GRAND THEFT LEGO (PART 1)

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

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

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

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

KANSAS WIND

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

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

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.