A thousand words about a picture

Since releasing the CD a lot of people have commented about the album cover and I thought it'd be really cool to tell you guys a little more about everything that went into taking the pictures for "Are We There Yet?" Every step of producing the EP was a crazy journey in which we worked with people that we would have never imagined to, and in the end realized we couldn't imagine having worked with anyone else. The pictures for the CD were no exception.

I have to begin by introducing the photographer, my friend Rick. I work at a coffee shop. At that job, I meet all kinds of random people. Rick was just a regular night customer who worked on his laptop in the back of the shop. He was quiet and reserved but well liked by all the staff. When he stopped coming in suddenly for a period of several months we checked the obituaries regularly worried that he had died (this actually happens often with barristas, warn your mocha maker if you're going on vacation or are giving up caffeine, we get oddly attached and easily concerned).

Eventually he came back, and over years of providing him with a constant stream of medium hot teas, I found out that one of Rick's hobbies was photography.

Rick started bringing his cameras to the coffee shop so he could practice taking pictures. Rick started collecting film camera's and he took hundreds of pictures of barristas, customers, and friends hanging out at the coffee shop. You can check out more of Rick's pictures from the shop herehttp://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403555670813.178522.674315813&type=3

 I was always blown away by the incredible inherent character that came through
these pictures taken with old film camera's. They seemed to capture something unique. To me film photography is like old vinyl records, honest, warm, raw, and beautiful in its flaws.






 Kendel and I are blessed to know several incredibly talented photographers. Thus, as we approached the topic of album photography, deciding who to work with was a very tough decision to make. As the themes of time, trials, and a journey were increasingly seen in the album, we decided that old film photography might be a good fit. Kendel and I both love everything vintage, so this was a pretty exciting idea. We wanted pictures that had a dream like, other worldly, character to them. Rick was actually very reluctant to take the job at first (he views his photography as a hobby not something he should do professionally or get paid for) but once he agreed he suggested that we might want to consider using expired Polaroid film.

The old chemicals in Polaroid film produce some incredible effects. However, it's always a bit of a crap shoot to see how the pictures will turn out.


 Each box can be totally different, and sometimes the pictures don't turn out at all. The gamble and challenge of getting the effect that we wanted "naturally" with old film was exciting and incredibly frustrating. The film we bought and used expired back in the mid to late 90's.

Some pictures only developed partially like this one. Polaroid pictures develop in minutes so we looked at the pictures as we went. This was exciting, nerve wracking, and exhilarating. Each picture felt like we were playing the lotto.

 Each box of film could have different characteristics. Pictures from this box had a blueish tinge and orange speckling. There is nothing you can do to control or predict the quality or effects in the pictures.




We took pictures in the downtown of our hometown Elgin, and out in the middle of nowhere west of Elgin. In every location we had very confused people ask us if were in trouble and in need of a ride. They were all very very confused by our appearance and clothes. I should have asked them what year it was and played along with the whole time traveler thing.






 In a lot of the pictures, the setting sun and old chemicals combined to give us a weird effect of identical fiery red hair.



Ps. Laying on a road for a picture seems like a great idea... In reality it means that your looking straight up into the sun into your eyes burn until they cry uncontrollably. Even if you don't get run over by a car....it still sucks.



Every picture that we used in the album was left unaltered. Our awesome album designer Josh Garner didn't touch up the pics or photoshop any effects in.
We decided to embrace the inherent flaws and discoloring that came from the old film. This correlated with decisions we made in the recording studio. In the studio too we preferred warm natural sounding vocals and subtle raw "flaws" such as the sound of the sustain pedal on the piano.


 This was the picture we used for the cover.


Using a film camera and expired Polaroid turned about the be incredibly difficult and time consuming. It took multiple photo shoots to get the shots we needed. It was difficult and it took time. It's still incredible to think about how odd it is that we ended up using the photography skills of a random coffee shop customer. However, I'm so glad that we chose to work with Rick and do things old school. The pictures turned out great, and I think the match the tone of the album perfectly. Hope this helps you see "Are We There Yet?" in a new light.