So this is the reason why my foot has been hurting for a week.

Last weekend I got together with a small group of local Boulder photographers for a photography practice session. We are starting a local community that shoots using small off-camera flashes, in the style of the Strobist Website. John Heisel got the idea to start a blog about it. Great, that’s ALL I need is another website! Ooof. Well, I’m a sucker for a new website so I’m spending my Saturday night (Sunday morning?) getting it set up and up and running.

Check out the new BOULDER STROBIST BLOGSPOT!

I’m hoping that some of the other guys will chip in and help to post regular content, thereby making the site super cool and fresh with content. If you are a local photographer and are interested in joining the group, please do, the more the merrier!
I’ve posted the photos that I took that night on that site, but you’re going to have to go there to view them and the story . . . :>)

I’ve been going through some of my old files and I found some photos from Key West that I never processed. I can’t believe I forgot about Dominique and his flying housecats!

Dominique, also known as The Catman, has been putting on sunset shows at the pier in Key West for a bajillion years. He puts on a pretty funny show, and gets the kids involved in the stunts. He is quite a character!

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/08/key-west-photos-of-the-catman-dominique-and-his-flying-housecats/feed/ http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/07/warm-sand-between-your-toes/ http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/07/warm-sand-between-your-toes/#comments Wed, 07 May 2008 18:31:35 +0000 Steve Z Photos People http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/07/warm-sand-between-your-toes/

I’m imagining that I’m sitting on the beach, squishing the warm sand in between my toes. Mmmmmmmm.

Spring has finally sprung here in Boulder and I’m enjoying riding my bike to the studio in shorts for a change. Spring also means that it’s graduation time, and time to shoot some senior portrait photography.  Brett just graduated from CU and was looking for just a headshot for his graduation announcements.  We met at a Club Entrepreneur meeting on campus back in the winter.  I have another senior portrait session on tap for this weekend down in Denver, so I’ll be looking for some new locations to shoot at down in the metro area this week.  Enjoy the nice weather and Happy Tuesday!

I was just sitting in my office today trying to get some work done like a good boy when I got the call. Barnow and I have been talking about going flying for a year now. I considered declining . . . but I figured that I shouldn’t let another year go by. There is always time for more work!

Jeff had an errand of sorts to run in Longmont so we flew out East. It was kindof overcast over the mountains so it wasn’t the most scenic day ever. That was OK because it gave me the chance to put the camera down and actually FLY THE PLANE!

Yeah, that’s right. Not only did I fly it while in the air, I actually took the thing off the ground! I flew most of the way to Longmont and kinda sorta felt the controls while we landed. I felt the controls to know that with the crosswind we surely would have splattered if the landing really depended on me. I had thoughts of an ‘Airplane’ type situation, what it would be like if I actually had to land the plane myself. Stryker!

Yeah so there is the latest story of a day in the life of Steve Z and why I can’t get around to getting my taxes done.  Ah yes it was a great day to not be stuck in the office! Hopefully Jeff will take me up again when the light is good and we can fly over the mountains . . . right?!?

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/05/i-flew-a-plane-today/feed/ http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/05/feliz-cinco-de-mayo-mexican-fashion-photography-in-boulder/ http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/05/feliz-cinco-de-mayo-mexican-fashion-photography-in-boulder/#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 15:56:17 +0000 Steve Z Photos People Fashion http://www.steve-z.com/2008/05/05/feliz-cinco-de-mayo-mexican-fashion-photography-in-boulder/

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Welcome to Part 2 of the Crystal Fashion Shoot. Chronicalogically this was Part 1, but never mind that! Crystal needed a photo to run in her local La Junta newspaper in an ad for Cinco de Mayo festivities. I could have taken one good shoot and have been finished . . . but that wouldn’t be my style. I have a way of going overboard when it comes to getting “1 more good shot . . . ” Things are busy busy these days, so I’m not going to jabber on, and I’ll leave you to the gallery.

There are a couple more after the break . . .

I have been on the lookout for interesting locations to shoot in Boulder.  I keep whining that Boulder doesn’t have much interesting architecture to shoot in front of.  It seems that everywhere you turn there are more brick buildings.  I was determined to find somewhere urban and edgy to shoot downtown.  In the end, I would up being somewhat foiled by the monotany, and I shot in front of bricks.  Again.  Oh well, I brought out the Strobist gear to add some hard light to give an edgy feel to some of the shots.

I was able to find a narrow alley that looked somewhat city-like. The whole scene was pretty funny, as we were getting quite a few inquizative looks from Boulderites.  People are used to seeing engagement and wedding shoots, but this fashion stuff is pretty radical for 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon in The Republic.

Check out some more  photos after the page break . . .

These photos are actually from the second half of our shoot.  I’m saving the first half for Cinco de Mayo, since there is a bit of a theme involved.  So check back in a few days to see Crystal in an entirely different light!

Last week I went on my first Cruiser Ride of the year. We met up at our new start location at Salzburg Park ready for the first warm Thursday of the year.  Unfortunately it turned cold and windy right before the start! Oh well, we had a great time anyway, but I sure am eagerly awaiting warm summer nights.  According to the weather man it isn’t going to happen this week either. I brought my camera but didn’t take too many photos. Here is my favorite one: Jeff rockin’ the downhill curb ride on a big chopper swing bike under the St. Julian.

After the SkiJam I was out for the count for a couple days with a head cold. Usually what happens when I get sick is that at first I sleep a lot. Then after a day or two of not exercising and resting, I have trouble sleeping because I’m overly rested. The other night I was lying around in bed not sleeping, which sometimes leads to thinking. I started thinking about photography so I got up and started tinkering with my camera equipment.

I started out messing with mixing gels on my strobes and tweaking the color temperature of the photos around. Which in layman’s terms means mixing different color lights for various effects. But this eventually evolved into extreme closeup self portraits with the macro lens. It was an interesting experiment figuring out how to get a focus on myself in a dark room. I eventually settled on trial and error and f/32!

So eventually things got weirder and weirder! I’m blaming it all on the Sudafed! Look at those pupils! I’m boring a hole into your soul . . . moooooaaaahaaaaahaaaahaaaaa!

Wadda Ta my Dillies?!? This past Saturday I awoke with a fairly significant sore throat. Bummer. It’s Ski Jam Day! So what’s a guy to do? Well, if you are me then you suck it up, put on The Cosby Sweater, drown the scratchiness with adult beverages, and keep on shootin’. I was pretty much going to get sick anyway, so there was no point in missing out on the annual party of the year! As you can see I powered my way through it, but man, I paid for it the next 2 days.

This year the ol’ SkiJam took off to a whole new level. We took over 3 designated spots on ‘The Beach’ at Arapahoe Basin, had 300 people, several DJs, a full bar, grilled breakfast and lunch, and a ‘Fashion Show’ complete with stage and stripper pole!

After the high flying debauchery on the stage, we took to the bunny slope for some good old fashioned snow sliding. There were inner tubes, ski-bikes, sleds, and of course everyone’s favorite . . . beer cartons!

So here they are, the eagerly awaited Steve Z SkiJam 4 Photos! I even put them into a slideshow, since I haven’t made one of those for a while. I’ve spent WAY to much time putting this together, so I hope y’all appreciate it! See you next year!

To link to the slideshow on it’s own page, GO HERE.

Last week The T-Bar presented “Touch These!!!”; a breast self examination awareness fashion show at Bacaro. The $5 collected at the door went to the Susan G. Komen foundation. Some local kids were out there strutin’ their stuff in the latest lingerie from The T-Bar.

I showed up with some of the local crew to support the event and shoot some photos. I was determined to try and get some cool shots, despite the normal challenges one encounters when trying to shoot local fashion shows.  Things like marginally aesthetic backgrounds, tight spaces, and 360 degree spectators usually make shooting conditions challenging.

I decided that my best bet was to round up as many strobes and Pocket Wizards as possible and blow the place up with light, Strobist style! I was running 5 flashes mounted all the way around. Sometimes the rear lights were a bit hot depending on where the models were in their walk, but I was going for an over the top, glam rock look.

I did cheat a little bit in Photoshop. There were some tables and junk through this entryway that I painted out. Next time I’ll probably try turning the rear lights down a bit, but overall I’m pretty happy with the way that they came out.

You can check out more pictures after the page break . . .

Kimmy was rockin’ the mic.

Yes, there actually were guys at the show as well. I didn’t take many pictures of them, haha!

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/2008/04/18/fashion-show-photos-charity-event-to-raise-awareness-for-breast-self-exams/feed/ http://www.steve-z.com/2008/04/16/boulder-mountain-bike-alliance-trail-crew-kickoff-party/ http://www.steve-z.com/2008/04/16/boulder-mountain-bike-alliance-trail-crew-kickoff-party/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:43:19 +0000 Steve Z Bicycling http://www.steve-z.com/2008/04/16/boulder-mountain-bike-alliance-trail-crew-kickoff-party/

It was 82 degrees in Boulder yesterday, and it was glorious! It was the perfect day to get out on the cuiser bike and roll around town. It was also a perfect day to ramp up the mountain biking vibe. The Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance (BMA) held a meeting for all the volunteers who will help patrol, build, and assist the local trail network this summer. There was free food and beer and a raffle of fabulous prizes. If you would like more information about lending a hand, visit the BMA website.

With all this winter weather still going on in Colorado it has been tough to get my engagement photo shoots going. Last weekend was sunny and warm and I was able to squeeze in a shoot before the next snowstorm rolled in.

I’ve been getting a little bored of shooting in Boulder so I offered to drive down to Denver to meet up with Shauna and Bryan. I’ve been wanting to do a shoot in the area around the Denver Public Library and Civic Center Park. There is a huge variety of cool architecture and sculptures in the area. I’m sure I could shoot there many times without running out of new ideas. I will not take pictures of anyone riding the giant cow sculptures unless they pay me extra. Sometimes you just have to draw the line.

The buildings near and around the library and art museum are pretty over the top and crazy. Which of course is perfect for me! I’m sure I’m committing some kind of compositional sin by having the pointy art museum building spiking Bryan through the top of the head, but I don’t care. The building was cool because it was shiny, and I used it as a giant reflector for my strobe.

One of the reasons that I get bored shooting in Boulder is that there is a dearth of cool architecture. There is mostly a whole lot of boring brick buildings. Ironically, I traveled all the way to Denver to shoot in front of a brick building! But I will say that I thought this one was particularly cool, as the brick was old and irregular.

So overall it was a pretty fun day. Shauna and Bryan are a super rad couple, and quite an attractive pair. Double bonus! Portfolio couple!

These guys are both pharmacists by day. They brought a whole pile of pills which made the shoot really fun. We took uppers for the dancing shots, downers for the fashion shots, and ecstasy for the romantic shots. Well, OK, not really, but I’m trying to add more humor to this blog!

Well that’s all for now. Hopefully spring will be here to stay and I will be back in the swing of warm springtime shooting. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!

It’s been quite a crazy busy week for me. It’s taken me almost a whole work week to even get some measly cell phone pictures off the phone and onto the blog. The boys and I took out our first Walker Ranch mountain bike ride of the year on Tuesday. There was a little bit of snow on the clockwise descent on the north facing slopes, but it was actually pretty fun. It made the descent a bit more exciting :>) And overall, the conditions were stellar. We spent quite a bit of time sessioning the technical parts, trying to repeatedly clean them. Overall we weren’t all that successful, I need to work on the uphill trials hopping skills.

I’ve been thinking about a way to distinguish my cell phone pictures of marginal quality from my pro-pictures. I don’t want people to look at the top post and see some marginal images and think that it’s indicative of my paid work. So I got this idea and I shot a picture of my phone and now I have a new frame. We’ll see if I like it after a while. I think it’ll be OK as long as I don’t use it too much.

Last week I was hired to photograph a corporate event outside of Denver in Golden; the opening of a new high-tech mineralogy research lab at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. The project was largely made possible through a partnership with the Australian based Intellection Corp. There were all kinds of mineralogy rock stars in attendance. Rock Stars? Um, anyway, Intellection donated one of their innovative QEMSCAN automated mineral analysis systems, which is probably a big deal if I knew much of anything about rocks. The lab looked pretty impressive, but the coolest part was the CSM geology museum. The collection is completely amazing, colorful, and unique. I want to go back sometime when I have my macro lens and take some more cool pics! If you are reading this and are interested in more information about the AMRC Opening, then you can read the Intellection Press Release here.

OK lets see how many people I can get to post something.  Timmy O’neill is back in town for a spell, and called me up to go on a ride this weekend.  We heading up to Betasso for my first loop of the year.  Timmy always likes to go hard, all the time. He’s the guy who is most likely to kick your ass with a blown out cheap bike that doesn’t shift, has oil leaking from both fork legs, flat pedals, and a mountaineering helmet. At the end of our loop I set the camera on the table and popped the timer.  No planning, one take, and this photo is what we got.  I tried to think of a funny caption, but it’s Monday morning and I’m feeling sluggish.  Who’s feeling witty?  Timmy? Ryan?

It is always important to bring extra clothes when you go skiing in the mountains. You never can be 100% sure that you are going to make it back when you think you will. Monday started out normally enough, and Davidson, Byron and I headed up to Vail for a half day of spring snowboarding. There was a Winter Storm Watch in effect, and Vail was already calling 13 inches mid-mountain. Being Vail, there was actually a lot more snow than that, so much that we were getting stuck a lot. It was a pretty epic day. My favorite part was the last run of the day down the Frontside Chutes. I found a very tight and steep chute through the aspens, and was shooting up such a big curl of snow in front of me that I had to stop because I literally couldn’t see where I was going.

We tried to leave around 2, but found that Vail pass was closed because of a huge pileup and generally hazardous conditions. So we hung around Vail Village and did the only thing that there was to do, eat food and drink beer. Personally I was praying that the pass wouldn’t open, so that we would be forced to stay the night and get some more great runs in the morning. We were walking through the village when I happened upon a sign that said there was a fashion show starting in fifteen minutes. We walked in and found a pretty small event; the snowstorm was keeping most people away. I wound up introducing myself as a photographer, and was subsequently asked to take pictures! I of course obliged and we met some cool people. Eventually we procrastinated finding a hotel long enough until someone felt sorry for us and offered us lodging for the night. It turned out perfectly as the house was huge and we even each got our own beds. Big thanks to Prisca and Rick!

This morning awoke clear, calm, and cold. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend riding today, but we were right there at first chair and got two hours of great runs in the back bowls. Mmmmmmm, it was soooooooo amazing, and there was hardly anyone there. So from now on I’m always going to make sure and pack an extra set of clothes; I’m hoping to get stuck in the mountains more often!

I had a recent photo shoot at a local Denver bar. Photos from that shoot are coming soon. While I was there I had some fun with the 50mm f1.4 lens.