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Category : People on Location

Location Headshots: Colorado Edition

Outdoor location headshots are always an adventure! These two setups required a 6’ overhead (“butterfly”) silk (Westcott Scrim Jim Cine) and a 6’ Photek SunBuster umbrella, plus strobes. Lots to manage, but I always like how the portraits turn out. I also like clients happily holding lightstands when two Boa Bags isn’t even close to enough. Golden and Boulder.

Location Portraits: Challenging Office!

Location portraits are hard. That’s why I like doing them. All the years of experience add up to a successful day in a super-challenging, changing environment! My client Ingenovis had a cool idea: Make a mix of location business portraits for several of their team with different backgrounds, lighting, and allow space for different crops. Their office, thankfully, is very hip and modern, with lots of wide-open spaces. This actually makes a huge difference. Trying to do this in a […]

Robotic Surgery at Good Sam

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 […]

Location Portraits 2023

One of my great pleasures in photography is making portraits on location. It combines all the technical with all the personal: Getting a little glimpse and someone’s personality, in physical context.  They take a little longer than regular headshots on seamless, but tell a completely different story. Consider them for your next branding update! See more location portraits here.

Singing the Blues with Ernie Santella

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 […]

Cookin’ With Clover

Clover make those point-of-purchase terminals we’ve all used at coffee shops, but they also do much more for restaurants and other small businesses. They and their creative partners, Closed Loop, were filming another digital spot in Denver, and were nice enough to ask me to do the stills. Here’s Chef Porter cooking up a storm.  Shot by Joe Baran, the 100+ shot day featured the interior of Greenwich Restaurant on Larimer Street. In fact, they made the artisanal pizza lunches! Goodness. Get […]

Politics 2022

Politics is supposed to be a miserable business, right? Well, I must have pissed off all the right people, because my political clients are wonderful. We shoot mail pieces all summer long, for every office from City Councilwoman to U.S. Senator. And guess what? We have a blast doing it. Long days, challenging conditions, but always filled with interesting conversation between wardrobe changes. Best of luck to this lot! See more people on location here. Lighting on Adam by gaffer […]

Photo-Centric TV Spots

What a cool concept. Inspired by modern social media photographers’ love of high-speed sync flash techniques, my friends at Network Affiliates made a couple ultra-hip TV spots showcasing the style. We got a big studio, filled it with a killer crew (2 assistants!) and got to work. Our Art Department really had the hard part: Making fake auto glass, tools, cut-out letters, and tools appear to be flying through the air! Some of them actually were. But the best part […]

A Twist on Portraits

Splunk! That’s the sound of me being plopped into a beautiful Boulder tech office. Standing desks, kombucha on tap, and rescue dogs wandering around—A little taste of the bay area right around the corner. It’s also the name of a company peopled by warm, funny, and smart employees. They wanted to do a variation on a traditional portrait: Full-length standing shots in addition to head and shoulders! What a cool idea! If you’re considering shaking up your company’s look, give […]

Headshots at your Conference

Convenience! I’ve been taking a lot of headshots at conferences lately. Why? Mostly because we all got a couple years off, and many of my clients have employees spread all over the country. They only get together occasionally, and what an opportunity that is to do consistent portraits! These are from last month at a big conference hotel. I was set up in a small side area, and everyone was invited to stop by between the morning and evening sessions […]

Remote Associates

Since 2020, we’ve all seen a really noticeable rise in remote working situations. Just this past month, I’ve photographed over a dozen portraits of people whose employers are out-of-state. This is Elizabeth, who works in Denver, but whose home office is in Atlanta. her company, wisely, provides skyline backgrounds of all their cities. I just dropped this one in. If you have an out-of-state team, consider a solution like this for both your brand’s cohesiveness and your associates’ convenience! For […]

In-House Stock

This month, I had the pleasure of shooting a pretty chunky in-house stock library for my client Corporate Travel Management. Their downtown office has a plaza level with hip furniture and floor-to-ceiling views of the city and mountains which was the perfect venue—Much better than an actual, working office. Get-togethers (meetings, conferences, etc.) are a great opportunity to grab portraits or even stock like this of your associates! For more headshots, portraits, and office shots, click here!

Cold, Dark Day

Environmental office portraits are always both a challenge and a lot of fun, and this case was no different. I was matching a colleague’s look, and opted to go with this in-office background. This is a super hip office, so there are great angles all over. But this was a dark, cold winter day, and it all looked a little sad. But happily, cameras are loaded with manual controls, so with some tweaking we got the bright sunny look we […]

New Digs

One of my law firm clients recently moved from a low-slung DTC office, to, literally, a gleaming skyscraper. Floor-to-ceiling windows, real art, a Keurig, the whole thing. My favorite clients are the ones who do their headshots in a “real” location, which is why we call them Environmental Portraits. In this case, their aesthetic is light and airy, and super-high-quality. They shoot these all over the country and my colleagues are good. It’s a fun challenge. This is Stephanie, who […]

The Suite Life

My wonderful client, Sentral, who design and build the hippest of apartment communities, asked me to help them with a bunch of portraits while they had all their executives in town from all over. They had an event that evening in a hotel ballroom, so we got a suite for Happy Hour & Headshots. Suites are funny. The most obvious place for backdrop and lighting was a bedroom, but it wasn’t nearly wide enough. No problem, I can stand out […]

The Union Next Door

This month’s shoot with Bighorn Co. was real blast. The goal was to make a piece raising awareness of the union workers around you that you might not even realize are in a union! We got to use the beautiful C2 studios in Denver, with makeup styling by Beth Ryan, and had a blast meeting these folks as they filed through: Teachers, fire fighters, nurses, etc. Studio shoots are always enjoyable. We got the tunes and hot cocoa going, and […]

Lifestyle for Uplight

Production stills are generally a great experience, especially when you know the crew well, and the product is just gorgeous. This month’s shoot for Uplight was no exception. The DP was Brook Aitken, directed by Waypoint films’ Jed Mortenson. Our location was this beautiful modern home in Boulder. Production stills are often more efficient than booking two separate shoots: Stills and motion, but they do take a little time although you can shoot some during filming. Questions about doing stills […]

The Candidate

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 […]

Annual Report – Midwest Edition

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 […]

Case Study: New Business Portraits

I hope this is obvious. Here’s the website of a client who just redid their business portraits. Which one do YOU think looks better?

Workin’ in a Gold Mine

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 […]

Flexibility is Key

Let’s talk business portraits, AKA headshots. Last month, I had the pleasure of doing a new round of photography for Bachus & Schanker, whose faces you know from TV and billboards. Kyle Bachus and the creative team are so great to work with, as they’re always miles ahead of their competition. In this case, they decided we should spend extra time with each attorney to capture them on unlit seamless for the designers to cut out and manipulate later, depending […]

Windy City

Annual report assignments are routinely the best. Small or no crew, but willing and collaborative clients. Also, long shot lists and occasionally challenging conditions. The 2020 Black Hills Annual was no different. Usually shot in summer or fall, this years’ edition was put off for obvious reasons, but also because our hero location, the Corriedale wind farm in Wyoming, had just come on-line. So…January it is. A wind farm in January is exactly as cold as you think it’s going […]

Joey for Forum Financial

The only good part of working during a pandemic is facing interesting challenges. I was contacted by Forum Financial of Chicago recently to shoot a remote portrait for one of their advisors, but without anyone from Forum on-set. In addition to a portrait, they also wanted to start adding personal branding-type photos to their advisors’ pages, so clients could get to know them a little better. The first subject happened to live in Denver. The Creative Director had interesting ideas […]

Do You See What I See?

Why, why, WHY do we sometimes see different things on our monitors? Occasionally I hear about image brightness or color. Surprisingly though, not too often. When I edit an image, do you see it the same way I did? Depends. Computer monitors, like almost anything else in the world of tech (thermostats, tire inflators, your Subaru’s speedometer), need to be calibrated to be consistent. What does that mean? Calibration means setting up a device to a specific set of standards. […]

Magazine Work

The Construction Blue Book is a regional (a dozen or so states) professional contractor’s magazine featuring up-to-the-minute stories about best practices, industry news, and at least one spotlight feature on a company or project. I’ve been lucky enough to be their local photography contractor for several years, even though they seem to need shoots on either the hottest day of the year or the coldest! But it’s a welcome challenge: Tight timelines, a 1-man crew, amateur talent, tricky locations. Basically […]

Komatsu Gives Back

It’s always nice to see your work A. Blown up huge and B. Used for a good cause.  My friends at Komatsu recently adopted the playroom at the Central Illinois Ronald McDonald House. They fully tricked out the whole place, installing a movie area, several multiple-player game stations, and toys of all kinds including yellow trucks!  But, just to make it even more fun, they added a giant 15-foot mining truck decal to the wall, a photograph made by me […]

It’s Been A Year

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 […]

Is Your Photographer Insured?

You make sure the gardener, cable guy, plumber, and roofer are insured, right? Often trade licensing carries a liability insurance requirement, but photography does not. You should still require it. Liability means that if the photographer, or any other contractor working on your property, breaks something or hurts someone, they will be responsible for it, not you or your company. Altitude Arts carries $2 million in liability, plus other additional coverage. Here’s a standard “Acord” certificate. Once you confirm that […]

Social Distancing with H&R Block

This month’s shoot was super interesting. This year, tax filing deadlines were extended into summer, but that wasn’t the only issue with filing. Getting together face-to-face is another challenge. So, H&R Block introduced a revolutionary and sanitary new way to file: On your front porch. While their offices remain open, this is a new option. They pick up, prepare, and drop off. And everything is distanced and sanitized. Pretty innovative, and extremely customer-friendly. We also spent part of the day […]

Outdoor Business Portraits

Well, this has been an interesting year. And the business portrait train did not stop, it merely sat in the station for a couple months. But it’s chugging along again, and safely. One of my clients has me come to their various offices (dozens around the Denver metro area) to do head-and-shoulders “headshots” of their new employees. We’ve always done these in an office setting: Behind them you see a bit of out-of-focus window or plant. Something architectural, maybe a […]

Gotcha Covered: How Altitude Arts Backs Up Our Work

Stop worrying. That’s my gig. Nobody thinks more about lost files more than me. And that should give you peace of mind! That and the fact that Altitude Arts’s backup system is battle-tested. Here’s why your files are safe: Every shoot, as it’s put onto my editing computer, immediately starts backing itself up both locally and in the cloud. Just copying the files onto my machine puts them in five—FIVE—places: Two cards in the camera My editing machine My local […]

Advanced Retouching

All photographers are also retouchers, to some extent. Most of us can remove a background, clone out a fire hydrant or wastebasket, or make a gray sky blue. But sometimes clients are surprised at how a truly great retoucher, a real specialist, can save an otherwise unusable photo. Here is an awards night photo I made for a client just a few months ago. They’re nice enough that they make prints of these special career moments, and send them to […]

Dartmouth Medicine

This month, I had the pleasure of photographing one of the pillars of the Denver medical community. Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis is the CEO of Craig Hospital, one of the nation’s top treatment facilities for brain and spinal cord injury patients. These images will be featured in Dartmouth Medicine magazine. Besides being a physician and businessperson, Dr. Allen-Davis is also a fine artist and photographer, so we happily frittered away part of our short time together laughing about F stops and […]

Sled Dogs for Goodyear

Every so often, you end up on a really wild shoot. This one was for Goodyear Tires, and it entailed making production stills during a digital shoot for online ads and social media. A simple concept: Goodyear snow tires are like having your own team of huskies! Just combine actual sled dogs, a lovely Mercedes, and a ton of fresh powder in beautiful Winter Park, Colorado. Our day started pre-dawn, with grips and riggers affixing heavy video cameras with stabilizers […]

CableFax Cover

This month, we got an interesting assignment from Access Intelligence in Maryland. Their annual “Most Powerful Women in Cable” issue was coming up, and a key moment was going to be happening at The University of Denver. All the women featured were going to be there at the same time! The Cable Center at DU is a gorgeous building with glass, steel, and an amazing floor. The art director and I decided to feature it prominently, rather than opt for […]

Wyoming in Summer

A big new gas pipeline was going in, just outside Cody, Wyoming. And these days, the sun sets about 9:30 at night, and rises at 5:30 in the morning. What does that mean? Nobody’s getting any sleep shooting this annual report. And we wouldn’t want it any other way. In about 36 hours, we made nearly 3000 captures, and drove nearly 1000 miles. Executives and projects like this are on tight schedules, and couldn’t wait. It’s been said that dawn […]

Half Times

Always a pleasure to get out on location and put something together. This week’s assignment came from executive placement firm Robert Half International. They feature groups of employees in their newsletter Half Times, and this month’s edition featured various teams from the Denver office. What’s nice about shoots like this is, all the challenges of a big corporate or advertising shoot are present: Harsh Denver sunlight, endless traffic, coordinating locations with amateur talent. But with no crew and no client, […]

LinkedIn: The Round Crop

Traditionally, business portraits are cropped so that the eyes or bridge of the nose are in the top third of the frame. But LinkedIn wants a round vignette, which doesn’t work if you’ve only been given a traditional crop. A circle chops both the top and sides off a standard portrait, making it either weirdly BIG, or wholly unusable. So, at the request of several clients, I’ve begun doing LinkedIn crops! I just frame a few of our portraits a little (OK, […]

Location Portrait Shoot: Always be Prepared!

One of my favorite clients invited me to their conference last month. Headshots were not on the menu, but sometimes they get ordered anyway, right?  Meet Ricardo, a busy vice-president at Ciena. He was the man of the hour at this conference, scheduled from early morning until late at night, but he needed an informal business portrait somewhere in between. We hadn’t planned on portraits, but I packed a little lighting kit just in case.  I was able to photograph and retouch him on […]