I sat around with a few photographers a year ago having a discussion about what wedding photographers should post on their blogs. Some say everything, some say only wedding photographs. I know my brides may not be looking for landscape pictures, but I'm a photographer first and foremost and I love art and taking pictures. Also, I think showing things I do as a hobby in photography also shows who I am - a guy who is in love with taking pictures.With that being said, here's the shameless plug (i'm not above it). Prints can be purchased at our online ordering site

I'll be honest, I miss the beach. Positive note, I get to spend time at the beach while photographing Mike and Dianne's wedding this Saturday.

However, the mountains here are just amazing, especially after the leaves start turning.

I came across Kenosha Pass off Highway 285 on my way to Zach and Cayla's "Connection Session" at Union Station.

I had about 40 extra minutes to spare, so swerved off the hghway at 70mph much to the astonishment of a few tourists and grabbed my gear and shot away. I absolutely love colors and contrast, so this was heaven.

I have been waiting for weeks to post one of my favorite photographs. This picture is so dear to my heart for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was so obvious that lives have been changed permanently. Secondly, as a teacher, I fully understood the weight and significance of what I just encountered. Lastly, I realized several months after this picture was taken just how powerful a photograph can be in raising money for those in need.

The narration of this photograph should start months before it was taken. It was May and our trip plans for touring Ethiopia on a fact-finding mission was in full swing. We had learned the dismal situations of the education system for students in rural Africa...well Africa in general had knew we had to do something about it.

One of the many needs that was expressed to us was the desire for chairs and school supplies. Many of these students would walk up to 5 miles a day with only a pencil to sit in a crowded room with zero air flow...on the bare soil.

So fast forward to early-July and we sit outside of a dilapidated school that has been beaten to humility by the sun, wind, and impoverished resources. The students seem excited and so do the teachers. They know something is about to change. There had been rumors, but every time these children have expected a “Western” favor from white people they are often met with disappointment.

However, their callous and cautious faces quickly shifted towards eager anticipation with the faint sound of a diesel engine sputtering in the distance. One kid bolted running with the agility of an Olympian and soon many more followed.

Soon a rusted green truck loaded to the point of overflow appeared upon the parched horizon of the Rift Valley. As the truck came to a skidding stop kicking up mounds of dust in the faces of expectant students, workers unlocked the tail gate and quickly began handing down brand-new desks.

An assembly line soon formed passing desk by desk from the rusted truck into the mud-lined one room school house. These were the first desks many of these students have seen up close, a luxury only reserved for the financial elite of the city. Also important to note, these desks also fueled the economy and gave many men jobs for months at the local welding and woodworking factory. It was truly a life-changing moment for many.

Once all the desks lined up, child upon child began to fill them out of excitement. I watched all the children file into their own seats and immediately began a flashback and comparison of my own teaching experiences. I see so many faces come into my classroom, complain about their seats, and start daydreaming about elsewhere. I loved each one of my students, but they were accustomed to the American education system of plenty. In a sense, it was their first day of school as well...a first day of a promised future.

Soon the teacher walks to the back of the classroom dressed in a white shirt. He is in disbelief. Gratitude shapes every motion of his body and is written upon the canvas of his face.

I soon realize what is happening. This is a class photo...the first of the village of Worja Woshgula. I put my Canon 15mm Fisheye onto my Canon Camera and compose the shot. I don't want to mess this shot up, so much is depending upon it.

Later this picture would make it's way to Africa and to the eyes of many supporters of the Heroes project.

Emerson once said that success is to know one person has breathed easier because you have lived. I don't think I've felt success like this before, effectively empowering 80 students to a better education.

More images can be seen at Stebner Photography . Scott Stebner is a Denver-Based wedding photographer available world-wide.

 

I was so excited to hear that Zach and Cayla were engaged! I first met Cayla through my girlfriend Alyssa, and was so happy to know her and Zach leading up to the proposal. By the way, great job Zach on setting all of that up!

They are the type of couple that just truly enjoys eachother's company and anyone who spends even a minute with them can see that.

For their Engagement Session we went to Heritage Square in Golden, Colorado for a few fun pictures around the rides and buildings. Little did we know Hurricane force winds are quite common there before a storm. I'm still trying to pick leaves out of my hair and I find new ones in my camera bag every day.

Then to Union Station in Denver.  So many great locations to shoot from in Downtown Denver, and this was no exception. Dodging the three other photographers who were already there, we had a ton of fun.

Zach and Cayla, you guys are awesome and I can't to be part of your wedding day in March in Breckenridge!

 

Stebner Photography is a Denver Based wedding photographer that travels across the U.S. documenting weddings and engagements.

I am so excited to be doing a weekly photographic series explaining the stories behind some of my favorite images. Sometimes they will be wedding photographs, sometimes they will be documentary, and sometimes editorials. This photograph is from my first trip to Ethiopia, where I was working as a photojournalist documenting a relief project in a small region of South Central Ethiopia. The following is one of my favorite images I've ever taken because of the story behind it, the emotions I encountered when taking the picture, and the composition and exposure.

 

It had been a hard two weeks. It had been a rewarding two weeks. Two weeks full of countless emotions and debilitating sickness of which I hadn't yet encountered the worst of. During my first visit to Ethiopia, I encountered starvation head on. Never before in my life had malnourishment been so personal, so real, so unavoidable. While I lost 20 pounds of the course of my trip and illness, the people of Ethiopia were standing right beside me losing their children, their fathers, their mothers. I try to realize if I am sick because of illness or because of the injustice of a world that justifies the unequal distribution of our food supply.

 

Taking my last malaria pill I grab my bottled water sealed so carefully underneath a Deet soaked mosquito net and push the pill down with the luxury of purified water. I swing my Tenba Photojournalist bag around my shoulders with one camera on each side dangling around my waist. Taking one last look around my room, I say goodbye to my temporary shelter in the Rift Valley and board our white and green tour bus driven by our guide “Phish.” Oddly enough, I would find out 3 years later that Phish became an Ethiopian model, married an American woman, and now resides in Tennessee. Tonight we head to say our goodbyes to Genet Church and the people of Zwai who have become like family. I am unsure what to expect and grow uneasy. I love this place. I love these people. I try to push my emotions behind me which are clouding my vision and thoughts as I try to stay objective as a journalist.

We arrive at dusk to a heroes welcome, many shaken hands, and many hugs. A teenage boy grabs my hand in a show of affection, and I realize I am finally comfortable with their customs of men holding each others hands to show love and friendship. I walk to my seat hand in hand and arm in arm with a new brother. There is a woman preparing a freshly slaughtered goat in the distance...tonight will be a celebration.

A brief spark of generosity ignites logs in an open clearing by the church building. I grab my Canon 1DMKIIN and investigate the scene. A woman has just finished cutting up the goat into small chunks and is preparing them in a WOK type pan over the fire. Goat is a delectable treat in Ethiopia equivalent to many day's wages. Ethiopians know how to show hospitality, and I suddenly begin to feel emotions of gratitude and self-loathing beyond imaginable words or thoughts. I raise my Camera to frame the shot. I see the woman, I see the fire, and I see the sky bidding goodbye to the sun. I don't have much time. There is too much to take in with my Canon 24-70 lens and quickly switch to my Canon 15mm Fisheye to try to frame the beautiful sky and trees surrounding the scene.

Wait, the fire. I want to capture the fire, the woman, the sky...everything. I turn on my 580ex flash and push it 1 1/3 stop to clarify the woman and underexpose the shot by 2 stops on my Camera in a hope to preserve the beauty of the sky. I have to get close for this to work.

Sprawled on the ground like a military soldier, my face feels burned from the fire a mere 2 feet away from me. I compose the picture, frame my shot, and I'm happy. The lady laughs at this sudden focus of attention upon her socially given task of cooking. It occurs to me this is the first time she has been noticed, acknowledged, and shown interest in for such a mundane task. Laughing uncontrollably and a little embarrassed, she does her best to ignore me.

An hour later we dine upon lavished food around a camp fire, singing and dancing with those whose language we do not understand. Yet at the same time, we know beyond doubt we understand one another and are comfortable with that extent of communication. It was in the famine ravaged country of Ethiopia where I truly encountered the most sincere form of generosity – lavishly giving more than you could ever have to express your love for another. It was a lesson learned years ago of which the extent I am still grasping to comprehend.

For more information on the work being done to save lives, visit FCC Ethiopia or visit Stebner Photography a Denver Wedding Photographer

I am starting a new weekly series called "Behind the Photograph" where I will be sharing the scene, emotions, and stories behind popular photographs.

Though a picture is said to have the explanation of a thousand words, having come from a family of journalists and photographers, I find it is even more amazing when words and images can come together to create a story. With that said. here is the first "Behind the Photograph" story featuring one of my favorite images.

Every spring brings about one of my favorite seasons while attending Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. While the green pastures faded in saturation from green to brown and the newborn foals of quarterhorses who already were aspiring for greatness foraged the slanted hillsides of the Central Coast, cowboys and cowgirls from across the nation gathered at Cal Poly's Spring Rodeo.

I was working for the College of Agriculture and Ag Circle on this particular day covering the scenes of the rodeo. While all the attention is usually on the bull riders and the barrell racers, a scene behind the break-away chute captured my attention.

In this event, cowboys mounted on horseback chase a steer, laso it, and tie its legs for 15 second. Though many don't understand the reality in this competition, it is a common practice on ranches in order to doctor sick calves out on the range. The calves are well cared for, and the horses are treated truly like royalty.

Leaning against a painted green pipe fence outlined in form by subtle brown rust, my viewfinder of my DLSR focused on a young man as hey was ready to start. Slowly and he fastened his teeth around the rawhide heel rope in one hand and clutched his lasso in the other. Eyes squinting from the sun, viewing the calf in front of him, he settled down his gelding quarter horse so as not to break the barrier before time allowed.

Moments seemed like hours in a moment shared in the anticipating eyes of a cowboy readying himself for HIS event. All the anticipation led to this singular moment in time. These 10 seconds which were about to begin.

Earlier I had seen him wrapping the legs of his horse with a surgeons precision. Polisishing his saddle and reins, boots, and making sure his cowboy hat was ready. Cleaning out the hooves of his horse, he looked up over an embankment towards the ring where in a matter of hours, cheers of excitement and encouragement would resound.

Eyes in concentration. Mouth clinched around rawhide. You can hear the sound of moving leather and a horse chomping on its bit. In the distance, a man with a flag fights against the spring wind coming from the mountains of the pacific.

And in an instance of unexpected excitement, a calf bolts from the chute and the horse instinctively followed. With natural uncanny ability, the lasso is lifted above the cowboy's head and makes several rotations. With each rotation the loop becomes larger and rotates faster. With precision the cowboy sends the loop fitting around the calve. In a choreographed ballet practiced over the years, the cowboy dismounts and the horse begins its gently application of pressure on the line. His hand raises to his mouth to fetch the leather band. And like a youngster adept at tying a loop in his shoes, he skilffuly places the leather rope around the legs of the steer and quickly raises his hands above his heads outstretched and extended. The whistle blows.

All of the anticipation and maintenance lead to that one moment. From fighting the fog and bitter cold of winter feedings to the polishing of his saddle. The little moments throughout the cowboys day...led to this....the winning time.

View more documentary at Stebner Photography or joint us on facebook!

I'm so excited to work with Big Folio in bringing my new blog to you! I'm excited for a number of reasons actually.

1. It's just fun to always be doing and trying new things. I find that if I keep doing what I have always done, I get bored.
2. It's going to allow you to see your images so much easier and even link to the nextproof gallery where you can see your proofs!
3. RSS feed. You can subscribe and get notices when your images are posted
4. blogspot was so 2008
5. It's fun, and I mean come on, fun stuff is just awesome.

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