Yesterday Dutch and I were in his studio doing some test shots for POM Tea. If you haven’t tried some, you should, it’s really good! It comes with a keepsake glass or vase, so we spent some time thinking about after uses. This is where my writing/storytelling comes in handy. It allows for me to visualize a scene and set up a shot. Here’s what I was thinking about the pictures above: so you finish drinking POM tea and now you get a vase to decorate with. If you garden that could mean picking some fresh flowers from the garden, or if you’re busy, just grabbing a small bunch on the way home from work. So this picture is part of the process, you’ve got two lillies in there and it gives a feel that you’re in the process of floral arranging.
One thing I really like about POM and Fiji is how as their photographers we always try to give them more than just a product shoot. Sure we fulfill assignments to the best of our abilities, but on our own time we fiddle around with their products to give their art department some inspiration. That’s how Dutch is anyway; he likes to go the extra mile for his clients and that’s one of the things I really respect about him.
I’ll be in Sacramento/Oroville next week to be a counselor at Mien Youth Camp. Everytime I go it has always been great, and I will bring back lots of pictures to share. Have a great week, and enjoy the fireworks and the barbeque!
Whew!
June 20th, 2006
As in, whew! It has been busy! Dutch and I just wrapped up another Fiji photo shoot in the studio, and it was a very busy three days. The batch of supermodel Fiji bottles have never looked so good! One thing that’s interesting is that Fiji is marketing a square car adapter/drink holder, since most of the drink holders I’ve seen are circle, Fiji wanted to allow Fiji drinkers to enjoy a bottle of Fiji without having to deal with a circular drink holder in the car.
And for those of you who think modeling is a glamorous job, it isn’t. We shot T-shirts yesterday and we used some co-workers at Fiji. They both looked great, but with all of the primping of the T-shirts, I think at the end the models were really tired. If you want to know how it feels, stand in an awkward position with your chest way forward and your head turned a bit, lift your head a little and hold it there for around five minutes.
The payoff though, is looking great in front of the camera, it’s just so much work! Gotta feel bad for the Victoria’s Secret Models, right?
In any case, back to my own shooting! This week I’ll be in Downtown LA in the evening…I’m really getting into these night shots!
Here’s some pictures of the Teleflora/Fiji Water studio so you can get a better sense of what Dutch and I are doing.
Behold, the precious Fiji Water bottle. This past Friday we did some test shots with a Canon 5D. That little throne for the water bottle is really some thick posterboard to prevent some unecessary reflections so the bottle looks cleaner. We even had to use some gasoline to wipe off the printed expiration date/printed bottling date. Supermodels, water bottles, it looks like they have much in common: they both just need a little primping before they give us their best shot.
Then we take it into Photoshop and whiten up the background, shape up some of the reflections, and make sure that the pink flower stands out. We also used a gold reflector to bring out the gold outline of Fiji water, but that made the pink flower too pastel-ish. After a few tweaks Dutch made it look really good. All of this preps us for a final shoot, where we’ll be shooting everything from the water bottles themselves to golf balls and umbrellas. And since we shoot in the same studio as the Teleflora people, I often get to see some amazing and beautiful flowers there. On Friday I got to fiddle around with Dutch’s macro lens:
The flowers above look like fuzzy feet!
It will be a short and exciting week! This week I will be prepping for Jeff and Ying’s wedding, and I’m really looking forward to it, it’ll be a blast.
How about drinking a bottle of Fiji water today? Fiji has recently opened up a new area of photography for me because I’m working for them now via an internship; I will be assisting my photographer in Fiji’s new campaign. They do home delivery now and want to kick up their marketing campaign so me and my photographer will do about 100 or so product shots for them. Anyhow, for those of you who are wondering, Fiji water does come from the island of Fiji. It’s not just a name. Which led both my photographer and myself to speculate whether we’ll be going to Fiji one day to do actual shooting! Just thinking about it is fun enough for me with the great weather in LA and all.
This kind of stuff really gives me a big rush. I just want to do everything at once. But then I stop myself and say, one step at a time. That’s what I’ve been learning the last 5 years or so. One step at a time, every day is another day, another opportunity, more challenges, and more blessings.