I'm proud to share that this portrait photograph received an Honorable Mention from the 2023 International Photography Awards! The man pictured is a Ron Thomason, an accomplished bluegrass musician who once played with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. Today he is the frontman of the Dry Branch Fire Squad bluegrass band. Here, I caught him while haying a farm in Howard, Colorado.

Color and environment consistently define my portrait work. Or so I thought.  A new client recently contacted me to shoot portraits of a corporate staff.  “We want them in black and white against a solid gray backdrop,” they wrote.  I raised an intrigued eyebrow and continued reading.  “We want to showcase the human element and drama of who the staff are,” they wrote. “And we can tell by your work that you have a great connection with people.” As much…

I'm happy to share that Peerspace has included me in their recent article listing who they think are the best editorial photographers in Denver. "Doug is one heck of a concept guy," they write. "His work isn't just pretty; it's also smart." Wow, kind words to be sure! It's always nice to hear how someone else receives my work but in this case, it's especially nice. If you're not familiar with Peerspace, it's like AirBnB but for hourly rentals for…

I'm proud to share that I am now a member of Photopolitic! I was an honor to be invited to be part of a roster of photographers whose work has inspired me for a long time. Check out my Photopolitic page here.  

One skill that comes in handy on just about every assignment is being able to call an audible. Here, the photo editor wanted an image of Denver teachers Gerardo and Kevin doing their podcast at the school. When I got there they told me they no longer do it at the school. Alright ... now what? So I thought, well, they started it here so that had to have been somewhere. "Could you please show me where you used to…

The Annual Chromatic Photography Awards announced their winners over the weekend and I'm proud to report the two images I submitted for this year's contest (above and below) both received an "Honorable Mention" in the People category. Check them out on the Chromatic website here along with the other winners.    

The photo editor of Valuation Magazine needed portraits of the new Appraisal Institute president who lives in Rapid City, South Dakota. I've done several shoots for Valuation, including portraits of their previous president. The photo editor has really liked the work I've done before and wanted someone she could trust to deliver on this important assignment, so she asked if I would be willing to travel to Rapid City. They always like to have portraits that show a flavor or…

*Update 12/22: I'm proud to report that one of the images from this shoot received an Honorable Mention Award by the 2022 Chromatic Photography Awards. .. The Rio Grande Farm Park in Alamosa, CO, hums in the evenings with people who have already put in a full day of work. They clock out of their day jobs then flood the fields to pick weeds, till dirt, or harvest crops with the hopes of one day starting their own agriculture business. Nestled along…

When I was 15 or 16 my family drove out to the mountains in the summer to camp near Steamboat Springs. Along the way we stopped at a meadow stocked full of wildflowers. Wildflower season in Colorado is beautiful and very brief. The mountains see snow in June and August so July is the one month where blooming flowers thrive. Everyone filed out of the car to check out the scene, except me. I refused. I wasn't getting out of…

It was career day at my step-daughter's first grade class and I got invited to come talk about my job. Couldn't help but bring some toys with me. It was so much fun seeing the kids play around with the gear. The questions their teacher asked me to address: Why did you choose your career? Me: Because creating photos and videos feels like magic and I get the same feeling I had at your (first-graders') age Christmas morning whenever I…

I'm excited to share new photography work I created for First Onsite, a company based in Colorado that does fire and flood remediation for corporate office settings. The shoot was produced by Image Brew, a video production company based in Denver and a favorite client of mine since I relocated to Denver from Washington, DC. The task was tall — capture 90 final images in one day. The images needed to show their crew at work in a fire and…

Last week I had the opportunity to work again with my friends at AARP Studios. I first worked with them in 2015 for a really fun story about women over 50 who skateboard. This time the story was about a gay man who decided to come out at the age of 91. In the photo above (courtesy of field producer Lindsay Pierce Martin) I am filming the subject go through old photos, including some of a secret romance with a…

When I am shooting a story it is often of people with a job to do, which means they can't afford to be distracted from their work. So I've become skilled at keeping out of the way and being as inconspicuous as possible. Such was the case with the hay-makin' story I wrote about in my previous post. But in addition to the story, I wanted to get portraits of each of the three people I was documenting. Elaborate setups…

My dad spent a lot of time on a farm in Wisconsin growing up and seemed to try to turn every yard of our suburban homes into one when I was a kid. I got put to work often raking dirt and picking rocks, something I hated then but now enjoy. So this year I was thrilled to make friends with a family that owns a hay farm. They let me come out and soak it in during a recent…

There's nothing like the rush of adrenaline I feel when I'm around a helicopter landing. As a professional photographer I find myself in a lot of exciting situations. This time it was an assignment for Denver Health Medical. I was hired to create a number of images, including of their air medical team. The team had better things to do (you know, the whole saving lives thing) so I had a very short window of time in which to execute…

One of the first things I ask for when a photo editor reaches out to me for a magazine photo assignment is the article or story that the photo will be accompanying. This helps me learn about their subject and what their story angle might be. That way I can start thinking of visual ideas that will help support the person and the story. Most of the time I am told that is not available, either because it hasn't been…

Last week I spent some time on a farm in Howard, Colorado, and shot three people as they worked to bail hay. It was a lot of fun and I'm very excited about the images I came away with. I'm still post-processing the set but here's one I wanted to share now. More to come!

Last August NEA Today Magazine assigned me to create portraits of a Denver elementary school teacher (below). When I met the teacher I could just feel the stress sweltering out of her. The start of school was a week away. She was in the middle of creating a long list of videos for students choosing to learn from home. And she still needed to transform her classroom, including adding plexiglass to every desk. A couple of weeks ago NEA Today…

Sometimes a scene for a fantastic image just jumps out at you. Such was the case with Craig, who owns a company that makes videos for vets. I was working in an adjacent office for portrait photograph when I wandered in Craig's office to say hi. What I found was Craig in the middle of a video call via a Zoom setup on steroids. He had obviously taken full advantage of his video production tools, including a KinoFlo light, which…

I was thrilled to receive a copy of a magazine I created the cover photo for last summer. It features new Appraisal Institute president and Denver resident Rodman Schley. Rodman appraises commercial buildings and so it made sense to try and shoot his portrait in a commercial building setting, something he and the photo editor leaned on me to secure. Well, finding a location indoors is a significant challenge in covid times. Most building managers are wary of allowing in…

Earlier today I was talking to someone about the album of movie ticket stubs I have kept since I was 11 years old. It made me reflect on the reasons why I started it and have kept it going for so many years. Other than my love for film, I think it has a lot to do with the tangible nature of the stubs. Time is intangible and measured only because we chose to measure it, making it something of…

In October of 2017 I took a trip up to Vancouver to see one of my favorite bands—Broken Social Scene—play a two-night show. Vancouver was in the midst of fall season, which is my favorite time to visit local botanical gardens. So I spent a day exploring Vancouver's VanDusen Botanical Gardens with my camera. The landscape was rich with color and shapes and, oh boy, I went crazy. I love abstract art and I like to apply that ethos to…

My office is in the RiNo area of Denver. Until recently, RiNo was largely a run down area littered with warehouses and manufacturing buildings. Over the six years I've been there I've witnessed it transform. Many of the warehouses have been demolished and replaced by apartment and condo buildings. Others have been transformed into market halls and offices. And walls, lots of walls, have been beautified by spray paint artists. Crush Walls was founded 11 years ago, right around the…

Rachel Sandoval is a teacher in the Denver Public School system. I met up with her last week to create photos for a story about her in an upcoming issue of NEA Today Magazine, the publication produced by the National Education Association. Like many teachers preparing for school during Covid, she is working hard getting ready for the upcoming school year. When I met her, she was busy recording videos with her computer camera for students choosing to learn from…

If you meet Rodman Schley and ask him, "what do you do for a living," be prepared for a long answer. Rodman is a national TV host, a keynote speaker, a serial entrepreneur, real estate expert, and published author. Phew! Oh wait, I forgot to add television producer. His expertise in real estate is what caught the attention of The Appraisal Institute, which produces Valuation Magazine, a monthly publication for real estate appraisers. Rodman is based in Denver where I…

Jim Fresquez grew up in an East LA gang, worked in the animation department of Walt Disney, then trained raced horses working with the man who was part of the team that trained Seabiscuit. Today, he still trains horses and has added vigneron to his long and varied resume. He and his wife operate Rust Ridge Ranch and Vineyard in Napa Valley.  They include an B&B, which is where I stayed after doing job in San Francisco. Their vineyard is…

In the spring of last year my friend Carey emailed me from her home in Maryland. "Denise and I signed up for a half marathon in Joshua Tree in November," she wrote. "Do you want to come?" My response: "Do they have an eighth?" I was not adverse to running. I'd run track and cross country in high school, but the max distance for any one of those races was 3.1 miles. In my adulthood, I prefer to run when…