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Andrew Hughes

Sep 16
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Model Photos with Anna-Marie

By Anna-Marie Howard, fashion, model photography, Piedmont Park
Last weekend, a long time friend asked me to shoot test photos of her daughter for inclusion on a model resume card. Anna-Marie is almost seventeen, and has been modeling for a few years in catalogs. To help her expand her options into lifestyle modeling, we shot a few different looks in a park setting with mostly natural light and a reflector disk.

I first met her when she was born. Yes, time flies and babies grow up to be young adults. For me, it is like someone spun the clock too fast because it seems like just yesterday when she was so tiny.
Anna-Marie is the daughter of a blonde German woman and an African American man, and I believe this gives her a fantastic presence on camera.

One fellow, who was enamored with her, flirted with her during the photoshoot to ask “How do I get my picture taken with this this beautiful young woman?” When I pointed to the blonde German and said to ask her mom, he scowled and did not believe me. This, of course, made us all laugh. Anna-Marie is fluent in German which surprises people too. 
They brought a few different outfits to try, and the look ranged from casual teen to young woman. We shot in a small area in Piedmont Park and we did not have to walk very far to find different backgrounds, hard sunlight, dappled shadows and full shade.

I have retouched a lot of model photos and I can say for a fact, that Anna-Marie’s skin is virtually flawless, which is incredibly rare. She does not even wear makeup. She just does not need it.
I wish her luck in the future and look forward to seeing her in magazines.

Jul 05
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Product Photography for the World’s Hottest Pepper Sauce

By hot sauce, Masqueman Photography, product photography, The Extreme Gourmet
What happens when the previous title holder for “the world’s hottest pepper”, “Jolokia,” gets dethroned by a new king? A special hot sauce is made from it to delight those with a daring sense of adventure.

I am told that the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper is likely to leave an impression since some specimens have measured over 2,000,000 on the Scoville heat scale. For comparison, Tabasco Sauce is rated at no more than 5,000. Extreme caution and common sense is a good idea, unless you want to burn your taste buds clean off.
These pepers are locally grown in Georgia and packaged fresh so none of the potency is lost. If you are brave enough to try “Scorpion”, then visit the Extreme Gourmet web site. You have been warned.
This product photo was taken with a soft box and strip box to control the reflection shape. Flames were added later from some explosions I photographed… What, do you think I wanted to burn the building down?
May 06
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Boston Terrier Rescue at PawFest 2012

By Boston Terrier, Dog Rescue, Dogs
My wife (not in the photo) and I went to PawFest in Lawrenceville to support The Boston Terrier Rescue who does incredible work with putting dogs into new homes. Some of these animals have been rescued from inhumane conditions, but still love people. The little dog in the photo had one of her ears bitten off, but still would make a wonderful friend and part of the family. This one has been adopted, but there are more who need a home.

This organization is filled with wonderful, hard working and dedicated volunteers who love what they do.  Learn more about them and available adoptees on their site www.bostonterriertn.org

May 05
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Package & Display Design for Bed Bug Pesticide

By Andrew Hughes, bed bugs, BugBand, EES, Graphic Design, Graphic Works, Inc., insecticide, new products, package design
These bed bugs are
nasty little suckers

Remember that old saying “Don’t let the bed bugs bite”? That was a reality for our parents’ and grandparents’ genrations. That changed when pesticides like DDT were used to devastating effect in the 1940s to practically wipe out bed bugs infestations. Decades later DDT was determined to be environmentally and medically dangerous and taken off the market. It is an unpleasant fact that bed bugs (that were once a thing of past) are now coming back with a vengeance in hotels, motels and even theaters.

My client, BugBand, manufacturers natural insect repellent products that deter insects by emitting Geraniol vapors. Geraniol contains a naturally derived extract from Geranium flowers which people have been using for hundreds of years in window boxes to keep insects out of their homes.

These packages are not shown to scale. The one of the left is only a small 3 oz. travel size bottle.

Last year, BugBand introduced their first pesticide aimed directly at bed bugs. Bed Bugs No More! uses a strong concentration of Geraniol to kill bed bug eggs, larvae, nymphs and adult bed bugs. Geraniol dissolves the exoskeleton of the bedbugs and they cannot become immune to the effects. This is different from the nerve agent pesticides that are usually used, and only affect adults insects with developed nervous systems. Bed Bugs No More! is not toxic and safe for humans. This is my layman’s understanding of complicated chemical processes and biology. More information will soon be on the BugBand web site.

Long story short, I got to design the Bed Bugs No More! packages, two being your standard pump bottle and the other, a small travel size package that uses heat shrink technology to adhere the label to the bottle. In this case, labels are printed as circular plastic sleeves that shrink when heat is applied to them making a colorful and tamper-resistant package. I also designed the displays coming to a store near you.

May 05
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Habitat for Humanity Group Photo

By corporate photography, Graphic Works, group photography, Masqueman Photography, portraits

Last week I made a deceptively simple group photo for an Atlanta insurance company who had participated in Habitat for Humanity. I think 80% of the company helped build a house. Impressive. The day before the portrait, my boss took an iphone snapshot of the location. I could tell it was going to be relatively dak because we were shooting on the shadow side of the building.

I know it sounds ludicrous to say that shooting outside at 11 am will be dark, but everything is relative. Because I was shooting rows at least 5 people deep, I needed to have the subjects in the front row and back row equally in sharp focus.

Celebrating their accomplishment

This meant that I would need to use a small aperture for maximum depth of field. Small apertures need long exposures to gather light which would not work with a group of blinking people. The other option was to add light to the scene.

I set up a single flash 10 feet to the right of the camera’s position and aimed it towards the crowd. The resulting image has the appearance of sunlight… if one is not a forensic specialist who can trace the origin of the light source. Without the flash, the photo would have lacked contrast, sharpness and definition. I used a slow enough shutter speed to let the flash and ambient light mix.

Apr 30
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World War 1 Air Show in Pungo

By Air Show, airplanes, Andrew Hughes, aviation, Masqueman Photography, Military Aviation Museum, photography, Pungo, VA, Virginia Beach, warbirds, World War 1
Almost 100 years ago, the first aerial battles were fought during World War I. It was a different era where new fangled flying machines represented the state-of-the-art in speed and technology. Horse calvary was still relevant and tanks were just appearing in the muddy trenches.

Last year I attended avery unique air show in Pungo, Virginia at the Military Aviation Museum. The featured planes were all World War I vintage, more than likely scaled replicas.
 

Seeing these wood and cloth planes is kind of like looking a kite with a machine gun attached. 

Today we have stealth bombers, remote controlled drones and satellites, but all our current technology owes a great deal to these earlier pioneers and soldiers of the air.

In the photo below, the World War 2 era P-51 snuck into the background and illustrates the difference that 30 years can make on the battlefield, even ones in the air.

Instead of sitting in a dusty museum, bi-planes and tri-planes zoomed past the crowds in glorious flight.

The first airplanes had less horsepower than most cars on the road today. They employed different shapes and multiple wings for improved lift… two or three wings were better than one, right?

These types of events attract enthusiasts and enactors who are interested in the time period.

Evidently long sleeves were the norm back then, even when it was hot.

I met one gentleman who had an authentic Harley Davidson motorcycle that had seen actual war duty over in France where he found it. It was a joy to see and hear the old hog run. It was a noisy clattertrap.

There were a lot of Germans in uniform.

WW1 machines are not often seen at air shows. In fact, I would say that this was a very rare showing.

The planes had markings that identified the pilot or the air group (or what ever they were called back then).

As the sun went down, hot air balloons were launched over the field.

The fellow below had a solo hot air balloon just like the urban legend about the guy that tied a bunch of helium balloons to his lawn chair.

This show gets top rank, and should not be missed if you are in the Virginia Beach area.

Apr 20
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Product Photography & Head Shot Portraits for Georgia Expo

By Andrew Hughes, corporate photography, Georgia Expo, Graphic Works, headshot portraits, Masqueman Photography, product photography
It was time to update the company directory for Georgia Expo, an Atlanta manufacturing company who I had previous worked for. This time around, I made 10 head shots portraits. It was a simple lighting setup. Nothing elaborate going on here.

The tricky part was timing the portraits with the ear splitting industrial noise in the warehouse where we were shooting. No office space was available so we set up a portable studio in the only place left in one of the cavernous warehouse rooms. Every 10 minutes or so the world’s largest air compressor would crank up reproducing the sound of 50 blacksmiths hammering horseshoes, machine gun fire and a pipeless Harley Davidson sounding off at the same time.

The portraits were just part of a 3 day product shoot for their web site and catalog. We took product photos of items ranging in size from 20 foot trade show booths to small hand sized parts and pieces. If you have ever been to a trade show or convention center, you have seen Georgia Expo’s products without knowing it. They make curtain and drape barriers that make up the different booths at events. They make huge divider curtain walls, stanchions, tables and so on. Here is a sampling…

Here are the carts for the moving all the trade show parts. Some weigh several hundred pounds.

Some candid environment photos were taken too. All those curtains are sewn by hand by fast seamstresses.

The storage area is huge and contains lots of already manufactured parts.

These tough guys only smiled after I promised lunch… just kidding. I had to pay them money.

Apr 19
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Model Room Photos for Melia Atlanta Hotel

By Andrew Hughes, architecture, Atlanta, corporate photography, interior photography, Masqueman Photography, Melia Hotel, photoshop tricks
I was hired by the Melia Hotel in Atlanta to photograph their new model room, a designer’s mockup of what the remodeling will look eventually for other rooms. Photographing architectural interiors can be challenging for many reasons…. finding the right angle, different light sources, cramped spaces, and materials.

The shiny wood paneling reflected everything. This looks great in person, but can be difficult to accurately photograph.

The materials in the room ranged from dark glossy wood paneling and tile to flat white linen and shiny chrome vases. I knew that I would not be able to capture the extreme latitude of the room with a single exposure, so I planned to find the best angle and then lock the scene down on my tripod.

To complicate things, there were at least five different light sources with their own color temperature…. blue daylight, green fluorescents, yellow tungstens, white LEDs and my flashes. Each light source was affecting colors and creating pools of localized color zones.

There were large areas of white in this room which were easily affected by colors of the different light sources.

Since I could not simply gel my flash to match all the light temperatures, I ended up shooting each part of the scene separately and composting them later. This allowed me to expose for highlights, midtones and shadows to create a high-dynamic range photo while controlling the color casts. This also allowed me to combine the bright scene outside the window with the relatively dark interior… impossible to do in one shot.

When lighting rooms with flash, try not to overpower ambient light sources that give the room its character. In the photo above, I shot a flash through the frosted glass shower wall which is a key feature of the room’s swanky design. You can see they spent a lot of money on custom glass walls in the restroom.

I also took photos of the room next door which was more of a standard hotel room. It’s pretty interesting to see the difference between the two. This room had the gauze-like sheer curtain that would have helped tame the other room’s extreme lighting conditions. Oh well.

The last shot looks easy, but it was difficult to hide the flashes while lighting both rooms. Again, the shiny materials revealed all light sources so I had to be sneaky where I put my lighting.

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