Commercial

Safety Harbor Spa Florida Commercial Model Shoot

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Safety Harbor Spa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 to frame right SB-600 to frame leftSafety Harbor Spa provided the backdrop for a commercial photography fashion shoot for a magazine featuring several models.  All the models were fun to work with and helpful, even offering to assist me in carrying some of my strobist gear around.  Much obliged.  Nancy is featured in the above shot, which turned out to be my favorite shot of the day, and I later found out it was the magazine editor's favorite too.  This shot was made in the "History Room" of the spa.  The dog statue was moved into the shot purposefully.  The spa staff later told me that many consider the statue to be haunted.  People claim it moves by itself and some even have said it tried to bite them!  It did have a mean stare if looked at from a certain angle, but I touched it and it only felt like cold bronze to me.

Safety Harbor Spa model shoot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightAlthough we shot at many different spots both inside and on the grounds of Safety Harbor Spa, the History Room was by far my favorite.  Young model (just 15!) Julie poses in front of an oil painting at the far end of the long and well furnitured History Room.  The length of the room allowed me to use my preferred Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens for this shot.

Safety Harbor Pier - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThe first shooting of the morning though was of the gentlemen out on Safety Harbor Pier.  The sun was already fast rising in the sky and with minimal space to place my speedlights, it was a bit of a logistics as well as photographic challenge to produce the above shot featuring Luke.  I wanted to incorporate leading lines and a bit of a vanishing point in the shot.

Safety Harbor Spa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/160th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightJulie again in this shot showing very good balance and flexibility allowing for what I feel is a bit of an Aloha State themed image.  If you have never photographed professional models before, I recommend hiring one for a shoot of your own and experiencing just how much easier it is to produce photographs when the subject already knows how to pose well.  Another option is to do a free TF (trade-for) shoot with a model where each exchanges time in order to build their respective portfolios.

Safety Harbor Spa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThere was a makeup artist, hair stylist and fashion director that all worked together with the models helping me be able to photograph six models in total at eight different locations all in under four hours.  Thanks a lot everyone, it was challenging fun.

St Petersburg Florida Commercial Photography - Suncoast Electric Vehicles Richard Nimphie

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Suncoast Electric Vehicles Personal EV electric car - St. Petersburg Florida commercial photographyI was excited this week to get a commercial photography job photographing Suncoast Electric Vehicles and its personal EV car and green van, as well as to meet the dealership owner, Richard Nimphie.  My supercar passion is well known, but for my about town car I would definitely also have an EV car of some kind.  I am surprised with all the people of means that live in my neighborhood, I have only seen one Chevy Volt driving around and no totally EVs at all.  I guess EVs are still pretty rare and hard to get no matter what car budget one has.

Richard Nimphie of Suncoast Electric Vehicles St. Petersburg Florida inside the Personal EVI have unknowingly driven by the Suncoast Electric Dealership on 4th Street North I estimate at least 180 times since it opened earlier this year and never noticed it, and I am a very observant person, especially for cars!  The signage is small and low and the building is surrounded by trees.  I might suggest to them to somehow making the dealership much more visible to passing cars.

Personal EV plug with body graphic leaving no doubt where to put it!Mr. Nimphie and his staff were very friendly answering my questions about their EVs and helping me setup photographs highlighting the features of EV cars, which of course are their lack of a need for gas and electrical outlet for a gas cap.  Thinking now I guess in the future there will be something like sold laptop docking station built into the walls of garages that everyone will just connect to when they return home in order to recharge.  Maybe that will not even be necessary as some sudden, burst recharging technology could be invented along just a few seconds of plugin time to be back on the road.

The GREENVAN EVC1000 at Suncoast Electric Vehicles at 2401 4th Street North St. Petersburg FloridaIf you drive less than 40 miles a day and stay on roads with speed limits 40mph and under, which would be nearly all roads in St. Petersburg, then the Personal EV would make a great way to start the future in your garage today.

SUNCOAST ELECTRIC VEHICLES official site

2401 4th Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33704

Parkshore Grill Tyson Grant Commercial Photography St. Petersburg

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Chef Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill - Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/250th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power on light stand to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/8 power behind subjectThis afternoon I met Chef Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill on 300 Beach Drive in downtown St. Petersburg for a commercial photography shoot.  As he was changing into a clean white chef's coat I scouted the restaurant for the best spot to make his portrait.  I thought the area behind the bar was the most distinctive background, but I ended up blurring most of it anyway as you can see in the final shot which was tighter than I first envisioned as well.  

Parkshore Grill at 300 Beach Drive St. Petersburg Florida - outdoor cafe style dining is available all along Beach DriveBeach Drive has many restaurants running along its wide sidewalks, most all of which offer outside eating options.  On a pleasant sunny March afternoon like this one, most of the umbrella covered tables were occupied.  The area in front of the Parkshore Grill was very busy and I could not frame a shot to my liking, so I had to cross the street and include some of the surroundings to get a shot I liked of the exterior of the restaurant.

Chef Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill 300 Beach Drive St. PetersburgAnother central feature of the interior of Parkshore Grill was a winding staircase leading to a raised dining area in front of the kitchen.  Chef Grant said he liked this staircase so I setup the above shot having to carefully position both of my strobes so that they were close enough to him to light him up, but not so close that they got into the shot.  Using portrait orientation solved most of that dilemma and allowed the staircase to flow nicely into the foreground.

Thank you to Chef Tyson Grant for his time this afternoon.  It was a fast, but fun and interesting commercial photography shoot for me.  Visit the Parkshore Grill website.

Greater Woodlawn St. Petersburg Real Estate Photography

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St. Petersburg Florida Commercial Real Estate Photography - single exposure f/11 ISO 200 1/125th

I have made a new contact in the real estate business and thus will be potentially doing more real estate photography work in St. Petersburg and the surrounding areas.  A few weeks ago I photographed a large, furnished house (photos) for this client.  This time was a smaller, unfurnished home.  It is definitely more a challenge to photograph an unfurnished home, as many rooms devoid of decoration look just like empty cubes.  

St. Petersburg Florida Commercial Real Estate Photography - single exposure f/11 ISO 200 0.6 sec tripod mounted cable releaseSo for unfurnished homes I try to include more of the walls and outcroppings around the border of the frame in order to provide details and depth to the shots, like in the one above.  However, for example, if you have an empty bedroom that is just a perfect square, especially if it is a bit small, well, for that all you can really do is try and include the ceiling light fixture if there is one, and as much as possible get all the room's windows into the shot just to show its natural light potential. 

Lexus IS F - Tampa Commercial Car Photography

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2008 Lexus IS F in black - 7-bracket HDR in Ybor City, TampaWhen I was contacted by ISG (In Sixth Gear) to photograph a black 2008 Lexus IS F, my third favorite car in the world, it was rather easy to say yes to that job!  In fact it would be harder to have a more fun commercial car photography job in Tampa.  A few days earlier I went to Ybor City to scout locations (photos without car) and found the above brick road by rail road tracks spot, which was what the client had requested.  

2008 Lexus IS F black showing custom carbon fiber front spoiler - Ybor City, TampaThis was the client's own daily driver car.  He had a number of customizations added to it including a very low profile front carbon fiber spoiler, special 20" black wheels and perhaps most noticeable was the throaty prototype exhaust system.  The V8's could be heard rumbling loudly even at idle.  When revved you can hear it two blocks away.

2008 Lexus IS F black - 7-bracket HDR in Ybor City, TampaAll the locations I found in Ybor City were within a few blocks of each other in the same old brick warehouse district.  The client mainly wanted shots composed in a way so they could be used on his website, which meant leaving space on the left side for a vertical menu and space on the bottom of the image for text overlay, as can be seen in the above shot.

2008 Lexus IS F black - single exposure processed in Topaz Adjust 3 - Ybor City, TampaWhile waiting for the sun to go down a bit more, I took a few tight shots of the IS F for the client's own personal use, as well as to use as wallpaper on my own desktops!  The IS F has a unique, angled quad-exhaust system that is at an even sharper angle with this prototype exhaust system than the stock tailpipes.  

2008 Lexus IS F with custom carbon fiber front spoiler - Ybor City, TampaThe client's customized IS F looked especially menacing from the front.  The car overall was lowered with an even lower profile front carbon fiber spoiler.  Needless to say one has to be quite careful going over speedbumps!  

2008 Lexus IS F - 7-bracket HDR - Ybor City, Tampa warehouse districtThe client is actually selling this car and replacing it with a BMW M3.  I hope the photographs help him remember his time with his IS F.

Tropical Shores St. Petersburg Real Estate Photography

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Not HDR - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 200 1/4th tripod mounted with cable releaseReal estate photography, for me, is an especially internal process.  Since the subject being photographed cannot respond to verbal commands, nor non-verbal for that matter, I can work in complete silence and those have absolute, unbroken concentration.  Add to that I use a tripod and cable release for this type of work, freeing my hands, real estate photography is almost a sort of meditation.  To an outside observer, it would appear I was doing nothing, though if they could read my mind they would see a constant stream of calculations and measurements and penetrating glances.  That is how I operate when doing real estate photography.

This first room has come to be known as a "man cave," a term I despise.  I have, as of yet, no great alternative because I think the old term "rec room" still seems pretty good to me.  Regardless of label, this is no ordinary room of this type as the walls, as you can see, are lined with artwork.  In fact most of the walls in the whole house looked thusly.

Not HDR - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 200 1/2 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI wonder why granite countertops have become all the rage the past few years?  Was this type of countertop not invented in the 1970s?  It seems now any type of countertop material that is not granite is looked upon with scorn and in need of "updating."  

5-bracket HDR - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 200 tripod mounted with cable releasePersonally, the master bedroom could be the smallest room in the house and I would be fine.  As long as a queen size bed can fit and I do not bump into the night stand, that would suit me.  I see so many house hunters on TV wanting a huge master.  I do not understand the benefit.

Not HDR, but digitally altered - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th tripod & cable releaseThe owner/seller of the house was quite an interesting person.  He was a builder by profession (now retired).  He built this, his own house, to withstand winds of 300mph using a concrete pouring process I was not able to remember since I was concentrating on photography.  Where may you ask is better than living in Florida for a retiree?  Well, he is on his way to Italy to an area that has good beaches also, while being just a stone's throw from ski slopes.  

Pug Puppy Photo found on flickr published in First Magazine for Women

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flickr pays! -- Published on page 94 of First for Women Magazine January 2011If you think posting photos to flickr is a waste of time, and paying the $24 annual fee for a pro membership to flickr is especially a waste of money, well, my pro membership for the next six years has been paid for by selling this one shot.  A person from First (for women) Magazine contacted me by e-mail asking to use the above pug puppy photo in an upcoming issue.  I replied, "possibly, depending on the price."  The person replied promptly with a price list that was acceptable to me, and I made the easiest money in photography I ever had before.  They mailed me the print issue this week (scans above).  

I posted the pug puppy photo to flickr on February 11, 2010, not so recently.  I do not really post photos to flickr with the thought that the ever might sell.  I use flickr to post my favorite shots of the moment, or shots I am not that sure about, and use the feedback I get on the shot to improve my photography skills.  I always find it interesting to see which shots get the most views/comments as compared to others.  The results are not always what I expect.  

So, making the effort to properly publish your photo to flickr, and by properly I mean giving your image an appropriate title, tagging the image with appropriate and creative key words, and writing a full description of the image with exif data and how to contact you for more images/information, if you do this, the results can be one day a nice little windfall comes in the mail for photography work you have long already done.