Hot Fruit
I teamed up with Amanda Hughes-Watkins and some of her colleagues from Hot Fruit to produce some imagery for their website. Hot Fruit is a series of events that connect women professionals with other like minded "Fruits" in a variety of fields. They had a great vision for the look and content of the photos and I was happy to help harvest the imagery. The direction was unique with exotic fruits, sweet wines, shapely greenery, and a delicious color palette. I think the images we created are rich and painterly. It was a fun shoot and great to collaborate with this bunch. Go to www.hotfruit.us.
KALW Rock Stars
I have a good friend who works at KALW (San Francisco’s public radio). I've helped him out with some photography in the past. When I was cruising the KALW website I noticed that the team could use some new portraits for their profiles. I approached them about volunteering my photo services for a day to update their head shots. The response was positive and I had many active participants who let me photograph them. I wasn't sure where I would be shooting or how much space I would have to work with so I kept my set up simple as possible. Even so, we had to temporarily take over some desk space to fit the setup. Thankfully everyone was very nice and willing to accommodate us for the day.
It was a fun day of meeting radio personalities and contributing to a local station. I was able to match a face with the voice of the radio hosts and meet all the people that work so hard to produce great radio shows about what’s happening in the Bay Area. They make it all seam so easy, but now I have a better idea of how much work goes into every show.
9th and Larkin
I worked with local chocolate maker 9th and Larkin on some photos. They make bean-to-bar chocolate by hand right across the hall from my studio. This style of chocolate making allows for the unique, region-specific flavors to come out in the chocolate. There are two ingredients to these single origin bars: cacao and sugar. The flavors are dictated mostly by the environment where the cacao plants grow and the differences are quite noticeable even for an untrained chocolate fan like myself. I tried to illustrate the story of how this process takes place, from the cacao pods, to the beans, to the nibs, and finally the finished dark chocolate. It was fascinating to learn the details of this hand crafted treat and taste the range of flavors. Check out 9th and Larkin here.
The Runwell Turntable
The Runwell Turntable from Shinola is a fantastic object to photograph. The first photo shows how well it looks in a room, no need to hide it in a cabinet. It’s beautifully crafted and has all the elements that make lighting fun: smooth metallic surfaces, wood texture, soft leather, etc. The design of the product allows for some fun abstraction as well. Photographing close up on the Runwell shows off the craftsmanship and simplicity of the design. This allows the viewer to focus on and appreciate each of the Runwell’s distinctive attributes.
Organic vs. Graphic
Recently I found a local maker who crafts very unique handbags. By local I mean 2 blocks from my studio. Future Glory has a minimalist style to their handbags so I used a minimalist approach to the photography. The corner where the surface and wall meet is illustrated almost exclusively by the shadow and how it changes angles. I used a hard light to create the shapes of the shadows that fall on the surface and crawl up the wall. One bag has very organic designs and the other a geometric grid pattern. The shadows mimic these designs with a leaf and a triangle. The images are also in opposition in that one has a shadow cast onto the bag. The other has a triangle of light beaming down onto the bag. The positive and negative space created with the light and shadow is opposite in the two images. You can learn more about Future Glory by clicking here.
Colored Shadows
Styles and trends have a tendency to come back around over time. I've found myself attracted to an older lighting technique we used to use often in the 90s. Colored gels were used to fill in shadows and create colorful images.
My new work is a play on that technique but a touch refined. When a shadow is filled with color it becomes more of an element in the photo, making things more colorful and graphic.
More Bags
I’m exploring more with dramatic lighting on products. This time I was working with more rugged bags and chose stronger lighting to accentuate them. The shadows are darker than I often do, which adds to the mood of the photos.
The above photo features the Spectre Backpack and other items made by Triple Aught Design.
The photo below features the Journeyman backpack and other items made by Filson.
Bags
There are many important elements of a photo which can drastically change the overall look. Once I have the composition set I work on the lighting. This can range from soft, shadowless lighting all the way to hard light with deep, dark shadows. For these images I chose lighting in between the 2 extremes...to give it some depth and character while still highlighting the product.
The photos feature Spicer Bags (www.spicerbags.com), from a cool company that makes their bags here in San Francisco.
Gallery Of Shoes
Recently I’ve been receiving more requests for shoe photos in my portfolio. I’ve decided it was time to embrace my love for shoes and create whole gallery of shoes. I've added some new photos from ideas that have been brewing. Shoes have such a personality, which makes them fun to photograph.
Below are two photos from the new gallery coupled with behind the scene photos.
Sightglass
It was nice to have the opportunity to work with Kyle and Geoff again. They aren’t strangers to my blog. A search for Dwell on my site will most likely reveal a photo of them. This time we worked to revamp e-commerce photos for Sightglass, an independent coffee company in San Francisco.
Our goal was to capture the products in a consistent way so the photos would family well together. We didn’t want the camera angle to jump around so we chose to photograph everything from the same perspective. This meant, for instance, that coffee filters and patches couldn’t just lie flat on the table. Instead we posed them in the same vertical positions as coffee cups. We will repeat this approach when new items are added in the next few months so that they will still family with the first photos. Moreover, the files were delivered with transparent layers. This will allow Sightglass to use the images on white as well as off-white backgrounds.
Now go buy something at Sightglass.com.
Fun with Acrylic
It’s always rewarding when the client is up for something more playful. In the current issue of Macworld we used circular acrylic to ad some fun to their feature on the two new iPads. It was decided the day before the shoot, thankfully Tap Plastics was able to turn around circular acrylic over night.
I’ve also post the covers to some past Macworld magazines that I never posted
Pebble Watches
MIT Technology Review featured the Pebble watch in an articled entitled "10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2013" in their current issue. I was fortunate to photograph the watches at Pebble headquarters and work directly with founder Eric Migicovsky. Their Kickstarter story made history and getting my hands on these watches for a day was super exciting.
Exploratorium and SF Magazine.
The Exploratorium in San Francisco has moved in to a new location that's going to make it one of the biggest attractions in the city. San Francisco Magazine asked me to capture a couple of photos of the new location before it opens. The museum's crew spent a day moving construction materials and equipment out of the way just so I could get a clean shot. It is a beautiful new space for the museum. I knew I wanted a soft light to showcase the building.
We were shooting other areas inside the building when I noticed the sun outside was how I envisioned it would be to capture an exterior photo. We rushed outside and got this shot just in time!
This is my favorite image they used for the spread (plus a behind-the-scenes photo). The magazine is on newsstands now and also
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Portfolio and Blog Update
It was a busy and productive 2012. We finally updated the website with new images from the previous year. On top of that, check out a revamp update to the blog. The Posterous era has come to an end. Therefore, a new blog engine needed to be used. With the change comes great opportunities for minor improvements. So, we decided to incorporate more social features to the blog. You can now subscribe via email, link to my Instagram and it includes a much better comment section with the help of Disqus. Have at it and take a look…comments are welcome.
San Francisco Magazine Cover
I was very happy to be asked to work on the October issue of San Francisco Magazine. It is always great to collaborate with clients that have creative ideas. After talking with them about what they needed I set out to photograph all the parts to c...
I was very happy to be asked to work on the October issue of San Francisco Magazine. It is always great to collaborate with clients that have creative ideas.
After talking with them about what they needed I set out to photograph all the parts to create something that looked realistic. San Francisco may have lots of roads with views like this one, but none of them conveyed what I was looking for. Often I would find a good location and have to drive it multiple times to get a good shot with no traffic or the right lighting. I photographed lots of roads, cars, city views and signs to create a composition that aligned with the essence of the feature article. It was like working on a puzzle of photos.
Look for it on newsstands or view the digital version for free
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Motion and stills
More and more frequently magazines are creating interactive versions of their print magazines rather then just a static copy of it. Recently Macworld magazine has created issues for the iPad that works with Apple's Newsstand.My role as the photogr...
More and more frequently magazines are creating interactive versions of their print magazines rather then just a static copy of it. Recently Macworld magazine has created issues for the iPad that works with Apple's Newsstand. My role as the photographer is really interesting because I now need to think of my photos as both stills and motion. The cover image and opening spreads are more likely to be used as a stills in the print magazine and as motion sequences in the iPad version.
When I photograph the still version I use still equipment. I could change to the 5D Mark III and hot lights, but that would double my work and change the look of the photo. The work flow that I found that works well is to use stop motion or a layered photo. With stop motion the art director, Rob, and I plan out the best way to use motion that ends at a still image for print. I use Apple's Motion program to combine all the stills into a video for the iPad version.
The other method I use is to shoot a still photo and then remove the product from the set after I shoot so I have a blank background. This way I have the product separated from the background. This allows me to bring the files in to Apple's Motion and animate the foreground giving the photo a more animated feel. So far we have done this for two issues, I'm looking forward to fine-tuning and improving this as we go along.
The July issue and the November issue both have examples of this. Look for them in the App store. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macworld-digital-magazine/id505331062?mt=8
Grace Kelly
San Francisco Magazine approach me with another great idea that got the creative juices flowing. This time it involved a scarf with a Grace Kelly inspired look. The twist was to have no one wearing the scarf, making it a free floating subject. The...
San Francisco Magazine approach me with another great idea that got the creative juices flowing. This time it involved a scarf with a Grace Kelly inspired look. The twist was to have no one wearing the scarf, making it a free floating subject.
The challenge with this image was how to get the scarf floating in the air while having the interior visible. We used wire and paper to get the shape of a human head then cleaned any visible wires in post production. Since influence laid heavy on Grace Kelly, a moody beach was the perfect choice for a background.
Look for the magazine on newsstands or check out the free digital edition online here.
Hanging with Bikes
I love bikes, especially well designed and functional urban bikes and accessories. Naturally, I was excited when Dwell approached me to photograph some beautiful bike gear. The idea was to photograph 3 bikes hanging on colored backgrounds. Normall...
I love bikes, especially well designed and functional urban bikes and accessories. Naturally, I was excited when Dwell approached me to photograph some beautiful bike gear.
The idea was to photograph 3 bikes hanging on colored backgrounds. Normally, we would paint the walls the day before the job but the client wanted the flexibility to change the colors once we had decided on what items would be in each shot. In order to achieve this, we hung paper on the wall instead of painting. I was worried that the strong side lighting would show all the wrinkles in the paper. We were really careful and it turned out extremely well. The side lighting gave the sets great depth.
It was great working with the stylist, Janis, and the talented team at Dwell. Now I just have to curb my bike envy!
Look for the magazine on newsstands or check out Dwell for more great info.