Rob Drabkin CD Shoot

Rob Drabkin, who was one of my first afro subjects, asked me to do another shoot for his upcoming CD.  He actually ended up choosing a photo from our initial afro shoot for the CD cover.  Even though we didn't get anything from this shoot, it was fun working with him again and I'm honored to have one of my images used for his CD cover.  As you can see, we were going for a moodier feel this time around.  If you get a chance, you can check out his music here.  I went and saw him live at the Fox Theatre in Boulder a couple months ago and he is a very talented musician and singer.

Afros & Roller Skating

Tangier is a professional model with a local modeling agency and is my most recent afro subject.  It is great working with professional talent because it takes some of the pressure off of me and the process involves input from both sides.  When I work with people off of the street, I have to give a lot more direction.

I asked Tangier to bring something in related to a hobby she has.  When she walked in with a pair of roller skates and the perfect afro, I knew she was going to be a great subject.  She is the only person I have every met that roller skates distance and not just around a roller rink.  Here are a few photos from the shoot...

Guitar Heros

I've started on a new series of photos that I'm calling "Guitar Heros". I'm taking portraits of people with Guitar Hero or Rock Band in the space that they play the game in, whether that is a living room, dorm room or the basement.

I photographed the first shot in the series this past week at a home in Evergreen. My subject was Kevin, a junior in high school in his living room.

There were a few challenges on this shoot.

- When I'm taking pictures in someone's home, I try to be as efficient as possible but Derek, who assisted me on this job, and I still spent about 1 1/2 hours setting up the lights to get exactly the look that I wanted. Many times when you are working on making the lighting look natural, it takes more work than if you went for something more dramatic.

- Reflections were also a big challenge in this shot with all the windows behind Kevin. I have learned that you can't just take your main shot and then take another quick one for the windows and hope to easily put them together in Photoshop. I actually placed Kevin's head in this shot to cover a reflection, so we wouldn't have to try and blend it in with his hair.

- The most unexpected challenge was getting the screenshot of Guitar Hero on the TV. I had to take about 35 photos just to get what I wanted!  I had Kevin and his sister Sarah play the game and I took photos of the screen. It was almost like photographing real people trying to get the band member you wanted on the screen in a place that looked good for composition and also had the right lighting on them. The game actually recreates the moving stage lighting from an actual concert pretty well, which means the character isn't always well lit.

Here is a shot of Kevin holding a white card for us to get color balance and exposure readings. Notice the reflections in the windows.

Here is a shot of the space if we had just used properly exposed available light.

Here is the final shot. Ryan did a great job on the post-production.

ReSource Colorado Shoot

A couple weeks ago I did two full days of shooting for ReSource Colorado.  They do flooring in offices, restaurants, airports and other commercial spaces.  There is an annual awards competition that they wanted the photos for. This is the second year that I have photographed for them and it is always a pleasure working with Sylvia and everyone else at ReSource.

This year I photographed in some pretty cool spaces for them.  One of my favorites was Denver International Airport, where they had installed around 70,000 yards of carpet.  Another great location was Jax Fish House, a restaurant in downtown Denver, that had really cool wood flooring.

Photographing Librarians

I found out at my most recent shoot that librarians can be pretty fun to photograph (I never thought that would be something I would say!)

I was shooting for Library Journal, a bi-weekly publication based out of New York City. We photographed about 18 different librarians for their "Movers and Shakers" issue, which spotlights up-and-coming people in the profession that are doing innovative things. My photos will be on the cover and be used for the feature article inside.

We moved all the furniture aside and shot inside a suite at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Denver during the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference (yes, I think it was probably as boring as it sounds.) We shot for a full day with three different backdrops in a pretty tight space.  My assistant, Derek, would have to move all the lights and roll out the other backdrop whenever we switched backgrounds.  Here are a couple shots of me at work and then some of my favorites from the day.

Not sure what I was laughing at, but at least I love what I do!