Meet Russ Erbe

We had the good fortune of connecting with Russ Erbe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Russ, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
About 15 years ago my wife was gifted a 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 was self-taught and within a year of touching that camera, I had purchased two more 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, 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 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, 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.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
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, anything. I was only into sports. My family isn’t artistic and therefor, 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.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Depending on the time of year, I would definitely take them up Pikes Peak, I mean c’mon, we are so blessed to have such a magnificent mountain right here. I would take them hiking on Cheyenne Mountain. I would also drive them through Garden of the Gods and of course walk through downtown Manitou Springs and Old Colorado City.

As for dinning, We would definitely hit up Pizzeria Rustica in OCC. We would go see my friend, chef Vito Crews at Bistro on 2nd in Monument. We would go enjoy some great Italian food at La Bella Vita. I would also take them to Sonora Prime for some legit Mexican food and of course my friends at Dad’s Donuts for some incredibly creative donuts.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife definitely deserves a “shout out” so to speak. Not only has she let me take on photography as another career that used to take me across the country, leaving her alone with the children, I have also spent so much time and money on this hobby over the years and she never pushes back. She pushes forward and wants me to keep driving forward and pursuing opportunities. It isn’t lost on me how lucky I am to have a spouse that is so supportive.

Website: https://www.russerbephotography.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coloradofoodphotographer/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/russerbephotography

Image Credits
All photos created by me