season will be played here against Philadelphia, the newest expansion team to MLS. And don’t even get me started about next year when the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers will join MLS. Those rivalries will be amazing!
This is a picture I recently took of Kasey Keller. Kasey is the goalkeeper and captain of the Seattle Sounders FC. From my time with him, he seems like a laid back fun loving guy who doesn’t take life too seriously. While we were talking on set, he said “I get to play a game and catch a ball for a living.” It was fun to see that side of him, but going into the shoot, I wanted to capture some of his competitive spirit. One of the Sounders games I was at last season I spent some time on the grass right behind the goal. Qwest Field is known for being a loud stadium and the fans can carry on with the best of them. But as loud as it was in the stadium, I could hear Kasey screaming instructions to his teammates over the crowd. With that in mind, I asked Kasey if he would yell at me for a few pictures. I half expected to be rejected, but he said sure and started yelling. I won’t repeat what he yelled, but it was pretty funny.
Go Sounders!
(Here) is a post with video and pictures from the Sounders billboard I shot last season.
Tags: athlete portrait, Celebrity, celebrity headshot, Celebrity Portrait, Kasey Keller, Kasey Keller portrait, Kasey Keller screaming, MLS, Portrait, portrait photographer, screaming athlete, Seattle photographer, Seattle Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC, Soccer, soccer player, soccer portrait, Sounders, Sounders goalkeeper
Nicholas Kaiser
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Editorial
I photographed Nicholas Kaiser of Saturna Capital for SmartMoney and this is the picture that ran in the January issue. It also happens to be my favorite picture from the shoot. How often does that happen!? Nick is the fund manager for Amana Funds (AMANX). The management of Amana is based on Islamic principals which means no pork, no alcohol and no financials, eliminating companies like Costco due to sales of wine and beer. While these principals are limiting, Nick has managed to bring in a five-year average annual return of 8.3%. Not bad in this economy.
The assets of Amana are $920 million and the expenses are $132 per $10,000. That’s insane! How can I keep my expenses that low? Seriously. I’m asking…
Anyway. No big story about the shoot, but I just really like this picture.
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Tags: Amana Funds, Business Portrait, CEO Portrait, financial portrait, fund manager, Islamic investing, Islamic investor, magazine, Nicholas Kaiser, Nick Kaiser, portrait photographer, Saturna Capital, SmartMoney
Josh Smith
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity, Editorial
That’s me on the right side, down in the corner… I’m sure Josh was standing on his tip toes. What a kidder. I am kind of a sports nut if you didn’t know, so I really enjoy working with athletes. Actually, I really enjoy working with just about everyone, but a small part of me still thinks I might have a shot at the bigs. I guess the reality of it for me is photographing professional athletes is as close as I’m going to get. Now that I think about it, I seem to get hired quite a bit to photograph the big guys. It’s probably because people know if an athlete goes crazy during a shoot or becomes too high maintenance, I can use my size to intimidate them and get the shots I need. Like when I had to smack around Craig and Paul Pumphrey on the Human Wreckingballs shoot I did last year. Just kidding Craig! I would never think about crossing you. I could probably take Paul though.
Josh Smith is a high school senior at Kentwood High in Washington State. He stands at 6′ 9” and weighs in at 270 pounds. Not bad, not bad. As far as I can tell he is currently ranked as a top 5 college recruit in the country, but I think that changes frequently.
The day before the shoot (which was for SLAM), Josh was in New York playing in the high school basketball All Star game. I am sure he is excited about what is going on in his life right now, but he seemed so calm and in control. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be in high school and get this kind of national attention. Not only that, but how crazy is it to know that there is a very good chance that you will be pro in just a few years while you are still living a somewhat normal lifestyle. It sounds to me like he is actually a little tired of all the attention, which is understandable. Anytime something big happens in a persons life, such as graduation, marriage, having a baby, etc., that event becomes an easy topic for discussion for everyone around you. It’s the big easy question that allows people to engage you in conversation without having to think about what they are saying.
In addition to basketball, Josh is playing football this year. Some might think he is insane given his potential in basketball, but he is doing what makes him happy. Can’t argue with that. You have to enjoy life, and live it to the fullest. Best of luck to Josh in his final year of high school. I am excited to see what the future holds for him, and selfishly, I would be excited if UW was in his future. Forget UCLA, Josh! :)
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Tags: athlete, athlete portrait, basketball, basketball pictures, Celebrity Portrait, Josh Smith, Josh Smith picture, Kentwood Basketball, portrait photographer, Seattle photographer, SLAM Magazine, sports pictures
Braving The Elements
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Editorial, Tear Sheets
Clouds I can handle, but it’s the rain that drives me crazy when I am supposed to be shooting outside. Thankfully I was photographing weather experts for this assignment, and it turns out they know a thing or two about predicting the weather.
As I was packing up to head out for what I knew would be a long day at “the office” I began to feel a little nervous about the dark clouds hanging over Seattle. After checking weather.com, my nervousness began to change into a good case of anxiety because they were predicting rain by 9:30am, and that was just two hours away. Maybe I could beat the rain and get in at least one outside portrait. The problem was I had to photograph one subject in the morning, and the second one in the afternoon. At the very best it looked like I would only get one of the subjects outside, but the show must go on. I headed over to the University of Washington where I would meet up with my first subject, Cliff Mass. My assignment was to photograph Cliff and Brad Coleman in studio for the opener, and get an environmental portrait of each of them individually. The thing that made this all really interesting was I could not get them both in studio at the same time or place. I had to set up a studio at UW in the morning, then tear it down, and set it up again, exactly the same at NOAA to photograph Brad. I had been planning this shoot for a couple of weeks including some minor styling and location scouting. This was an assignment I was really looking forward to, and I would have been really bummed if the rain forced us inside for the environmental shots.
To give you a little background on the men in the photographs. Cliff Mass was mentored by Carl Sagan while in undergrad at Cornell University. He is the author of “The Weather of the Pacific Northwest”, he runs a very popular blog, Cliff Mass Weather Blog, he is a weekly guest on KUOW radio, and he is a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. To quote a UW press release, “He has published dozens of articles on Northwest weather and leads the regional development of advanced weather prediction tools.” Many people in the Pacific Northwest plan their weekends around Cliff’s predictions.
Brad Colman is the meteorologist-in-charge of the Seattle Weather Forecast Office. “A meteorologist-in-charge is the front line officer carrying out the National Weather Service’s mission of serving the American public by helping protect lives and property,” said Brig. Gen. David L. Johnson, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. ”NOAA’s National Weather Service is the official source of weather data, forecasts and warnings for the United States and its territories. The National Weather Service operates the most advanced weather and flood warning and forecast systems in the world, helping to protect lives and property and enhance the national economy.”
Back at UW, it seemed like it would start raining any minute, so I asked Cliff if we could change the schedule a little and shoot the environmental portrait right away because I was nervous about the rain. Embarrassed as I am to admit, it never occurred to me that I was working with one of the top experts in weather. When I told Cliff we should try to shoot outside while it is still dry, he promptly responded, “It’s not going to rain.” “It’s not?” I asked. “No. The cloud cover will begin to burn off at 10:30, and by 11:30 we will have clear skies.” And he was right. Take that weather.com! Once we finished at UW with Cliff, it was off to NOAA to photograph Brad. By the time we got there, the skies were opening up, and it looked quite different than just a few hours before, as you can tell in the pictures.
From this point on, I will include a weatherman on all of my bids. First assistant, second assistant, makeup artist, stylist, and a weatherman. Oh, and a falconer. I recently learned about the benefits of having a falconer on set. If nothing else it can be very entertaining, but that’s a story for another time.
A fun fact I learned on this assignment is Houston, New York, Miami and Boston all get more average annual rainfall than Seattle. We win the prize for most cloudy days though… Bummer.
Special thanks goes out to Robyn and Seattle North Face for the clothes. And also to Mandy for painting some amazing clouds which were not used in the final.
This is a video of Cliff explaining some weather basics. I like how he explains things in terms anyone can understand. Plus he has soothing voice.
Tags: Atmospheric Sciences, Brad Colman, Cliff Mass, editorial portrait photography, Environmental Portrait, Headshot, John Keatley, Pacific Northwest weather, portrait photographer, Portraits, Seattle photographer, Seattle weather, Studio Portrait
Goodbye Greg Nickels
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Editorial, Tear Sheets
The end of the Greg Nickels era is near. Seattle mayor Greg Nickels has run this town for the past 8 years, but recently he removed himself from the Seattle mayors race, leaving two new guys to duke it out. I have photographed Mayor Nickels several times over the past few years, and he has provided me with some good imagery. I am going to miss photographing his intensity, but maybe the new mayor will prove to be a good subject also. It’s not like this is good bye though, since we are neighbors with the Nickels family. I could always walk down the street and borrow a cup of sugar.
(Here) is a link to the Seattle Met article in the tearsheet above. You can also click the tearsheet to view it larger, but the article is longer than the image shown here.
Tags: Conference of Mayors President, Corporate headshot, Greg Nickels, Headshots, Joe Malahan, Mayor Nickels, mayor picture, mayor portrait, mayors portrait, Mike McGinn, political headshot, political portrait, portrait of Greg Nickels, portrait of the mayor, Seattle headshot, Seattle Mayor, Seattle mayor picture, Seattle mayor portrait, the green mayor
Wexley School For Girls
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Advertising, Editorial
Behold. The Wexley School For Girls. What!? An all girls school run by these guys? Yes. Wexley is a very exclusive all-girls school (Ad Agency) run by these two guys. Cal and Ian. And one of the highlights of my job is working with these fine people.
When I first met Cal and Ian, they didn’t know anything about advertising. They were a lounge singer duo in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. I was hired by BusinessWeek to photograph them for a story about the resurgence of lounge singers in Metropolitan areas. That is how the sexy lounge singer portrait came about. At some point during the shoot, I said, ”This should be great advertising for your act.” And Ian said, “What the hell is advertising?” I laughed, but he wasn’t joking. He had no idea. I told him to look it up, which is exactly what he did. They read everything they could find about advertising, and before long they decided to open up their own ad agency.
The next time I photographed them, they were no longer singing Elton John, but they were making ads. And good ones at that.
In the last year, I have photographed Cal and Ian a few more times, as well as worked with them on a handful of ad campaigns. It’s not every day that an assignment or ad campaign comes around that allows you to work with such creative people who are willing to experiment and have fun. You might look at the quirky Wexley office, and think that it’s all fun and games. But they take what they do very seriously, and they are dang good at it too. Just look at the success the Seattle Sounders FC (a client of Wexley) have enjoyed.
I have a couple of earlier posts about ad campaigns that I have shot with Wexley. (Here) is the post about the Seattle Sounders FC billboard I shot earlier this year, and (here) is the post about the Human Wrecking Balls print campaign from late last year. In just a few short weeks, I will have some new Wexley related content and videos that I will be able to share. In the meantime, (here) is a hilarious video called “Winner Take Steve” written by Wexley, and directed by Jared Hess.
Tags: ad agency, ad agency headshots, Ad campaign, Cal McAllister, funny portraits, Headshots, Ian Cohen, Portraits, school for girls, Seattle ad agency, Seattle advertising, Sounders FC picture, Wexley, Wexley ad, Wexley advertising, Wexley office, Wexley pictures, Wexley School For Girls
Vince Mira Live in Seattle
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity, Editorial, Tear Sheets
I have really been looking forward to posting these portraits and videos. I had so much fun working on this assignment with Vince, and as an added bonus, the story is one of those rare page turners that doesn’t come around all that often in a magazine. For me, it’s right up there with the Wired article on Dan Kaminsky which I worked on last year. Here is the intro for Vince’s story, which is in the July 2009 issue of Seattle Metropolitan. The link to the entire article is further down.
“Billed as the Second Coming of Johnny Cash, a teenager from Federal Way wowed rock stars, morning news shows, Ellen DeGeneres, and the Cash estate. There’s just one problem: Vince Mira is done parroting the Man in Black.
There was a moment in September 2007 at the Cash Cabin, the studio built by the late Johnny Cash outside Nashville, when everyone froze. In the room were musicians intimately tied to Cash and his music—his son John Carter Cash, his bass player Dave Roe, and Jamie Hartford, who played guitar in the Cash biopic Walk the Line. Vince Mira, the Federal Way teen flown in for the recording session, had just crooned the last line of his “Cold Hearted Woman,” a twangy harangue against a cruelly apathetic succubus (“…as far as you are isn’t far enough for me”), leaving his audience speechless.
Finally, Hartford, who’d been scribbling music dictation in a notebook, dropped his pen and paper and turned to the producer. “John. Carter. Cash. Does that freak you out?” John looked up, “Yeah, that freaks me out.”
John Carter had just heard a familiar voice pour from the mouth of the teenager. The producer had agreed to record an album with the talented teen—already making a name for himself with Cash covers—on the condition that “We don’t just record a bunch of my dad’s old songs.” Now, here was Mira performing an original, but his voice, a haunted baritone, was spot-on Johnny Cash.”
- James Ross Gardner. Read the entire article (here).
Before this assignment, I had heard stories over the past couple of years about Vince Mira, the young teenager who was discovered playing Johnny Cash songs on the street. I had seen the YouTube videos from Ellen (here) Good Morning America and a few others, but I didn’t become a fan until I heard him perform live. Wow. This guy is talented. He is the real deal. There are a lot of people out there with a gimick, or who sound like someone famous. But Vince has huge talent, and he can stand on his own. His similarities to Johnny Cash provided him with a great start, but it’s exciting to see him head out on his own now and show people what he’s got.
The first video above is Vince Mira performing an original song, “I’m a Goin Back Home”. The second video is a Johnny Cash song, “Folsom Prison Blues”. Both were performed at the gum wall in Post Alley, Seattle. I asked Vince to play one of his songs so I could film it, and it didn’t take long at all for a crowd to gather. After he finished the first song, someone yelled out, “Play ‘Folsom Prison Blues’!”. Even though he is trying to get away from that, he didn’t seem to mind.
Vince has an album out now, called “The Cash Cabin Sessions“. It was recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio by John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash’s son. It’s a great album. You can also catch Vince every Tuesday night at the Can Can in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. For now at least. I don’t know how much longer he will be playing there, as he has already toured with Pearl Jam, and played on some pretty big stages.
Vince Mira - Folsom Prison Blues from John Keatley on Vimeo.
Vince Mira - I’m a Goin Back Home from John Keatley on Vimeo.
* If you are using a blog reader, you may need to visit my actual blog to see the videos show above.
Tags: Can Can, Cash Cabin Studio, Celebrity, Celebrity Portrait, Ellen, Folsom Prison Blues, Gum Wall, I'm a Goin Back Home, John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Music, Pike Place Market, Post Alley, Recording Artist, Seattle Met, Seattle Metropolitan, Street Performers, Teenage Singer, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Vince Mira, Vince Mira Performance, Vince Mira Singing, Vince Mira song, Vince Mira Video
Brain Rules And John Medina
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Editorial, Tear Sheets
Mina san konnichiwa. Hot off the press, my portrait of Dr. John Medina was printed on the cover of the Japanese edition of Brain Rules.
“In Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule—what scientists know for sure about how our brains work—and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives.”
I photographed Dr. Medina’s author portrait and press pictures last year, just before the book was first released in the States. Since then, the pictures have been published in Harvard Business Review, Seattle Metropolitan, and Response, to name a few.
When I got the assignment, my mind started racing with ideas and concepts that I could use for a brain scientist. I had heard that John is a passionate and expressive person, but nothing prepared me for the amount of energy and intensity that John generates. The slide show should give you a pretty good idea of what the shoot was like. John sang a song, made up a science rap, and charged at me during the shoot. Oh, and ate a plastic brain. What more could a photographer ask for!? One of my favorite images was an outtake that we shot at the end. I had the idea of using a brain like that old light bulb hovering over a persons head when an idea goes off. It was difficult to keep the brain from moving (I used string) but we eventually got it in place, and that ended up being the picture that was printed on the book jacket for the author portrait.
There is a ton of online content about Brain Rules if you are interested in finding out more. I highly recommend reading the book, as well. The English version that is…unless you can read Japanese. It is written in a way that anyone can understand, and everything in the book is practical information that can be used in your daily life.
* If you are using a blog reader, you may need to visit my actual blog to see the slide show above.
Tags: author portrait, biologist, book cover, book cover photo, Brain Rules, Dr. Medina, How The Brain Works, human brain, Japanese Edition, John Medina, molecular biology, Pear Press, Portrait, scientist portrait, The Brain
The Cat Ladies
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Editorial, Tear Sheets
This assignment really surprised me, and made a big impression on me. I’m not talking about being surprised by the locations that I shot at, or some impossible circumstances that came up during the assignment. I’m just talking about being surprised by people, and gaining an appreciation for the fact that everyone is different. Vicki and Janis love cats. As do many Americans. I am actually allergic to cats, so although I do not hate cats, I don’t really get excited about them either.
These two ladies love cats so much, they pour almost all of their time and energy into making the lives of feral cats as comfortable and safe as possible. As the tear sheet indicates, they trap, neuter, and release or find homes for feral cats.
I spent two days shooting this assignment, and on the second day, Janis drove me around her hometown to show me some of the feeding spots and cat shelters that she frequents. As we drove around, she would stop every few blocks, and fill up empty feeding dishes. I was amazed by the number of cat shelters and bowls that were hiding in the bushes, and behind businesses. Sometimes there were bowls right out in front of a business. It was a hidden world, like the Troll Market under the Brooklyn Bridge in Hellboy II, for those of you who saw it. You might walk by a cat shelter, or food bowl in public every day, and never even notice it. I can’t recall ever seeing one in my life, but there were dozens of stray cats living behind, under, and in front of buildings just within a few blocks. And all of these cats are given fresh food and water every single day by Janis and some of the other ladies who are involved. That’s a lot of money when you think about feeding hundreds of cats everyday.
While we were driving around from location to location, it really hit me. Every day, for years, these women have been caring for cats all over the city, and making a big difference. They prevent thousands of kittens from being born into difficult situations, and provide much better care for those cats that are already living without homes. While we were at a trailer park on the first day of shooting, a lady came out of her home, and thanked Vicki and Janis for what they are doing. She said that since they started fixing and caring for the cats in her neighborhood just weeks earlier, things have gotten much better. Cat’s were no longer urinating all over the place, and the frequent cat fights had pretty much stopped.
After my shoot with Vicki was over, I thanked her for what she is doing. Her work may not affect me directly, or at least in a way that I would have ever known about, but it is so good to see people caring for others (cats in this case). Trapping cats, and feeding them is not something that I will ever do, but I am thankful that there are people who do. That’s what I love about photography. I get to meet so many different people, and experience life from so many different points of view. I can just imagine what I would have thought when I was younger about “cat ladies”. Remember when so much of the country would laugh at “tree huggers”. I’m grateful for a new perspective. If everyone could find just one small way to care for people, animals, or the earth ,the changes would be great.
I have just been thinking about these things lately. Interestingly enough, some of my work has allowed me to experience first hand the needs of others, and what some people are doing to help. Thanks for reading.
You can read the entire article about TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) (here).
* If you are using a blog reader, you may need to visit my actual blog to see the cat slide show above.
Tags: Cats, Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project, Feral Cats, Janis Newman, Neuter, Seattle Metropolitan, Stray Cats, Tear Sheet, TNR, Vicki Farretta
Lisa Ling
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity, Editorial
This has been a difficult year for many people. I personally have been pinching pennies, and admittedly, things have been pretty slow at Keatley Photo as well. But looking for a bright side to all that is going on, the downturn has offered me a chance to slow down, and think about things in a new way. Not that I want it to be this slow for too long… Of the photo shoots I have had in the last few months, several of them have shared a theme of social justice and thinking outside of oneself. For so long, our country has told us to take as much as we can, and live it up, ignoring many of the problems that exist right outside our comfortable homes. Working with, and thinking about some of these themes and issues has made a big impact on me, and is slowly changing my heart.
Photographing Lisa Ling, was one of the experiences that has made a mark on me. She is someone who is making a difference in the world, and because of her national platform, she is able to reach a wide audience and inform many people about issues that we can no longer ignore. Animal rights and cruelty is a hot topic these days. I am hopeful that because of people like Lisa, and the tools that many of us have on the Internet, we can make a difference and take steps to make changes to the way that animals are treated, both domestically and industrially. Not everyone is able to adopt an animal, or even donate to a cause for animal rights. But we can all at least be informed, and speak out against issues such as this.
The State of Washington has recently had several raids on puppy mills, which really opened my eyes to the cruel treatment of dogs. Lisa Ling also made a short documentary about the cruel business of puppy mills which was aired on Oprah (watch here).
Animal cruelty is obviously one of many issues that need to be addressed, but I hope that as a country, we might start to be more open and aware of the needs around us. Lisa spoke to a group of students before I photographed her, and it was exciting to hear some of the students talking to each other as they were leaving the event. Many of them seemed moved and challenged by her talk, and I hope that many of them will strive to make positive changes in their communities, and in the world.
Below are links to several videos and articles about puppy mills if you want to find out more.
Main Line Animal Rescue
Seattle PI video report about a puppy mill raid earlier this year (here).
PETA undercover video about puppy mills (here).
Seattle Times articles about puppy mill raids this year (here) and (here).
Tags: Celebrity Portrait, CNN, Journalist Portrait, Lisa Ling, Lisa Ling Portrait, Main Line Animal Rescue, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Explorer, Oprah, Portrait of Lisa Ling, Puppy Mills, Reporter, Seattle Metropolitan, Social Justice, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View
