More set tests and the final image from another recent shoot.

Here are some background set tests and the final image from a recent shoot.

This is the old logo Joel Sotelo/Visual Asylum did for me. I used to call my parrot Charlie "Evil Bird" from time to time and Joel must have heard me because, see the horns on the logo????

I sometimes like to take Iphone snaps of the late afternoon sun in my kitchen. I may have to do a serious test or client shoot based off of this playing around sometime.

Working on a shot at my home. I love the light in my house. I have this one huge north facing bay window that creates really helps create beautiful images.

Still life scouting.

Still life images waiting to happen....

My trusty assistant gets his portrait done.

This print sure looks a lot like my parrot Charlie! Who happens to be sitting on my shoulder as I post this.

Images from two shoots for Jelly Belly Candy Company.
Styling by Shannon Tompson and Rosy Strazzeri-Fridman
Shot at Rosy's house in San Francisco and at my home in Alameda.

My stylist friend outdoes herself.

Recent still life tests. Shannon Thompson styled the shots and came up with eight of them in two days, including finding most of the props. Freaking crazy to pull that much together that fast!

I strive to provide the highest quality working environment for my crew!!! Kidding, I swear she picked this spot to paint!

     Out looking for props and ideas. I really want to do a black set and at the same time I want to to do some very high key almost white. Not a lot of time to test right now so it may have to wait a few more weeks before I start collecting new props.

Scouting pics of the location for the last Jelly Belly Candy Company shoot. This is the home of stylist Rosy Fridman.

I recently found these fabrics I really like, deep indigo from Mali and some rough cotton from France. On the left are set tests I shot with those new fabrics and on the right the final images that those test inspired.

At the Alameda Flea Market there is a seller who always has great table top items, Elsie Green of Elsie Green Home. I decided to drop by her store/warehouse in Concord because she just got a huge shipment in from Morocco. There are so many beautiful things I hope I can figure out something to use them for before they are all sold.

These are set tests I did for a series on breakfast foods that Randy Mon did the food styling on. I don't usually create backgrounds, preferring to find things with real patina, but I couldn't find anything with the right blue so I created this one and am pretty happy with the results.

Here are some of the final pics.

The shot on the left is one of a seeries for Jelly Belly. While I was shooting it I thought that the glasses in the back were worth shot of their own so the next day while doing some testing the stylist and I set up the other two shots based on the original image. Karrie Nitsche was the creative director on the shoot and Shannon Thompson styled it.

Just a few snaps of some of the props and backgrounds I had for the the Numi Teas packaging shoot. I sent these to the client before the shoot for approvals.

and some of the final pics......

I was getting in to my car at Berkeley Bowl with the micro greens to garnish this picture when I looked in the seat and saw this cool light happening to my test image print.

Whenever possible I like to do quick test shots of the backgrounds and props to test composition and lighting before having the food prepped. On assignments we don't usually have time to pull prints, we just look on screen,  but for myself I like to have prints to look at while working on the final images.

On my latest trip to the flea market I found these wine barrel tops and wood fruit baskets that I liked so when I got home I started playing around with them to see what I could come up with.

After a little messing around I decided to go back to Berkeley Bowl and get Apricots and Spanish Garlic to create some final images with. I love the look of Spanish Garlic and have been wanting to do a shot of it for some time now. The colors will be perfect against the wine barrel and the Apricots will be perfect for the baskets.