JUST BUSINESS

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.