Mr. Masters...

We had a shoot for the ABA Journal last week. This was Mr. Masters. A retired lawyer who donates his time and skills. Cute old man, very humble, very nice.

My Lucky number..

Not sure why.. but it is in my life daily..

So is the grass really greener on the other side?

I always wonder when I travel somewhere if it is really just a better city, or is it that I just get out of my element and start to see interesting things. I know there is good stuff here in Denver, but maybe is just the fact that I don't get out and walk around here in town. Everytime I go to Seattle I really love it. I don't know if I could deal with the the weather there all year long, but it is always really enjoyable to go there. I just got back from a trip there. Here are some photos from my afternoon off.

Success

I don't know much about the article for this one. From what I have gathered, this guy has built this ultra modern community in the heart of a cow town. Pretty interesting guy and ideas. Flip flops and shorts to work. That's nice to see. No stuffy suit hear. The photo is for Success Magazine. I believe it is out this month or next.

What the F*%K just happened?

ok, so I made a post in July, got busy, looked at the calendar and just saw it was the middle of September. What the F*%k just happened? I guess it has all been just a blur.. A lot of good projects though. I will see how well I can start posting them. A little at a time. Probably in random order, but at least you will get something.. Let start with something random.. This I saw in Portland. I was on a shoot for New Belgium Brewing. If you don't know who they are, they make beer. There is definitely a big story behind them, but for now that is all I am telling. I want to get on with it. You will hear more about them, I am working on a big project for them. I am not sure who the artist is that is doing these little random horses, but I loved it. I think maybe I had passed a few and didn't pay much attention. They were all over town. Little horses tied up around the city.. Cool idea. It is amazing to me to think how many people probably walk by these every day and never take a minute to look. So start looking.

Lost photos..

So the other day I was searching through the hard drive on my computer for images. It seems really weird to say that. I never thought that I would switch from film to digital, but it looks like I have. I still have that special place inside where I wish that all I would shoot was film. I still do think that film is better with certain things, I think mainly the part where you are not sure if you got it or not until you get the film processed. Also the chance things that happen when shooting film, just shooting to shoot, not knowing if it is in focus, perfect light, etc. So I kind of miss that. I am sure that I could shoot digital that way, but the play button is right there so why not push it. It is too tempting so I always push it. Anyway, like I said before I was searching for photos and found some I haven't seen in a while. Kind of nice to have that happen. Take a look at a few, nothing special, just photos I like.


Delivery truck, Chicago Illinois



Dinner, Hurricane Katrina



Seattle, Washington



Diner, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Alright enough with Jill...

Ok, so it seems that a lot of people now know about periods. How women have them every 28 days for 3 or 4 days.. etc.. i wont go on. But hey I am glad you liked it. You are all a bunch of sicko's for watching it so many times.. and yes I guess that makes me a sicko for posting it.. so we are even. Now on to other things like photography. I will put another post together with some images and news.

Pink Slip [ a.k.a. Jill ]

ok.. I am sorry for taking to post this and not actually update my blog. I will though. this was just too odd to pass up. I am sorry if it offends anyone in anyway. it is about 10 minutes long, and just odd. I dont know what else to say expect that I watched it a few times and still find myself saying,"what the..."

Pine Ridge South Dakota

Here are some photos from the shoot i am on right now. Too much to write now, It is a lot to process in my brain. Check back for the update.

CARHENGE

So I have a shoot to go to in Pine Ridge South Dakota. It is on the Border of South Dakota and Nebraska. I will tell you more about that shoot in the next couple of days. So Scott and I decided to Drive to the shoot. It is about 6 hours from Denver. We looked at the map and noticed that Carhenge is on the way. It is basically Stonehenge but made out of old cars. I had heard about it before, but had never seen it. So we made our trek there. It was a good sight seeing trip. Lots of old abandoned places, old cars, even saw a good ol fashioned cowboy truck pull. That was really odd. Basically it is two guys and two trucks. They chain both trucks together then floor it. Whatever truck pulls ahead wins. It was very strange. Back to Carhenge. Carhenge is located in North Western Nebraska. I am not sure if there is really much else out there to see. We finally found it after a few wrong turns, and made it into the parking lot. I was a little disappointed at first. I thought it was going to be much more impressive. I did end up changing my mind though. It was actually really cool. Mainly because it is out in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska. We were the only ones there so that made it a little better as well. If you are ever near Alliance Nebraska you should make your way there. It was totally worth seeing

S L A M

Yesterday I had a shoot for S L A M Magazine. I really enjoy shooting for them, especially when you meet people like "HOMICIDE". What a great guy. So Scott (my assistant) and I headed down to La Familia Rec Center. First we have to make a stop for some gin and juice. Actually a Latte. It was Scotts idea. He paid. I had nothing to do with it. But everyone should get a good coffee before shooting in the hood, right? I had seen the place before, but never payed much attention to it. We get there, park the car, and start looking around for a guy that looks like he could be named Homicide. I see a group of guys across the parking lot and head over to talk with them. I think Scott was stayed at the car. I yell out to them, "hey any of you guys named Corey" that's his real name. There were a few stares from the group and one guy shakes his head no. So i take it I have the wrong group of guys. So Scott and I stand around waiting to find our guy. We keep looking in cars as they drove by, making guesses at who it may be. I figured Corey would have an easier time spotting me than the other way around. So we see some guy driving slow looking out his window back at us. Scott is sure it is our guy and waves frantically back at him. So much that they guy must have thought he may be mentally challenged. The guy gets out of his car and yells at the group of guys i originally went up to. We look like total idiots. A few minutes later I get a call from Corey. He is there at the center and he just happens to be that guy in the car. So Scott was right. I think Corey was expecting someone else. We made our way over to his group of friends and shouts out, " you must be thinking i am up to something, walking around the hood with 2 white guys" They all laugh and then come the rounds of handshakes and hugs. I guess Corey used to play ball with these guys. They always had a standing Saturday game. It had been that way for years, and didn't look like it was going to change. It was nice to see the respect they all had for each other. No egos, no shit talking, just true friends. Even with Corey being on the verge getting his shot at the NBA, they were all equal. It was nice to see.

SMART GUY

So have you ever met a genius? Well I just did the other day. I shot a photo for a Vancouver magazine of Carl Wieman. He was the 2001 Nobel prize winner in Physics. When I made it to C.U. the other day, I was very curious to see what this guy was like. Was he going to be working on formulas as we were shooting? Would he be the type of nerdy guy that wouldn't come out of his office? Or was he going to be smart guy that knew he was smarter than everyone else around him, especially the photographer? Well he turned out to be a very nice guy. He was busy, calling people, reading papers as I was setting up. You could tell he was working in his head, and couldn't wait to be done so that he could get back to his office and write it all down. I did get my 7 minutes with him in front of my camera, so that was good. I guess the main thing I figured out while I was there was that I am really glad that I went to Art school.

REAL PEOPLE

There is something about shooting photos of real people that really makes me enjoy what I do. Hiring models from an agency and setting up a nice shot has its place as well, but its just different. This last week I worked on a job for a company called Knudson. I wont go into all of the details of what they do, lets just say they make machines. The job came up quick. Talked about it on Friday, propped and cast over the weekend, started shooting on Tuesday, and finished it up on Wednesday. We did 3 sets of portraits and about 70 detail/shop shots. This job was a little mix of editorial and advertising, it was kind of nice that way. We did end up shooting real people, but not all of them worked for the company. I guess what is nice about the people we shot the other day is that they are who they are. I doubt that you would find these people at an agency, at least not here in Denver. They are real human beings with real stories. Getting the chance to meet those real people is what keeps me interested in photography. I am glad I got the chance to work on the project.

Did you ever see deliverance?

Super scary movie starring Burt Reynolds. I just shot a story for a local magazine where the guy that I shot may have looked like he came from the movie, but that is about it. The story, or at least the parts I know, is just a profile story about a large animal vet in Longmont, Colorado. Super nice guy, quiet. Maybe just a thinker. He grew up on a farm, lives on a farm, and mostly works out on a farm. I am sure it takes a special person to do this kind of job. Even though I thought i heard that banjo song playing in his truck, he was a really great person to photograph. Here are just a couple from the shoot.

SKIING MAGAZINE

Just finished up with a super fun shoot for Skiing Magazine. We shot up at Copper Mountain the past few days... these photos are going to be on the "last chair"page. Most likely spread out over a few issues.. They are supposed to be knock offs of the "succesories" photos.. the ones that are supposed to make you feel empowered, and ready to take on anything.. the photos are pretty funny, kind of campy, a nice change of pace from the big Frontier project.. here are a few quick pics with there sayings..

INNOVATION: "Innovation is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.



"PATIENCE: "He that can have patience can have what he will."


CUSTOMER SERVICE: "Always give the customer more than they expect."


ATTITUDE: "A positive attitude is a powerful force."

Trying to get caught up..

Ok, so here are a few more from the Scarpa shoot. We still have a bunch more people to shoot, that will all happen in the next couple of weeks. I am trying to get caught up on everything else so that you have more to look at.. hang tight.. they will be up soon. I will also be sure to update with a few more details.. thanks for looking.

I am back from the dead..

so. lets see.. I haven't blogged since last year.. wow.. most of the time I would just say i am lazy.. but i have been busy.. i am going to try and catch up with things over the next week but this will get it all started.. So over the past couple of months I have been working on numerous projects, the biggest (and most time consuming) is a project for Frontier Airlines. Included in the list: Business 2.0, Guitar World, Skiing, Breckenridge Brewery, Flying Dog Brewery, and others.. so i will start posting some photos just to catch up a bit.. These wont be in order, sorry about that. Here are some images from a job that I am doing for a climbing company called Scarpa. They are for ads that will run in climbing mags like Rock and Ice, and Urban Climber. check it out..