As I gear up for this year’s wedding season, I started working with bridal designer Maggie Burns of Colorado and amazing model Brittany Rihn. Brittany and I picked up six dresses yesterday, and we couldn’t wait to get started. So.. a few hours after picking them up, we started shooting… For best results, click FULLSCREEN, and then SLIDESHOW. Marie-Margot Bridal Couture - Dress 1 [img src=http://www.d
I try to do as much charity event photography as I can, and I am usually booked many months in advance for this kind of work. AIDS awareness at Red Ball in Denver, a breast cancer event in Wyoming next week, and last night, an event to benefit the Rotary After Work Club, the Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County, and the organization IDEA WILD. READ MORE to find out where to download and share the photos! You can see the photos at the Don Hajicek...
More than a makeup artist, Kara Criswell is a great model in her own right, a pleasure to work with, and an all-around wonderful person. For best results, click FULLSCREEN and then SLIDESHOW. Kara [img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/kara/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-0793-edit-edit_0.jpg][img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/kara/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-0837-edit-edit-edit_0.jp
Aspen Westfall’s 3-Look portfolio shoot. Photography: Don Hajicek Hair: Jesse Arana Makeup: Renluka Maharaj. Click FULLSCREEN and then SLIDESHOW for best results. Aspen Westfall [img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/aspen-westfall/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-8940-edit.jpg][img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/aspen-westfall/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-8974-edit.jpg][img src=
You may be here looking for your photos from Red Ball. I said it would take a day or two to get them online.. but here we are two hours after the show, and they’re here for your enjoyment. Well, actually they are on the Don Hajicek Photography Facebook page. Please take a moment to LIKE Don Hajicek Photography when you get there… and don’t forget to KEEP THE WATERMARK INTACT. If you do that, you are free to tag and share as you...
A great pleasure to shoot with one of Prime Talent’s newest models, Andy Rogers. This cat could give 007 a run for his money. Click FULLSCREEN and then SLIDESHOW for best results. Andy Rogers [img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/andy-rogers/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-7022-edit-edit.jpg][img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/andy-rogers/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-7034-edit.j
More of my friend Eric in the studio… For best results, click FULL SCREEN and then SLIDESHOW. Eric, Part II [img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/eric-part-ii/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-4057-edit.jpg][img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/eric-part-ii/thumbs/thumbs_untitled-4064-edit.jpg][img src=http://www.donhphotography.com/wp-content/flagallery/eric-part-ii/thumbs/th
I have uploaded some candids from the DeVelo Magazine Winter Cover Party at Suite Two Hundred. I am sending most of the photos to DeVelo for possible inclusion in the publication, but I have uploaded some to the Firestarter Photos Facebook page. Use them as you wish as long as you KEEP THE COPYRIGHT INTACT and don’t alter the image in any way. Don’t forget to “LIKE” Firestarter Photos when you’re there! Find them...
Firestarter Photos took it to the catwalk tonight. I shot the Konsepsyon fashion show put on by The Parlour, and met some wonderful people. If you’re looking for your photos to download, please head over to the Firestarter Photos Facebook Page and “like us” to get access to the Konsepsyon Gallery! The photos should all be online by mid-day on Monday, Nov 14.
I don’t do family portraits very often, but I find them fulfilling in ways that other kinds of photography are not. The mother told me that seeing her family through my lens brought tears to their eyes. Can there be a better testimonial? Not in my book. This family was so much fun to work with. I knew it would be good when I walked in and saw a portrait of Stevie Ray Vaughn hanging in their living room. This is going to be a big gallery, because so...
So much fun to shoot with Samantha. High energy, very intentional, very fit, and what a great face. Really strong but still feminine and with piercing blue eyes. She was ready to go and took direction in my favorite way… which is when the model knows what you want them to do before you even ask. Very few models are able to intuitively anticipate my direction. I’ll pass this little tip along to other models because Samantha said that this one...
What could be more fun than shooting photos of someone in the middle of a forest? Shooting someone wearing a fluorescent tutu and a pink wig in the middle of a forest! Megan actually sews these tutus and other pieces herself and sells them online. Needless to say, it was an interesting day. Now with Holga yumminess! For best results, click “FULLSCREEN” at the bottom of this box, then...
Places I’ve been… things I’ve seen.
I’ve only known Katarah Udarro for a few months, but he has become a very dear friend. Kat is a local videographer with an expert eye for editing and a rare and refreshing level of passion for what he does. It’s interesting for me to watch his energy, which has a sort of frantic centeredness to it. He’s very connected to the healing arts community, and he infuses his work with a kind of caring that is his natural tendency. It was great...
There was a reason I was in ABQ in the middle of October, but it wasn’t what I thought it was when I started that long drive. The circumstances of the trip and the many restraints of the environment were going to birth a new chapter in my creative life. I met so many really great people there, most of whom are now friends and will remain so. It was through photographing them that I discovered the portal. For best results, click...
Eric was kind enough to help me out with the “Young Businessman Ponders World Domination” series. I knew we’d get along great when he commented on the Banksy book he spotted in my office. This was another rare case where someone’s natural ability to model is a pleasant surprise. Eric seemed to intuitively know how to work with both the light and the camera. For best results, click “FULLSCREEN” at the bottom of the...
I’m so glad Monica approached me about shooting her portrait this past summer. Her ink is incredible, of course, but she has also become a very good friend. Along with my girlfriend and another friend named Lauren, Monica came along for the road trip to Albuquerque. Lauren and Monica became great friends, which was not so very surprising. They are definitely two peas in a pod! For best results, click “FULLSCREEN” at the bottom of this...
I’ve had my clients refer to my work in a number of ways, and sometimes this includes “therapeutic” or as I call it, “phototherapy for your soul.” Some of the clients that tell me this are models looking to strengthen their portfolios. More often, they are professional, everyday women who just want to look and feel beautiful and desirable. Sometimes we meet and chat for an hour before the shoot, and sometimes we just dive...
Your event deserves a photographer with the instinct and timing to catch the moment. After all, isn’t that what photography is? Tim McGraw, on stage at Cheyenne Frontier Days™, 2005.
the very essence of a place, a person, a moment,
teased out into the light... embraced, documented, and shared with the rest of the world...
I remember the last day we were on Culebra. We were so thirsty as we stood on the dock that evening. I found someone selling Medalla (Puerto Rico’s equivalent of Bud Light) and Emma found a mango juice for sale at the souvenir shop. The ferry that would take us back to Fajardo was two hours late, and the hundreds of people who waited for it were becoming restless. Pilots from the local airport were making their way through the crowds, making sure that everyone was aware that, for a mere $200, they could avoid the wait and the crowded ferry and the 2 hour voyage. One could be back in San Juan in 45 minutes if you had the cash… and the stomach for single-prop air travel over the ocean.
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It was the dead of summer, and my (at the time) 9 year old daughter and I we tearing a dusty trail up a gravel road in my old Wrangler. We were headed back to our camping spot in the Snowy Range of southeastern Wyoming when I saw several horses grazing in a field. We stopped and I grabbed my camera. As I approached the barbed wire fence at the road’s edge, the horses all stopped eating and looked at us. I don’t know if they like people in general or just trusted people who drove Jeeps, but they sauntered over to the fence and posed for us for a while.
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A great evening at Horsetooth Reservoir tonight and Cheri and I munched on some Mad Greens and watched the sun drop behind the mountains. The sky was awash with pink as we hiked back down to the car. I did manage to grab three exposures of Cheri while she took pictures with her phone, and I merged them into an HDR image earlier this evening. (I usually prefer more subtle HDR images, but I felt that the look fit the subject matter in this case.)
I have been weighing Photomatix against the HDR Merge feature in Photoshop CS5. I find that if you can get used to the controls in CS5, it actually works quite well. Plus, I already shelled out a lot of money for CS5, so not shelling out more for Photomatix is nice.
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I recently donated a few limited edition prints to a fundraiser whose purpose is to raise $15,000 to help find a cure for Lupus. The event is called “Raising the Stakes to Fight Lupus” and it promises to be a lot of fun! Casino night… silent auction… and a lot more. No one knows how to put on a party like Ed and Stacy Martin. You can find more information on the Raising the Stakes Facebook page.
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I’ve been in graphic design since 1987, when I joined Chicago’s largest art studio at the age of 19. Six years later, I left the biggest ad agency on the planet and headed off to Wyoming to be an art director for a western wear catalog. I designed my first web site a year after that… in 1994… shortly after my daughter was born. I started my first web development company in January of 1995 and quit my day job a few months later… and never looked back.
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…where have you been all my life?
I received a shipment of a great deal of pro photo/video equipment the other day. Some new continuous lighting, a couple of backdrops, a new lens for the 40D, an Intuous4 tablet… and my first Holga. All that flashy stuff, and I have to admit that I’ve damn near had this plastic, $50 camera clutched to my chest for the past 24 hours.
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Regan is an amazing artist and collaborator… and quite a good sport. Here she interacts with a mirror in some very interesting ways. At one point, she fell off the driftwood stump and into the Boulder creek. Keep in mind… this was early May in Colorado! But she shivered away and just kept going, and I think the set is that much better for her determination.
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