Just like real life
You should watch the little video below. What happens to the photographer in the clip happens to me quite often too and needs no comment. It is just like real life…
Kazu flies high
I am shooting in Nelson for a week, where the client requires a picture-perfect blue sky. But when the weather turned into custard and Kazu showed up with his skateboard I couldn’t resist to snap a frame…
Churton Wines
For more than two years I am shooting for Churton Wines on a regular basis. Churton, a biodynamic Marlborough vineyard and winery producing limited volumes of high quality Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir is owned and operated by Sam and Mandy Weaver.
Frequent photo sessions as for Churton has many advantages.
- We are able to capture images during the whole year of a wine-making cycle.
- The website is up-to-date with high quality professional images and returning visitor won’t get bored with outdated and static content.
- The photo-stock library grows steadily and has a fresh supply for e.g. magazines, brochures, press-releases.
- Frequent photography takes off the pressure to suddenly find the right image for an unplanned event.
- Having several smaller photo shootings instead of one big session keeps costs under control.
Top job – Cob job
Shooting a restoration project in Nelson for Heritage New Zealand magazine, the briefing was to capture a variety of images and one “great opening hero image” to begin the story with.
The grounds around the historic Broadgreen House didn’t look great with a large area fenced off to allow the new lawn to grow.
So I decided to take an evening shot. Because the building is not lit at night, Tamara and I went out to painted the house with light.
After the camera was set up close to the surface of the little pond in front the house, Tamara released the shutter and I painted the building and surrounding area with two hands full of SB-800. It took us around one hour to get the image in the box.
When you agree that the person who releases the camera’s shutter is the photographer we say kudos to Tamara for taking such a heroic story opener.
Shooting a restoration project for the Heritage New Zealand magazine, the brief was to capture a variety of images and one “great opening hero image” to begin the story with.
The grounds around the historic Broadgreen House in Nelson didn’t look great with a large area fenced off to allow the new lawn to grow.
So I decided to take an evening shot. Because the building is not lit at night, Tamara and I went out to paint the house with light.
After the camera was set up close to the surface of the little pond in front the house, Tamara controlled the shutter and I painted the building and surrounding area with two hands full of SB-800s Speedlights. It took us around one hour to get the image in the box.
When you agree that the person who releases the camera’s shutter is the photographer we say kudos to Tamara for taking such a heroic story opener.
… make it to the front cover = priceless !
A photograph I took during an advertising photo session for the exclusive and luxury bed and breakfast accommodation BRANCOTT RIDGE got chosen for the front cover of the “GREENWOOD GUIDES to special places to stay in New Zealand”.
The Greenwood Guides team have personally visited and chosen each place to stay for its exceptional character and genuine friendliness. These are the places that they themselves would choose to return to on holiday.
Peter and Margaret Foster of Brancott Ridge are thrilled to make it to the front cover of the prestigious guide after just one season in business. I am thrilled too because it shows again that professional advertising photography helps your business to stand out and puts you in the spot light. It is so true, … a picture is worth a thousand words.
A photograph I took during an advertising photo session for the exclusive and luxury bed and breakfast accommodation BRANCOTT RIDGE got chosen for the front cover of the “GREENWOOD GUIDE to special places to stay in New Zealand”.
The Greenwood Guide team have personally visited and chosen each place to stay for its exceptional character and genuine friendliness.
These are the places that they themselves would choose to return to on holiday.
Peter and Margaret Foster of Brancott Ridge are thrilled to make it to the front cover of the prestigious guide after just one season in business. I guess they will be very, very busy this season…
I am thrilled too because it shows again that professional advertising photography helps your business to stand out and puts you in the spot light.
It is so true … a picture is worth a thousand words.
Small school – big heart
Over the next few month I am following college students of a small school with big heart to capture images for the prospectus, general advertising, image library, etc. The aim is to show clear and honest images of the students and teachers to display the quality of the college. Students showing joy, success, engagement, respect and motivation.
The Netball team fighting hard.
Momentum ’09, an evening to celebrate dance.
Marketing Your Way through a Recession
In a recession, consumers become value oriented and distributors are concerned about cash.
Maybe you own or manage a hotel, motel, B&B etc. and you have done everything you can do to marketing your business. You have paid a truck-load of money for placing ads in the travel guides and magazines, your website wasn’t cheap either and you wonder where you can save money… Of course, you can do the photography for your business yourself because everyone can take a photo.
Right…!?
So it might look like this photo a client presented on the website:
In a recession, consumers become value oriented and distributors are concerned about cash.
Maybe you own or manage a hotel, motel, B&B etc. and you have done everything you can do to marketing your business. You have paid a truck-load of money for placing ads in the travel guides and magazines, your website wasn’t cheap either and you wonder where you can save money…
Of course, you can do the photography for your business yourself because everyone can take a photo.
Right…!?
So it might look like this photo (an actual photo presented on a website):
If you would hire a professional expert photographer it could look like this:
Same place, same price for a night. Now judge for yourself, where is the consumer more likely to book ?
Is the amount of money you have saved by taking the images yourself worth the difference ??
A photograph which I took recently for a B&B in Marlborough got chosen as the 2009/10 front cover for a prestigious travel guide.
Grape Harvest 2009 – Marlborough
It’s been a grey, cold and rainy weekend. Not much going on outside so we kept the wood stove going and relished hot chocolate and cookies with our kids teenagers.
In the evening, when the aroma of warm mulled wine filled the kitchen, I thought I should finally upload some images of the grape harvest which I took for several wineries in Marlborough.
Enjoy…
Monte Carlo in Marlborough
It has been a long night yesterday… Marlborough Boys & Girls College students celebrated the annual ball with a Casino Monte Carlo theme.
Around 550 students attended the event. For many of them it is the happening of the year.
Security was tight and not everyone made it in. Also bribing pit bosses and dealers and signalling them when to false shuffle resulted in immediate punishment with a kick in the buttock and a lift to the front door. More serious case got guided to the back door…
Working with four photographers to cover the event, we had set up three big photography booths inside the Marlborough Convention Centre and one small photo booth in the entrance hall to capture the arriving students.
The plan was to use the entrance booth as long as the students arrive and then move inside.
Unfortenatually a short time after we started photography inside the convention centre the main light in one of the three booths fell over and broke and we were down to two sets.
So I decided to continue shooting in the entrance booth which was equipped with two Nikon SB-800 Speedlights as main and fill lights and two ARRI Studio lights for hair and background effect.
I doubted that the Speedlight’s batteries would last for the whole night but they did.
After taking around 500 images on 1/2 power I changed batteries and continued shooting until the event was over. By then the little flashes were almost as hot as the ARRIs.
Small lights creating big results.
See some more image from my mini studio below…
“So you want me to work for free?”
“So you want me to work for free?”
“No, I don’t want you to work for free, it’s just a test! That way I can see if our company likes it, and then you can roll the costs over till the next time we need more photos.”
Short version – nobody, ever, EVER actually comes back and “make it up to you on the next one.”
Some clients try these sorts of negotiation especially when they deal with a “creative” business.
What other kinds of businesses don’t bend over so much? The non-creative ones, for the most part.
But how would it look if those clients would use these negotiation tactics in real world situations ? In a restaurant, a shop … !?
Just watch the video…