Todd Rundstrom • Speaker

Professional Service Clubs, Organizations, High Schools, College Classes and Chamber of Commerce Groups have all been entertained and inspired by Todd Rundstrom’s uplifting messages of the Power of Photography and the Magic of his Photo Adventures.

Todd can speak from 15 minutes to one hour depending on your time needs.

Topics

• The Power of Photography •

Todd takes you on a brief history of the invention and growth of photography from the mid 1800’s to today. He describes what makes a powerful photograph and presents some of the most gripping photographs of the past 175 years. An entertaining look at 19th, 20th and 21st century world history through the lens of the world’s most talented photographers.

Todd explains how these trailblazers captured historic events with their cameras, and how their photographs have defined — and even influenced — cultural events and movements in America and across the globe.

• A Week in the Amazon Rainforest •

In 2009, Todd took his cameras and visited the town of Iquitos, Peru, in the heart of Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. He has returned to Iquitos four more times times, in 2010, 2011, 20212 and 2015.

Let him take you on a visual and imaginary journey to a world filled with towering trees, lush vegetation, exotic - and potentially deadly - wildlife. His stories will stun you and make you want to book your own trip to the Amazon or avoid it all costs!

• Backpacking through europe •

In the fall of 1994, Todd took his cameras and one hundred rolls of film, a backpack and a sleeping bag, and set out on a journey of adventure and exploration. When he was 23 years old, Todd bought a one-way plane ticket to Ireland and a three month Eurail train pass. Over 100 days, he traveled by trains, taxis, ferries, double-decker buses, high-speed rail, the Paris Metro, trams, trolleys and many kilometers by foot, across 10 countries: Ireland, England, France, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Travel with Todd on his magical time machine called photography to a period before cell phones and event the internet. Before social media, before 9/11, and before Y2K, people communicated by pay phones, pre-paid international phone cards and air mail letters written on rice paper, folded over themselves to create the envelope to mail them.

See Todd’s pictures of Irish castles, Dublin’s Windmill Lane where the band U2 recorded several albums, London’s Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, French chateaux, Scandinavian forests, the joy of Octoberfest and the gut-wrenching ghosts of Dachau, a Nazi concentration camp in Munich, Germany, before journeying on to experience the splendor of Venice and the sun-drenched beaches on the southern tip of Spain.

• Miami spice! •

in 1998, Todd graduated at the top of his class at The Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale with a degree in Commercial Photography. A week before graduating, he was hired as the Studio Manger for Peter Langone, a highly respected and influential photographer in South Florida. Peter’s clients included Buick, Walt Disney World, Claritin Pharmacueticals, Burlington Coat Factory, South Florida Business Magazine and Ft. Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, and Sandals Resorts in Jamaica and the Bahamas.

As Studio Manager, Todd was responsible for several aspect of operating Peter’s studio: Scouting Locations; Pulling Location Permits; Organizing Model Castings, Packing Gear, Procuring Craft Meals for day-long and multi-day assignments, Setting up the Photo Shoots - inspecting and arranging the sets, setting up tripods, cameras, reflectors, gobos, scrims, and loading film. Yes, this was in the days of film.

After each assignment, Todd processed the film and printed prints. Peter had a full darkroom in his downtown Ft. Lauderdale Studio capable of processing E-6 slide positive film, color & black and white negative film, in both 35 mm and 120 size, along with enlargers capable of printing black and white prints up to 16x20”. Todd honed his already considerable photography techniques by pushing and pulling film during the developing stage and dodging & burning in the printing stage.

Let Todd regale your group with stories from South Beach circa 1999. Depending on your organization, this presentation can be PG, R or X-rated…. after all, it was South Florida. ;-)

• The thrill of victory & agony of defeat - in a fraction of a second •

Love Sports? Todd does too!

Todd has been on the sidelines photographing everything from little leagues, high schools, recreational leagues, DI and DII colleges, culminating in capturing the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ 1998 Orange Bowl victory and their share of the National Championship. This was Tom Osborne’s final game. During his time as a photographer for the Kansas City Star, he photographed semi-professional and professional sports teams and athletes in a variety of settings.

In addition to his personal stories, during this action-packed presentation Todd also highlights some of the best sports photographs in history.