These are the some of the highlights from yesterday's commercial photo shoot with my San Francisco client, a national corporate dining service headquartered in the Bay Area. We had a ton of fun on this 1/2 day shoot in their commercial kitchen. I spent most of my time on a ladder and the team did a wonderful job styling; the chef of course performed his magic, presenting regular ol' food in an approachable and unique way.
My client CVHCare celebrated their annual holiday party this year at Roundhouse Market & Conference Center in San Ramon, California. This was a new venue for me, so I was really pleased to see what an amazing space this is. Super tall ceilings, lots of clean, white surfaces – free to dress up for any event in any way imaginable. For this event, I focused mostly on getting great candid photos of the guests as well as lots of couples/small groups. Here's a selection of my favorites from this corporate event in San Ramon:
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:
Sometimes corporate event photography can be pretty dry – lots of serious faces – not always ideal environments for great candid photos. However, I have done enough of this type of work that I can pretty much always leave an event with a great collection of candid / group / detail shots to show off the best aspects of any corporate event. This particular event was held in one of the ballrooms at the Santa Clara Convention Center in, you guessed it, Santa Clara. This event was celebrating a company merger/acquisition and there was an open bar – both of which encourages plenty of smiles. Enjoy 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.
The company that did the recessed lighting for Din Tai Fung in San Jose hired me to take some architectural interior photos of the restaurant. The manager was gracious enough to have his staff quickly clean and reset the space immediately after close so we could capture these panoramic interiors without people in them. Here's my favorites from the late-night session:
The house was recently completely remodeled by the extremely talented interior designer Barbara Hoskinson. From the entertainment centers to the fireplace moldings to the fabrics to the many tasteful architectural elements – she envisioned and brought to life everything you see here. We had a short window of time to photograph the property before the owners moved back in. There's so much to see in this multi-level house, I did my best to do it justice.
These are some of local architect Peter Spellman's latest works of art – you can tell just looking at a few of his homes below that he has a distinctive style and flair to the homes he designs. I'm a fan of his work! Here's three different homes below:
Jewelry, especially the really small stuff, is actually very difficult to photograph. I recentl shot these rings, earrings and necklace for a local jeweler in Santa Cruz for advertising / marketing purposes.
Rootstock Wine Bar in Cupertino has much more than its namesake to offer it's customers. There's some really great food coming out of that kitchen that will go great with your wine pairings of choice. Here's a few photos from our food photo shoot that will give you an idea of the menu offered there. All photo by Bay Area commercial food photographer Chris Schmauch.
This is a unique property very close to the beach in a beautiful Carmel neighborhood; perfect for entertaining inside and out. Shooting the panoramic interiors and exteriors was a rewarding challenge as I really wanted to capture the essence of this place as best I could. Here's my favorites from the shoot:
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:
I originally shot some awesome architectural interiors at Rootstock Wine Bar, but they have more than just drinks on the menu – they've got some fabulous flatbreads, meat and cheese platters, salads and other yummy goodness. I haven't had a chance to go through all the photos yet, but here's a sneak peek of what they have to offer. Check them out in the new Main St. Cupertino shopping center and tell them GoodEye sent ya!
Here's a new (vacant) commercial building located on National Avenue in Mountain View. It was designed by Chang Architecture, and has some beautiful signature lines that are recognizable to the Chang brand. I shot this building in the late afternoon where the sun created some really interesting shadows, emphasizing the linear architectural elements. Here's a few photos:
Exterior photo of the front entrance to MacArthur Park restaurant in Palo Alto, taken about 15 minutes after sunset in October.
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.
Today we had a 2-hour commercial food photography photo shoot at 4-year-old restaurant Firehouse 37 in San Ramon. The chefs in the kitchen were very productive, but we found a good balance of making sure I was able to shoot extremely fresh food without too many dishes stacking up in my queue. Everyone was very nice and accommodating, and I'm glad we finished up before the lunch rush. Can't wait to come back here for some architectural interiors.
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.
