Kids go through spurts of interest in different activities. One of our boys, Liam, asked me if he could play around with the camera and lights. We did just that. It wasn’t technical or artistic or groundbreaking…it was just plain fun! I may have helped a little, but for the most part, it was all him.
Monday was an awesome shoot at Moquila Grill in Boca Raton. Moquila is a killer restaurant that serves the absolute best guacamole salsa dip as well as some of the best desserts around. You should definitely check it out.
I’d been asked to shoot some images showcasing the new coffee Moquila is serving, Boca Java. We had a few concepts in mind for both inside and outside before arriving and spent the morning working it. I also managed to get a few shots of the desserts for the restaurant. Let me just say that product shoots are so difficult to get right. Who knew inanimate objects could give me more attitude than people.
I also snuck in a few fun pictures for the two models helping out.
Thanks to Erika, the manager, for graciously allowing me to disrupt her morning, to Max, Moquila’s chef, for creating such amazing desserts, and to Michelle and Mike, part of the staff, for stepping in as my terrific models. You folks are great! Thanks so much.
I’m a Nikon guy. So, you’ll understand my jealousy when Vincent Laforet went and made a 1080i movie with his Canon 5D MkII. It’s called “Reverie” and is pretty darn good. Way to go, Vincent!
Vincent Laforet's "Reverie"
I’m totally excited to have worked with my first musician. Saturday, I met up with Jason, aka Nasty Boi, and his manager Angie at CityPlace in West Palm Beach. We had a blast. It was practically the worst day to shoot: cloudy, rainy, and we didn’t start until near 6pm. So, we had to be creative and I think we came off with some great images.
A little background on this up-and-coming musician. He’s from St. Lucia and brings a mixture of reggae and hip-hop to his music. He’s also a great guy to hang out with. Check back later for a link to his music.
Wow, what a fantastic opportunity last weekend! Karim called me a few weeks ago with a great story. He’s a young entrepreneur importing pottery from Egypt. The pottery is designed by his father and made from a strong resin compound molding into large vessels suitable for planting large trees. What a terrific product for South Florida!
Anyway, I met up with him last Saturday to take a few shots of his products. Warning…I’m going to talk a little shop here. To be honest, I’ve only ever lit products in the studio under very controlled conditions, so I wasn’t exactly sure before I arrived how we’d shoot this all in his warehouse. Would it be dark, too confined, ugly background? Uh, yeah, all of the above.
Seriously, it came off really well. We popped open the warehouse door and moved the products over to the door’s edge. Problem: the door faced east into the morning sun, which blasted down on our products with blistering ferocity. Solution: be thankful I brought my Photoflex LitePanels. I set up a 39″x72″ frame, threw a translucent fabric over it, and I had one nifty, large soft box, which I used to block out the direct sun and diffuse the light. Thanks, Gene Kester!
And then, there was the background: your basic drywall and a cement floor. OK, so, at least the drywall was white. A shallow depth of field on a DX format camera makes short order of any imperfections. The shadow falloff gave some texture to the wall, too. And…quick thinking got us to pull a small table (courtesy of IKEA) out of the front office. Voilà, a nice faux floor!
OK, enough shop talk. It was fun and here are a few of the shots that Karim will be adding to his catalog. The last one is just a client sample to show how the images could look in a brochure–sweet!
