I was recently hired by an advertising agency for an editorial shoot in Boulder. The article will be featured in United Stationers’ “Office Line” magazine. While my enthusiasm for an editorial photography shoot for a magazine about office stationary was initially tempered, I soon found out that the magazine has a quarterly distribution of a quarter million copies and features some high quality photography. Who knew?
My assignment was to photograph the brother and sister team of Bryan and Molly Beckett, who have founded Eco Green Office here in Boulder. My assignment was to shoot editorial portraits that were out of the box and creative. So basically, I needed to make environmentally friendly office paper and toner cartridges sexy!
The art direction indicated that I needed to shoot a quintessential Boulder mountain shot, as well as adhere to the obvious “green” theme. I wanted to avoid the straight “standing in front of the mountain shot”, so I incorporated some product and props that were lying around the Eco Green Office. We played with the brother-sister sibling rivalry theme as well. And for the last shot, I even busted out a tilt shift shot to draw a focus relationship between the subjects and the recycling box that I placed up in the tree. It’s funky and edgy, and the client went for it!
It seems like the economy is turning around, as I’ve been hired to shoot quite a few corporate events recently. Alex S. Palmer & Co. was very excited to announce the grand opening of the new local FBI building in the Stapleton area of Denver. The 220,000-square-foot building is really an amazing work of architecture. The building is LEED certified, which basically means that it incorporates energy-efficient and sustainable design principles. Alex S. Palmer & Co. was selected to oversee the design, and is now the landlord of the $6.2M/year lease, which has been offered to the FBI for 20 years. Not too shabby!
My dear friend Robin recently decided to update her business and was in need of a new headshot to be incorporated into the new website branding. As a Life Fulfillment Strategist, she using coaching, speaking, and writing techniques to show driven and successful women entrepreneurs and business leaders how to create a thriving new model for success in their careers. By creating a path to success that is both energizing and deeply meaningful, her clients are able to realize increased productivity, profitability, and pleasure in their professional and personal lives. For more information you can contact Robin at Soul Moxie.
This shoot was something a little different! Schoeller Technologies is a Swiss company specializing in high tech fabrics used in technical clothing and gear. I was commissioned to take photos to be used for advertising their line of coldblack fabrics which is being integrated into police uniforms. Coldblack fabric has unique sun and UV reflecting properties which allows a black uniform to be as cool and reflective as a white one. I’m working on getting some black polo shirts with coldblack in it for my summer weddings as it looks like really promising technology.
The idea of the shoot was to portray a really hot and sunny environment, with cops cool under pressure.
The Lone Tree Police Department contributed personnel and vehicles to the job.
I chose to use very strong lighting to overpower the sun. We shot in numerous different locations, so I wanted to keep my gear light and portable. I was excited to use my DIY 4 strobe bracket on it’s first client shoot. I added another 2 strobe bracket behind the officer pointing toward the front end of the Hummer for a total of 6 Speedlights firing off at full power.
I’d say the chances that the client will use this next shot are slim to none, but I thought it was a really cool shot so I took it anyway!
After posing out in the bright sun, we headed to a location where the offices were allowed to draw their weapons for some action shots. Once again, the theme was cool under pressure, so we simulated some dramatic action going down.
Overall it was a pretty fun day and I had the opportunity to play with some creative posing and lighting. I also was in the bonus entertaining position where I got to tell three officers what to do all day long! Haha! They were really good sports about my bad jokes and fortunately I wasn’t arrested for disorderly conduct.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
John Albers is the Executive Director of the American Animal Hospital Association here in Colorado. He contacted me for some professional business portraits that were a little more interesting photographically than your standard studio headshot. We chose the urban landscape of Downtown Denver and the inside of the Colorado Convention Center as the backdrops. I brought along some studio lighting so that everyone on the street knew that I was serious. Well, not really. I brought the location off camera lighting setup so that I was assured to have great light no matter what background I chose. But the first reason sounds funnier to me right now. A blend of serious and silly: Steve Z Photography. There you have my marketing slogan for the day!
