Von’s Vision

The great Bronco Von Miller stopped by 34 Left studios the other day, to tape a PSA about Glaucoma. Sponsored by Allergan, who make powerful Glaucoma medication, the future Hall-of-Famer hit his marks, nailed his lines, and spent the last half hour with me shooting stills.

The video is about knowing the risks of Glaucoma, and seeking treatment if you think you or someone in your family may be affected. The New York production company, MultiVu, built a beautiful bright white set, propped with everything from ophthalmologist’s equipment to football equipment.

Director Jillian Breslin and cinematographer Adam Kolodny ride the dolly.

Take the quiz! It’s an important topic, and you may save somebody’s vision! Makeup and wardrobe by Cory Bryant and Mary Ann Hogan.

Back on the Road

Meet Scott. Scott’s a bicycling nut, and rides daily to his software engineering job. Well, on one particular commute, he was involved in a rather nasty meeting with a very large car. He ended up at my client’s hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, who patched him up and started him on his year-long journey of recovery.

Although he doesn’t remember much of his time there, he and the folks at Good Sam have stayed in touch. Some months ago he was able to go back and meet his caregivers— again! His story was so interesting that it was decided to feature him in their publication, Good Health. Above is his cover photo.

Making a compelling and technically sound cover photo in bright Colorado sun has its challenges. We wanted to not only brighten him with (portable, battery-powered) portrait light, but to keep the background soft. Some of our specialized lighting equipment made this complicated wish list a reality, and the story turned out great.

And yes, he’s riding again : )

Architectural Exteriors

A few months ago, we made a handful of new architectural exteriors for a great client, UC Health. They had a lot of locations to photograph, but I was honored to be the one selected to shoot the main campus in Aurora. The buildings change regularly, as does the signage.

Although our shoot there a few years ago was a rousing success, enough had changed that the marketing people felt they were due for another shoot.

Architectural exteriors are funny. You pray for (or buy insurance for) great weather, bring in crazy construction lifts, high-resolution equipment, and specialized optics, shoot HDR, panorama, RAW, and whatever other oddball file type you can think of. And then spend at least a couple days in a dark room editing and retouching. Joy!

See more architectural images here.

Perfect Practice II

Dr. Smith is a brilliant surgeon. He can fix up your hands chin, eyes, neck. Pretty much anything that makes us look or feel a little older than we actually are! Wisely, his marketing consultant decided to make a new round of photos of happy clients, and even the even one of good doctor himself.

If your practice could use a makeover, give me a call. I’m happy to work with offices big and small on print, advertising, and web campaigns. You’re doing great work. Make sure your future patients know about it.

See more of my portraits here.

Recruitment Campaign

One of my favorite clients, SCL Health, has a department solely dedicated to attracting new talent. In the competitive world of healthcare, this is where the rubber meets the road. They have set up a specific website just for recruiting, and wanted to populate it with actual SCL doctors and leaders, feeling, rightly, that using stock photos would be exactly the wrong thing to do.

The images needed to be beautiful, compelling, and authentic. Here are the actual people you’ll be working with! And this is your new office! Sleek and state-of-the-art! Well, the campaign was a rousing success, and we have now photographed in other cities for the same department.

Editorial: Tiny House, Tiny Baby

Recently I had the privilege of photographing Jen, Michael, and Scout for Good Health magazine, published by SCL Health. They had just relocated to Longmont and taken up in a tiny house. One of those adorable 400-square-footers you see on TV.

New state, new home. Everything according to plan. Until baby Scout came along about 7 weeks earlier than expected! After a succesful birth, some state-of-the-art care at Good Samaritan Medical Center, and a little time in the NICU (preemie baby dept.), they were all reunited in their little home.

That was where we interviewed and photographed them enjoying their home, each other, and a beautiful day outside together.

The whole story can be read here. Good luck, Scout!

How Do I Save My Pictures?

Good question.

Our new system is cool and fast, but those little CDs that used to come in the mail (a week later)? Well, you probably won’t miss them.

So here’s a step-by-step guide to saving and backing up your shoot.

1. Enter your final shoot (not proofs) URL and password. Note the download button.
2. Click “Download” then “Select All”
3. That’s it! They’re on their way to wherever your downloads go.

You can download individual files as well—Just select them one at a time. Be sure to burn them to a disc, copy them to a backup drive or the cloud, and make a note of where they’re living. You’ll need then again soon, I hope.

If you need a CD, just ask! They’re not free anymore (Sorry!) but I’m happy to make you one just the same. Pricing depends on data capacity.

New: Instant Digital Delivery

I made it my mission this summer to get my photo files delivered in the fastest, most client-friendly way possible! I wanted the process to be interactive, and for you to get your final files fast, even when hundreds of proofs and final hi-res photos are involved. No more snail-mailing CDs!

After a ton of research and beta testing, I chose my new delivery system—Photoshelter, which acts as a one-stop interface for sharing media.

What this means for you: You’ll get an email from me that I’ve posted your proofs in your unique client area. You’ll be able to view proofs, share them, and make selects (with comments). When you’re ready I’ll be notified. I’ll post downloadable final photo files that will be available to you for 30 days!

I’ll be around to help you through the process and I’ll still have CD/DVD delivery available for order, if you like. 

You’ll notice that the new delivery platform has changed the look of my website (which I’m loving) and I hope you do too.

20/20 Lasik

Always a pleasure to see Dr. Mark Danzo of 20/20 Lasik. He and his team are always up for whatever marketing challenges are thrown at them, and darn it, they’re not so bad to look at either.

This month, I did a series of them individually, offset on a bright white background. Their marketing people will be slugging graphics and Q&A in those bare fields, and running them in-office.

By the way, if you hate your glasses, tell Dr. D. I sent ya.

360º QTVR

What’s 360º QTVR? QuickTime Virtual Reality, in a full circle. And if you’re on the product team at Sorin NA, making cannulae for heart surgeries, you know they come in all shapes and sizes. But how to demonstrate that to your customers: surgeons?

With the assistance of the technologically masterful James Dewhirst, we turned high-resolution photos, in series of 36, into fully interactive animations for over a dozen products.

James and I are pretty sure we’ve saved hundreds of lives.