LET THE BIG DOG HUNT

The great thing about my career is the diversity of it. When I see something that I think is beautiful or an interesting challenge I come up with a plan and shoot it. Each project presents a visual problem that I devise a solution for. I think that I learned this early on in my career while working for Nick Vedros. He created meticulously lit still life imagery the same way he photographed people and the results were always inspiring. I ultimately want to be hired for the way I think and how I approach a problem.

Golf has been a huge part of my life. I have a passion for it much like photography. I have played the game since I was seven, worked as a fore caddy, cart boy, range rat, instructor and pro shop assistant through my teens and early twenties. While I don't play much at all these days because I am more focused on being a good dad and growing my business I still find time to take my kids to the range every so often and hit a few balls. The following images are a series of shots I produced as a test, bringing two things I am passionate about together. I had an idea and shot it.

Thanks to Pete DeLong for cleaning these images up.

STAND BACK

Just over a year ago I was lucky enough to get called up to work on another project with Eric Lindgren over at Integer. Eric and I had produced a job for Miller Lite a year earlier, see post here. For this one we needed to shoot a baseball player diving for a ball. My approach was to shoot the field and stadium separate and shoot the players in studio, matching to the lighting we had in the stadium. Unfortunately it was later decided the stadium could not be used in the ads. We shot somewhat generic looking uniforms so they could be easily altered in post. These ads ran in several different markets and depicted the Rockies, Braves and A's, that I know of. TIG studio did a killer job on adapting each teams uniform.  I really liked the idea of showing this in a realistic environment so I worked with Pete Delong to bring the idea to life. Now I just have to decide if I like the cropped version better than the full version.

COWBOYS REWORKED

Just over two years ago I produced a great project for Miller Lite. One of the shots was a tailgating party outside of the Cowboys stadium. Unfortunately, due to budget and timing we did not have the opportunity to actually shoot at the stadium. Instead we shot the scene in a large sound stage here in Denver and The Integer Group Studio composited the image we produced with an illustrated image of the stadium. The ad turned out great and the client was happy. I however had always wished that we had photographed the stadium as well. In late May of this year I found myself in Dallas for another shoot. With a few hours to spare on the day I flew in, I drove over to Arlington and grabbed a few angles of the stadium. The thin clouds in the sky gave a really nice softness to the sunlight, very similar to how we lit the original shot. I am really happy with how this one turned out and am looking forward to getting it in the portfolio.

HANDCRAFTED

Inpend is a custom notebook produced by the fine folks over at Foils + Dies. One of those things you look at and think, why didn't I come up with this. Our idea was simple, handcrafted notebooks need a handcrafted looking website. Almost all of the type was letter pressed on vintage machines and then photographed for the site. The entire site is just one big navigable photograph.

HOOPS

Last fall I ran into an art producer that asked me if I had some gritty basketball shots. After a short search of my archives I found a few shots but nothing that I felt fit my definition of gritty basketball. So I shot a test. It seems like once I get an image in my mind I just need to produce it. We ended up shooting over a thousand frames one afternoon but this one stood out. Many thanks to Solomon and Ray for taking part in the shoot and to Andrew Webb for his post stylings.

Motion With Beer

A producer recently asked me if I shot motion. My answer was, My camera says I do. Not sure I ever see myself as a cinema photographer but right now motion seems like a fun thing to experiment with. The extreme shallow depth of field you can get out of a DSLR rig just amazes me. This clip was just an idea I had and wondered if we could do it with out CGI. It is a bit rough but all in all a good test.

Beer Anyone?

Something amazing about glass and liquid. If this shot makes you thirsty I did my job.