Commercial Photography

Florida Commercial Photography Prints featured in ARC Printing St. Petersburg

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Two of my St. Petersburg photographs featured in the ARC Digital Copy Center Storefront - get them for your storefront today!Soon after I brought my photography business to St. Petersburg a little over two years ago, I met Mike of ARC Digital Copy Center (previously NGI).  He has been greatly helping my business ever since with his outstanding print products and even better customer service.  So when he contacted me wanting to license some of my local St. Petersburg photographs for the new location of his print shop, I was very happy to be able to return some of the favors he had long been doing for me.  Both images in the storefront above are of Coffeepot Bayou near Snell Isle.  Mike told me people are always stopping and posing to take photos of themselves in front of my photographs.   

The panorama of the St. Petersburg waterfront is a huge 18 foot x 4 foot print! -- get it for your business or home today!Inside the print shop are two very large panel prints of panorama shots of the St. Petersburg downtown area (see larger images here).  The one in the photo above is 18 feet wide and 4 feet tall.  That size is available for purchase directly from me and will be printed right at ARC Digital Copy Center keeping all the business local to St. Petersburg.  A waterfall photograph I made at Rainbow Springs can be seen on the glass sliding door as well.

St. Petersburg downtown panorama featuring the new Signature Tower and Al Lang StadiumThe panorama seen above of Signature Tower and Al Lang Stadium has proven a popular print.  A couple that lives in Signature and whose condo is visible in the photo purchased a large print for display in their condo.  If you know someone who lives in Signature a print would make a great gift. 

Visit ARC in St. Petersburg:

Bo-Tiki Women's Fashion Boutique Gulfport Florida Commercial Photography

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classic Gulfport signs for sale in front of Bo-Tiki Women's Fashion Boutique - Florida Commercial Photography - 7-bracket HDR

Long ago when I was a USF (Tampa campus) student I came to meet someone who lived in Gulfport.  I remember going to visit her from the North Tampa area seemed like a tremendous journey to a different land.  For the life of me I would not be able to remember her neighborhood now, but every now and then when I still, infrequently, visit Gulfport small flashes of those past days leave a trace image in my mind.  I can say for sure though that I had never been to Bo-Tiki before last week as the unique shop makes a strong impression on visitors.

Denise & Maddy (proprietor of Bo-Tiki) are very excited about their merchandise - SETUP: f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th STROBIST: SB-800 @ 1/4 power to frame right SB-600 @ 1/4 power to frame back leftThe ladies working inside Bo-Tiki were very friendly and quick to laugh.  I asked the owner, Maddy (on right), to hold up her current favorite item in her boutique to help her feel more at ease about her portrait being taken.  I think it worked.  Whenever possible I like to get clients to hold one of their products for a commercial photography type portrait.

Bo-Tiki offers indoor & outdoor shopping in Gulfport Florida - St. Petersburg commercial photography - 7-bracket HDRI think I will return to Bo-Tiki later this year as a customer looking for a Christmas present for my mom.  I might pick up one of those old-time Gulfport signs for myself as well!

St. Petersburg Florida Downtown Sunset Panorama High Detail

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Click image for LARGE 5000px detailed version - 14-shot panorama of downtown St. Petersburg Florida at sunsetWhat you see above, if you can see anything, is a 14-shot panorama photograph of the downtown St. Petersburg, Florida skyline at sunset.  The panorama image was made by using Photomerge in Photoshop CS5.  

This type of image is incredibly easy to make: 

  • just take consecutive, level, same exposure shots
  • overlap the final third of each shot
  • put all the photos into a single folder
  • open up Photoshop CS5
  • in the Automate menu choose Photomerge
  • sit back and let your computer's CPU do some serious processing

in a few minutes you will have created your own panorama image! 

--inquire about licensing this image or ordering prints for your office or home

Peninsula Inn & Spa Gulfport Florida Commercial Photography

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Peninsula Inn & Spa Gulfport Governor's Room - 5-bracket HDR - St. Petersburg commercial photographyDuring a DSLR photography lesson yesterday morning the student remarked that she liked St. Petersburg so much because of its old and historic buildings.  Coincidentally, I was assigned that afternoon to go photograph the Peninsula Inn & Spa in the Gulfport area of St. Pete.  The inn is described as having British Colonial decor with a flare of exotic Bali, which can be seen in the above image of the Governor's Room.  I certainly expected to see someone like Hemingway huddled in a corner scribbling away while taking bites of some long ago ordered sandwich.

The famous Six Tables room at Peninsula Inn & Spa Gulfport - SETUP: f/8 ISO 200 6 sec exposureThe staff was very friendly and excited to talk about the history of the inn.  The Six Tables room (three of which can be seen above) offers an exclusive dining experience with some of the highest rated food in the area I was told.  Again, this room had a certain mysterious feeling to it, definitely not the kind of atmosphere one finds in any chain restaurant!  I imagine eating in here would feel like eating in a museum or some Duke's castle in the English countryside.

Veranda surrounding the Peninsula Inn & Spa Gulfport - 5-bracket HDR - St. Petersburg Commercial PhotographyThe wide veranda surrounding the inn offers another dining experience more reminiscent of Bali (and my experiences in SE Asia) with its tropical foliage at arm's reach from the tables.  It is just too bad that smoking is allowed on the veranda.

The Palm Lounge bar at the Peninsula Inn & Spa Gulfport - 5-bracket HDR - St. Petersburg Commercial PhotographyI used a combination of HDR shots and long exposures to photograph the various rooms of the inn.  For the bar photograph above I used HDR since there was pretty good ambient light.  For the dimly lit rooms like the Six Tables, the exposure on the long end of the bracket for an HDR shot would not be practical so I just used a single long exposure instead.

Peninsula Inn & Spa Gulfport Florida exterior SETUP: f/8 ISO 200 1/50th tripod mounted with cable releaseThe architectural character and personable and knowledgeable staff I imagine would make for a great stay at the inn for people visiting from out of state or even out of town.  

Golden Glow Medical Spa & Mahajan Medical Center Largo Commercial Photography

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Reveal face & skin reading camera - f/5.6 ISO 200 1/50th SB-800 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mounted (both shots)The doctors and medical specialists of Mahajan Medical Center and Golden Glow Medical Spa in Largo, Florida recently moved both facilities into a new building.  I was hired to photograph the examination rooms, procedures while they were being performed, as well as staff headshots and building exterior photos for use on their business website and in future promotional materials.  

For me, it was my first time seeing such spa related medical equipment and I have to confess it all looks rather scary to me.  I was asked what treatments I do for the skin on my face, and I of course replied that I am a Man and take after Clint Eastwood.  I can only hope to age and have such a rugged looking face as he has.  

Golden Glow Medical Spa neck skin treatment device - f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th SB-800 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mountedPhotographing the procedures meant working in very tight spaces.  I normally prefer to use off-camera-flash, but that just was not possible this time.  Since the rooms were small though, there was always a wall or a low ceiling to be able to bounce my SB-800 Speedlight off of while it was mounted on my Nikon D300's hotshoe.  

Medical procedure & examination rooms - Golden Glow Spa Largo FloridaThe medical center and medical spa rooms were intermixed with some looking like traditional examination rooms seen in hospitals as well as rooms with a much more relaxed vibe.  All the rooms also had wall-mounted HDTVs!

Therapeutic massage at Golden Glow Medical Spa - Largo, Florida - f/5.6 ISO 200 1/40th SB-800 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mountedThe woman giving the massage above was a real character.  From a distance she looks very petite, as she is hardly five feet tall.  Up close though you can start to see her muscles.  She proudly told me that she is a bodybuilder.  Seems like a very good quality to have in a masseuse!  She suggested I come back sometime and get a massage myself as she saw all the heavy camera equipment dangling from my neck and around my shoulders.  Maybe I just will.

Brand new building housing both Mahajan Medical Center & Golden Glow Medical Spa - 7-bracket HDRI arrived on site very early (at least for me) at 7:45am in order to be able to photograph the exterior of the building without any cars in the parking lot.  The sun had not yet risen above the roof of the building which I think coincidentally added a sunrise glow to the Golden Glow Medical Spa facia.

Cadillac CTS with Model Tampa Commercial Car Photography Part 2

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Model: Amber Car: Cadillac CTS setup: f/11 ISO 200 1/100th strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power to frame left, SB-600 @ 1/2 power to frame center-right

This second set of photographs featuring model Amber and a Cadillac CTS photographed in front of the Tampa Convention Center feature some of the images chosen by the client (part 1 featured my initial favorites from the shoot).  It is always interesting to me to see which photographs the client chooses as compared to the ones I chose.  This time, only one photograph of the client's ten purchased images overlapped with one of my top three.  We were close on a second, with the client choosing just a slightly different pose than the one I did.  Too bad about that too because I had already done the major edit (removing several background buildings) on the pose I chose!

Model: Amber Car: Cadillac CTS Setup: f/10 ISO 200 1/200th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power to frame left, SB-600 @ 1/4 power to frame center-rightAll that said, the three featured client choices in this post are now also in my favorites as well.  I believe it is really important to get one or more sets of eyes on all the photographs from a shoot in order to really discover all the best ones.  If the client had not chosen these, I may never have bothered to give any of them a full edit and thus they would have never made it onto my site or into my portfolio.  

The idea to have Amber look at her watch as if she were bored or waiting impatiently on someone was my own.  The client had told me at the beginning of the shoot that he wanted an element of the unattainable, of something hard to maintain, hard to keep.  So I thought if you want to have a beautiful woman and a cool car, you better arrive on time, at the very least!

Model: Amber Car: Cadillac CTS Setup: f/11 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power to frame left, SB-600 @ 1/2 power to frame center-rightThis was a great project to work on as the client provided me with a clear vision for the photographs while at the same time letting me put my own creative touch on the setup of the shots.  Plus, add in a model who can pose gracefully on the hood of a car (not easy!).  That equals pretty much the ideal situation.  

Guitarist Promotional Materials & Album Cover Shoot Pass-A-Grille Beach Part 2

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Commercial Photography for guitarist promotion - f/9 ISO 200 1/250th SB-800 to frame right SB-600 to frame left

A grainy, holga, look is what guitarist Nathan (artist name Redd Sun) told me he wanted for the edited versions of the photographs I made for him during our commercial photography shoot on Pass-A-Grille Beach.  I kept that information in mind the whole time I was shooting, despite the setting sun providing a plethora of color in the wide Florida sky that evening.  The grainy look is one of the things that interested me most about this shoot because 99% of the time when shooting on the beach vivid color shots are desired.  I saw this as an opportunity to produce something different, something . . . simpler.

Commercial Photography for guitarist promotion - f/4 ISO 200 1/400th natural lightAfter seeing the results of this shoot, I may do an entire series of black & white beach shots.  The holga effect was applied to the above photograph using the awesome Silver Efex Pro, which if you do not have it and you like black & white, then you need to get Silver Efex Pro immediately!

Commercial Photography for musician promotion - f/4 ISO 200 1/400th natural lightI centered the subject (Nathan) much more than I normally would during this shoot because I knew that type of composition best lent itself to the holga effect with its harsh vertical edge burning.  This is why it is always very important to previsualize a shot, or a whole shoot even, before pressing the shutter.