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portrait
This was a last-minute, same-day request for a group photo, needed for an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. Eclipse VC is on High Street in Palo Alto, and their office is actually really interesting for shooting portraits. Luckily I was able to accommodate their quick turnaround needs. I had a 15 minute window to identify a couple location options on-site and stage a group of 12 people in an interesting composition. I think it worked out pretty well!
On-site professional portraits for a luxury real estate group in Menlo Park, California. I set up a white backdrop and lighting in the office and we had a blast getting a variety of poses, from full body to waist up and tighter headshots.
There's a new hotel in town – and it's a stunningly beautiful creation named Hotel Nia. I arrived a week before opening, so of course between the final construction, incoming decor and staff training, it was a bit of a chaotic environment to shoot in. Plus the weather was sunny one minute, and pouring rain the next – guaranteeing a variety of settings and a true challenge for the photographer (me). This shoot was dual-purpose – first, to get some food and drink photos for the restaurant, and second to capture some good portraits of various staff for press releases and the website.
Cooper Technologies is a one-stop IT services/consulting shop located in Sash Mill near downtown Santa Cruz. The staff is super friendly, and I think that comes through in our photo shoot below. We started out with group shots of all-hands, both inside their workshop as well as outside in the alley behind the business. I had a lot of fun since I had full creative freedom – can you tell? Last, we walked to the nearby colocation facility (aka server room) for a few dramatically-lit portraits there. Overall I'm really happy with the results (and they are too!). Enjoy a selection of my favorites below:
No pressure – you have to take a group photo of about 60 people on a public outdoor terrace in mid-November. Luck was on my side, the weather was great and I was able to direct everyone effectively. This was shot at the Monterey Plaza Hotel in – you guessed it – Monterey, California.
I was honored to team up with the creative geniusus (geniusi?) at Personify for their Creative Talks(TM) at Main and Elm in Redwood City. Most of the attendees were independent entrepreneurs in various creative fields, so it was great to chat about the industry with a bunch of like-minded individuals. I contributed to the evening by setting up an impromptu studio out in the parking lot against a corrugated metal shed. Just goes to show you can pretty much create great photos anytime, anywhere. Here's a few photos of the fun folk who attended:
We took some indoor and outdoor headshots / group portraits of some of the staff at this Scotts Valley business – the main shots intended for use in a Forbes Magazine article.
Cliff is a local architect, and I met him on-site at one of his latest builds in the new Main St. Cupertino shopping center. I loved the recycled wood he used in part of the building he designed, so I incorporated it in a subtle way into the background of the headshots. The group shot of the two of them was shot from a lower angle to show off the distinctive styling of the building behind them. These were all shot a little after sunset with a couple soft-boxed off-camera profoto B1 strobes.
Rebecca needed a new business portrait for her LinkedIn profile, so I went to her home, helped her pick out some wardrobe options and provided a little skincare product to reduce shine. I then found an outdoor location near her home that I thought would provide a nice, natural backdrop for her portraits. I used the sun as backlight and my Profoto B1 with 30" softbox as the key light. Rebecca's son held a reflector camera-right to help reduce the overall contrast.
Eight executives who are rarely in the same city at the same time for this tech startup came together to get their professional business portraits taken at their Hayward property. We shot in 3 or 4 locations for each individual over the course of a few hours – shooting both indoors and outdoors.
I was hired to shoot a group of 10 executives at a luxury kitchen appliances company in Burlingame. The intent was to stage an area in the warehouse that would subtly showcase some of their products but mostly be about the people. To make it more engaging, we wanted to show some interaction between the people. Not challenging, except for the fact that in order to get the best lighting for each person, I had to shoot each person individually without anyone else in the frame! I worked with branding expert Krista (Personify) on this project – she spearheaded the concept and layout of the shot, which we referred to day-of, getting the actual setup quite close to the mockup (thankfully!). After Christal Caladio (Artistry by Cristal) polished each individual's hair and makeup, I photographed them in one of the positions we'd outlined (or two or three). The camera was on a taped-down tripod and the lighting was dialed in, so (in theory) it would be pretty easy to pick the best shots of each person and merge them all in photoshop.
This was a dual restaurant shoot – with the goals to shoot some of Cafe Cruz's more popular dishes as well as get some lifestyle portraits of some couples enjoying the nighttime ambience indoors near the fireplace and outdoors on the patio – by another fireplace and a fire pit. Lots of good stuff, this is one of my favorite restaurants in the Santa Cruz area! Enjoy a few photos below:
These are some of the best photos from a multi-day photo shoot at the fine restaurant MacArthur Park in Palo Alto. We had an aggressive list of objectives for the photography – to be used for marketing (print and web), advertising and general promotion. We shot some great BBQ food dishes (their specialty) – both by themselves and with people/hands. We also shot lifestyle portraits of customers enjoying themselves – at the bar and at the dining tables. I'll describe the photos in more detail below – enjoy!
Brenda needed some portraits for her new real estate venture, but she wanted more of a natural lifestyle feel to the photos than your typical executive headshot. She sent me a few sample images for the look and feel she was going for, so I suggested a natural light shoot at Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz. It’s very rustic, with lots of old buildings, barns, distressed wood textures, rickety fences – the perfect backdrop for Brenda’s vision.
