Behind the Photos

The summer ad campaign for Colorado Tourism is released and these are two of my favorites from last summer's shoot with Tom Stofac and Brandon Saunders at MMG Worldwide. The dude ranch image was supposed to be an evening shoot, but a thunderstorm of epic proportions forced us to cancel that after assembling a cast of cowboys, dudes and horses. We reconvened at 5 a.m. the following morning and were rewarded with exceptional light. Then it started raining again.

The Tavern shoot also had its brush with weather, as rain was falling as we were setting up. Eventually the rain let up and we brought up our talent -- 14 young Denverites, each better looking than the last one. The Tavern was busy since a Rockies baseball game next door had recently finished, but we had a section of the deck cordoned off for the shoot. That did not stop one short, weasly-looking individual from breaching the perimeter, walk up to the models at the front table and announce, "You girls are all bitches." Our producer, Liz Long, thought he had said, "You girls are all midgets," and was a bit perplexed. But the male models heard him clearly and all leapt up with an idea to defenestrate our intruder. Realizing he had not called them midgets after all, and fearing the mens' wardrobe was about to mussed in a bar fight, Liz quickly had the individual removed, and the shoot proceeded happily.