April 6, 2020

I hope everyone is doing well during our pandemic right now. Here in Wisconsin we are being advised to stay at home.  There is not much traffic out there so hopefully everyone is complying and staying safe.  It's a good time to get house projects done and other chores.

We go back in time today for my blog which is about my first paying music related photo job!!! I was 17 years old, in high school and working at Camera Corner here in Milwaukee every day after school.

My boss at Camera Corner, John Dunar, was very nice and saw my interest of getting into the music photography business. A friend of John's was Dave Kennedy of Dave Kennedy Recording Studios. They were talking together in the store one day and Dave said he had a band called The Serendipity Singers coming in to record that week. Then he asked me if I would like to photograph this folk band and document their day of recording in his studios! Before I could say yes he even offered to pay me!

The day is documented here and you can even see my photo gear bag in one photo. The experience was an eye opener for me in a few ways. It was the first time in a recording studio and I was just in love with the technology that surrounded me. Dave Kennedy had THE 16 track tape machine of the time, an Ampex Master Maker 1000 16 track recorder!

The second eye opener of the day happened when I learned that my borrowed camera was stolen!  I borrowed it from Camera Corner with permission from my boss. I wanted to have two cameras available to me that day.  I put one of the cameras on a couch in the reception office for a few minutes. In less than five minutes someone took it and it was never seen again along with the exposed film that was in it. My boss at the camera store was very nice about it but it was a big life lesson for me!  Still would really like to have that film.

Enjoy the photos that I have of that very interesting day.  They even played kazoo's! Remember those?

Be safe everyone.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

January 25, 2016

Wow, it's blog #200!!!! That's a lot and I haven't repeated one yet!  Goal accomplished.

Anyway, this week's blog is about one of my first paying photo jobs.  It was the day that the Serendipity Singers came to the Dave Kennedy Recording Studios in Milwaukee on June 7, 1972.

More cowbell please. We hear that a lot these days. However, on this day it was more kazoo please! They spent a lot of time working on a kazoo riff and vocals. The only instruments they had that day were kazoos.  There were no other instruments.

As to who is who in these photos, I haven't a clue.  This group changed members so frequently through the years.  They have been around for a long time and they are still going today.

My job that day was interesting.  I borrowed another camera from my boss at Camera Corner to have as a backup.  I used it with a different lens so I had another camera ready to go.  Well, it was really ready to go because I set it down on a couch by the reception area and when I came back two minutes later it was gone!!  Someone stole it and of course it had the film in it with the shots I had just taken.   My boss at Camera Corner, Jon Dunar, was really nice about it and he didn't even fire me!

Enjoy a look at the film that didn't get stolen from the one camera that didn't get stolen.

Have a good week and if you know anything about who is who in these photographs, let me know please.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The Serendipity Singers at the Dave Kennedy Recording Studios on June 7, 1972.