fresh off the press

Date: September 21st, 2009
Cate: Accommodation, Photo News, Tourism

… 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.

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.

Date: September 15th, 2009
Cate: Photo News
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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.

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Momentum ’09, an evening to celebrate dance.

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Date: July 6th, 2009
Cate: Accommodation, Architecture, Commercial, Photo News

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.

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 (the actual photo presented on a B&B website):

Dormer221x168

To enhance the appearance of the room, we used ARRI lights to create the mood the luxury lodge deserves and the new photo looks now slightly different:

Dormer-new

Same room, same price for a night.
Now judge for yourself, where will the guest more likely stay ?

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.

Date: July 5th, 2009
Cate: Photo News, Wine

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…

Date: June 27th, 2009
Cate: Events, Photo News

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. MarlCol-853
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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…

Date: June 22nd, 2009
Cate: Uncategorized

“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…

Date: June 21st, 2009
Cate: Photo News, Wine

Viini – the Finnish wine magazine and the sheep.

After the Finnish top wine magazine Viini had decided to feature the first story about a New Zealand winery on Villa Maria I got contracted to supply the photographs.

Kristiina Juutinen, Managing Editor of Viini and I enjoyed a guided tour with Vince Edwards, PR Manager of Villa Maria through the processing plant and several vineyards. At each vineyard we tasted a wine made from those grapes. Vince Edwards hospitality was outstanding and we had an awesome day.
Kristiina wanted some images of sheep. “What is New Zealand without sheep” she said. But we weren’t lucky that day so our pet sheep at home had to jump in as a model. When Kristiina saw the web gallery she wrote:

“Wow, the pictures look good! Especially I like those sheep.”
Kristiina Juutinen, Viini

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Date: May 14th, 2009
Cate: Accommodation, Photo News, Web-Design

Revamping a 5-star website

In December last year, Heidi and Werner Pluss of the 5-star rated luxury bed and breakfast The Peppertree in Blenheim contacted me to take some photos of the gardens and orchard surrounding the Peppertree. They were very happy with the results and asked if I would take photos of the rooms too. denise
I happily agreed because with a background of almost 10 years interior advertising photography in Germany I was pretty sure I could deliver the quality Heidi and Werner require.

The Peppertree is owned and managed by this lovely couple from Switzerland. They have rebuild and styled the gracious Edwardian Villa to highest quality and treat guests with exquisite charm and hospitality. But they also expect the same love to detail and perfection from everyone who works for them.

For the web-design Robert Boren got involved.
Robert is the man who does the work for love of it. A genius with the code and retired enjoying the New Zealand lifestyle, he spent endless hours to battle problems like new releases of IE8 and cross-platform and browser compatibility.
We met at least once a week to discuss the design and whether additional photos were needed to deliver a complete package. By keeping the Peppertree’s colour scheme, Robert redesigned the site with fresh and contemporary flair and features like quick loading movie-style slide shows. See for yourself and visit The Peppertree website.

Date: May 11th, 2009
Cate: Uncategorized

Visit your friendly orthodontist

Last Monday our son Danilo visited the Nelson Orthodontics to get his braces fixed. Dr Andrew Marriott and his team were very friendly and they did an absolute professional job.
Literally, orthodontics means “straight teeth”. An orthodontist is not only trained to straighten teeth, but to evaluate and treat anomalies of the jaws, monitor growth and diagnose, liaise with dentists and other specialists and carry out the complex treatment required. This might sound scary but it is not and Danilo handled it very well and with a smile.
Click on the thumbnail image to see an enlarged photo.

Date: May 10th, 2009
Cate: Virtual Tour, Web-Design

G-raff.co.nz / They build websites!

Last weekend I looked at the new web-site of the Garin College where my children study. I really liked the design, scrolled down to the footer and there is a link. Site by G-raff. Never heard of these guys… so I checked out the G-raff web-site and was blown away by the cool stuff they do.
World class web design by a very talented group of artists, designers, animators and copywriters who are actually based in different places and even different time zones. It shows again that the world is a village.

I wrote an email to Neil Macneil, who is one of the G-raff boys and based in the Motueka area, telling him how much I like the work they do and I hope we could do a project together and a short time later he replied…

“Hi Frank!
Thanks for your email. We like the stuff you do too!
But to be honest, that is a bit of an understatement… we LOVE the stuff you do.
A fabulous portfolio, simply stunning, one of the best we’ve seen in a long, long time. Where have you been hiding ?!
Loved your VR Panoramas – I dabbled in QTVR for a few years, but your work leaves mine for dead! ”
Neil Macneil, G-raff

Thanks Neil, one of the nicest comments I’ve received in a long, long time.

fresh off the pressThe Blog of Frank Gasteiger | advertising photographer