Shot this for a psychology magazine – article on he stresses of being a farmers wife. Really great morning light – great location up near Hitterdahl, MN. Really enjoy the process of saying something with visual tools, interpreting a clients target message to a simple image.

Looking at the bodies of work I've created throughout my career, i see that I go through many long periods of personal projects, quite often overlapping, and quite often I'm not really aware that I'm doing it. Here are a few from a long series of still lifes - I guess you could call them Urban Asphalt Works...

A client of mine had a ground breaking last week – not my favorite type of thing to shoot. Due to cool morning weather, they had the speeches before hand in a diesel shop – the new building will be a diesel shop expansion. I was able to get in ahead and add some strobe light – mostly for those exciting shots of a guy at a podium. However, the wide shots ended up being the most interesting – even the one where we are shooting straight into a 1000 watts-second strobe!

More images from the big bean shoot with Shannon a few weeks ago. Fun to build continuity and creativity together.

Nice to see the Simplot site up – great work by the good folks at Sundog in Fargo and 29 Stories in Denver. One of the neatest projects I've ever shot.

http://www.simplot.com

Driving west towards Bismarck, ND in the early morning. Of course I was running a bit late. Saw the beautiful light on this old farm house. Quick pulled over, ran through a wet ditch and shot this. It's interesting to me how similar – yet how different the images feel with the added elements of the fence in one, the stubble in the other.

On location in Park Rapids. Minnesota at a place where they create hand-made whiskey barrels. At this stage in production, a red-hot iron is jammed into the bung hole (really) to finish the process of creating an interior that is burned – making that smoke flavor. Really enjoy lighting these type of scenes – a strong backlight burning out the smoke and a directional light to the right adding shape to the fellows face.

An image I shot ago while working as a documentary photography for an arctic ski expedition. Shot in a small Finnish village while waiting to get started. James Dean was a huge icon – many Finns at the time dressed like him – many years after his death. I shot this in color also – the fellow on the far right was actually wearing red crushed velvet pants – so it works much better in black and white! I really like the body positions and the facial expressions - especially the two guys looking off camera. I've always felt that the young man on the left really looks like he is thinking of getting away, of growing up and moving on – but is still sort of trapped in the group. I wonder where they all are now?

From a food shoot for a group promoting various beans grown in the upper  Midwest. The recipes were developed to be used in school lunch programs – so not the sexiest of meals! The challenge was to make them look a little fun – not too fun. Fortunately, we did not have to shoot everything in school dishes. Shot all 10 recipes on location – in the home of the food stylist, Shannon Charpentier of Fargo. Very productive day!

I was in Budapest on a shoot for Microsoft in January. I had hired a woman in Paris to arrange talent and things had gone really well – three days of shooting, editing at night. On the last night I ventured out with no agenda other than to jump on a tram or two and see where I end up. This train stopped right out in the middle of the bridge and so did I. Shot this with a Canon 16-35 2.8 and zoomed out while I shot the half second exposure for that added sense of motion and tension.

A really neat thing about doing all of the location work is that I often find myself in another persons work life. From a CEO's office to a welder in a manufacturing plane, it's always so interesting to see how we all work, our chosen vocations that keep us moving forward. This image was made in a large manufacturing plant in Peoria, IL. The intensity of welding, the sparks – so cool.

I often get requests to put together sample sheets for clients and potential clients. I always enjoy this process, because quite often in involves bringing together images from a number of past shoots – this compilation was from 15 different projects, shot a a few different countries at numerous locations. I am pleased with my consistency!

A fun project I'm working on for a client – creating and designing somewhere around 100 different signs for a large office building. Bring it on!

A piece I recently did for an exhibition base on the phrase "let them eat cake." Love shooting – and eating food. The cloth in this piece has been with me for over 25 years – background to many a still life.

Vineyards

Had a great assignment recently – making beauty shots of a whole bunch of different crops in the field. A whole bunch of flying and driving around the big, beautiful American West. These images were shot in vineyards in Washington and California – needed a strong horizontal format for web usage, stron saturated color. Got lucky with sunshine every day!

Sunshine

Beautiful low-angle sunshine today here in he north. I think that's one of the reasons I live here - not only the changes of season, but the extreme changes in light, from long summer days to short winter days with long-reaching shadows.

Hops on a sunny day

From a large project I shot in the west for a large agricultural group. Hops in the Yakima, WA region – big lens, wide open aperture and beautiful backlight. I really like to simplify images when possible.

Technical college

Been working with a few technical collages and community colleges the past few years on promotional imagery for admissions efforts. From a guy steeped in a liberal arts background, I've been pleasantly surprised seeing the efforts and the value of those efforts by those involved in the schools – both students and faculty. Neat stuff going on. I made this image yesterday at  technical college in Wahpeton, ND – from a series of images in the diesel mechanics program. Used a bunch of lights to jazz it up – from a composition perspective, I like how all the angles sort of point to the action in the middle of the frame.

Triptych piece

A study I made triptych I was working on for an exhibition – big print. I like to mix old and new technologies on art pieces. The images within the prints were scanned from some pushed black and white film I shot in the Louvre and Pushkin Palace. The Polariods are scans from 4x5 Type 59 film, composited. The piece was still in progress when I put this together...

Tourism shoot

I really enjoy the challenge of "making something out of nothing" - of setting up a scene and have it serve as a strong communication/persuasion tool. This group of images was made for the Bismarck/Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau – got lucky with some beautiful autumn light.

My brother Rich's new blog

http://drawger.com/richardborge/

Architectural series

I have shot a lot of these types of projects – when the light cooperates at the right time of day – and it's a cool structure, it can be quite fun...

Big Giant Head, Paris

Big giant head in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris. I think it was temporary – hope it was...

Food in available light

Set these on a cloth on the floor, added some fill cards and made use of the shadows in tye window panes for added effect. I always enjoy seeing a series of images together...

One more from the HoDo series

Really like the light on this one – very cool in tone

Food shoot from the HoDo

Definitely one of the fanciest menu items I have ever photographed. At the Hotel Donaldson in beautiful downtown Fargo. Mix of window lights and my trusty little strobes and fill cards.

Blog post number one

Testing out the parameters of design, etc. Shot this on location near Grandview, Idaho. The challenge was to make a series of images about the feedlot, without making it look like a feedlot! Focused instead on the cowboys – big lens, shallow depth. I'm a big fan of the idea that our brains do not need see every detail in order to understand what is going on in an image.Beautiful light – and thank goodness for the dry conditions!