Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2015

During a recent trip to Milwaukee to visit the USS Milwaukee naval ship, I first took a quick trip further North to Green Bay to visit Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers football team. I had visited Lambeau a couple of times, but never was able to photograph the football field fully "dressed". Once I got to Lambeau, I saw the familiar statues of Earl L. (Curly) Lambeau(for whom Lambeau Field is named after) and Vince Lombardi. The statues sit in Harlan Plaza just outside the Atrium. Once inside, I visited the Champion Suite and saw a cool display of Green Bay Packers championship rings and framed football jerseys of current players Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews and B.J. Raji. There was also a larger than life sculpture replica of the Vince Lombardi Trophy inside the Lambeau Field atrium. Next, I was on my way to photograph the playing field. Once I saw the field, it was "dressed up" like I was expecting, but I was disappointed seeing these weird looking machines on the field. But the cool thing about those machines was that I found out that Lambeau Field keeps its grass green in the winter by using these Mobile Grow Lamps. That was something I didn't know about, but was happy that I not only found out that bit of information, but I was able to photograph them in action.

Back to Milwaukee, and on my way to Veterans Park to photograph the USS Milwaukee naval ship. The USS Milwaukee is the only naval ship to date to be commissioned in her namesake city, in the state she was built. Once I got there, there were lots of Milwaukeeans at the park to see the huge ship and capture photos on their cell phones and other cameras. I was excited because I had never seen a ship this h-u-g-e in person. I was doubly happy to be able to photograph it, as it was being commissioned and sailing off the next day. And since I was on the Lakefront, I was able to photograph an art installation of a car wrapped around a pole. This piece was done by German artist Dirk Skreber, and it sits outside the fabulous Milwaukee Art Museum. This building is awesome, and is a true gem on Milwaukee's lakefront.