A1 and the Palm Restaurant

This one was yummy and fun. I got the layout in my hands and knew what I had to do. I took my wife and went to the Palm restaurant in NYC. We ate steak and drank a little and waited until the restaurant closed. Then I pulled out the camera and shot all around the room. The Palm doesn't really look exactly like this but it is a good representation that fit the layout. When I got back to the studio I assembled the background from various location shots and then lit the foreground table, steak, A1 and chair in such a way that it matched the actual location lighting. One thing digital has really helped is shooting pieces and reassembling them to very closely match the art director's layout.

Rawcliffe Pewter

This ad brings back memories. I shot it for an agency on 5th Avenue. They tried to rip me off after a year of work but I took care of that quick. It was the 70's so back light off textured laminate was the way to go. It still is for this kind of product. After one year I never worked for them again but I got all of the money they owed me by calling their clients and reminding them that I owned the copyright until I was paid. You should have heard the horrible language from high class clients like lladro and Tiffany.

The Manning Family

I was hired to photograph the Manning family for Kraft Foods. I first rented a studio in their home town of New Orleans and booked myself a flight. Then at the last minute the Mannings decided to be in NYC (my home town) that week so I quickly booked Milk studio and got ready to shoot. For some reason I wasn't allowed to have an assistant on set so Kyle helped me drop off the equipment the night before and set up the lights. Then we all (art director, client, assistant) went out to eat and Kyle went home. I did the shot by myself the next day. This shot happened in the middle of the summer and something was wrong with Milk's air conditioning so everyone was hot. Thank God strobes don't add much heat. In the end, everybody went home happy. I even got an autographed football in the deal!

Brooklyn Union Gas loved Plumbers

Moss Advertising, Mike Carrieri and Bill Truran Studios got together to create this image. The studio booked the talent, the agency provided the props and the rest was, just as this blog suggests, a matter of following the layout until the art director was happy. I think it's a nice little shot!

Sunday Magazine Network

Lord Geller Federico Einstein was another great agency. They trusted me with some easy jobs but this one wasn't. I learned to light glass on this job as it was the first of many. The ice is fake and since it was black and white the liquid was weak tea. Jean Marcellino used me more than most and she loved this shot. It's one where the layout was matched by the image. I always knew that Jean's layouts would work that way.

Rhone-Poulenc

Geers Gross was a great Advertising Agency. This is a good example of the kinds of layouts we used to get. A nice sketch that demonstrates everything that is needed for the final image. Before the shoot it is the photographer's duty to find and rent the props and book the talent. For some reason we shot this in an office not the studio. The art director and I made a mess until she loved what she saw in the Polaroids. Then it was 6 rolls of 120mm Tri-X, processing, contact sheets and later, the final prints. Life seems easier now.

DDB and Polaroid

Another one for DDB. This one was fun. I had the bow created by a prop builder and the camera was delivered to the studio. After that it was just a matter for lighting the camera nicely and following the layout. I guess that's what this blog is all about anyway,

Pilot Pens

I've always been hired because I know how to control light. Photography is all about the light. The only way to capture an image is to have light bounce off the product. How we edit the light is all about the product we are shooting. For these pens, we needed a broad light so I used a bank. The light bank brought the long highlights that showed different elements that made the pens. A retractable fountain pen? Even back then that was weird.

PCH contest

PCH has been around for a long time. Back in the day, I shot for companies like Lillian Vernon and JCPenny directly just to stay busy. This image was for Smith Advertising. Ed Smith had many clients like this. I love this shot but I might have lit it a little differently now.

DDB, Welches and Ore-ida

This one, like most, was nothing but fun. The agency was Doyle Dane Bernbach and the AD was Jose Matamales. 

Shooting the Tater Tot bag and Welch's can were pretty standard but the fun really began when I had to use a real room and fireplace. The agency scouted and found the room and a prop stylist brought the dishes and tablecloth. I created Santa's legs out of stuffed red flannel plus boots. A food stylist prepared the food and set the table. I lit the shot and captured this image. All that work for a small FSI with a coupon. But like I said, everyone was great and this job was nothing but fun.

How to get paid twice

 

This was a weird one. The goal was to imagine an Oil Heat Monster for the Brooklyn Union Gas company. The first idea was monster teeth biting down on money monster-like. We booked a model and had a dentist create fangs that would fit over his actual teeth. We asked him to not shave for a few days before the shoot, lit the image in a gutsy manner, had him bite down on actual money and then shot a bunch of 120mm film. The agency (Moss Advertising) had a die-transfer print made and got ready to go to print. It was then that one of the bosses at Brooklyn Union Gas was in bed with his wife and showed her the ad. All she had to say was "will that image be misunderstood?" That's all it took. Away went the ad. The next layout had a hand grabbing money. Like I said, we got paid twice for one ad. Not quite as cool as the first try but the money was great.

Alyssa Alia Malanga Food Stylist

This image was created surprisingly quickly. One great food stylist: Alyssa wanted an image for a Christmas card. We sat down together and came up with an idea. I sketched it out and added notes as we talked. We went shopping (in the studio prop closet) and the next day we went to work. Alyssa brought in the frosted cranberries and holly, I found the background (in the same prop closet) she shaved the white chocolate, made the mousse and combined it all into the final recipe. All that was left to do was for me to choose a high angle with my favorite 55mm micro Nikkor lens which becomes wide-ish when used up close, light from behind with an optical spot strobe and finally add a big broad light off the ceiling. Happy holidays!

Moss Advertising and Hitachi

Another fun one (but maybe not quite legal). After I was given this layout, I had to go to a coin shop and buy 4 or 5 silver dollars. The ones from the early 1900's were less expensive than the ones before that so I picked up those "newer" ones. 

This is before digital so I took a coping saw with a metal blade and carefully chopped up one of the dollars. Yes, back then we had to actually cut up the coin. Today I would do it all in Photoshop but back then we used a saw. The value seemed to live in the silver content so I didn't really care. Back light is the light of choice for showing embossed detail and the shadows coming forward look awesome.

Member's Only

When you are starting out on your own, you need to be able to shoot everything. I often tell my students that the answer is always "yes" and then you had better figure out how to do what you just said you would. This shot was for Moss Advertising.

It helped that I was a photo assistant for 4 years before going out on my own. I had lit shots like this for others in the past. Doing it on your own however was a whole different thing. As a studio we had to book all of the talent, make sure we had 12 foot white seamless and of course, a good assistant to wrangle every one and clean the bottom of their shoes. 

Back in the day we judged images and exposure with Polaroids and then just shot a lot of 120mm film. The 50mm lens was chosen mostly to fit 20 people into a small space but it cropped down perfectly and once again, the client was happy.

Lord Calvert for DDB

Just as we were well into our second year, here came a liquor ad for Lord Calvert! The agency was Doyle Dane Bernbach and the art director was most likely Jose Matamales. The holy grail for still photographers continues to be alcohol because it pays better than most products. It used to be alcohol and cigarettes but I don't think they advertise those any more. Jose was a friend (as good a friend as you can have when you are ADD) and not only did real awesome jobs like the one above but we did very nice test images as well! He also let me light the way I wished including the first job I shot using strobe sunlight. I light most images that way now.

LGFE

The layout was very tall but the image was going to be a very small part. Still, a simple band-aid had to look great. I shot many tests with actual band-aids and they looked terrible. I ended up making a 6 inch wide band-aid out of cardboard, sticky shelf paper and gauze. Life got much easier as I could lift the thing up off the background, add a nice shadow and make it look perfect. The Lord Geller Federico Einstein art director loved it (still thinks it was a real band-aid) and the ad was great. See? Photographers have to know how to do everything!

One year in the business and working for DDB!

This is the way my 41 year career has always seemed to go. My wife worked in a cool housewares store. A little old lady (probably 40 year old) said to my wife "what does you husband do?" My wife replied " my husband is a commercial photographer who is just starting out." The lady replied; "Well, my husband owns an advertising agency. I'll tell him you husband will be calling." That began a long relationship with Vito Catalano and the Catalano & Gornick agency and when they were bought by Doyle Dane Bernbach, I just began to work for art directors there. So here I was, in business one year, and working for DDB. I was absolutely blessed!

Good Housekeeping

Smith Advertising was a great small agency. I did lots of work for Ed Smith. We shot for PBS, CitiBank and Good Housekeeping. I don't have any film left from this job but I did find Polaroids in the job envelope. See? with ADD its very easy to match the layout you hold in your hands and then just make the lighting pretty. Thanks for the work Ed.

Bozell & Jacobs NYC

Tim was the art director, Bozell & Jacobs was the New York agency and Duracell was the client. Photographers with ADD like me work very well with actual layouts. As you can see here, the images look almost identical to the paste-up layout. All I had to do was control lighting and focus: just like always. Another happy client from way back then.

Certain Teed

This shot was for the Ken Baron Agency. The Art Director was Jose Matamles and the client was Certain Teed Insulation. The agency made the "score cards" my assistants when out and got the props and I just had to control lighting and focus. Just like always.