I've known knife purveyor and maker Dave Ellis for a lot of years. He met me back when I was teaching guitar full time, became my student, and ultimately a good friend. Later down the road, Dave hired me for photography and website work, and even took me under his wing to learn knife making. He recently had me rework his website at Mastersmith.com and photograph one of his custom damascus blades for the banner. You could say that Dave…
I've been shooting product photography in San Diego since 2013, from my studio in Vista and on location across the county. Some of it is high-gloss campaign work, some of it is clean e-commerce catalogs shot a couple hundred SKUs at a time, and some of it is stranger than that. This is a selection, with a note on how each shot was made, because with product photography the lighting really is the product. The printer that went to space…
I've been photographing San Diego restaurants since 2013. Menus, editorial features, chef portraits, and the rooms themselves, from Little Italy tasting counters to Coronado hotel dining rooms. Much of this work was shot on assignment for Westways and AAA publications. This is a look at some of the venues I've had the pleasure to photograph, and a few stories from along the way. Bay Park Farmer's Table I've been back to both locations a couple times since photographing this ridiculous…
I have been photographing food, restaurants, and beverage brands in San Diego since 2013, and these are the questions I hear most from restaurant owners and marketing managers before their first shoot. The first question is almost always what food photography costs, so we will start there. Straight answers below. If yours is not covered here, just ask. What does food photography cost in San Diego? San Diego is a highly varied market. The factors that put upward pressure on…
Last month, I had the opportunity to photograph executives for a major biotech company here in San Diego. For the headshots, we took a fairly "complete-yet-lean" production approach - I brought a photo assistant and makeup artist, and handled both the digital tech and shooting roles myself. The Headshot Setup For the headshots, we opted for a primarily natural light approach, with a small strobe positioned about ten feet back to create some edge detail on the subject's left cheek…
The Shot If you've ever attempted to photograph glass bottles, especially transparent ones, you probably know a few cuss words. Today we're covering commercial beverage photography camera settings, lighting setup, and styling - plus common mistakes to avoid. Camera Settings For most bottles, I am using a focal length of 100mm (on a 100mm macro lens). It tends to introduce less distortion and foreshortening of a bottle and we want things nice and straight and level. The longer focal length…
If you're new to product photography work, its a whole different game than portrait and lifestyle, with its own set of camera settings, lighting techniques, tools and methodology. Lets dive in and look at some of the fundamentals! Camera Settings PREFACE: Before getting to camera settings it is MUY IMPORTANTE to tell you that you should always shoot products from a tripod or camera stand. This way you can use whatever shutter speed you want and not worry about shake/blur.…
Overview I'm often asked for my "go to" food photography lighting setup. There is no single setup that's going to work for all food, but there are some general rules. Today we will focus on a cheeseburger lighting setup and talk a bit about why it works for a shot like the above. This is an in-restaurant shot done in a short time on a modest budget without a professional food stylist, the marketing team at Burger Lounge styled this…
Mayor Todd Gloria I approach campaign portraits a bit like corporate head shots. After all, the subject is in a great job and he happens to want to keep it. The purpose is a bit more specific, however, so the primary difference for me is context or, more simply put, backgrounds. We wanted to show Todd Gloria in real backgrounds in the actual San Diego community he serves and in the context of issues that he cares about. As a…
A genre I really enjoy shooting is studio and outdoor head shots. Professional head shots can be highly useful for Linkedin, modeling agencies, acting profiles, dating apps, YouTube thumbnails and so much more. A professional head shot can give you an edge over other individuals in your field and help elevate your professional image. Although technically a head shot is a closeup of head and shoulders, the concept of "head shots" here in San Diego can range from a tight…