Headed down a new path - Adios Fish and Clicks!

Well, for those of you who still find your way to my Fish and Clicks photography blog, you'll notice that I've been absent as of late. Between my full time job at my newspaper, my wedding photography side business and maintaining the websites for both, I've fallen behind in my blog posts. I've decided to consolidate my journalism website and my Fish and Clicks blog. This way everything will be in one place. I want to thank all of you for your support of this blog and I hope you will continue to support my photography work by checking into my new blog found at http://www.mikegreener.com/blog from time to time. It will be the best place to check out of my photo happenings and latest work. My wedding photography business Greener Visuals Wedding Photography will continue to reside at http://www.greenervisuals.com/blog

Thanks so much for following me on my adventures on Fish and Clicks. Greener out.

Photographing Behind the Scenes at the 2011 Outside Lands Music Festival

A couple weekends ago, my reporter Nick DeCicco and I got to cover the entire weekend of the Outside Lands Music Festival at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Being a local daily newspaper in Solano County, it’s rare that journalists at our newspaper get an opportunity for press passes at such a big event in the big city. Nick keeps up a well thought out music blog and pitched the idea of covering it to our bosses and in the end were given the green light to go do and cover it. I love being in big crowds and seeing live music. Ever since I was an adolescent, the majority of my pitiful income would go towards summer concerts and band tours. This time it would be different. Our press passes were our golden tickets. One of the things I love most about my job is the doors photojournalism can take you through. In this case, it was the backstage access and photo pit in front of the front row that allowed me to get a new glimpse into the music world I grew up loving. There was not a bad performance to be had. Notable bands worth checking out in no particular order of awesomeness: Joy Formidable, Foster The People, MGMT, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, Phish, Ok Go, Arctic Monkeys, Old 97′s, The Black Keys, Josh Ritter, John Fogerty, The Decemberists, and Arcade Fire. Here are some of my favorite snaps from the weekend. Keep on rocking people! -M

Up in the Air in June

June has always been a point in the year where change comes about in Fairfield. Schools are letting out for the summer and the daily work at my newspaper shifts from the sports and education reporting into a more laid back summer mode. It's a chance to divulge more time to long term stories. I welcome it. Lately I've found myself shooting a lot of assignments from a high vantage point. I recently accompanied airmen from Travis Air Force Base up into a KC-10 Extender for a military mid air fueling exercise. It was pretty cool to be 40,000 ft up in the air in the tail section of a military jet looking down on a huge cargo plane. Likewise I also had the chance to document a young team of rescue first responders practicing their evacuation of a victim from the view point of their large training towers. This July marks my third year anniversary working at the Daily Republic newspaper in Fairfield. It's crazy how fast it has all past by me and still to this day I am pleased to find myself still experiencing new situations and covering new stories. It also makes me step back and think about how much I've grown both photographically during my time here. I've been quite busy developing my wedding photography business. My role documenting weddings has quickly become a huge enjoyment for me. One that has caught me off guard at times. I think some good changes are on the horizon for me.

May in Review

And I'm back. I took a little break from the blog this month. So much has been going on in my neck of the woods. Here are some of the images I made this month that stood out to me. I felt pretty good about the images I made. I've been doing a lot of soul searching in my photography this year. The year started out pretty rough for me with beginning it with being in a car accident and then getting some heavy portfolio reviews from my mentor Alex Garcia and legendary photo editor Mike Davis. The result of these encounters is that the first half of this year has been a big period for growth and reflection both mentally and photographically. I feel like I am finally regaining my rhythm and have started making some nicer images. I've been working really hard at getting my Greener Visuals Wedding Photography business off of the ground and it is starting to bare fruit. I've got five weddings lined up this year and am working on securing a couple more. Things are good just incredibly busy. Always a good thing. Thanks for looking. -M

Memorial Day Weekend in Solano County

I was one of the few people actually working on Memorial Day but it allowed me to really focus on the day's festivities.