EVERYBODY LOVES A MUSICAL

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Not my usual post but I had to share it. The cast is awesome!

SPEAK LOGAN!


If this is what you get with a speak command just imagine what he does when he is feeling threatened. My friend Lauren allowed me to photograph her german shepherd a few months ago. I wanted to do something a little less friendly than a lab with a pair of shoes in his mouth. I guess I was feeling a bit surly.  

MIA


It has been a while since my last post, almost three months. I was getting some flack from a friend so I thought I should at least let everyone know I am still alive. We can blame most of my absence on my new little girl, Harper Catherine Pahl, born on August 11. Her two year old brother, Wyeth, has been needing some extra attention as well. While my family does shoulder a sizable amount of the responsibility we can not forget what part my clients have had in this. I have been busy working on some great projects for WaterPik, Q Advisors, Louis Vuitton, SE2 and Pearl Izumi and will be sharing some of the results with you in the near future.

A NEW STYLE



For quite a while I have been wanting to work with a digital retoucher on developing a gritty look for a few specific projects. Just never found the right person for the job until I met Andrew Webb from Serious Retouching and Color when we worked together on a few Waterpik ads. I was very impressed with his work and knew that he could help me elevate my work to the finished level I wanted. These images are just a couple that we have been working on. The cyclist is an out take from an annual report shoot that we did last February and the swimmer is from a personal project that I am currently working on. We are still tweaking little things but I am really psyched with the out come so far.

LOWRY AND PURE





I had the pleasure of working with Jerry Stafford at Pure back in April when we produced these images for an outdoor campaign. The client was the Lowry East Park Neighborhood and the campaign had fun with the active lifestyle Lowry residents lead. The dog shot was the one that I lost the most sleep over. We ended up bringing in three potential candidates that were selected from a field of about a dozen. Our animal handler worked with with all three dogs and we were able to get the shot we needed. We had about a week to pull it all together and ended up shooting these four ads over a two day period. 

CONGRATULATIONS PURE!


Was asked to help out with some images for a pitch that Pure was doing for Stetson. With Jerry and Eric's help we were able to pull together a shoot in record time. I think we got some really nice shots and this is one of my favorites. Congratulations again to Pure on picking up the account.

TECHNOLOGY, WOW!



Shot local designer Lauren Chlebowski with Ollie Sang a few months ago for a story in 5280 magazine. Lauren was a very cool person and I had a great time meeting her but the amazing thing about these images is how they were shot. I was testing out the new Nikon slr and was absolutely amazed at its ability to shoot at high ISO. I set my ISO at 1600 and used one strobe at very low power as an accent. If you know me this is not my typical approach and I was a bit leery at first. While there is a loss of quality it is like what film used to be, a slight softening and grain. I liked it so much I went out and bought one. It gives me an entirely new way of looking at things.

ST. PATS WITH JUICE




We shot this ad back in January for Bellco Credit Union. I had the pleasure of working with a great crew from Juice. The ad was supposed to be shot in December just before the holidays but the photographer came down with some random virus and had to postpone. It was great having so much prep time for this shoot especially when I realized how difficult it was going to be to gather St Pats props in December. Most common response was,"You want what? It's Christmas time man." Everything worked out well and I really like the ad.

RW BECK & RIPCORD

We shot over 2500 frames in two days for this project. Chris over at Ripcord asked me if I could pull off a cycling shoot in February for their client RW Beck. My response was, It sounds like fun! We had our stressful moments with two weather delays due to snow and a sunrise shot with freezing temps and high winds. Those are the risks you take shooting outdoors in Colorado in February. Thanks to the great crew and some sun to make it appear like riding weather we pulled it off. I can not even began to select a favorite so I have posted what was chosen for the cover.

SCARPA 2008




Happy to say that a couple of the portraits I produced for Scarpa back in 2006 have been picked up for one more year. I really like what Factory did with these ads. 

MORE WATERPIK? YES, PLEASE!

About a month after our last Waterpik shoot I got another call from Sterling Rice Group asking if I had time to shoot a new shower head. I was more than happy to pull the set out of storage and turn the studio into a giant locker room for a few days again. This shower head was all about the power of the massage feature and I think we nailed it. Each one of these shoots presents a new set of problems to be solved and that is why I love Waterpik

WORKBOOK UPDATE


Finally got my Workbook website updated. Take a look and let me know what you think, workbook.com/portfolios/pahl . Next is to update my main website, this I am not looking forward to.

UPS & STORY WORLDWIDE


Got a fun assignment to shoot an environmental portrait for UPS and Story Worldwide. I was to photograph Shannon Cumberland, the owner of Rosy Rings. We spent a full day at their production facilities and got several great portraits of Shannon amongst her handmade candles. Thanks for the candles Shannon, my office has never smelled quite so good.

I LOVE WATERPIK

For a photographer it is the biggest compliment in the world when a client comes back to you and says they want more of what you did before. I produced some images for Waterpik and Sterling Rice Group a couple of years ago of a woman beneath a working shower head. For me these jobs represented what I loved best about my job, creative problem solving. We had to shoot a woman in the shower, easy right? Not quite. We had to have the standard casting to find the right model. Then we had to figure out a way to have unlimited hot water so we could be as efficient as possible with the client, talent and crew's time. This was solved by installing a tankless hot water heater. After some testing we concluded we needed to have the ability to boost the pressure of the water in the line in order to achieve the best looking spray. This was solved with an inline water pump that was purchased through an aircraft parts distributor. With the use of a several hundred gallon livestock pool, PEX tubing, plastic tarps and a lot of towels we were able to create a working shower in the middle of our studio. 

CUPCAKE WITH A SIDE OF FLY


One more shot I did for INV/ALT. This cupcake shot did not get used for obvious reasons. I just thought that a fly landing on set in the absolute perfect spot was too good to pass up. 

INV/ALT DESIGN


Over the past year or so I have been fortunate to work with a talented local designer by the name of Angela Schwab. She runs a studio in Denver called INV/ALT, that produces some really cool stuff. The magnetic cups are possibly my favorite. 

VOA 2007




Last year I got the opportunity to work with some great people at The Integer Group and produce these ads for Volunteers of America. The billboards started appearing in and around Denver last summer. It was a nice feeling to see them up and know that I had been a part of something good. Each ad tells the story of a person that VOA helps.