Florida Frozen Orange Sunshine

Amelia Island, Florida--

The important thing is that it look warm, even if it is 29 degrees. Working with Jim Cox on Florida's northern-most barrier island for a resort shoot during the coldest cold snap in a turtle's memory. Our models slid down the iced boardwalk to stroll along the beach in short-sleeves.

Lambing Season

In the heart of winter, between Craters of the Moon and the Pioneer Mountains in south-central Idaho, it is lambing season at Lava Lake Ranch. It is a 24/7 operation that lasts for weeks as some 700 ewes give birth. The ranch is a leading organic sheep producer and a national leader in grazing management and landscape-scale conservation.

AMAZON

When I went to the Amazon in mid-November I expected – and found -- a landscape thick with life. It was life run riot: tangles of vines enveloping trees festooned with bromeliads, 4-foot tall wasp nests suspended from their branches, birds of every color calling, and always the ants.

But the people living along the rivers of this most biologically rich place on the planet became one of the most interesting surprises of my travels. Known as Riverenos, they are of mixed blood, but mostly indigenous people, living in very simple thatch-roofed stilt houses in small villages along the rivers. They fish and hunt and grow a few crops, consult shamans for cures and blessings, play soccer in the evenings under ominous thunderheads. And in places like the nearly one million acre Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Community Reserve in northern Peru, they have embarked on a voluntary conservation project that promises to protect the wildlife while enhancing their livelihoods.

A gallery of images from the Amazon is now posted on my website portfolio.

8 Parts Mayberry, 2 Parts Twin Peaks

Boise's north end is the kind of charming, homey, front-porch-with-cat, quirky neighborhood that developers are constantly trying to recreate --minus the quirkiness.

And Toto too?

Red Couch Guitar Series

I decided to photograph my favorite instruments, with the only rule being they had to be photographed on the red couch in the music room. This gave continuity to the images, referenced both Picasso and the other famous Red Couch Series, and meant that I didn't have to move my favorite possessions very far. They are, top to bottom, a Martin D-35 guitar, Weber Beartooth mandolin, Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 electric guitar, and a Beard Roadaphonic resonator guitar.

The Amazing Traveling Colorado Tourism Photo Shoot Road Show, Part 4-- Revenge of the Rain Clouds: All's Well That Ends Well

bottom photos by Aaron Beck

Highlights:

1. Working with a great crew: Jen Farquharson, our talented and lovely art director; Tommy Martinez, account executive and comic impersonator; Liz Long, the hardest working woman in production; Jere Long, location scout and fixer extraordinaire; Nathan Berry, production assistant and source of all useless factoids; Aaron Beck, my energetic and quick assistant. And a cast of two dozen-plus.

2. At Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde’s most spectacular cliff dwelling, the storm clouds and rain finally breaking at the very last possible moment to illuminate the sandstone arch and make the Anasazi architecture glow.

3. Faking out Liz by convincing her that we weren’t sure we got the above shot and would have to stay another night at Farview Lodge sans phone service, internet and t.v. The horror, the horror.

4. Shooting backstage during Vieux Farka Toure’s performance at the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival.

5. Riding the highlift 30 feet above the crowds at Telluride as the day-long rainstorm cleared.

6. A crazy-busy, complicated, beautiful shoot at Denver’s Rioja restaurant and then enjoying an exquisite late dinner on their patio after the wrap.