Rising Stars: Meet Russ Erbe of Colorado Springs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Russ Erbe.

Hi Russ, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
About 15 years ago my wife was gifted a cheap DSLR camera with a few kit lenses and I immediately took to it. I became consumed with learning photography and I grasped it very quickly. I had a hunger for learning the art of it combined with the cerebral challenge of understanding light and how to be able to create photographs, not just take them. It challenged me and rewarded me so much that I relentlessly pursued it. I am self-taught and within a year of touching that camera, I had purchased two more that were both upgrades, began shooting for magazines and had passed the certification process to become a certified professional photographer by the PPA (Professional Photographers of America).

I was traveling across the country, photographing weddings, Division 1 college football, professional motorcycle races, high school senior photo’s, etc.. I found my calling and was so in love with it and then tragedy struck. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and soon thereafter, life changed for us. Life was a struggle to survive both figuratively and literally. My wife soon had to stop working because of her health and I wasn’t making enough alone to keep our family going with 3 children and a mountain of medical bills.

I was also an IT guy at Texas Tech University and I told my wife that if we moved from small town Lubbock, TX to somewhere like Dallas, I could earn a good salary in IT and also hopefully get her a better oncologists to help with the cancer. She agreed, as we didn’t really have any other options. I landed the first job I applied for, but they wanted me there in two weeks. It was 5 hours away and we had no money. So, I made the decision to liquidate all of my camera gear and I made a little over $10k in cash, which was enough to get us moved to Dallas and get us by until I got my first paycheck.

Within a year of moving to Dallas, my wife was cancer free and I was doing well in my IT career. I decided against getting back into photography because I didn’t want to put the financial burden on us to have to purchase all of the camera gear I needed to start a business again, plus Dallas was huge and flooded with photographers. I needed an outlet for my creativity and something to challenge me and so food became my next hobby. I pursued it with the same passion as I had photography and quickly taught myself so much.

As the years went by, my food got increasingly better and better, then Covid hit and we ended up moving to Colorado Springs. Our daughter had decided to go to CSU and when we drove her to Colorado, after we left her, we stayed a few days in Vail and fell in love with Colorado. We moved two months later from Texas. I hit the ground running when we moved here and found a foodies group on Facebook called COS Foodies and fell in love with it. These were my people. Fellow food lovers both in cooking and eating. The more I posted photos of my food creations, the more people cheered me on. That pushed me to want to get better at my plating of food as well as my photography of it. I had simply been using my iPhone to take my pics. It came to a point where I told my wife that I wanted to get back into photography, but not of people, but of food. This would allow me to have both of my passions back and join them together!

I went at it hard like I do everything. We bought a lot of photography gear and we bought a lot of food props and I also made props. I started creating photos again instead of just taking photos. It took me no time to learn the art of food photography and I quickly became what I considered a solid photographer that specialized in food, something this town was lacking. I decided I could help my community by doing what I love, so I started Russ Erbe Photography and soon after, I started taking on clients. I shoot for local restaurants, food trucks, bakers, bagel shops, etc.. and even dabble in product photography.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There have definitely been challenges. Colorado Springs, to my knowledge had not had a dedicated food photographer before me. So it’s been a bit of a struggle to educate folks on the value of good photography and what that costs. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hired to do a re-shoot because another “photographer” was hired and their photos were not good.

Food photography isn’t easy and isn’t cheap. It requires a lot of equipment from different focal length lenses, to off -camera lighting, tethering equipment, props, etc… That being said, the cost of my photography is sometimes a hard pill to swallow, especially when someone else tells them they are a food photographer and will come do a shoot for $100. They soon learn you get what you pay for. Clients are generally shocked when I show up with the amount of equipment I use.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What is so funny and weird is that until that day that I first touched that camera that my wife was gifted, I would say that I didn’t have an artistic bone in my body. I was never into art, music, drawing, or anything. I was only into sports. My family isn’t artistic and therefore, I was never around it growing up. I cannot explain how I turned artistic from touching a camera. I guess I just willed myself to be that way to be able to create something using the camera that I could be proud of.

Once I switched from photography to food, I also started seeing it differently. I started seeing how I could turn a simple plate of food into something that gave people a certain feeling by seeing my art. Maybe it sparked a memory of a meal you had in the past. Maybe by looking at a photo that was so good, you could almost smell and taste the food, which gave you a feeling of wanting this plate so badly.

Aside from my food photography business, I also have a catering/private chef business, so I know food. I know people eat with their eyes first. If it doesn’t look appealing, you already won’t think it tastes good. My two skills (food & photography) compliment each other, thus allowing me to be able to see food and photograph it differently than most.

I think the thing that I am most proud of, is that I am completely self taught, both in photography and food. I have a growth mindset, so I am always trying to better myself which drives me to continue to elevate my skills.

What does success mean to you?
For me success is less about a self-oriented outcome and more about external impact. To me, getting a certain amount of photography jobs doesn’t make me successful. That is more of a goal. I see success as how much impact me and my photography have on people.

When I do my food shoots, I tether my camera to a large laptop that is on a stand. I do this so that I can see the immediate photograph on a large screen. This allows me to catch things that I might not see on the tiny screen on the back of the camera.

Another benefit of this is that my clients get immediate gratification of how I am able to present their food. Often times staff come out and watch. Getting to see the excitement of people when they see what I create, well that’s what really excites me and gives me a sense of accomplishment and success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.russerbephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coloradofoodphotographer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/russerbephotography

Image Credits
All photos taken by Russ Erbe