Giving all of it up for pictures

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press employees

Andrew Reinders liked being outdoors whereas rising up in Grafton, and his curiosity within the outdoor continues as an grownup.

Now he’s discovered a occupation that companions along with his ardour and captures the splendor of Mom Nature.

Reinders is a photographer who makes a residing via on-line gross sales of his photographs.

“I’ve all the time been out within the woods. I’d see random little scenes and take a fast snap with a cellphone, and I used to be fairly pleased with that,” Reinders stated.

Till just a few years in the past, a love of pictures, “hadn’t clicked, per se,” he stated.

He picked up the passion and a newly bought digital camera at a low level in life after a relationship ended.

“It initially began as a launch for myself,” he stated. “That is my pleased place. Nothing else issues.”

He posted his images to Fb, and folks started to ask to buy them.

After he contracted Covid-19 at his office, which induced him to overlook spending Christmas along with his household just a few years in the past, he stop his job, “and it’s been going gung-ho on pictures ever since.”

In late 2021, folks steered Reinders take one picture every day of 2022.

For Reinders, this wasn’t a kind of new yr’s resolutions to get wholesome earlier than shedding dedication just a few weeks or months into it.

“I’ve bought a factor of going above and past for setting targets for myself,” he stated.

The every day picture problem was accepted, and the Grafton resident started working.

Reinders clicks his shutter button by intuition.

“I simply go along with what the texture is. I’m a agency believer in when you can’t really feel the emotion when taking a photograph, it’s going to be rubbish,” he stated.

He has just a few favourite areas to seize, some nearer to house than others.

“There’s all the time Port Washington. I can’t neglect that lighthouse,” he stated.

“There’s one thing completely different about this one. It’s the identical breakwater, the identical rusty lighthouse, however every single day there’s a distinct emotion coming from it.”

Reinders has captured the lighthouse at dawn, sundown and nearly each different time of the day, in fog, summer season and frigid circumstances and every part in between.

Reinders additionally has a love of freighters. He as soon as left at night time for Duluth, Minn., to take images of the James R. Barker, then drove house in a 14-hour spherical journey.

The ship, he stated, is understood for its “ridiculous horn.” Throughout the captain’s salute because the 1,000-foot-long ship with a five-story construction at its stern enters port, “You maintain your ears for 30 seconds at a time,” Reinders stated.

Then, the bridge solutions again with its practice horns.

One other of Reinders’ most well-liked locations to shoot is Ashland County, the place his household has a spot to remain. Dwelling and transferring targets are the purpose there — elk.

“They’re completely different,” Reinders stated of the animals.

Whereas a whole bunch of elk exist out West, those in Wisconsin had been reintroduced in 1995.

Reinders adopted a gaggle of 4 in fall. One was performing goofy, bouncing round greater than the others.

“They every have their very own character,” he stated.

Topographical maps have helped Reinders determine the animals’ motion round Clam Lake within the Chequamegon Nationwide Forest. They principally keep on flat areas.

The Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets has just a few of Reinders’ elk images, and the 2023-24 Nice Waters calendar contains one among his images of Port Washington.

Reinders used to stay in Belgium and would stroll to Harrington Seashore State Park, one other well-liked place for images. He all the time wore a pink hoodie that he stated birds started to acknowledge. He took images whereas feeding them out of his hand.

Reinders tries to take images on public land as usually as doable.

“I make it some extent to say precisely the place I’m,” he stated.

“I attempt to share what I see. There’s a lot negativity on the earth. I wish to catch magnificence.”

Reinders’ talent with a number of Nikon cameras has been developed via trial and error with assist from just a few YouTube movies when he will get caught.

He hasn’t made the swap to the most recent know-how — mirrorless cameras — however he could this fall. His 150 to 600-millimeter Sigma lens in a mirrorless model prices round $18,000.

“That’s a automobile,” Reinders stated.

He grew up excited about structure and design, then took a liking to being a mechanic and earned certifications from Ford.

However he gave all of it up for pictures.

“It’s not value being stressed working 80 hours per week and never having any private happiness,” he stated.

“I positioned myself in a completely great place to do what I would like. For those who work arduous for a few years, it pays off.”

He has labored on automobiles for his pals, however he isn’t accepting appointments.

The times in his new profession enterprise might be lengthy. Whereas catching a dawn in Port, he bought a notification that the Northern Lights can be seen up north. Reinders made the journey.

Mendacity on the seashore with no person round whereas gazing on the pure phenomenon is an “superior expertise,” he stated.

When the climate turns dangerous, Reinders focuses on avenue pictures.

“The rain works very well to magnify textures on issues,” he stated.

Reinders has taken some senior images and shot a marriage, however he stated he tries to steer clear of folks as his topics.

“It’s not my forte,” he stated.

Reinders has plans for his enterprise to take off this yr. He’ll run workshops on taking images of elk and waterfalls, letting small teams of individuals be a part of him throughout his picture shoots.

He additionally hopes to launch an internet site and grow to be extra energetic on social media. Images and postcards along with his work might be out there for buy at inns and fuel station in Clam Lake, he stated.

“This entire yr goes to be a yr of start for Andrew Reinders Images,” he stated.

He has one other purpose relating to elk.

“I actually wish to contact a bull and never find yourself within the hospital,” he stated.

For extra data, go to www.fb.com/AndrewReindersPhotography.