Sometimes things come together in an accidental way that ends up working so well. Case in point, we were making food images for the Hanford House Inn in Sutter Creek because their breakfast is beyond good. It’s in a class of its own. I know because when we were done with this plate, it was promptly eaten. Innkeeper, Athena Gordon is a culinary school graduate and what she has learned has been put to very good use. Nearly every review of their inn includes a comment about the food. I digress.

The lights were set and the photo was ready to go. I like to make food photos with the actual food without makeup. I know, some people use white glue for milk and motor oil for turkeys, but I like to work with the unadulterated product. We used a mock-up first to get the angles, lights and exposure, then as soon as the french toast was pulled from the pan, it was placed in the shot where the other plate was. Wait! The finishing touch is powdered sugar. I happened to make a frame or two of the shaker in action just to make sure everything was right for the “official frame” a few seconds later. Accidentally, it ended up being my favorite one of the set and used it on their website. The other image without was really great too, but having that slight human interaction made all the difference; especially for a bed and breakfast. Serendipitous.

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Posted by Sacramento Photographer, William Foster.

I received a unique call from an auction house – a nice one. They needed to photograph a collection of fossils that the owner wanted to sell at auction.  The set included very small pieces as well as very large ones including a “slice” of stone containing hundreds of embedded fossils that measured about 8 feet wide. The caveat – it all must be photographed on gray seamless inside the owner’s home in Georgetown. Georgetown homes are not known for their spacious interiors. In fact, we had to set up the seamless parallel to the long dimension of the home because even the widest part of the living area couldn’t accommodate a 9 foot seamless with stands.

Every image had to look great to entice buyers to bid on the pieces. Plus, even the minutest of details had to show through in order for people to see exactly what they were getting. Fossil collectors are a finicky bunch and certain marks or cracks could mean the difference between hundreds of dollars. This ended up being one of my favorite assignments over the years not just because of the unique subject matter, but it was also challenging, but highly rewarding; tiring, but somehow energizing; educational, enlightening and memorable.

The pictured image is of a Hadrosaur skull, quite intact. Note the rows of tiny, flat teeth indicating it was herbivorous.

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Corporate photography usually presents a unique challenge in that no two assignments are alike. Sometimes even two days for one client are drastically different. In the case of this image, the client needed images of mice in the research environment, but with a human element.

The specific challenge included coming up with a concept in the first place, setting up the shot and executing in a 5 by 6 foot clean room and getting four mice to stay on the wheel long enough to get a few frames.

The reward of overcoming the challenges of this project is seeing the client use this image in most of their marketing materials for 2009.

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