Denise Chambers - Photographer | Blog

My Favorite Photo Subjects

Denise — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:06:37 +0000

Every once in a while I get asked, what is my favorite thing to photograph. Easy question to answer.. hands down my favorite “thing” to shoot is my family and friends (including the four legged ones). Nose around the blog a bit and you’ll find quite a few posts centered around my family and friends. They are, always have been, and will continue to be my inspiration.

Here are a few pics of my family in Germany last summer. They are part of a long term personal project I’ve been working on over the last several years.

Hot Air Balloons

Denise — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:59:22 +0000

Now that my new portfolios are done (YAY!), I’ve started working a bit more on archiving my catalog of images, which is a pretty daunting task. I already have a few live music sets, a small set of Colorado images, and a small set of Texas images cataloged. I just recently uploaded a batch of images from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. When I was working at Weaver Multimedia Group, I took my photo staff (Andrea and Ann) down there for a shooting field trip just for fun and inspiration. It was a good time. If you’ve never been, it’s definitely worth it, the dawn patrol and evening balloon glow were pretty cool. Oh and the odd shaped balloons were pretty neat.

View The Full Slideshow Gallery

St. Vincent at the Bluebird

Denise — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:05:27 +0000

This post is a weeee bit late, but I had the pleasure of photographing St. Vincent’s set at the Bluebird last month. AMAZING!! Annie Clark had me in a trance for 90 minutes. It was heaven! Here are a few of my favorites:

You can see the complete set, along with a review by Cassandra Schoon at the Denver Post Reverb.

Technical notes:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lenses: Primarily the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

ISO: 1250, 1600
F-Stop 4.0 & 2.8
Shutter speeds: anywhere from 1/15th to 1/100th depending on the lighting

Snowshoeing In Breckenridge

Denise — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:41:56 +0000

Snowshoeing is my favorite winter activity. Well, other than laying on the couch with Cec, next to a warm fire, reading a book, while puffy white snowflakes are falling outside. Anyhoo, I digress. Over Martin Luther King weekend we rented a house up in Breckenridge with a group of friends. Breckenridge a favorite winter spot of ours. It’s not too far of a drive from Colorado Springs/Denver and there’s a lot to do which is great when your spending the weekend with 16 people.

This shot was taken on the Lily Pad Lake Trail, which technically isn’t in Breckenridge, it’s closer to Silverthorne. Great trail, the dogs loved it!

New Business Cards

Denise — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:51:07 +0000

My new business cards just arrived via UPS. YAY! I’m very excited! If you haven’t stopped by the blog in a while, you’ll notice that it looks completely different along with my portfolio site. Big thanks to Kelly Faigin and Sam Mobley! Also, Lettracraft printing, great to work with.

A couple more things to do and I’ll be all set to start my marketing blitz. I’ve been working with consultant Amanda Sosa Stone for the last several months and everything is coming together. I’m both excited and nervous! Having spent so many years as the in house photographer for a travel publisher, I never really thought too much about marketing myself. Since taking that leap to go out on my own it seems like I’ve spent more time marketing than shooting lately. Here’s hoping the hard work of starting to build a brand will pay off!

Jeremy Facknitz, The Charlie Milo Trio, Mark’s Midnight Carnival Show, Leftmore @ the Black Sheep

Denise — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:24:46 +0000

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to check out some local Colorado Springs music at the Black Sheep while shooting for the Denver Post Reverb. I’m far from a music critic, but if you live in the Springs you should definitely go check all these guys out, they put on a great show. If you like folk/acoustic rock, you won’t be disappointed.

Leftmore:

Mark’s Midnight Carnival Show:

Jeremy Facknitz w/The Charlie Milo Trio:

Benjam Pratt also performed, however I missed his set so I’ll have to catch him next time.

You can see more photos from the night at the Denver Reverb Gallery or on my Flickr page.

A Few Notes

I’ve shot several times a the Black Sheep and the lighting there is pretty much what you would expect from a dive bar kind of place…pretty crappy (but better than the Hi-Dive up in Denver). The Black Sheep doesn’t have any constraints regarding flash but as I’ve mentioned before I prefer not to use a flash. However, during this shoot the lighting was especially horrible. Not really sure why but, WOW, it was bad. Mostly green and red…which makes me wonder if the lighting guy was trying to make a statement about christmas. Sooo, I did occasionally fire my 550EX. Can you tell which ones from above?

Technical notes:

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lenses: Primarily the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM, but also the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM for a couple shots

ISO: 800, 1250, 1600
F-Stop 4.0 & 2.8
Shutter speeds: anywhere from 1/15th to 1/50th depending on the lighting

Flyleaf @ The Fox

Denise — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:02:44 +0000

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going into the Fox Theatre. Flyleaf is a Christian rock band and I am an agnostic lesbian. My experience living in Colorado Springs for over 17 years is that those two wouldn’t seem to mix very well, so I felt a little uneasy walking through the doors of the Fox. The moment Flyleaf hit the stage all that disappeared and I was completely taken in by their killer, passionate performance. The majority of the songs were from their upcoming album, “Momento Mori,” which drops tomorrow. They sprinkled in quite a few of their older songs, “All Around Me” being the hit of the night. My only wish was that lead singer Lacey Mosley’s vocals were louder.

You can see more pics on my Flickr page or over at Denver Reverb.

A Few Notes

I get quite a few random questions about my shoots so I’ve decided to start putting a little bit of shoot info along with the pics. What was nice about this shoot was that there was not a three song limit, what was not so nice was that there was no photo pit and the theater was packed. Luckily I arrived just shortly after the doors were opened so I managed to squeeze my way up front. But no photo pit meant I was pretty limited in terms of perspective.

If you’ve ever been to so Flyleaf, you know that these guys put on a real dynamic show, lots of movement. Which, is great for multiple photo ops but not so great when you aren’t shooting with a flash. And I generally don’t like to shoot with a flash. Sooo, this set was a little challenging. Heavy back-lighting wasn’t that fun to deal with either.

Technical notes:

Cameras: Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS Digital Rebel xTi
Lenses: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM and Canon EF 24-105 mm f/4.0L IS USM

ISO: 1600
F-Stop 2.8 & 4.0
Shutter speeds: anywhere from 1/30th to 1/250th depending on the lighting

State Radio, Elephant Revival at the Black Sheep

Denise — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:12:25 +0000

Wednesday was another great night of live music at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs.

I was extremely happy to be shooting State Radio for the Denver Post Reverb Music Blog. First, because State Radio is awesome and I was so happy they decided to make Colorado Springs a stop on their current tour. If you’re not familiar with State Radio they are a band out of Boston, MA who are extremely dedicated to helping bring about social change by promoting human rights and they encourage their fans to do the same. Currently they are partnering with Oxfam America to help end violence towards against women. To learn more about their activism and see how you can help change the lives of others, check out the Calling All Crows website.

The second best thing about the night was Elephant Revival..FANTASTIC! They are an experimental folk band based up in Nederland, CO. I absolutely fell in love with this band. Lovely blend of vocals and instrumentals. Can’t wait until they come back down to the Springs.

Here are a few photos from night:

You can see a few more on Reverb. Also, I’ll post a few to Flickr some time soon.

Marianne

Denise — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:10:47 +0000

I don’t have the opportunity shoot a lot of baby/family portraiture due to the fact that my travel schedule can sometimes be unpredictable. However, I was recently fortunate to schedule a few hours for a good friend. I think I may have to carve out more time for it, I quite enjoy photographing kids.

Summer of Snapshots – Instax

Denise — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:37:44 +0000

One of the things I decided to do this summer was to take some of the thinking out of my photography, just to give myself a little break and have a little fun. So I thought I give the Fuji Instax a try. I love the camera! And there just something magical about watching your image develop. These are a few shots from a recent road trip I took with Cecilia to Kansas City.