Jennie Lucas - Romance Novel Author Portraits

This week has been a busy one for us at Steve Smith Photography. We were fortunate enough to re-visit with a favorite client of ours, Jennie Lucas. Jennie is a Boise based romance author whom we connected with last in 2007 to shoot some photos for her website, jennielucas.com.

The focus of this most recent shoot was to add some fun lifestyle shots to Jennie’s portfolio. You can look out for her favorite picks on her site. Here are a few of our favorites.

Thanks for bringing such great energy and enthusiasm to the shoot!

Jason Romrell - ActionCOACH Business Headshot Photoshoot

This past Monday, the team at Steve Smith Photography welcomed Jason Romrell of ActionCOACH into our studio for some modern, edgy, yet friendly headshots.

Jason came to the shoot with a warm professional persona that made our job incredibly easy to do. We were extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to help Jason with some photographs for the newest business venture in his life. Thank you for spending the afternoon reminding us of why we love to do what we do. Best of luck with the newest venture.

If you think that you business might benefit from some insight and direction we highly recommend getting in touch with Jason. His website can be viewed by clicking here.

Photographing The DaVita Way in Washington, D.C.

The Steve Smith Photography crew spent 6 days recently at the new Gaylord National Harbor in Washington, D.C. providing photographic coverage of the 2008 DaVita Nationwide Meeting.

DaVita? DaVita is an extraordinary kidney care company. Recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of “America’s Most Admired Companies” in 2006, 2007, and 2008, we’ve had the honor of photographing their nationwide meetings in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Orlando, Nashville, Dallas, and Washington, D.C since the company was created in 2000.

The 2008 meeting was the largest yet: 2700 DaVita teammates descended on the facility for four days of non-stop activity

We’re Here!!!!!

All three of us shot feverishly, with Ray overseeing the digital asset management. We delivered images at 1 pm, 6 pm, and 11 pm daily to DaVita Village Communications for feature use in the daily edition of the DaVita Village Voice. Another set of images went to Capa Productions daily for use in the show-stopping Closing Video produced during the 5-day event.

2008 Shining Star Award Winners

We’re grateful to Resort Meetings Consortium for superb event planning and production and to DaVita’s Team Spirit for never-miss on-site collaboration.

DaVita’s Team Spirit

Working with DaVita is an intense and positive event photography experience which improves our Boise assignment photography, Boise wedding photography, Sun Valley wedding photography, and McCall, Idaho wedding photography.

Four Passions: the lure of surf travel and what I take

The Four Passions: Photography Family Surfing Foreign Travel

Surf travel; what’s not to love? Going to a foreign country with warm water, uncrowded surf conditions, and a different culture. Taking a break from regular life; changing focus. Having a fitness goal to train for. Fresh photographic subject matter to explore. And sharing the experience with my family. In the last few years have I been able to introduce them to surfing in the Maldives, Costa Rica, mainland Mexico, and Hawaii.

This spring the crew of Steve Smith Photography embarked on the first company-sponsored surf trip. The destination was El Salvador’s “East” coast near the fishing village of El Cuco. about three hours drive from the capitol city of San Salvador.

We joined 16 other friends, ages 23-60, for a week to dream about.

Highlights included:
6 days surfing twice a day
beautiful compound on the beach,
surf out front.
boat trips to other breaks
visit to a local school to donate supplies, clothing, new computer
day trip visit to a coffee plantation and lake in a volcano crater
daily massages
unexpectedly great food
attentive staff
truly memorable group

No one is ever ready to come back, but it’s incentive to start planning the next trip.

What gear I take: I take less than for an assignment, but enough to shoot stock and personal images. It’s important to be able to carry on all your camera and electronic gear to avoid the possibility of airline delay or theft. We also carry on enough clothing to be able to get wet if bags are delayed: board shorts, rash guard, flip flops, sunscreen.

Photo Gear:
Kata camera backpack
2 Canon 1DsMk2 bodies
Canon 24-70 f. 2.8 zoom
Canon 70-200 f 2.8 zoom
Canon 1.4x Teleconverter
Camera Charger
extra camera battery
3 extra Sandisk 8 GB cards
Gitzo monopod with Quick Release
Gitzo carbon-fiber travel tripod
Lowe chest pack
warm polarizing filter
Olympus waterproof point ‘n’ shoot
camera & access.
Macbook Pro laptop & access.

Surf Gear:
Board coffin
2 boards
reg + xtra fins
allen wrench for fins
swiss army knife
2 leashes
tropical wax
2 rash guards
2 board shorts
2 water hats
surf glasses
2 sunscreens
rack set
waterproof daypack

Transparent Accounting stock shoot for Getty Images

“Transparent” accounting practices are increasingly in demand following the Worldcom and Enron debacles of the early 2000’s. See a brief commentary from Business Week.

Getty Images, which licenses our stock photography, recently communicated that Transparency is a business value that is increasingly in demand.

We had just photographed Tyler Haws of Clearwater Analytics in Boise for
Crain’s Financial Week, to illustrate the concept of Transparent Accounting.

We revisited the set we designed for the FinancialWeek shoot but with a woman as the model. The increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the past couple of decades, according to The Economist.

And yes, I got to dress as Ninja Photographer to avoid reflections in the glass, only inches from the lens.

Pontiac Performance Magazine - Firebird Raceway

As the Sunday afternoon thunderclouds slowly dissipated, we ventured out to Firebird Raceway in Eagle to shoot on assignment for Pontiac. Our objective was to shoot Troy McDonald and his lovely black G6 coupe at the raceway for it to be showcased in the Summer 2008 issue of Pontiac Performance Magazine.

Pontiac’s magazine sets out to detail everyday owners and their Pontiac’s. Troy is an IT internal auditor in Nampa who enjoys spending his free time racing his G6 out at the Firebird Raceway. In fact, Troy participated in the 2007 Night Fire Nationals.

We had the opportunity to catch some of the drag racing action before we got down to business. It was a neat experience watching the vast array of vehicles ranging from snowmobiles, motorcycles, and custom dragsters to everyday street cars.

When the action has dissipated, we took Troy and his G6 back onto the track to stage some shots of the two for the magazine. Troy’s easygoing personality coupled with forgiving light conditions allowed us to work smoothly and efficiently through several shots.

All in all, the shoot provided a nice change of pace from our typical Sunday afternoon activities.

DaVita - Hilton Group - Las Vegas, NV

Steve Smith Photography spent the better part of last week in Las Vegas, Nevada documenting DaVita’s annual senior VP’s meeting held at the Red Rock Resort Casino & Spa.For those who are unfamiliar with DaVita they are a top provider of kidney care throughout the country. DaVita has been a client for Steve Smith Photography since their inception in 2000. They have been an incredibly pleasurable, generous and amicable client to work for.

Day one didn’t begin until the evening hours when the kick off party began at Club Cherry. The event was gave everyone a chance to mingle and to hear a recap of the recent happenings.

Day two started much earlier with desired head shots of particular individuals at the 7:00 am breakfast. From there, Steve went in to focus on their general session conference.

By noon we were boarding decked-out tour buses bound for St. Jude’s children’s home for a service project. DaVita’s team set out to revamp the children’s main activities center with a few coats of new paint. When the painting had subsided, we were fortunate enough to take an insiders tour of one of the foster residences. The children were extremely cordial and inviting. It was inspiring to see that this particular program was effective in their facilitation.

As the afternoon turned into the evening we were back on the buses heading back to the hotel. When the VP’s stepped off the bus, they were greeted by DaVita’s Team Spirit ready to hand out bowling shirts for the evening’s event. Bowling was an unknown plan that proved to be a pleasant surprise for everyone to look forward to. The night ensued with bowling in the Red Rock’s V.I.P. bowling lanes. High fives and strikes dominated over the occasional gutter ball. Smiles showed the high spirits from a hard but rewarding day’s worth of work.

Day three was another early morning aimed at catching the last of the camera shy VP’s. With assistance from various Team Spirit members, we were able to successfully wrap up all of the needed head shots. Once again, Steve proceeded to shoot the second series of general session conferences. The afternoon boasted a bit more excitement. Each VP had a choice of one of three activities: golfing, a jeep tour and mountain biking. Steve went out with the golfing crew, Jeane went out with the Jeep tour and I (Ray J.) went out with the mountain biking crew. My adventure opened my eyes to the scenic red rock hills a mere twenty minutes from our hotel. A few scratches, plenty of smiles and eleven miles later we were back to the buses. We arrived back in time to shower and relax before the closing dinner ceremony.

Delectable entrees of grilled chicken, salmon and filet mignon circulated throughout the vast dining area for the final team meal. Various awards followed the delicious meals consumed by all. It was a moving time to hear the dedication and emotion that everyone in the company put forth to make it successful business that DaVita is today.

It was a great trip for all of us to be apart of and we look forward to the nationwide event in Washington D.C. at the end of April.

Steve Smith Photography Emerges into the Blogging World

Creating a blog has been on our minds for sometime now. With the onset of 2008 we thought, what better time than now to start sharing. We have an exciting six months coming together. Traveling for both work and pleasure highlight our calendars at the moment. Our exploits look to take us as close as Las Vegas and as far as the Czech Republic.

With the onset of the wedding season coming around the corner we are focusing a good portion of our energy on the creation of a wedding specific website, spreading the word throughout as well as expanding our reach to Sun Valley, McCall and Tamarack.

We look forward to filling you all in on what we’re up to and where we’re headed. Hopefully you can join in along the way.