Plumbing Parts Photography

Plumbing is one of my least favorite jobs around the house. It invariably means at least two trips to the hardware store, probably more.  Photographing plumbing parts is another matter. I did this shot while getting ready before my clients arrived. Anything shiny is fun and challenging to shoot. It did require a little clean up. Plumbing parts, like most things, are not made for photography. I love making ordinary objects look like  something special. As always, I am interested in your thoughts. 

Teamwork Photography

This is the result of the teamwork of a bunch of people. Client, gotta have a client or you can’t get started. Art director(s), cause you gotta have something to say, visually speaking, and the creative team comes up with concept. Photographers, that’s me and Dave. I lit and shot the exterior of the vehicle, then with the camera locked down, Dave lit and shot the models. There was lots of pre-production too - finding vehicles and models - yes, models and the agency too - and stylists. Granted, you can’t see a lot of clothing. Nonetheless, a lot of work went into finding the right coat, shirt and props. Make-up stylist - yup, gotta make sure that the models are looking their best. And, there was a really great dog named Huckleberry and another photographer, Mariusz Niedzwiedzki (based on the metadata), who shot the stock photography. Finally, the retoucher, who put all of the elements together. This was very much a team effort! As always, let me know what you think!

Industrial Lift Truck Photography

I used to drive a Hi-lo; now I’m shooting them. While driving them wasn’t bad, shooting them is way better. Fortunately, the industrial design at Raymond is very strong. It certainly makes my job easier. I think it improves the lives every one that it touches. If your tools are pleasant to look at, easy to use, comfortable, and safe, life is better. It almost makes me want to drive them again.

As always, I am interested in your thoughts.

Automotive Photographer

I just finished retouching another car from the Goodyear shoot. Red is a great color for a car. The I hope to hear from the art director soon about the main shots from the shoot. They are handling the retouching on those shots. For the main shots, I lit the exterior of the vehicle, and afterward, Dave shot the people inside. Very much the tag team approach, that we use on many projects. Please let me know what you think.

Automotive Photography

Automotive Photography in the studio is a blast. We completed a project for Goodyear recently that went quite well. Part of the project was photography for their library. This F150 is a big vehicle, but it easily fit in our 4000 square foot. studio. We used the teamwork/tag team approach on this project too. It’s all about delivering the best image possible with the least friction. After we completed the main shot for each car, I did the additional shots. I am always interested in your thoughts.

Automotive Photography

I love shooting cars. We recently did a shoot for Goodyear, and in addition to the main shots I did a few full car shots for their library. Automotive photography is always a challenge, but that's what makes it fun. The shoot went well; it helps to have great clients and art directors. As always, I’m interested in your comments.

Jack of All Trades, Master of One

Commercial Photographers need to know a little about lots of things. It is one of the things I like about being a photographer. It helps when you are shooting to understand how the product works, or why it’s better. It helps because you can better illustrate the product, so you can tell the story. The story behind this product is that it helps protect soldiers. It absorbs energy that would otherwise be absorbed by the feet, ankles and legs of soldiers unlucky enough to be driving over an IED. As ever, let me know what you think.

Commercial Photography

One of the really great things about being a commercial photographer is the glimpse we get into processes or industries that normally go unnoticed. We did a shoot for a company that makes, among other things, speaker grills for cars. As we shot, our client  explained why his product is superior to his competitors’. This is not only interesting, but helps us highlight or emphasize the important features or manufacturing processes.

I suppose you could call this industrial photography. It is for business to business communication. It is as likely to be used in a powerpoint presentation as in a trade show, trade ad, brochure or web site. The key point is that our images help clients communicate their story more effectively and help enhance their overall image.

Product Photography in a Car

My assignment was photographing coffee cups, and what more natural place than a cup holder! I have shot cup holders for other clients, so it was not much of a stretch. Of course we shot them in table top situations too, but I feel at home when I'm shooting in a car. As always, I'm interested in your thoughts.

Automotive Detail Photography

I love beautiful details. A well designed car has loads of great details, like badges, tail lights, door handles, side moulding, headlights or air scoops. Lighting and design become key to making a good image. Red helps too! As always, let me know what you think.

Mixed Drinks Photography

I’m not much of a drinker - couple of beers or glasses of wine and I’m done. But I did have a smashing great time shooting some vodka drinks. Designers & Partners’ Jim Tocco art directed and did much of the styling. We did 13 shots so it was a busy and productive day.

Industrial Parts Photography

I recently had the opportunity to work with Designers & Partners again. This time shooting industrial parts for large prints to be displayed on office walls. As ever, it was a pleasure to work with such a talented designer. Enjoy!

Jewelry Photography

One of my best friends is a jeweler. I have been shooting his jewelry for years. He was in fact, one of my first clients. He is producing a brochure for wedding / engagement rings. The graphic designer on this project, Jim Tocco, is amazing! I have been working with Jim for decades. I have high expectations for the final piece.

Working with Richard has always been a blast. Collaborating  with someone to create unique imagery is always exciting; Richard has a finely tuned aesthetic that is just different enough from mine to create a synergy larger than either one of us singly. I like the contrast between his fingers - the fingers of a craftsman, and artist, working fingers, dirty with polishing compound, and the perfection and brilliant beauty of the rings. There  is a literal contrast as well, of the dark hands and the shiny, sparkling jewelry. Richard will also use the images on the wall of his Birmingham shop, Grinstein Jewelry and design.

As always I am interested in your comments or thoughts.

Your Hard Drive Will Fail, Back-Up your Photography!

In the digital age, there is a truism that warrants our attention; it is not if your hard drive will fail, it’s when. I have had several hard drives fail; I know that it is true. It is crazy expensive to get Drive Savers, or some other company to rescue your data. So, back-ups are important. A back-up strategy that fully protects you must have several components.

1. Provide a means to continue working if your computer’s hard drive fails.
2. Keep a back-up of current projects.
3. Keep multiple archives of completed projects.
4. Must be automatic. (so you cannot forget to do it).
5. It must have an off site component (in case of fire or theft).
6. There must be multiple copies.
7. You’ve gotta check regularly to make sure it’s working.

The computer on my desk, backs-up to a local (firewire 800) hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. The Time Machine backup provides hourly back-ups while the Carbon Copy Cloner back-up provides a start-up disk should anything happen to the internal hard drive.I have divided our data into two separate parts, business data – QuickBooks, estimates, word processing files and the like, and job data – project folders, images and Capture One folders. We use a server, well..., it’s a computer with a boatload of drives hanging off of it where all of this data lives. The business data is backed-up with Time Machine hourly, and with CrashPlan, a cloud back-up service. Job data gets backed-up at the end of every day with a program cleverly called Data Backup. I like Data Backup because it does versioned back-ups, and keeps versions from the last 30 days. It uses standard compression utilities to compress files, and if it is the most recent version you are looking for, you can just go get it using the finder.When a project is completed, it is copied to an archive drive, and removed from the working drive. The archive drives are read only so nothing can be inadvertently changed or deleted.Once a month, I bring hard disks from home and copy all of the new data to them, again with Data Backup, then take them home.It sounds like a lot of work, but most of it happens with no supervision. It is, I believe just part of taking care of your clients and you livelihood.  As always, I am interested in what you think about all of this. Please leave a comment.

Industrial Photography

We recently completed a project for Raymond. I’m not sure I’d call what I was doing in the studio industrial photography. It feels more like large product photography. Dave shot the other half of the project in a warehouse, so I guess it’s actually a large product that’s industrial. Having a good-looking, well-designed product really helps when you’re trying to make photography that's dynamic. Red is a great color, and there is no question that it makes the lift trucks distinctive and attractive.

I like using lower angles on this product; it doesn’t deliver as much information, but it makes it look bigger and heavier, more substantial. I added the blue background. Our client put them on white, more appropriate for their purposes, but not as striking.As always, I am interested in any feedback or response you might have. Please let me know what you think.

Food Photographer on Location

I recently had the opportunity to do some food photography at Isabella’s, a restaurant in the Soaring Eagle Casino. I spent the day there shooting in a separate dinning room so we would not disturb the patrons.Working with an assistant, we brought in studio strobes, and set up at a couple of different tables. There was window light as well, so I used a mix of strobe and ambient light. I think it can be a little more interesting when there is a mix of light. The Chef was great, and we had lots of assistance and cooperation from everyone. We shot appetizers, entries and desserts. Food photography is always challenging and lot of fun. Unfortunately, there was not much time to do any gaming or see any shows. As always, I am interested in any feedback or response you might have. Please let me know what you think.

Product Photography

I completed a shoot for Letica not long ago. They make, among other things, plastic and paper cups, and plastic food containers. I shot the product in action. The photos were used for trade show banners – 84 inches high! Pour shots are challenging. It is necessary to do a fair number of pours to get exactly what you need. This shoot combined product and food as a prop. Ordinarily when I shoot food I like to work with a food stylist, but since the food in these shots was only a prop to help show off the containers, it was not essential to work with a stylist.

Automotive Studio Photography

I had the opportunity not long ago to shoot a FIAT 500 Lounge. Many thanks to James Houfley at Golling. I like shooting red cars and this one is no exception. It has nice badging and some excellent details.Automotive photography is challenging and rewarding. In some ways it’s like shooting a huge piece of jewelry, but it’s a lot bigger!. It’s all about what’s reflecting in the paint. You want it to look shiny, but still have color. My studio is ideally suited to automotive photography by design. There is a complete eggshell to help control reflections. Picture the inside of an eggshell, with a floor; that’s pretty much what I’ve got. A space that’s fifteen feet high with all of the corners coved. Let me know what you think!

Photography Web Sites

Great post on photo web sites!

Advertising Photography Tools

I just discovered a feature in Capture One that simplifies post production - smart albums! Typically during a shoot, I’ll mark photographs that I want to deliver to my client by pressing the minus key. This marks the photograph with the red color tag. Later, when I want to process the images, I sort by “color tag”, and all of the marked photographs are together at the top. This makes it easy to work on the selected images, adjusting and processing them all at once. On shoots with a large number of captures, I’ll create multiple capture folders. Capture One tends to slow down when you get several hundred captures in a folder; I think it’s actually because of the system software. In any event, I end up with a bunch of capture folders with marked images. In the past, I would move the marked images to a “selects” folder, where I could work on them all together. Now, I can create a smart album that works much like smart folders in OS X. I can select images using a large array of criteria including color tags. It’s a virtual folder, so the files are not actually moved. Now I can work on groups of images without moving them. This makes it easer to go back and look at selected images, change my mind, remove or add selects, and see them with others shot at the same time. This is going to save me a lot of time!