conductor

Iconic Conductor Portraits

Did you know that KUTV’s weatherman, Sterling Poulson is a choir conductor? He is the founder and musical director of the Choral Arts Society of Utah, and their next event features a guest conductor from Germany. Sterling called me to photograph Eric Schmidt, the guest conductor for the event for use in posters, programs, and promotional materials. Here are some of the images I did for them.

I know that they needed a very nice but classic, color portrait with a warm brown background.

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I started with that, then decided to have some fun, thinking a really iconic and artistic black & white image would be awesome. The subtitle to the name of my studio is “Celebrity Style Imaging.” I love creating images that tell a story about a person, and this is exactly the right kind of shoot for that. I envisioned some images that showed personality and screamed “artist.” I wanted an image that would be intriguing to a complete stranger, and would say, “This is an artist who is interesting and proficient in his field.”

I decided on a high-contrast black and white look with sharper specular highlights, using a light gray background instead of harsh white. Here are the results.

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I really like how these images. I think they are strong, impactful, and yes iconic. To see more about Eric and his upcoming event, visit the CASU website. And if you’d like a portrait for work or business, give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to create something for you.

Until next time, America.

Creativity – A Summer Day with Adobe, Heber Utah

This summer, some friends and contacts of mine from Adobe’s California office had some meetings in Park City. They invited me along as a local tour guide and helper on their creative day of shooting, and had events scheduled that ended at the Heber Valley Railroad (aka Heber Creeper).

Here are some of my images from that day. I started out using one of my Lens Babies as I photographed the train yard.

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The colors were so vivid that day, and the selective blur was a great look I thought for the train cars. With older and nostalgic train cars, I thought an older lens look would match perfectly.

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They had lined up this model too, who came in this authentic conductor’s outfit. I think he was my favorite subject to photograph, and I created images with both a selective focus…

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…and a normal lens. His outfit and expression were perfect. I really liked balancing the converging lines in the background with him.

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Here are some abstracts from an area of the train yard that is normally closed to the public, but with special permission we were able to walk around and explore. It’s hard to explain how fun it is to crawl around in areas like this and just shoot photographs for fun.

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Cox_AdobeHeber-220 It’s always fun to get away and create new images just for the sake of being creative, and it was fun being with  photographer friends from Adobe. They really had a fun night planned and I am grateful I could be apart of it.

Until next time, America.