San Diego Archives | San Diego Photographer

HP ENVY zero gravity printer built for the International Space Station, product photography San Diego

San Diego Product Photography: Selected Work and How Each Shot Was Made

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…

The Barn Yard bloody mary with a whole roasted chicken at Farmer's Table, Bay Park, San Diego

San Diego Restaurant Photography: The Venues, 2013 to Now

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…

Miso glazed Chilean seabass over rice with bok choy, San Diego restaurant menu photography

Hiring a Food Photographer in San Diego: Costs, Process, and FAQ

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…

Food Photography Lighting Setup: Burger

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…

Getting Ready for your Professional Head Shot

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…

Photographing a Mayor

I didn't select these photos. There was around 500 of them. Todd Gloria selected these images with the input of his trusted friends and San Diego-based team. I thought it would be cool to show Todd's selects here instead of mine. Often the head shots the client chooses are quite different than what I would pick for them. Here we actually aligned pretty closely on the choices. Maybe we can attribute that to the frequency with which public figures are…

Simulating the Sun with Flash

When I learned this simple trick for simulating the look of "golden hour" sunlight with flash, my life as a photographer changed for the better. Suddenly those overcast days were just an extended golden hour, providing the benefit of soft front light with the always-welcome golden back light. I'll give you the simple breakdown so you can start using this to get that sunny look when weather doesn't cooperate. All of the images were made on an overcast day with…

Best Friends – A Service Dog Portrait

Meet Mary Katherine and her best friend Atti. Over the years I've had the pleasure of doing some work for Paws'itive Teams, a top notch service dog organization here in San Diego. I've been able to photograph their teams at annual events and also get involved with their website development. More recently I've decided to photograph some of their teams as a personal project and hope to do more with them this year. It is pretty amazing watching a highly trained…

Lighting Lesson | Indoor Portrait Setup

Recently I had an opportunity to shoot a portrait of one of my food photography clients. Bliss and Baker is a mother-daughter team in North County San Diego making some really delicious crispie treats that you can find at local retailers and restaurants around town. Just looking at the behind the scenes iPhone snap above of our setup, one can instantly recognize the challenge with shooting a portrait in a home kitchen. In most cases you'll be presented with multiple light…

Ballet Folklórico in San Diego – Three Magazine Covers for AAA

Ballet Folklórico is a traditional Mexican dance form that celebrates the country's regional cultures through elaborate costumes, vibrant colors, and choreography rooted in folk traditions. Each region of Mexico has its own distinct style - from the flowing skirts of Jalisco to the intricate footwork of Veracruz - and the dancers train extensively to master the precise, expressive movements that make the art form so visually striking. It's been a staple of Mexican cultural identity for generations, and San Diego…

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