April 27, 2015

Time to switch my blogs to some Indy car racing photography for my racing fans! Also, because it's almost Indy 500 time!

So, for the next few blogs we are going to be looking at the 1990, Miller Beer 200, CART race at the Milwaukee Mile.

This was a good time for Indy cars with big name drivers. We had and will look at today, Emerson Fittipaldi, Raul Boesel, Arie Luyendyk, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan and A.J. Foyt Jr.

Team owner Roger Penske and his right hand man Teddy Mayer are also shown today. Teddy Mayer was one of the best engineers on the planet, coming from years in Formula 1.

It is interesting to me to see the dashboards of 1990, when now, all information for the driver is on the steering wheel!

Enjoy a look at film roll number one of my collection with more to come next week.

Time for me to mow the grass for the first time now while you look at this!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The CART Indy Car series at the Milwaukee Mile on June 3, 1990.

April 20, 2015

This week we look at the legend, Curtis Mayfield, who I photographed at Summerfest in 1973.

It's always fun to look at Summerfest's Main Stage on the grass hill here, where the speakers were held together with rope!

His bass player is shown here, throwing his guitar in the air while playing! Anybody remember his name?

Curtis, had a remarkable career, but had a very tough life. In 1990, at a show in New York, some lighting equipment fell on him, paralyzing him from the neck down.

This, did not stop him from writing songs! He would compose, sing and record while on his back!

Famous for being in The Impressions and doing soundtracks for movies like Shaft, he had a great career through a lot of hardship. He lost a leg due to diabetes and finally died from complications of the disease in 1999.

He had his own record label Curtom, and a recording studio, in Chicago for many years.

I will always remember him for his famous song, Superfly!

Miss you Curtis.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Curtis Mayfield, at Summerfest in 1973.

April 13, 2015

Lately, I have featured some blogs from photographs that I have found, lost in a closet in the house here.

Today, I am featuring Willy Porter and his band from Summerfest in 2009. I found them lost in my digital closet here on the computer! They were in with a bunch of bands from Summerfest in 2009.

At Summerfest, I always try to photograph just about everyone I come across while I am there.

Sorry Willy, you, Carmen, and the band, have been lost for a while! Too many shows photographed at Summerfest by yours truly in 2009!

Willy Porter and Carmen Nickerson are one of Milwaukee's top music artists. Milwaukee is very fortunate to have such quality performers that tour nationally.

I didn't know about Willy, until I was at a gallery opening with my photographs in Minneapolis years ago. Willy and the band were playing in Minneapolis and a friend said that one of Milwaukee's top acts was in town that night. Sorry again Willy, I didn't know who you were!!

You and Carmen are exceptionally talented musicians that need more exposure and shouldn't be lost in a closet!!

So, everyone, enjoy some photographs of Willy, Carmen, and the band, from 2009 and get out there to see them sometime soon.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Willy Porter, with Carmen Nickerson and the band at Summerfest in 2009.

April 6, 2015

Spring is finally here and I hope you all had a nice Easter with family and friends.

This week's blog, takes us back to March 28, 1973, for The Edgar Winter Group show at the Riverside Theater here in Milwaukee.

Edgar Winter, was enjoying great success at this time with his #1 hit song "Frankenstein". His other hit at the time "Free Ride", made it to #14 on the US Hot 100 chart.

At the end of 1972, he had formed The Edgar Winter Group with the late Ronnie Montrose, Chuck Ruff and Dan Hartman. This is the band shown here and they were really good!

Edgar, is the brother of the late, Johnny Winter, and is also known as the inventor of the keyboard body strap. This gave him great freedom to move around on stage and continue to play. I also have photographed musician Gary Wright, using this invention.

Take a look back to 1973 and enjoy the platform shoes and big bellbottom pants! Still have those in your closet?

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The Edgar Winter Group, on March 28, 1973 at Milwaukee's Riverside Theater.

March 30, 2015

First of all, I must thank Larry Widen for helping me with last week's blog about Steve Miller. He helped me to get the year that the photos were taken all straightened out! The show that was pictured in last week's blog of Steve Miller with Leslie West at Summerfest was 1977. I wasn't sure, so I asked all of you for some feedback and thanks to Larry, who was at the show, it's all figured out now! Love feedback from you and please know that I read and respond to every comment.

This week's blog came about because of a photograph of mine that appeared on a Facebook page without my knowledge. I was like, I think that is my photo!! So, I got home, checked it out and it is my photo!

It is one of seven images of boat racer Tim Seebold, racing in the SST 140 class race during the St. Louis Grand Prix weekend in 1991. Tim Seebold and his family is probably the most famous family of boat racers. His father Bill, brother Mike, and grandfather Bill senior, all race boats.  They usually win every race they participate in!

So, in the race shown here, Tim Seebold didn't win. Going into the turn, Mark Miller driving the boat on the inside of the turn, trimmed down a little bit, then Tim did, and then Mark straightened out and ran under Tim's boat forcing it into the air. This lifted Tim's boat and then it just forced him up, up, up into the air!  It was amazing.

I watched it all in the viewfinder of my Nikon and just let the motordrive do it's job until it ran out of film! Remember film? Wow, do I wish this was a digital situation and I could have just kept on shooting. But back then, there were only 36 shots to a roll. I wish I could have gotten a few more photos of the landing of Tim's boat.

Well, Tim walked away from this but the boat didn't! It was broken up pretty good and I never did hear what happened to it after the accident. If anyone knows, let me know about the boat repair job and if it ever raced again.

One last interesting fact for you- in the last frame you can see a fellow photographer without his shirt on running away! He is the official Mercury Racing photographer and he got a few great shots of Tim coming directly at him before he ran away!

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Tim Seebold, getting a little air at the St. Louis Grand Prix on 8-11-1991.