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.

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!

I was recently asked to help adorn the lobby of a local coffee company with pictures of their roastmaster and his coffee roasting equipment.  It was an honor, to say the least.  Not only were my images to be hung in the lobby for all to see, but coffee roasting is a fascinating process.

So, a couple weeks ago, I spent a little time in the roastery with Christopher grabbing some shots of him, the machinery, and the steps he takes to really produce fresh-roasted coffee.  What follows are the four images selected to be printed to 20×30″ canvas in black and white.  In one, you see the roastmaster testing the coffee, waiting for just the right time before it drops.  The other pictures are of the gauges and the cooling pan where the fans cool the beans after roasting.

This is such an exciting opportunity!  Thanks to the folks at Boca Java: Emma and Mary for commissioning the work and to Christopher for allowing me to capture some terrific shots!