Racing the Queen's Cup, 2011

Now for something completely different.

We are sailors.  My husband, Mark, and I co-own a S2, 9.2 with several friends.  Mark and the crew have placed 2nd in their division in the Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac the past 2 years. This will be the first year I will be joining the crew.

The CYC Race to Mackinac is one of the most respected fresh water yacht races in the country. All sailboats, big & small may compete with an invitation from the race committee. Our boat, "Intuition", is in the small category and races in it's division with similar boats of size and sails.

In preparation for the Race to Mackinac we took on the Queen's Cup race on July 1, 2011. The race starts at the South Shore Yacht Club in Milwaukee, WI and ends in Muskegan, MI. Our elapsed finish time was 10 hours and 31 minutes. The beginning of the race was intense. One of the boats in our division demasted (exactly what it sounds like!) and we were pushing the hull speed of our boat by surfing off of 8 foot swells for the first third of the race. Well, here's a short clip of what you could see from our boat:

We will start the Race to Mackinac for our division on July 15. If you would like to share in the fun just check back here for a link to track the boats during the race. I will post that information as soon as the CYC  web site has it available.

Also, here's a bit of our new video endeavors, a rough cut right now but we hope to continue developing our video and editing capabilities.  We have also made investments in better sound equipment- the goal is to do all of these things AND sail the boat at the same time. Enjoy:

Steenbock's and Fountain Prairie

I had the opportunity to photograph some of Chef Michael Pruett's creations for Steenbock's on Orchard. Michael's passion is developing recipes in the "molecular gastronomy" tradition. New tastes, textures and visual surprises provided new opportunities for experimenting with lighting and camera angles.

Steenbock's focuses on sourcing foods from local farms and vendors and the menu reflects seasonally diverse fare based on availability of certain ingredients throughout the year. I wanted to document where the food comes from as well as the final dishes served at the restaurant. Michael invited me to join him for a morning at Fountain Prairie Farms while he inspected what the organic garden would offer him for the week's menu.

After touring the farm I took a little time with Michael in the restored barn to do a few film portraits. I found one last roll of Agfachrome 1000 for my Hasselblad 500C.  It felt amazing to hold the camera again and it was easy to remember how to load the 120 film back, even after 8 years of not using it. I love that camera and I will be making a point of bringing it to more of my projects.