Often when I take a professional portrait it is an anxiety provoking experience for the subject. It’s my job to capture self-confidence and well-being. I do my best to make people feel comfortable and relaxed. When photographing lawyers and other professionals, I aim for a portrait that conveys confidence, trust and poise. As always, I’m interested in your thoughts and comments.
Most of the time when speaking of sheetmetal in Detroit, you’re talking about the stuff you see on the outside of a car. There’s a lot of it on the inside too! This part goes behind the rear seat, underneath the rear window. This bit of sheet metal is lighter and vibrates less than the ordinary. For the purposes of this photograph, it’s just about making a dramatic image to catch your attention. Let me know what you think.
Detroit Medical product Photographer
Who knew surgeons used torque wrenches? I don’t think about it that much, but I guess it makes sense. Surgeons are sort of body mechanics. True, the stakes may be higher than a brake job on your car, but a bad brake job could be fatal too. Anyway, we spent the day working and collaborating with an excellent art director and ended up with a bunch of nice images and had a good time as well. Let me know what you think.
Medical Device Photography
They aren’t selling sandwiches, or bread, or meat. It’s just a photograph of a sandwich that has meat in it that uses their sausage casing. It’s been called a copy warmer. You can call it what you want, I call it Tasty! Let me know what you think.
A very good friend of ours recently sent us a box of eucalyptus leaves from California. I though they looked really nice when I saw them in this bowl. The neutrality of the background helps brings out the compelling texture and subtle color variation of the leaves. I am always interested in your thoughts and comments.
Detroit Photographer Thomas Kirby
Here in Detroit we have Coney dogs, Coney Island hot dogs. Like our neighbor to the North's dish of poutine, there is no pretense of health. I suppose you could argue hot dogs themselves are not all that healthy. But when you smother them in chili, mustard and onions you reach a new level. And, like doughnuts, bacon, and all unhealthy foods, they are delicious. Chicago Dogs on the other hand at least have the air of being healthy, with their vegetables, pickles, and the like. Lots of fun to shoot with a super client and crew.
Detroit Industrial Photographer
Without forktrucks, industry would grind to a halt. Since the early 20th century forktrucks have been the way things get moved around a warehouse, and trucks and railroad cars get loaded. Like everything else, technology has made them faster and safer. In my client’s case, industrial designers have made them easier to use and nicer to look at. My job is to find interesting angles and light that flatter the design. I am always interested in your thoughts and comments.
Go ahead, guess what this is. Stumped? It’s sausage casing! Really! I just love the things I shoot. I hope the affection comes through in the photographs. Photographers have been shooting circles for ages. Usually it’s pipe, maybe with a couple of people wearing hard hats in front. I was drawn to the the luminescence of the casing. Less and less light getting through to the lower tubes. I like finding beauty in unusual places.
I love taking, or seeing things out of context. They become something new. Refreshing. Out of context things take on a new life. This is antithetical to most product photography where it is necessary to see and recognize the product instantly. Perhaps this is why it tickles me so much. This image is of sausage casing. Hard to tell at first glance though. Let me know what you think!
It’s not the cockpit of a jet plane, but it looks pretty cool for a pallet jack. Excellent industrial design makes my job a little easier. It’s more than just a pallet jack, as you might guess from the complexity of the controls. I’m drawn to the the lines and values of gray. As always I am interested in your thoughts and comments.
Industrial Photographer Blue Sky Photography
Visibility is important if you’re driving a fork truck. Vision is important in many jobs. I am generally not a fan of “straight on” shots, but in this case it’s kind of dramatic. The diagonals provided by the red forks are dynamic and the strong verticals of the mast create a sense of strength. And it all frames the eyes. Please let me know what you think.
The fact is, everything is shot in color. Unless of course, you are actually using B&W film! My point is, limiting yourself to shades of gray is very deliberate. Sometimes it’s a cost thing if it’s going to appear in print. Often it’s just an effort to simplify. The smaller palette means that you’ve got to make what’s left work a little harder. I’m always interested in your thoughts and comments.
Detroit photographer - Blue Sky Photography, Inc.
Ordinarily, my job is to grease the wheels of commerce. Not a bad thing, but not quite like Mother Teresa. My studio neighbor is The Bottomless Toy Chest. They take toys to kids with cancer in hospitals. When Micky came by and asked me if I could take a picture of trolls, I was all in. When I found out that the designer / art director was Cindy Sikorski, I was truly excited. On the shoot day Micky and Cindy did the styling, it’s tough to get those tiny clothes to look good on those inflexible little bodies. They did the hair too! It was loads of fun, and profoundly worth while.
Detroit Product Photographer
You’ve gotta lift those really heavy parts with something! This is the smaller of the two that we shot the other day. I was attracted to the yellow I beam this one moves on. We created a studio in the plant where they build these, which, funnily enough, included another crane to move this one into position for a photograph. I love variety of my photographic life!
The whole idea behind a business portrait is to convey something about who you are, to someone that doesn’t know you. It can be the image on a corporate ID badge, but personally I think a business portrait has bigger job. No matter what your job: doctor, financial consultant, lawyer or sales, it’s important that people trust you. So a business portrait or headshot is what goes before you, to stand in your place until you get face to face. It’s a big job. Let me know what you think.
Detroit Industrial Photography
The biggest of these little steel balls is about a millimeter in diameter, about the thickness of a dime. It’s called wire cut shot. It's used in industrial processes. I had to level the table so it wouldn’t all roll away. It’s challenging to get them into the shape you want and make it look natural and random. I love the little glimpses into otherwise invisible areas that commercial photography provides.
The biggest of these little steel balls is about a millimeter in diameter, a little less than 10 times the diameter of a human hair. They are used as an abrasive in industrial processes. They were fun and challenging to photograph. I had to level the table so they wouldn’t all roll away. The best part of this profession is that there are always new and interesting things to shoot.
I was photographing jewelry for a catalog with my friend Richard when he slid some small rings onto a bit of rolled up paper. It didn’t work for the catalog we were shooting, but I thought it looked pretty cool. I enjoy spontaneous moments like that one. Because Richard created the jewelry, he has ideas about what it should look like in 2 dimensions. Collaborating on projects like this one is a highlight of my job.
You might call it a headshot, but to me, headshot is a term better reserved for the picture on your driver's license. A portrait on the other hand, reveals a little more of your inner nature, your soul if you like. My business partner David shoots most of the portraits for Blue Sky, but he’s been out of town, so I get a crack at it. It’s challenging, because it’s more that just getting the lighting and technical stuff right, you have to connect with your subject, in order to help them reveal who they are.
Photographing very small things can be challenging. The product in this photograph is an abrasive, but to be honest, I don’t know how it is used. I imagine that it’s similar to sand blasting. The largest of the stainless steel balls is about one millimeter in diameter. For comparison, a BB is about 4.5 millimeters in diameter. So these are pretty small. As always, I am interested in your thoughts and comments.