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!

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.

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!

Before the fashion show, I once again took some portraits of the models after they were finished getting done up at Twig Salon.  The last time I did this I got some pretty cool lighting effects from a chainlink fence in the alley.  Once again I was in the alley behind the salon, but this time I decided to put everyone in a different spot.  The sun was blazing, so we were forced into the shade amongst the dumpsters.  But I really like the results, and fully expect to see some dumpster yoga on the cover of prAna’s next catalog!  Full gallery can be found on my Facebook gallery.  Here are some of my favorites.

I shot another beer lifestyle magazine cover for my friends at The Brewers Association.  This shot was for the July/August edition of New Brewer magazine.  We needed a shot of a bustling brewery with multiple locations, so the natural local Boulder selection was fan favorite the Mountain Sun. This long exposure shot was taken at their Southern Sun location.

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of calls for business or promotional portraits to be used for advertising and websites. I prefer to do these types of shots in outdoor locations over the studio. I feel that an environmental head shot is a more modern and casual take on the traditional realtor type of shot.  I bring my studio lighting with me, so that your portrait will be perfectly lit and flattering.

Sometimes people ask me what my ‘favorite’ thing to shoot is. The answer is that I really don’t have one. I’m one of those people who loves variety in life. My favorite thing about photography is that I get to shoot different things all the time! So here we have a shoot that was quite different from most of my professional work. Instead of trying to make people look good, this time I worked at making beverage bottles look good!

Mix One is a local Boulder company that has a super great new product. It’s a great tasting and healthy drink with fruit, veggies, and protein that tastes great. I can personally vouch for this, since I was left with many cases of product since the shoot!

This shoot was quite a challenge because the shiny packaging reflects whatever light is shined directly on it. So I had to use some sneaky techniques and even build a light table in order to control the reflections that are easily visible on the product. In addition to the lighting there is a ton Photoshop time in these photos spent straightening and polishing the labels.

These photos will be used for packaging, and promotional use for the company. We have some plans in the future to do some more creative advertising shots for marketing campaigns. I’m looking forward to adding some of the Steve Z creativity to their brand! I was able to throw in a bit of creativity in the layout of the bottles on the light table. And for this last shot I was able to achieve the infinite depth of field with my handy tilt-shift lens. Maybe for the advertising campaign they’ll let me use the tilt shift to get all wonky. :>)