Magazine Cover from a Photography shoot in Denver
I had the pleasure of collaborating with Marijuana Business Magazine for their current cover. As a photographer living here in Denver, I always enjoy this type of on-location executive portrait commission. The light, weather and backdrop are always changing but the thing that remains a constant is my goal to create a photograph that my client, subject and myself are all happy with.
New, Important Magazine Cover
I’m eager to share the current cover of Headwaters Magazine with my photograph of Amanda and her daughter in their home in Security, Colorado. Their water supply was recently reported as contaminated and Amanda and family (as well as most everyone else in their community) had been drinking from that contaminated tap for years. Now they rely on bottled water. Read the entire magazine here.
New Photography @ The Denver Puppet Theater
I was finally able to photograph Annie at The Denver Puppet Theater the other day. She is always amazingly busy, I found. That makes sense because Annie is not only a wonderful puppeteer putting on a variety of fantastic shows. She also creates all of the puppets, is a kind human being and provides a wonderful service to all of the children who attend. I believe that her method of helping people think creatively and open their mind is treasure to all those who attend.
New environmental portrait in Boulder, CO
Here is a new environmental portrait I created while on assignment recently in Boulder, CO.
On Assignment for Washington Post Magazine
My first assignment for The Washington Post Magazine went well. I photographed Senator Bennet and his family as he was in Colorado for the long holiday. We did some reportage and one family portrait. Here is the result: (there are some reportage photographs in the magazine as well, I just don’t have a paper copy yet of my own to photograph and share)
Portraits of a wind turbine technician in rural Colorado
Below are 3 portraits of a wind turbine technician in rural Colorado. I brought out the lights for this final environmental portrait of Chris. Earlier in the day we climbed up a turbine (basically a looooong ladder straight up the base) and walked around on top of the Nacelle. That was something I have wanted to do for a long time… now I’d love to rope-up and rappel down a blade 🙂
Great display in Fokus Magazine
Many thanks to the editors at Fokus, Sweden’s weekly news magazine, for this amazing display of my photographs created recently on assignment for them. I spent 2 days documenting the business of cannabis here in Colorado.
In The Yards
To see more from this project, a more comprehensive gallery is on my website: http://www.matthewstaver.com/in-the-yards/
Photographs of the 2013 hemp harvest in Colorado
The DEA did not show up to raid his field earlier this month so Ryan Loflin and a crew of volunteers harvested, by hand, the first major (known) hemp crop in The United States in over 50 years. Ryan quietly amassed the illegal seeds from abroad and planted them earlier this year in about 60 acres of the same land he worked as a boy in a remote corner of Southeast Colorado. In early October, as part of a decision to optimize yield, he opted to harvest the entire crop by hand. Instead of hiring migrant farm workers Ryan turned to twitter and facebook making a general call to anyone interested in participating in this historic event to go to his farm, camp and help harvest. Friday night the crew began to assemble, most camping in tents inside the barn used the following day to store the harvested crop. People came from down the road, and as far away as Idaho and Texas to participate. Saturday morning after filling out an indemnification contract, a breakfast of muffins, yogurt and coffee, Ryan and fellow hemp enthusiasts fanned out across the weedy hemp field plucking the green leafy stocks, now mature and heavy with seed, one by one, pulling out the entire plant by the roots.
Harvest weekend proved to be a visually interesting event full of colorful characters harvesting a crop in the still drought-plagued Southeastern corner of Colorado that directly reflects the changing attitudes and laws about Cannabis and Hemp in Colorado and around the country. And it was all made possible by the entrepreneurial spirit of an enterprising farmer.
I made 3 trips to the farm and hope that the photographs below capture Ryan’s entrepreneurial spirit as well as showcase the undertaking in a visually interesting way.
Strobed Battle Photographs; Outside
A recent weekend of heavy combat, fencing, and other Medieval and Renaissance activities provided a prime opportunity to create some visually interesting photographs with my new Fujifilm X100s camera. Combining the ability of the camera to sync with flash at shutter speeds faster than most cameras and this amazing event resulted in some interesting photographs. All are .jpgs straight out of the camera – not even opened in Photoshop.
A cute shark photograph
To ease into the weekend I thought I’d post 2 cute portraits I shot last week. 
New Portrait Commission: DAM Director
A wonderful recent commission to photograph the Denver Art Museum (DAM) Director, Christoph Heinrich, allowed for creative composition, less conservative lighting and the opportunity to craft some visually interesting portraits of an executive in one of my favorite buildings in Denver. The biggest challenge during this shoot ended up a tie between the snow that began falling the moment we went outside for that portion of the shoot and the difficulty distilling such a complex and striking building into one or two portrait locations.
Photojournalism – farming through the drought of 2012
Below is a portion of a series of photographs I created as part of a commission to document the relationship between agriculture and water. 2012 was a tough year to coax crops from the dry earth. The drought coupled with high heat caused many crops across Colorado (and the nation) to fail.
Election Day 2012: Photographs from Colorado
It was a long 18+ hour Election Day for me here in Colorado, but I would have been disappointed if I wasn’t in the middle of it all for the duration. Below are a few of the documentary style photographs I made throughout the day beginning in the hard-fought Arapahoe County town of Byers and finishing in the Republican Party gathering in Denver.
A set of moody landscape photographs capturing a bit of the soul of any place miles from town.
These are part of my ongoing series, On The Road, and showcase a place I love – any place miles from town.
Fun shoot made the magazine cover
I am pleased to share the August 2012 cover of Golf Business magazine with my photograph on the cover. Yep – this is a real portrait made during an actual fireworks display on July 3rd. And moving that huge buffalo head on a golf cart to the location for the photograph they used as a spread inside sure did get me some interesting looks. Happy August!
Moody portraiture
Two of my favorite portraits from a recent assignment. I love the mood and tone created by each.
matthew staver 