Photography is magic, or at least nearly magic. Imagination, technology, craft and sometimes, sheer will, combine to make images that entertain, enlighten, and shock. Images make us laugh, cry, forgive and remember. Looking at a still photograph can bring us to places where we can smell, taste and faintly hear the songs and sounds of a time past. A moment frozen. A magical, mystical photograph.

Shutters click, motors whirrr and images are frozen on film or stored in pixels to be savored again, forever. Think of that moment. Billion, trillions, of things happening simultaneously - and a split moment in time is captured forever by a photographer. And in that instant, a whole new world is created.

Ok, perhaps I wax a little too poetic, but photography has always fascinated me. From those wonderful Life and Look magazines that used to be shoved in the mailbox when I was a kid, to the first time I saw an Adams up close, to the stuff I see everyday as a graphic designer and photography consultant.

Being a photographer is more than just taking pictures or waiting for the light. It's an attitude, and a lifestyle really, of wonder and amazement. And when photographers get really amazed, things happen.

In advertising the photograph has to charm, regale, motivate, stimulate or otherwise move the viewer toward some action that has been planned and tested and tested again. Editorial shooters get into the moment / space / feeling and try to capture universal truths that have meaning for so many. Or so few. Fine art shooters create magic that astounds and pleases us as we view what was so natural in an unnatural way.

Arizona has some spectacular scenery, world class cities, airports, labs, talent and everything clients need to produce great images. And it has some truly spectacular photographers who know how to get the job done, create great images and find cold beer when the temperature reaches 115.

Enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed shooting them.

--Don Giannatti and the AZPhotoBook shooters....