Photography for classic car enthusiasts

I'm a pretty basal person when it comes to what I like visually. I do appreciate nuance and humor and subtlety, but sometimes I just really like pretty pictures with great color. Harold and I teamed up again with his 51 Merc for this shot. We managed not to get the car stuck, not to catch west nile, and to get a few nice photos in the evening. What do you think?

Broadway comes to Boulder

I've recently had the pleasure of photographing some very talented young actors in Boulder. If you're looking for a fun way to support local artists I encourage you to think about attending The Secret Garden between June 12 and June 27.

Thanks to Chris for sticking around for the image above and Nicky Lee for her always amazing makeup and personality.

Swing by my commercial photography website to see more of my actor, model and presenter photography.

Another look at automobile photography

I'm often asked if I miss the darkroom and frequently surprise people when I answer with an unequivocal "no." I don't miss bad fumes, heaps of paper spent making the perfect guide print and the sharp corner of my darkroom table that never hurt quite enough to round off, but still ate my hip weekly. I DO, however, miss the results. Ilford HP5 on a nice oriental warm tone paper could make for a delightful print. Even more so when it was printed by someone with true skills like Tim at Amaranth Photo lab in Boulder (now closed sadly).

The photo above is one of the first shots we did for the car shoot below. We had a few questionable minutes while nature decided not to rain and security decided whether my credentials were legit. The edits you see took about an hour and I was specifically going for a look reminiscent of the Oriental papers I love.

Before you look at the car photo in it's enlarged state, check this simple monitor calibration chart out. if you can see all of the different bars of gray and black on the chart you're more likely to see all of the shadow and highlight detail in the black and white photo.

Classic Hot Rod Photography

I've been working on a fun personal project here lately and thought I'd share an initial result with those of you stopping by. I've had this concept in my head for a while and as luck has it the location that most closely fit what I wanted was off limits to professional photography. After some serious phone time I was able to make good on my location scouting and get the first choice for the shoot. I spent some tense hours hoping that we wouldn't get rained out as we waited for the car's arrival. Fortunately we had just a few drops and the kind of clouds that make me glad to be alive. I'll share some more as we move through the project. Huge thanks to Harold for his amazing car collection, Eric for being photo slave and whoever ordered the show in the sky.

p.s. this photo and all of the others on my blog has an embedded icc profile, it'll look more like I intended if you're using Safari or Firefox or another browser that knows color counts.

beauty photography

Here's a quickie from a new project. Beauty photography is one of my favorite things to do and look at. Kat came in for a casting call and was nice enough to stick around for some fun shots. More later, I'm off to scout locations for the next project!

special thanks to Brittini Pickering for the makeup and hair.

Annual Report and Industrial Photography

I recently spent a fun chunk of time with the very nice, although slightly bewildered, service people at Schomp BMW. Sadly I wasn't able to take the model from this shoot out for a night on the town and we confused more than one person as I paraded around the $98k 750li taking pictures of the floor.

The photo above is one of my favorite out-takes from a shoot last week for the company that makes the tile in all BMW service shops (and many other high tech and/or restaurant locations). Their tile is some of the strongest stuff out there. The images we created will be used in trade show displays and some of their literature.

Even though the photo isn't of a person, I must say that the thing I continue to love about being an annual report photographer and doing industrial photography is the people. I meet the nicest people at places like Schomp. It's always such a joy to have them happily work with my odd requests as I interrupt their day.

For those who care, the image you see was created almost entirely in camera. I took the liberty of removing a water spot from the floor and clearing up a few stray reflections.

Judging a book by it's cover

Here's an interesting listen from NPR. You've heard that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but there's a distinct link between the author's photo and the sales of his/her book.

There are a lot of reasons to go to a specialist in photographing people for your headshot/business card/cd cover/dust jacket photo. I always like to think of your photoshoot like a job interview. When you interview for a job you prepare fully and in advance, choose your outfit carefully, and know that image and preparation are everything. I've always felt that a headshot without makeup is like a bank interview without a suit. Fortunately I've got a load of wonderful and talented associates to send you to.

Give the story above a listen and give me a ring when you need hair, makeup or photography for your next business portrait in Denver.

Pictured above: Asha Blake, L.A. TV's Green Reporter, presenter/speaker and an absolute joy to work with. Makeup by the amazing Isabel Vigil and art direction by Gerald Kelly