Shooting outdoor headshots in Colorado is always an adventure. The strong Colorado sun presents its own set of challenges, and when you’re working with harsh sunlight in outdoor photography, the key is using the right lighting gear to balance everything out. For this shoot, I relied on a 6’ overhead “butterfly” silk (Westcott Scrim Jim Cine) and a 6’ Photek SunBuster umbrella, paired with strobes to control the intensity of the sun. It’s never just a set-it-and-forget-it situation — outdoor […]
You wouldn’t let an uninsured roofer climb around on your house, right? Or hire a cable guy who doesn’t know a wrench from a wire cutter? Hiring a photographer without liability insurance is the same gamble — just with nicer lighting. Most licensed trades — like electricians and plumbers — are required to carry liability insurance. Photography isn’t regulated the same way, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less risky.You should always ask your photographer for proof of insurance. Here’s why […]
Robotic surgery sounds otherworldly, but it’s actually becoming somewhat commonplace. Certain procedures, like prostate surgery, have seen the benefits of smaller incisions, less blood loss, and reduced healing times. To share their stories of excellent patient outcomes, Intermountain Health brought me in for a day. To make the procedures look believable, we sterilized various clients’ limbs. Always a good time to have your leg wrapped in orange bacteria-killing plastic for an hour. Interestingly, in some cases, the surgeon is a […]
Many of you know Ernie as one of Denver’s great videographers. Well-traveled, talented and wise, and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. But he has a dark side: He’s a bluesman. Unlike me, he did something useful during the pandemic: He wrote and recorded an entire album. He had bandmate Mary Johanson (Wasted on the Young) come and give voice to his cool, witty lyrics. And he was nice enough to have me come around a do a few […]
My friend and colleague, newly-minted attorney Johnnie Nguyen, is running for office. He’s going to surely be elected his district’s next CU Regent. In order to get the word out, I was asked to do a morning of photos with him and several CU students. We might call this lifestyle photography—Creating a believable vignette, arranging the talent, giving them direction, and capturing a series of emotive yet technically-proficient photos. After Johnnie wins Regent, watch out. The sky’s the limit with […]
“That sounds so cool!” I said to the events coordinator at Jackson, my Financial Services client in Nashville. He had just invited me to photograph their big day in New York: Ringing the opening bell on the floor of the Stock Exchange. This is the seat of the world’s economy, where it all happens, and a place you can’t even take a tour of anymore! We also went up to Times Square to see their digital signage. Their extremely tall […]
Last month saw another challenging but fun multi-day shoot for Black Hills Energy. Their focus for this years’ Annual Report is their gas service in the Omaha area, and all the safety improvements being made there. From a 100-year-old downtown basement to suburban side-yards to rural pipe upgrades, the scope of service improvements kept growing. Nebraska is beautiful in late summer, and literally 90º warmer than last years cover shot: Dusk in Wyoming in January. The key to a productive […]
This month saw a challenging and endlessly interesting shoot. The Black Hills of South Dakota were calling, and as spring eased into summer, that’s a great place to be for not one, but two shoots. Coeur Wharf, a gold mine that’s been in production for more than 30 years near Deadwood, is operated by Coeur Mining. This location’s photo library was long depleted and was in dire need of a massive refresh, so we worked 2 1/2 days and delivered […]
Being a client of one of the region’s great political strategists gets exciting for just a couple months, every couple years. It’s then that I get to meet wonderful and energetic candidates running for everything from Dog Catcher to State Senate. But our shoots aren’t overly social. They’re super cram-packed, actually. I receive a “tick-tock” schedule the night before with really well-planned locations and very tight timeframes, and usually bight and early, we’re off. This year was no exception. We […]
Black Hills Energy, an electric and gas utility, is headquartered in Rapid City, South Dakota. On the doorstep of the actual Black Hills! Every year around midwinter, the investor-relations folks like to huddle with the in-house design team and me to come up with a way to photograph that year’s report theme. For the 2018 report, it was READY, which is what you want your local utility to be when an imminent blizzard is threatening to cut off your heat.Black Hills […]
Last month, I was asked to shoot stills for a stand-up comedy special featuring Chad Daniels. Chad’s been all over Sirius XM Comedy lately, and his people felt the time was right to shoot another hour-long show for TV. All they needed was some stills to promote it, design into the DVD box, and pepper his social media with. Great show. Hilarious guy. Impossibly talented huge, easygoing TV crew. And what a beautiful venue! A designer had rebuilt the Comedy […]
Oh, come on. You were kind of excited to hear that the talented kids at Lakewood High School won themselves a Katy Perry concert, weren’t you?They, like, made this great video and, like, Katy Perry totally came through? Check out the video here. ABC’s Good Morning America asked if I’d be able to cover it. As THE ONLY MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHER. Aside from the 3 am call time (you read that right), it was a blast. Katy came on about 5 am […]