The right light to make the best sculpture photographs in ABQ
It was great to have Sharon back in the JCP Home Studio with two more of her sculptures. I was surprised our first shoot was already over 1.5 yers ago! Last time we used a white seamless background, but Sharon wanted something this time for the limestone fox and marble birds. I suggested using one of my stone surface Duo Boards with just a black V-flat background. A little bit of tweaking of the light, adding a reflector, and voila, I was able to produce the high impact sculpture photos below (see the BTS shot for how I set things up). Shooting tethered really help me show Sharon how the light wrapped her sculpture in real time, so we could add some fill light with a reflector when needed for certain views of the sculptures. I of course welcome artist input during the entire shoot, as Sharon knows the views of her sculptures the best! Thank you Sharon for continuing to choose me as the photographer for your fantastic artwork!
Professional Food Photography for Cakes and Baked Goods in ABQ
It was great to visit Roxy’s Cake Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a fun food photography photo shoot where I finally got to use one of my new Duo Boards! What you see is called the Whitewash design which appears a very realistic white painted wood slats. Can you believe it’s not really wood? Roxy’s bakery has only been open about 6 weeks! She is located right in the Coronado Mall with its own exterior entrance. If you like Chantilly cakes and you like to support a local small business, then this is the cake shop for you!! Thank you Roxy for a great food photo shoot and assisting with the reflector for the hero shot!
Pizza is one of my favorite foods to photograph, and not just because I usually get to take some how with me after a food photography shoot in Albuquerque! It’s one of my favorites because of the number of options of how to photograph it, from all inclusive hero shots like the one above, to cropped detail shots like the one below. On assignment for Grubhub again, I had a fun and tasty photoshoot at Pizza Blaze in the Uptown area of ABQ.
Back on a professional food photography assignment in Albuquerque, New Mexico for Grubhub this time at Asahi Express. This is a new restaurant that opened up just before Covid-19 shut down, so I was glad to be able to make photos for them to help them jumpstart their business now that restaurants are allowed to be open at 50% capacity. As per Grubhub guidelines I shot with only natural, available light. I used a reflector to add what pop I could to the ambient florescent lighting and the minimal light that was coming through the opaque windows. Fortunately, the menu items themselves held a lot of interest. If you are looking for good bibimbap and want to support a new business in ABQ, check out Asahi Express.
On location headshot photography at its best in ABQ
Very rarely do I get to make headshots out on location, so when local KRQE meteorologist Connor Lewis asked for a shoot in downtown Albuquerque, I was very excited for it. As it turns out, this was one of my best every photo shoots of any kind. Being used to shooting headshots in studio with a solid white, black, or gray background, having a changing palette in the form of the downtown streets added a new creative element to every headshot I made for Connor. The traffic lights chasing from green to red made a difference, a car stopping with its lights on added to the background, and then in the next shot it moved on and was gone. This was fascinating to me. All through the shoot Connor was the one constant, always being ready for when I framed the shot and needed to get it in what could be my only chance.
Variety in creative food photography in Albuquerque
This is part two in a series of professional food photos I made for Luca Italian Bistro in Albuquerque, New Mexico (see part 1). The variety of dishes presented to me allowed me to make a variety of different food photographs, from feature shots, to hero shots, to macro detail shots. Using a very simple lighting setup of one light and a reflector still gave me the flexibility to take any kind of shot I wanted to all in a very small space, making minimum impact on the daily operation of the restaurant. This is the photography experience I deliver for clients, not just receiving the best commercial photos in Albuquerque, but also as a minimal impact during the photo shoot.
Getting creative with food photography in Albuquerque
I got a chance to do a food photography shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Luca Italian Bistro for a new outfit called PopMenu that allowed me to be much more creative in the shots I made, as compared to UberEats which has strict guidelines. For one thing, I could use off camera flash to make shots I cannot just using natural window light. Check out the BTS shot below to see the setup I used to make these photos. Of course no setup can make up for the dishes themselves not looking pretty, and the table surface being ugly, but as you can see both of those were not the case here. The food plating was beautiful and the wooden table top made for a great background. This kind of food photography shoot is really fun for me!
