David Pahl Photography

Motion With Beer

2012-01-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

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?

2012-01-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

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

WORKING ON MY GAME

2011-10-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

I have always loved photographing shiny things. I credit one of my mentors, Ernie Block, for my fascination with reflective objects. While shooting for him on a catalog he told me you don't light chrome, you light what chrome sees. That simple phrase has stuck with me for over fifteen years. On that particular job it seemed that I got to shoot all of the chrome items for a kitchen catalog he was producing. We are talking spoons, knives, ladles and the list goes on. Every so often he would walk by me on set and say, "Its a discipline builder" and how right he was. It really gave me a love for photographing chrome objects, however some might call it a sickness.

I have photographed quite a bit of chrome product in my career and in most cases we produce really clean chrome. I recently wanted to photograph a golf wedge, this had absolutely nothing to do with me wanting a new wedge. I found quite a few wedges with cavity backs and bronze or brushed nickel finishes that would have made great subject matter and been relatively easy to photograph, but I wanted something with a classic shape and reflective chrome. I ended up with a relatively inexpensive Callaway wedge from a local big box store. I started with a similar approach that I had used with other chrome product, large sources creating big fields of clean white reflections. The clean chrome was fine (unfinished version pictured below) but I wanted to do something sexier with lots thin edge highlights. So I changed up my angle and started from the beginning. After a couple of hours I got to what I had pictured in my head. A dark moody photograph with lots of razor thin edge highlights. I included the final capture as well as the retouched shot. As you can see most everything was done in camera and not a lot of retouching was needed. Thanks to Andrew Webb for straightening out the minor imperfections. Really happy with the outcome and the wedge was a long needed addition to my bag.

LATEST AND GREATEST!

2011-06-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Late last year we had an idea for a shot that called for a really cool car. We were lucky enough to get our hands on a Tesla Roadster. We shot the road scenes outside Boulder and the Tesla in studio last fall. Then, as they often do, the shots waited on a hard drive until we had time to finish them early this month. Part of the delay in finishing this other than a pretty busy spring was I was not entirely happy with the sky I had shot. So I put my ego aside and did a little search for some stock. I was able to find two stormy skies that we composited for this shot. All together the finished shot has five separate images in it, so I clicked the shutter on the majority of the images. We have a couple more Tesla shots waiting to be finished it is just a matter of having the time to get them done. Really pleased with the way this one came out,no small thanks to Andrew Webb!

JUST BUSINESS

2011-06-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

In January and February of this year we had the pleasure to work with Level 3 Communications and Carbon8 on a really fun project. A big thanks goes out to my producer on this adventure, Lisa Schrag She was able to orchestrate six days of shooting, with a cast and crew of more than thirty-five people, within our budget and with a smile. While we had a lot of surprises like subzero temperatures on at least two of our shoot days, frozen pipes in one of our locations, an ice storm out east on the very day we had to travel east, the crew operated like a well oiled machine and we pulled off some great shots. It was hard to choose from the thirty-four shots we delivered but here are my favorites. Thanks again to everyone involved.

A GOOD DAY!

2011-06-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

It is always a good day when I am shooting. While editorial gigs don't pay much sometimes, they make up for it in other ways. I always forget how much fun I have shooting editorial. The opportunity to meet and interact with a wide range of individuals and the creative freedom photographers get to have is reason enough I should chase after a few more of these gigs. We shot a series of seven or so portraits for Colorado Meeting and Events Magazine a few months back and these are a couple of my favorites. As always, a big thanks to Andrew Webb for his inspirational post production.

MORE IS BETTER

2011-05-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago we did a quick job for Catapult Marketing. The concept for the shot was to show what appeared to be an endless sea of people. We determined we needed approximately thirty head shots with great expressions. With a two day turn around on this one the idea of shooting these people ourselves was out of the questions. Even if we had the time the budget just would not permit it so we found a photo CD online that met our needs for about $850. While Andrew was putting a little bit of his post production styling on these images I was laying out the shot with a deck of playing cards. Once we got the layout and post styling of the head shots approved by the Creative Director, James Pelz, back in Connecticut, we printed the head shots in-house, cut them out and placed them in the shot. All that was left was a little card shuffling to make sure we had all the faces in the right places. We only had thirty cards prepped so to create the illusion of more we shot several plates or layers, moving the rows of cards back each time. I think we were contacted on a Thursday and had final files delivered to the client the following Monday morning. Could not have pulled it off with out the organized thinking and quick decision making of our client and the digital support of Andrew Webb.

HOOPS!

2011-03-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

What can I say about one of my favorite shoots from last year. I am not a huge sports fan by any means but I do get into March Madness quite a bit. Could have something to do with my ties to KU but I watch the games even when the Jayhawks aren't playing. We produced these for Miller Lite and their promotions surrounding the 2011 NCAA basketball tourney. With some great art direction from Integer's Eric Lindgren, a talented crew and some incredible talent we pulled off a definite portfolio piece. It may not look like a difficult gig for the talent but you try to jump for two to three hours in a row. Many thanks to Solomon and Ray for hanging in there. Thanks also to Andrew Webb for his on-set tech support and post stylings.

A GREAT START TO THE YEAR!

2011-03-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

To say we have been busy does not say enough. We are currently in the post production phase of what turned out to be an almost two month long project we produced for Level 3 Communications and Carbon8. Our largest production day involved about twenty five people and one magnificent location, OfficeScapes. This photo is of our amazing cast and crew that I owe a real debt of gratitude for all their hard work. Not only did we get to work with some great people but we learned a lot about Level 3 along the way, what a cool industry. Thanks to all.

Dallas Cowboys and Miller Lite

2010-12-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

Happy to finally be able to share the two ads we shot last January for Miller Lite. A talented cast and crew of almost thirty people helped pull these two shots together and many thanks go out to them all. An even bigger thanks to the creative team at The Integer Group. It was a great shoot. These are the two ads that were put together along with one of the out takes Andrew Webb and I finished for our own portfolios.

TESLA

2010-11-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Our latest personal project called for a cool sports car and we were lucky enough to get our hands on a Tesla Roadster for a few days. It was a bit unnerving hanging lights around this and it was even more so taking a ride in it. The only thing I can compare it to is something between a jet at take off and a roller coaster on the first big drop. This is just a behind the scenes shot. We hope to have some of the finished pieces up in the next few weeks.

BIG SAVINGS

2010-11-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Last May we had the opportunity to work with Chris White and Shannon Ball from the Integer Group and produce a series of images for Kroger's 2010 Cart Buster campaign. Kroger is one of the nations largest grocery retailers with over $76 billion in annual sales. Locally they operate under the names of King Soopers and City Market and if you visited either one of these chains in early September you could not miss these ads. From what I hear they went over really well so great job to everyone at the Integer Group. We had great direction, everyone knew exactly what they wanted and that made my job much easier. So thanks to the talented cast and crew that helped pull this one off.

HAPPY TO HELP

2010-09-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

Got a call from Chris Thomas at Ripcord a couple of weeks back. He was working on some comps for a client and was unable to find exactly what he needed with stock and wanted to know if we might help him out. I am always willing help out a friend especially when it comes to showing a client the advantages of custom artwork over stock. Chris rounded up some talent from Wilhelmina Denver along with a couple of stylists while we got things ready at the studio. Within a couple of days we had gone from just discussing the concept to full execution. This included photography of talent as well as the words and compositing the shots for the final images. The part of this that was the most fun was coming up with a solution for the words. The original idea was to illustrate them in photo shop but I felt we could get a more realistic feel if we built them and then destructed them on set to get the look we wanted. Big thanks to Andrew Webb for managing all of the post on this one. I also wanted to thank our model Whitney, Makeup Artist Sameera and Stylist Tina. We could not have done this with out their generous help.

LEGO STALKER

2010-07-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

The nice thing about personal projects is the lack of time constraints. While I enjoy the fast and furious pace we sometimes move at when a client awards us a project with a tight deadline, it is great to just mull something over and complete it at your own pace. I will admit that these shots took way too long. A combination of a busy year and a me dragging my feet for no good reason resulted in these shots taking a year to complete. I am not certain why it took me so long to complete but I am happy with how creepy the little guy turned out. You can see more legos at davidpahl.com Many thanks to all the people that helped bring this together: Andrew Webb, James Pelz, Jennifer Samuel, Ashley Harris, Angela Schwab and Paul Stern.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

2010-05-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Just posted over twenty five new images and a couple of new galleries to the website. Special thanks to Andrew Webb of Serious Retouching for the masterful post stylings he provided and to all of the crew involved in each one of these shots.

START TO FINISH

2010-03-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

Last December we were asked to produce an image of a one show pencil embedded in rock looking as if it was being mined from a cave wall. The image was used to promote ADCD's annual presentation of The One Show. This sounded like a lot of fun to create a real looking rock wall. So with a little thought we came up with an approach that seemed like it would work. We started with placing the pencil on a flat board and surrounding it with expanding foam insulation. To make sure we could get the pencil out when we were done it was covered in vaseline, it was not mine and I did not want to destroy it. Once we had the base form it was a matter of carefully cutting away the foam to give the appearance of tool marks on the rock. This exposed the open cell structure of the foam. This surface would not hold paint well or color washes and close up looked horrible. So we covered the majority of the surface with modeling plaster. The plaster filled voids and made the surface look more organic. After this dried we applied a variety of color washes to give the rock subtle undertones. Another wash of black gave the rock the appearance we wanted. Then it was just a matter of lighting the rock. We needed to add layers of light to bring out the texture of the rock and create a path for the viewers eye to follow. A total of four lights were used on this shot, most all at very low angles to enhance the texture. We also placed about a dozen cards to further sculpt the light. Then it was just a matter of turning the files over to Andrew Webb with Serious Retouching so he could apply some of his post stylings. Many thanks to James Pelz for inviting us to work on this project and for his great direction. Always fun to be challenged by a project.

MILLER LITE SHOOT XL

2010-02-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

We produced a two day shoot for Miller Lite and Integer a couple of weeks ago and it could not have gone smoother, thanks to an awesome cast and crew of approximately thirty people. Day one was the largest in scale of the two shots. We had three vehicles, five principal talent, seven or so extras, a whole bunch of props and some food on the grills. My crew hung and rigged fourteen strobe heads, several silks and over 700 square feet of background. The only place in town that could possibly accommodate our needs was Stage 1 over at LSI. Our set was pretty large but it only took up about half of the available 16000 square feet, left us plenty of room for a little football. Now I like it when the room is cold enough to hang meat but fifty five degrees was a little too cold for our clients that flew in from Texas. We did our best to make everyone comfortable but little space heaters did not do much in that size of space, sorry guys. I think we made up for it on day two though. It was an absolute pleasure to work with such a fantastic team of professionals. So, many thanks to everyone involved in this production.

THE NEW PHONE BOOKS ARE HERE!

2010-02-04T15:51:00.000-08:00

I finally am someone thanks to the fantastic efforts of Jay Roth and James Pelz. This duo took on the task of coming up with a new business card for David Pahl Photography. It was almost a year ago that we started talking about it and I finally got these printed just before Christmas. We printed four different backs that each have their own little story. This was all Jay's doing. I told him I wanted a card with copy on it and I like humor. So he came up with a take off on Mad-Libs and gave them a little David Pahl style. James pushed the idea even further coming up with a beautiful design that was very graphic and clean as well as a kick ass new logo. No longer do I have to hang my head low when I meet someone and they say do you have a business card. I can proudly hand them this Cadillac of a card. In all fairness the slow progress of the card was completely due to my indecision and when I consider that I did not have a card for nearly six years ten months was pretty quick. I owe Jay and James a great deal. So thanks guys! Big thanks to Rob a Foils and Dies for the fantastic print job!

Miller Lite Houston Rodeo

2010-02-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

About two weeks after the Coors and Co shoot last August we produced our first shoot for Miller Lite. We had the pleasure of working with a great creative team from The Integer Group comprised of ACD Wade Campbell and AD Brad Ives. If we are lucky this will just be the first of many more to come.

COORS & CO

2009-12-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Had the pleasure of working with a great client and agency back in August when we shot some of the lifestyle work for the 2009/10 Coors and Co catalog. We had one day to produce a dozen shots and a crew of about fifteen people made it all possible. Many thanks to Michael Emmerson and Rob Godby of Integer.These are a few of my favorites.

ALMOST FOUR MONTHS, THAT'S TOO LONG!

2009-09-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

After an almost four month hiatus from the blog we are back. It has been an amazingly busy past few months and I hope to be posting some of that client work on the blog soon. Right now I wanted to share some selects from a shoot we did back in May. Our talent, Ashley, was provided by Donna Baldwin Talent and Hair, Makeup and Wardrobe were courtesy of Jennifer Samuel. These shots were something fun we thru together at the last minute. We were working on another installment of the lego project and decided to shoot something a little more fashionable since we had such a talented crew in place.

CHASE JARVIS & ADCD JUNE 12th, #3

2009-06-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Friday June 12th Chase will be in town to share a bit of his creative insight and humor with us. I hope that everyone can make it. You can find out the details here

CHASE JARVIS & ADCD JUNE 12th

2009-05-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

The second in a series of three videos Chase was nice enough to make for us. These clips have been getting a ton of hits. I think this event is going to be great!

CHASE JARVIS & ADCD

2009-04-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

The Art Directors Club of Denver is bringing Chase Jarvis to Denver for a little chat on June 12th. He will also be sticking around for the weekend to act as one of the judges for the annual show. So get your work together and submit before the deadline.

GRAND THEFT LEGO (PART 1)

2009-03-19T12:03:00.001-07:00

We have been working on this project for quite a while. The nice thing about a personal project is no deadlines and we get to mess with it as long as we want. Special thanks to James Pelz, Jay Roth and Tom Pounders for their generous help. We came up with the idea months ago and now that we have started producing them the concepts just keep coming. I cannot forget to thank Andrew Webb for lending his retouching skills to this project. Andrew has a great post on how the image came together on his site. More to come.

BEFORE & AFTER

2009-03-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

I had someone ask to see a pre and post version of a portrait we shot last summer. So I thought it might be a good post for the blog too. The first version is straight from the camera. The lighting had to be dramatic but still smooth with out too harsh of shadows. This was achieved with a four light set up. The second version is after Andrew Webb retouched the image with what he refers to as a hyper reality sharpening style as well as some sculptural enhancements. This one took half a day to shoot and another half day to do the post work on.

TEAM OF PAHL & WEBB DELIVER THE GOODS

2009-02-16T08:37:00.001-08:00

Had the pleasure of working with the guys over at Pure last week on a little Valentines Day project for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. The production schedule on this one was so fast we barely had time to think. In a matter of a four days starting last Saturday we street cast a number of babies, found the perfect props, photographed three adorable babies on Monday morning, made final selection, photographed the props while roughly compositing on set monday afternoon, spent over ten hours compositing and retouching on Tuesday and delivered the final image Wednesday morning. It was a blast to shoot and produce and a pleasure to collaborate with someone as talented as Andrew Webb over at Serious Retouching & Color. Looking forward to the next project.

GOOD TIMES

2009-01-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone can make this event! Props to my friend Bryce Boyer for the killer photography.

KANSAS WIND

2009-01-20T11:28:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to shooting a couple of personal projects. The holidays gave me a little down time to spend with my family and do something I have not done for a long while, shoot something just for fun. Every time I pass one of these enormous wind farms that are being constructed across the plains I am inspired. Most people think that this part of Kansas is a little on the dull side but I find it to be beautiful and made even more so by these giants. After spending a few peaceful hours walking around fields and driving down dirt roads I think I got some good images. Hopefully I can get back in the spring and photograph this project with some big thunderstorms rolling in.

WORKBOOK UPDATE

2009-01-14T07:42:00.000-08:00

Another year has passed and it is time to update Workbook again. The entire site has been reworked. Lots of new images and even some old favorites. Check it out and let me know what you think www.workbook.com/portfolios/pahl

EVERYBODY LOVES A MUSICAL

2008-12-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-17T13:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-23T07:48:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-02-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

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.