Glass Photography

On of my favorite people on the planet to collaborate with is Jeremy Monroe of Freshwaters Illustrated. He’s the founder and visionary of Freshwaters Illustrated, a non-profit who’s mission is:

“(1) to educate diverse public audiences about the life, study, and conservation of freshwater ecosystems through illustrative science-based efforts, and (2) to provide illustrative resources and services to scientists, educators, and media specialists”

Their Vision is:

“to create a public that is more conscious of freshwater life, and more sympathetic to freshwater conservation.”

So this was one of those exciting days where Jeremy took me to a river. He explained that we were going to be snorkeling with White Fish that were spawning. He also explained how these fish prefer the areas of the stream where the water is really flowing.  Sure enough the White Fish were in the middle of the highest currents were the other fish (rainbows) hid behind rocks.

This was one of the better images from the day. White Fish spawning with Jeremy in the background rolling video.

A few years later, what you know, it’s on the cover of the American Fisheries Journal, helping to illustrate an article that Jeremy co-authored.

American Fisheries Society Vol 34, No 12.

It’s a great article dealing with why imagery is so important to the future of freshwaters. If you’d like to read it click here.

~SMG

Jill Chodak looking gorgeous in a Badgley Mischka gown.

A stunning dress, a beautiful model. They had to be photographed. I love the flow and interplay of light and wind on the material.

Jill Chodak looking gorgeous in a Badgley Mischka gown.

We went for the Colorado theme . . . out in nature, at a park.

Jill Chodak looking gorgeous in a Badgley Mischka gown.

Of course, people lingered (and accosted her in NY when she wore it) as they encountered this women as she strolled through the park. It’s not an everyday occurrence here in Colorado.

Jill Chodak looking gorgeous in a Badgley Mischka gown.

And this was an exhausting shoot. So why not take a nap . . . on a log.

Jill Chodak looking gorgeous in a Badgley Mischka gown.

Isn’t that what every women does when in an elegant gown? Nap on log?

Jill Chodak looking gorgeous in a Badgley Mischka gown.

All in a days work!

~SMG

I’m loving the cold weather . . . a cup of tea and sometime to catch up on blogging.  I can’t believe I’m finally blogging on Brook and Jeremy’s wedding. How time passes!

This was one of those fabulous days I felt so lucky to be a part of. Here are three of my favorite images from the day.

Brook, our beautiful bride!

Jeremy, our handsome groom.

And our couple in love!

Brook & Jeremy Thanks so much for having me share in your wedding day!

Oh yes, and if you’d like to see a slideshow of the day, you can view it here.

~SMG

Overall Landscape created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC.

Photographing Landscapes are difficult. Typically you can’t control the light, they are on a huge scale, there’s weahter issues, and most importantly how do you transfer something that is by nature 3D into a 2D image that portrays the uniqueness of a particular landscape? Throw in a tight timeline, racing oncoming snow and you have a very exciting problem to solve.

Overall Landscape created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC

Thankfully, despite the hurdles, this assisgnment went extremely smooth. I had the good fortuen of working with the gracious Leslee of Southern Exposure Landscape. She conveyed what they were looking for and helped with the shooting schedule. In less then a week of time we photographed portions of 5 properties and won the race with the oncoming winter weather. When I shot the last property it was begining to snow. The timing could not have worked out better.

Three tiered water feature created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC

Patio Lighting by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC

Grand Avenue in Windsor Colorado created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Spinkler LLC

Walkway created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC

Southern Exposure Landscape & Spinkler LLC

Water feature created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC

Night Lighting created by Southern Exposure Landscape & Sprinkler LLC

What is this? Well for the non-farmers (like myself) it’s the thingy-ma-bob that plows out the old corn stalks and the one further down the post plants new seeds and fertilizes them too. In short - for the city slickers - this sort of thing allows us to have popcorn in a microwave, corn for tortillas, and all the other gazillion uses of commercially grown corn. Check out the Groff Ag here.

The Groff Row Flex Placer – Fertilizer Application Equipment

This was also one of my favorite commercial jobs this past year. Why? Because it made my brain hurt. When I first saw this “thing,” my immediate thought was how to lift it up. It stands about 2-2.5 feet tall and seems as if it weights about 60lbs. It is one of those awkward weights that shift when you hold it. So it makes it really difficult to hold.

When I brought it home and set in on my shooting table, which now seemed uncomfortable flimsy, I jerry-rigged a safety strap from the rafters so it didn’t accidentally meet the concrete floor.

Then . . . . I just looked at. Yup. I looked at it for about 2 days. I kept peaking my head in and looking. I was a bit perplexed on how to create a picture of it, that would make it look and feel as cool as it actually is. After looking for a few days, and talking with other photographers I finally began photographing it. Lots of white foam core involved.

14 hours of shooting, and 6 finished images later,  the job was done.

3 Hole Finger Row Cleaners.

~SMG

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Lindgren Landscapes this past summer photographing a few of their properties. As you can see, they can design and create anything under the sun. Here are are a few of my favorite images from their properties.

Water Feature, Deck, Pergala. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Water Feature. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Deck. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Mature Landscape. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Pergala. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Pergala. And I love the bug on this flower. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Outdoor Living Space. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

Outdoor Fireplace. Landscape by Lindgren Landscape.

~SMG

Diana Hermann, owner of Zi Zai,at work on her herbal recipes for skin care. Photographed on October 2, 2009.

I had the excellent fortune of working with Diana Hermann of Zi Zai creating pictures of Chinese herbs. It was SOOOO cool. All this really gnarly textured herbage (is that a word – prolly not) that made an excellent subject. Well then . . . better get a photograph of the legend herself.

I’ll jump at any chance I get to take an environmental portrait. Zi Zai is going to launch in a short bit. When it does, I’ll be sure to let you all know. Until then you can just love the picture of this awesome herbalist.

The dog, Sam, was a major inspiration on why to start Zi Zai her skin care company.

Anginet Page and I had the good fortune of doing a little mini fashion shoot a few weeks back. Our kids played in the grass while we pretended we knew what we were doing. Sarah Johnson who is a fabulous model was our first subject. Sara has a zillion - yes that’s a lot - of looks to give.

The shoot with Sara was thrown together minutes before we began shooting . . . Despite the last minute effort I think we got some great stuff. Our background was unforgiving that day, and I have so many, “I think I’ll use the sky as my background shots” that I had to flirt with the actual background too. Here was my favorite from the day.

Sarah Johnson.

And my wife liked this one . . . so I thought I’d post it too.

Sarah Johnson.

Then there was our darling Tara. The shoot with Tara morphed a bit from our original idea and I don’t think we got what we planned for, but regardless there was one frame that I thought was fabulous. Here it is:

Tara.

To both Sarah and Tara, you ladies were absolutely wonderful to work with and I look forward to working with both of you again.

~SMG

Jennifer Lee and Kara Roy and run down Mountain Avenue during our October snowstorm. Love the dedication ladies.

Gotta love the snow days! I looked out the window late one night and oh my goodness, it was coming down. I emailed a few friends and what you know we had a photo shoot. Both are super athletes . . .

Jenifer Lee and Kara Roy (Olympic Trials Qualifier in the Marathon) met me and Tuscan for a 20 minute shoot.

Kara Roy extraordinaire! She ran in the last Olympic Trials for the Marathon. As you can see she’s dedicated . . .

By the end my fingers were frozen and screaming for warmth, but I think we made it a wrap with a few great frames.

Kara Roy and Jennifer Lee taking a quick breather before resuming their run down Mountain Avenue in a snowstorm.

Next to Starbucks. 1/2 caff Grande Mocha for my wife (she’ll do anything for a Mocha). Pick her up on lunch break and then to a local park.  Oh what’d you know, Tuscan is ready for the snow too . . . . . . . .

Marcie and Tuscan in the snow.

Tuscan hated it. It was really windy, but again a few successful frames. Gotta love the snow. Weeks later my fingers work again and so I’m finally typing this post.

And you always need an ending frame.

When I got an inquiry to shoot a CLO, my first question was, “what is a CLO?” It turns out that would be Chief Learning Officer. So, I got to meet the CLO for Agilent Technologies during a 90 minute portrait session. Teresa was super fun to work with and we got some great frames. Also, it was my first double trunk (2 page spread) in a magazine, so I was pretty psyched about that. Here’s the frame that was published in T & D Magazine. T & D stands for Training and Development.

Portrait of Teresa Roche, CLO of Agilent Technologies, shot on Assignment for T & D Magazine.

Marcie Glass outside of Crested Butte.

It was windy and cold . . . (just like Gunnison). The wind did catch one 1 umbrella and made it go tumbling through the meadow. I chased it for a 1/4 mile, but it eventually landed in raging torrent of a river - never to be seen again. Poor umbrella.

Marcie and Tuscan Glass outside of Crested Butte Colorado.

And it one natural light shot of the family.

Steve, Marcie and Tuscan Glass outside of Crested Butte Colorado.

I was ecstatic when a few weeks after the first shoot Runner’s World contacted me again for another. So off to Gunnison, Colorado we trekked.

Keri Nelson photographed for Runner’s World Magazine August 2009.

The day was hellaciously windy and we had to use a ton of weight on the light stands as well as hold one to keep it from blowing over. Thankfully despite the wind we had a great shoot.

We photographed Keri Nelson trail runner extraordinaire! To the east we had rocky terrain and to the west we had high mountain sage. It was a very cool and dynamic place to photograph. Kerri was a ton of fun to work with and was a great sport despite the Hurricane winds.

Below is the the Copyrighted and Published Material from the August 2009 issue of the “Backstory” and “Table of Contents” page.

Runner's World Magazine, Backstory August 2009, Keri Nelson

Table of Contents Page.

Runner's World Magazine, , Backstory August 2009, Keri Nelson

I was super excited when we got this assignment. In my mind I’ve always viewed Runner’s World Magazine as a creme de le creme type publication. They have great articles and fantastic photography. So, when I was asked to shoot for them I was excited, and extremely nervous.

The athlete was Jenny Barringer out of Boulder, Colorado. She’s a superstar in the distance running world. Google her and you’ll see what I mean - Olympian, records galore, super fast.

And she was also super fun to work with! In fact, it was hard to take pictures of her not smiling. She was incorrigibly happy, the perfect person for my first shoot with Runner’s World. Thanks Jenny for giving me such a great first shoot. And thank you everyone at Runner’s World for giving me the assignment!

A copy of the Copyrighted and Published Material from the July 2009 issue of the “Backstory” and “Table of Contents” page.

Table of Contents Page. Runners World July 2009

Backstory Runners World July 2009 - Jenny Barringer

Ron Z - Pilot Extraordinaire. And That not the plane we flew . . .

A few weeks back Ron Z the owner of the super-cool website company, Code Geek, invited a few friends to fly to Laramie to go have coffee from a Clover Press. Uhm, can you say “yes?”

Ron Z in action

Ron Z flew. As a physicist and flight instructor (with 18 zillion flight hours to his credit) he explained G forces with cool little diagrams with those arrows. You know the arrows . . . from your physics class. If you drew enough of them in all sort of directions at different lengths then maybe, just maybe your teacher would show mercy and give you a passing grade. But funny enough, since Ron Z doesn’t know me that well, he offered to let me steer. I immediately had vision of being a fighter pilot and cranked us into a barrel role - kidding, kidding, kidding - about that barrel role. I did fly! And it was super cool.

Machiato on the house.

Once we got to Laramie, we went to the coffee shop that has the “Clover Press.” Matt West, a man of refined taste enlightened us on the finer points of true coffee snobbery and the genius of the Clover Press. Even I, as a neanderthalian-folgers-gas station-coffee-drinker could taste the unique bouquet of flavors. I kid you not, mine had hints of blueberry. It was fantastic!

The aftermath.

And since I don’t know how to fly planes, anything about coffee I took a few pics of the Sunday excursion.

Matt West and our plane.

Thanks again! I had a great time.

~smg

All credit in this shoot goes to Stephenie Falcone. A New York transplant of 8 years to Fort Collins – and a new mother – she was craving a reason to pull out her New York fashion and look sexy for a day.

With three other mothers we spent an afternoon photographing in Suburbia. The point . . . you can be a Mom, have a child, and still be sexy.

Thanks again Stephenie!

~SMG

Sex and The Suburbs

Sex and The Suburbs

In the words of Kid Rock, “I’m back, the fog has lifted . . . .”

I haven’t blogged since May 13, 2009 and I have some catching up to do . . . so here goes.

~SMG

I’m a messy eater. But I don’t hold a candle to my 10 month old son. We took baby food, baby spoons and prepared meticulously. Tuscan in his high chair, baby food ready we set-out for the “baby eating” shoot.

Oh and what eating session would be complete without a sippy cup? Yup, this kid knows how to eat and make a mess while doing it.

Dad, I love the sippy cup.

Well, all photo session have to end.

This last photo? Does it  remind you of that painting . . . oh by who was that guy . . . .

Inspired by Michelangelo. No this was NOT photoshoped.

~Steve Glass

Oh gosh . . . this project has been BIG. But finally, I’m 100% committed and I’m working through the labyrinth of old images. I’m adding keywords, captions and making my entire library searchable.

Though it’s a marathon, or shall I say an Ultra, there has been some great jewels among the rubble - from years past. Here’s one that I’d forgot even existed.  Circa May 7, 2005.

Daisy on the banks of the Eel River, Angelo Coast Range Reserve, CA. Circa May 7, 2005

This was taken when I was photographing Natural History and behind the scenes shots for the movie River Webs by Freshwaters Illustrated. It’s an awesome organization and I suggest checking it out.

I wanted to work on some point of view (POV) photography shots. So, the gang headed to the local park in Fort Collins for a quick photo shoot.I had this elaborate idea . . . well my clamp didn’t work with the swing. So these were all hand-held shots mimicking the motion of the swing. So much fun! Here’s my favorite three.

Tuscan loving the swing!

Really I think he might have had more fun than we did.

And finally we’d hogged the swing for too long . . . time to head home.

Dad? Do we really have to go?

This was a freaking fabulous fashion shoot. Harlot Wear is a super awesome cycling clothing company . . .  and no they don’t make lame spandex-stuff that no one wants to actually wear in public. They actually make cycling clothing that you’d be happy to wear out and about

The name Harlot? A little racy isn’t it? If you look back to the history and women that first road bicycles they were not looked upon fondly.

Please enjoy this historic yet unbelievable text from Harlot Wear’s website:

Critics warned that the“unfettered liberty of bicycling would intoxicate women to immoral acts” and that the bicycle “promoted immodesty in women”. As Clare S. Simpson noted,  “The independent mobility of cyclists raised genuine alarm for their physical, if not moral, safety; simply put, the bicycle could easily take women to unsavory places where they might be endangered physically … or morally.  Drawing on previous knowledge of the kinds of women who deliberately made themselves conspicuous in public, that is, prostitutes, there would be a strong tendency to conclude that cycling women were far from respectable: not exactly prostitutes, perhaps, but possibly women of loose morals or with an undeveloped sense of propriety.”

So with this history that the name Harlot Wear was chosen.  So, the idea? Let’s show cool girls getting after it in Harlot Wear apparel, showing their strong sense of  style, sass and beauty.

"I'm not only a killer down hill rider, but I look good too."

Next idea . . . .

"How cool is that girl?" Uhm, answer way cool. Dudes dig 'er.

This past Thursday we shot a “test” shoot with Megan Richter for Diana Baldwin Talent of Denver Colorado.

We started at my home with large cups of coffee as we rubbed the sleep our of our eyes at 7am. As Megan’s hair and hair was prepped by Janie Rocek of JR Design,  my friend Zak Hassler and I headed to location to setup. Zak Hassler gripped for the day, holding the scrim to keep those nasty shadows off the eye-sockets and provide comic relief while I was focused on shutter speeds, f/stops and Watt Seconds.

We were planning on 5 looks, and a few days prior to the shoot we decided to do an extra one pushing it to six. We were trying to give a few different looks of the fashion world.

Warm weather greeted us for the first look. We called this fashion look “the girl next door look in the happy airy morning light. “

The next look I called the “Nicole Kidman in the outback of Australia.” In short, we were on a safari, and super model Megan Richter did one excellent job with the outfit. We did passes with her walking as she showed her safari fashion look to the camera. This was one of my favorite looks.

As well as a few of those,  “I’m thinking of a time and place that held my heart.” She must have been thinking . . . . “of Australia, or some boy.” okay, bad joke, but I love the shot. Go Megan!

By the time the third look rolled around it had REALY gotten cold with a brisk northwestern wind. Brrr .  . . .  Despite the cold she turned it on for us. I absolutely love this frame. She makes it look like it could be the middle of summer appearing in some glossy like Vogue or Vanity Fair. She looks fabulous.

This next fashion look morphed from our original hippy-elengant-grunge look (yeah I made up the term - I’m creative) to a . . . well different idea.  We changed the look since we were unable to find the clothing we originally wanted. This is what we got.  I think it’s awesome and I love the attitude! The purple skirt with the velvet like blouse is very chic.

Next, our business look. It’s FREEZING now . . . and on some of the frames (not this one) Megan’s hands are turning a purple blue. Yikes.

And no model shoot is complete without some sort of sporty fashion look . . . This was the sixth look we decided to shoot at the last minute. This could be anyone out at for a day at the park.

It was a great model shoot, and I think we creatd some fashion type images. I’m super impressed with our professional model Megan who kept wokring the poses even though weather was frigid - yup, it ended up snowing that evening.

~ Steve Glass

Photographer, Fort Collins, Colorado.

It was a great evening photographing a wonderful show hosted by the Jon Ric Salon in Denver. There were a host of vendors from food to attire. The evening was filled with laughs and good times by all. Here’s a group shot of the the Jon Ric Salon employees and models from the evening.

A beautiful model bride and groom . . . so dashing and gorgeous!

The creative director (and hair stylist) Robert DiTacchio of the Jon Ric Salon, helping the model bride with her hair and veil.

They were trying to be serious . . . but why be serious when laughing is so much more fun.

Again I’d like to thank the owners Jack and Janet of the Jon Ric Salon for hosting such a wonderful show!

~SMG

I photographed my first test shoot for Donna Baldwin Talent. I had the great fortune to photography Charles Pappas who is represented by Donna Baldwin. This was the  first male model I’d ever photographed. And if fact the first “real” (as in represented by an Agency) that’d I’d ever photographed. Charles was a great first to photography, because he a zillion poses and it was impossible to take a bad frame of him.

Our biggest challenge of the day was the wind. It was SUPER windy. I’d planned on using a few different lighteing scenarios, but the wind made us keep it super simple. My friend Zak Hassler gripped for the day. His work consisted mostly of holding the light stand so it wouldn’t blow away. Makeup was done by Janie Rocek of JR Design.

We started with a summer preppy look.

We then moved to a casual day in at the park.

& another park shot, hmm let’s use the bleachers.

Time to look semi-casual . . . Gotta love the Xterra.

And finally the Sport fitness look. And yes he looks like Hercules - even in person.

It was great shoot.

-SMG

Well we’ve done it. We finally did some advertising . . .

We’re pretty excited about our add in Brides Colorado Magazine Spring/Summer edition. Here’s a mock up of the add below. We think it even looks better in the magazine.  So keep your eyes open for the newest issued of Brides Colorado. I believe it hit the newsstands yesterday.

~SMG

We had so much fun with Cassaundra on our first model shoot, we asked her to do another one.  It was the same idea as the first one, light airy catalog type shots, and some edgy athletic shots. We started with the light and airy stuff first.

I wanted to play around with different backdrops. I normally composes very clean uncluttered shots, but thought a little “stuff” in the background might add more of a story to the photographs. So we had her standing in front a bunch of picnic tables, garbage cans, and grills . She had a few different outfits.

This was our original backdrop I had in mind, but the huge beams of the picnic area were too visually distracting . . . . and I was already on the second to top rung of my 6 foot latter. I couldn’t quite cut out the beams . . .

Forget the picnic area . . . we picked up some trees and other cool background stuff.

Now on to a more edgy athletic look. Yup, super athlete Cassaundra.

This is the “epic” pose. Go Cassaundra! Go!

Fun day at the park.

~SMG