Shirah Wine Shoot: Insights Into Professional Retouching
I was recently asked to shoot some of Shirah Wine’s new products for their web site. Gabriel and Shimon Weiss, owners of Shirah Wine, were wonderful to work with and the shoot was really a lot of fun (and their specialty vintages were so delicious)!
As you can see below, the post-production of the shoot required quite a bit of retouching. The pictures below show a couple of images that I combined in Photoshop to produce the final image for each bottle.
While keeping my camera completely still on my Bogen tripod, I first shot an image with good detail in the bottle itself, than I exposed for good detailed in the label and the cork. I also took additional exposures for the background, and I also retouched out the various other reflections in the bottles. Finally, I combined all the images and smoothed it all out to look photo-realistic. What do you think?
If you want to order either of these great wines, please click on the images below, and it will take you to the corresponding Shira Wine product page. And if you need your products shot, make sure to give me a call!
Mick Meagher Shoot for ABA Journal
Two months ago I drove down to San Diego to shoot some “edgy” pics of attorney Mick Meagher for an article that was going to be featured in that month’s upcoming edition of ABA magazine. The article is about lawyers who are fed up with the culture of bullying that is often found among attorneys in and out of the courtroom. It speaks about how these attorneys are trying to put a stop to this vicious cycle and how they are finally standing up for themselves and their clients.
On the way home I almost ran out of gas (something I haven’t done since high school) and I had to stop at Camp Pendleton and plea for the guards to let me onto their army base to fill my tank. True, I was only a civilian, and I should not have been allowed into their base, however they were nice enough to not force me to run dry and have to call a tow truck, with no other gas stations for another 20 miles.
Judging Talent For CMYK
Last month (10 years later!) I was contacted by Curtis Clarkson, CMYK’s Editor-in-Chief, asking me to be a judge on a panel that would critique the work of other emerging photographers. You can see my critique in CMYK Magazine #54. My job was to view and judge over 100 commercial images, give advice to up-and-coming photographers on what to do (and not do) when creating images, and to share some insights on how to succeed in launching their careers as commercial photographers.
They also wrote up a pretty bio on me as well, which you can check out HERE.
Daniel Martell Shoot for ABA Journal
About a month ago I did a photo shoot for the ABA Journal, which is a legal magazine based out of Chicago, Illinois. The ABA Journal was publishing an article that featured Daniel Martell, a forensic neuropsychologist, who resides in Irvine, California. Even though Dr. Martell really rarely does work with Kaiser, it was the nearest hospital to his home, and made for an appropriate backdrop.
We were lucky that security at the hospital didn’t stop us from taking pictures around the exterior of the hospital, however as soon as we tried going in, our shoot was ended rather quickly. We then went back to his lake-front home and got a few more great images inside his home office. The colorful images of brain scans on his big computer monitor added alot to my pictures as well.
Peter Weintraub Shoot for Research Magazine
Last month I got a call to shoot Peter Weintraub for an article being published that month in Research Magazine, titled “The Crown of a Good Name“. He asked me to come out to his Beverlywood home. I really liked the fact that I was able to capture Peter in his natural element, both in his home and in his 1955 Austin Healey BN2. What a beautiful car…..
Nick Brestoff at the LACMA Light Gardens
I recently took my kids and their cousins to LACMA’s Light Garden, on Wilshire blvd. to play a game of tag. Of course I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the kids and the scenery. As I was shooting some motion-blur shots with my iPhone, I remembered this great shoot I did a little over a year ago for the ABA Magazine with Nick Brestoff.
Nick has written extensively on e-discovery, the other place in the law besides patent litigation where technology plays a major role. Nick’s articles have appeared in the ABA’s Electronic Discovery & Digital Evidence Journal and in Law Technology News, among others.
The concept of the shoot was to try to show Nick’s involvement in legal research via cloud computing, and I thought that the LACMA light garden would give Nick’s corporate demeanor a sort of a sort of technological twist and more surreal backdrop. As we were shooting I also started playing with the blur of a long exposure in conjunction with the the immediacy of my portable strobed softbox.
Here are two of the iPhone shots that I took of my niece running around at the LACMA light garden. In low light surroundings, if you follow an object that’s in motion, according to your camera, the object will appear to stay still while the background blurs.
John Tesh On “Intelligence for Your Life”
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing John Tesh at Universal. While John is a musician and song writer, he is best known as a talk-show host. His current radio show “Intelligence for Your Life” has been airing for over 10 years, and has a large national following. His wife, Connie Sellecca, was also on set with us, as well as his son, Gib, who was working with John on his script between takes.
One of the highlights of the day was a visit from Michael Salem, who came to celebrate his 104th birthday with us. Michael claims that his secret to longevity is red wine and ballroom dancing. We were more than a bit nervous as the cake they brought Michael actually had 105 candles (104+1 for good luck) burning on it!
Cameron Thorton Shoot for Research Magazine
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of doing a shoot with Cameron Thorton, for a featured article in Research Magazine. Cam is a senior financial adviser at his own investment and financial consulting firm called Cameron Thornton and Associates, located in Burbank, California.
A proud father of three, and a super nice guy, Cam was more than happy to help me create some pretty interesting images for the shoot… I was glad I brought my own step stool, since Cam towers above me by a full foot! Scroll down a bit and you’ll see how the Jacaranda trees, in full bloom, provided for us a breathtaking purple canopy backdrop just outside Cam’s office on 3rd Street.
Kathy Willard, CFO of Live Nation
I recently had the opportunity to shoot the CFO of Live Nation, Kathy Willard, at the famous House Of Blues on Sunset blvd. in West Hollywood, CA.
Having the entire venue to myself was was awe-inspiring. Not only did I have the House Of Blues to myself but I was also able to bring my own lighting equipment to lighten up the whole place and give it my own touch. It was pretty cool to recreate the whole vibe of the House of Blues for my pics.
Kathy’s warm and down to earth nature was not what you’d expect from a woman who’s a CFO of such a well renowned venue. Read more about Kathy here.
We Had A Baby Boy ! ! !
Because my work is just one of my many passions, it seemed appropriate to update my readers about my primary passion and the love of my life: my family. Below are some pics of the latest addition to my family (no it’s not a camera). On May 21st, 2012, my wife gave birth to our 4th child, Jordan Gavriel. Below are some sweet pics that I took of him at Cedars Sinai with my iPhone.
One more thing, if your an iPhone junky like me, check out this sweet app, ShockMyPic, that I used to touch up a pic of Jordan.
