Why You Should Put Yourself on Assignment

Why You Should Put Yourself on Assignment

When you open your email’s ‘Inbox’ to find that an editor has reached out for you to take photos, it’s exhilarating. Making pictures, being creative, having access to photograph interesting people, places, things, etc., and making money—it all can be as thrilling as it sounds. 

Saginaw, MI

Saginaw, MI

More Than a Simon & Garfunkel Lyric In the Simon and Garfunkel song America, a line from the song goes, “It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.” Growing up two and a half hours north of there, that song reference was the first 

Voyaging: The Treaty Fish Co., Peshawbestown, Mich.

Voyaging: The Treaty Fish Co., Peshawbestown, Mich.

Ed and Cindi John The temperature was well below freezing and the wind was making sure it stayed that way. As my boots made the crunch…crunch…through snow and ice while trudging toward a fishing boat, a seagull delivered a side-eye glance to see if I’d 

Feather Bowling: A Bygone Belgian Pastime Is Revered in Detroit

Feather Bowling: A Bygone Belgian Pastime Is Revered in Detroit

Let’s Roll The Cadieux Cafe in Detroit’s east side serves up an impressive selection of Belgian beers along with mussels and other specialties. It’s a unique place, not just for the food and drink though. Walk through two doors at an end of the bar 

Voyaging: Mackinaw City, MI—Crossroads in the State Made with Hands

Voyaging: Mackinaw City, MI—Crossroads in the State Made with Hands

Look at the palm of your right hand; that’s Michigan, the lower peninsula. Follow your middle finger to the tip and that’s where Mackinaw City is. Now, look at the palm of your left hand, that’s Michigan’s upper peninsula. Connect the tip of your left 

Voyaging: Seney, MI

Voyaging: Seney, MI

Hemingway Fished Here The first time I remember hearing the word ‘Seney’ was in the late 1990s or early 2000s when a friend and I were helping a buddy move back to college in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A road on our helpful journey we were 

On Assignment: Muskegon, Mich. for The Wall Street Journal

On Assignment: Muskegon, Mich. for The Wall Street Journal

In the springtime, I’d photographed subjects, places and people relating to the coronavirus. Those photos were self assigned, as I wanted to visually document what I could during that time. The benefits of self assigning myself that work was that I had the convenience of 

On Assignment: Feature Hunting during COVID-19

On Assignment: Feature Hunting during COVID-19

    The Traverse City Record-Eagle newspaper recently contacted me to make images to be used without a story attached. These types of photos can be called ‘features’, ‘spec photos’ and ‘wild art’. There have been so many photos focused on coronavirus that the challenge