Mallon Tree Service, Evansville, WI

Arborists are folks who take care of trees. And trees need some care if you want them to be healthy, good looking and not fall on your house or kids. When I was a kid, dad always did the tree hacking around the yard, so I grew up thinking it was normal for homeowners to climb, trim and take down their own trees. Then I grew up and realized Dad just does everything on his own, no matter how dangerous or if he knows anything about the thing. He's real DYI.

Photographing arborists is one of the few spheres of work where my camera and climbing skills overlap. I have climbed trees with ropes a number of times, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to ride a lift truck up. It's easier! But I gotta say, it was much less flexible. I got up there, established an anchor, and then I couldn't move much. But the guys could move themselves and the truck around me, so it worked out.

Mallon Tree Service is based just outside Cooksville, WI, one of my favorite little towns south of Madison. Whenever we paddle Badfish Creek, we stop at the general store there for ice cream. I don't know how or why Cooksville got so cute, but they have a great collection of little brick houses, plus a couple great old churches. I would live there.

I don't know much about tree work, but I can say Emma & Kyle are fantastic to work with. Kyle learned his trade with the City of Milwaukee; some time after, he and Emma moved out to the country, where some family land became available. Turns out Emma's grandfather is John Wilde, whose work I've seen at MOMA; her dad is Jonathan Wilde, whose work I often admire at Artisan Gallery in Paoli. So the Mallons are carrying the family heritage forward, taking care of the earth and making it beautiful too. Really fun to help with their project.

Therapists and Dogs

A couple years ago, Madison psychotherapist Amy Collins told me people spend 2-3 times as much time on website if it has dogs on the homepage. Really? Because dogs? I was incredulous at first, but she went on to explain how she had done her Ph.D. research studying how and why therapy website works (or don't). One of her discoveries was this dog-loving thing... just feature a dog on your website, and as if by magic - BOOM - folks stick around longer. This concept seems too simple to keep secret.

Amy features her big German Shepard on her website homepage, and at client request, will bring him in to hang out during therapy sessions. That’s pretty cool.

Rhonda Reinholz and her cute pooch.

I was shooting headshots with Rhonda Reinholz, a Madison therapist on the near west side, and we made sure to include some shots with her adorable Standard Poodle. I don't think she's going to feature her dog on her website, nor does she offer animal-assisted therapy, but at least she'll have the option available in case things get slow sometime.

Ben Heinrichs was a Madison psychotherapist with Westside Psychotherapy, and now owns his own practice, Breakwater Psychotherapy, with his wife, Rachel, in Delray Beach, FL. We snuck his dog, Dr. Theodore McTubbins, into his photo shoot when nobody was looking. That’s one cute dog! And Ben has nice socks.