I love when I get to provide start-to-finish design services for my clients. This particular project was for teeth whitening products such as dental strips and peroxide pens. Services included logo design, multiple package design, product photography, web design, some copywriting and Joomla programming with some help from my friends at StruveDesigns.com.
The packages utilize 4-color printing plus opaque white on shiny silver metallic board. This allowed me to use the ever changing sheen of the silver surface as part of the design. Wherever white prints behind the color ink, the color appears matte. Conversely, wherever I allowed the metallic surface to show through, then the color would appear metallic. The design is decidedly simple, to maximize the impact of the silver. These really shine on the shelf.
Animals and children are notoriously some of the hardest subjects to photograph. In other words, they do not care about my vision, timetable, my lighting setup or where to stand.
My wife and I have been talking about some puppy photos for our 2 sibling adoptees, Zack and Zoey. We also have become keenly aware of our aging Buddy Luv who has suffered some pretty serious medical setbacks this year. We thought we had lost him at least twice so every minute with him is a gift.
Meet Zack. He is your typical alpha male troublemaker. He has bitten ears, dragged his sister down the stairs, nipped my behind when my back was turned, barked at the howling beagles down the street, and presented us with a collection of dead things. He is also very sweet when he wants to be.
I am not sure that he knows his name yet. He suffers from selective hearing loss (ha ha).
This is Buddy Luv. He was adopted about 10 years ago which makes him probably around 13-14. He picked his own name because the one the adoption agency gave him was not working. To make a long story short, I was calling my other dog my “little buddy” noticed that every time I said the word “Buddy”, this this guy would dance in one place and get excited. So, the name stuck.
Children like to point out his blue eye which is totally blind. I tell them it is a camera eye. He also lost all his hearing which has miraculously cured his “thunder-phobia”.
This is Zoey and she is a Daddy’s girl. She is so precious and wonderful.
I never thought that I would like having a girl dog, but she has won me over.
Pink is her favorite color… an obvious choice for a princess.
Some may think this is a picture of beauty and the beast… but they would be wrong. There are 2 beautiful dogs here. Who would not love that face.
It sounds like the opening line to a bad Halloween joke, but I met a zombie, vampire and a devil (among other characters) on Halloween day. I was asked to be a judge for the annual costume contest for the law firm down the hall. Some were funny, creative or off the wall.
After the prizes were handed out, I invited anyone who wanted a portrait to come down to the studio. Just a few people took me up on it, and here are their photos.
One of my favorite clients, Andrea, came to our studio on Halloween day dressed like the Cat in the Hat. She barely fit in the front door since her bonnet was so big. She was dropping off an executive for a headshot.
Of course, I could not let this just pass, so while my “official” subject was getting dressed in the other room, I snapped a few quickies. I just kept all the light stands in the same locations, but turned them toward the closest wall. This way I would not mess up any of the settings I made for the other portrait.
I tell people that I love gardens, but hate gardening. To me it is like making a salad…. It always tastes better when someone else does it for you. What does have to do with photography? Read below…
When my friends, David and Julia, suggested that we spend an afternoon with the kids in a place called Gibbs Gardens, I grabbed my camera.
I reckoned that this would be an incredible place to make some photos of the whole family. It is a bit of a drive from Atlanta, but makes for a nice adventure.
A photographer dreams of such a setting. If you are ever in Ball Ground, Georgia, it is worth a visit. Pay the $20 to get in or buy a season pass. Check out the Gibbs Gardens web site.
The photos were taken in the time that is not yet Fall in all its glory, but well past Indian Summer. There were patches of green and gold mixed together like a forrest in transition.
The last ime I took photos of the kids, we were confined to mostly indoors. Elijah was as that age where I was doing more chasing than shooting. I had to invent games to trick him into staying in one spot for longer than 2.5 seconds.
The kids had grown since then and so they were larger targets and reasoning with them was a possibility… not just a theory.
When we got to the location, it started to drizzle so we grabbed a quick lunch and crossed our fingers that it would blow over. It never really did, but we started our walk through the incredible vistas and designs of the gardens anyway. My favorite area was the Japanese Gardens. Wow!
The children’s great grandparents were with us that day which is incredible. I never met mine so this is a foreign concept to me.
I like to take mix of formal and informal portraits. I think it is important to capture the interactions between parents and children when their guard is down. One day the children may look back on the photos and see that their folks were once young too.
The other thing I like to emphasize is size differences. David is almost double the size of Elijah.
Which means he could act like he was going to dunk the poor boy. That would have been hard to explain to Mom.
I also like to shoot generations, whether they are blood related or not. Here are the ladies of the Struve family.
For a few moments, the light would appear turning the leaves to photo gold, but it was rare that day!
Overall, it was a wonderful day in country. I guarantee we all slept soundly that night.
I have 3 art directors that constantly watch my every move and bark orders at me. Talk about the pressure! I can’t even mumble under my breath because they will hear me. Just look at those ears!
Luckily, I have found that keeping a few biscuits in my pocket usually makes them happy.
It is only through comparison can one truly see how minuscule we on the earth, or in the case of this photo… the sky. This jet looks looked a speck when compared to the clouds it is flying through. The color that day was unbelievable. This burst of brillance diminished less than a minute later, so timing is everything.
The Fall season is the only time my bright yellow Honda S2000 does not look like the most colorful thing in the parking lot. In particular, there is one maple tree that I look forward to watching every October when it changes its lush green foliage to the the color of fire. I make it a point to take photos of it right when the sun is setting behind it. This gives maximun impact to the colors!
See some of the past photos of this incredible tree here:
After a year of being out of commission, 3 mechanics and 1.5 paychecks later… my beloved motorcycle is back on the road. The carbs took so much time to clean, I might have been better off trying to find a used set somewhere. Now they tell me. It was in dire need of some TLC after just riding it for 10 years.
Many guys have adolescent dreams involving exotic machines. For some boys, their fantasies included an outrageous Lamborghini Countach, or a historic P-51 Mustang fighter or a chromed out muscle car. While I certainly dig all those things, I knew I would never own one. Instead I chose two wheels.
Blacked out rat bikes circa early 1990s
For me, it was the 1988 Honda Hawk (RC31) motorcycle that caught my eye and imagination. The lines on this bike make it a modern classic. In my mind, it would also become a time capsule of my art school days when I would blast around Richmond, Virginia with hooligans on kickstart Kawasakis and Suzukis in leather jackets and combat boots. Visualize vintage Mad Max style motorcycles like the ones to the left and you start to get the picture. The blacker and junkier, the better…. hence the nickname “rat bikes”.
The Hawk is no rat bike though. It’s too nice for that, but the hooligan spirit is there. It is considered a “naked bike” before the industry came up with such a name. They echo back to the 1960s cafe racer bikes of Norton and Triumph with long tanks, single seats and low bars. They only go about 120 mph, but they are sublime in the curves and able to keep up with much more powerful and modern motorcycles.
There are no secrets hidden here. One can see welds, bolts, bluing on the exhaust pipe and several shades and textures of silver metal. It is an honest machine of deceptively simple design… 2 wheels, 4 spark plugs, 2 cylinders, 1 exhaust pipe and 1 swing arm…. yes, just 1.
This rear wheel appears to float when viewed from one side because Honda chose to use a single-sided “Pro Arm” suspension derived from exotic Grand Prix technology. Most motorcycles have 2 swingarms that sandwich a wheel so this is pretty unique. Unlike modern motorcycles, this one has a sensibly sized rear wheel… not a oversized fatty tire like those silly TV choppers.
OEM NT650 exhaust Pipe
For some reason, Honda originally chose to cover the “floating wheel” with a very ugly exhaust pipe that looked like a coffee thermos as seen in the inset. My exhaust was rerouted to the left which gives the illusion of a detached wheel. Below you can see the rerouted exhaust, the custom seat, custom foot pegs and the lower clip-on handlebars that give it the cafe racer look.
This engine is a 650cc V-twin and it has a great throaty rumble. It could really wake the neighbors if I were to open the throttle too much. The carbon fiber canister really barks nicely. The exposed frame is a mixture of extruded and sand cast aluminum parts. The design still holds up today and I was surprised at a local bike gathering when a small crowd gathered around it. They knew that they were looking at something special. They only made them for 3 years and many were converted to track bikes to be abused and wrecked. I wonder how many still exist today?
This is my view from the cockpit. Simple controls and analog dials… just like they should be. The keychain has a tiny pink pig because this is my version of a “hog”. Less than 13K on the odometer.
Many years ago when a friend worked on the bike, we discovered white rice in the air box. This is a mysterious thing to find in a motorcycle and my imagination went wild. Assuming that was the original air filter, I theorized that the Honda assembly technician dropped some of his lunch. Or maybe it was used in a hooligan wedding? What if a Shinto priest placed sacred rice into it to give it special powers? What ever the reason was, I now know why I secretly Asian food whenever I ride it.
Recently, a longtime friend and client invited me to a Nascar night race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The races are done in highly modified trucks which speed by at 185 miles per hour. Dan’s company, BugBand, supports a young racer named Max Gresham who drives the #8 truck.
The truck is painted in the BugBand company colors. It is easy to spot when you are trying to locate it on the other side of the massive track. It takes nerves of steel to push the trucks to those speeds on a notoriously slick track at night while in a pack of other trucks fighting for position. I have a great respect for those guys.
Along with supporting the racing, Dan also brought a troop of young Boy Scouts with him. They were good lads who seemed to enjoy the experience. Below, a stranger came up and praised them. He said that he used to get picked on for wearing his uniform. It happened to me too, so I know what he was talking about.
Below is my favorite shot of the event. To me is seems like a different era… maybe the early sixties.
Dan arranged a very special treat for the Boy Scouts. They were allowed to go down on the track and meet each racer in person. How cool is that? Here they are in front of the presentation stage. Very soon the same asphalt they are standing on would be a race lane.
Many of the racers were very gracious to the Scouts. Here Max is handing out sticker to the guys.
On top of all that, Dan did not even tell anyone that it was his birthday, though someone figured it out an surprised him with a huge cookie cake with his company logo on it. Good try Dan. You cannot skip your own birthday just because you are taking care of everyone else.
