The Making of: Car Before and After

Car shoots are difficult and sunrise car shoots are even harder. For my car shot, I decided to try both. I have a coworker who wants to be a model so I asked her to be mine. She owns a nice looking car so I asked her to dress up like she’s a business woman going to work. She wore a black blazer with slacks, heels, a blouse, and a vest. She also did her makeup professional.

                  We arrived at the parking deck about twenty minutes before sunrise. While we waited for it to rise, I had her do a couple different poses and I did some test shots of the car and model positioning. I had the subjects placed in a specific spot so that many lines will come together and connect the piece. While it was rising, I realized I missed something when I did my location scouting. There was a huge building blocking the sun, therefore I couldn’t get the exact shot I wanted. Regardless, I kept shooting every few minutes just to see which light the shot looked best in post.

                 

                  When I viewed the photos to pick which one was the best overall, I ended up choosing two. One where the sky was too light and another where the sky was just the right tone of blue. In addition to adding a new sky to the first photo, I took away an ugly top of a building, cleaned up the ground a bit, removed a car, lightened the model a hint and fixed the windshield so the sun reflection wasn’t so distracting. I really like the results.

The Making of: Gummy Bear Cocktail

I got the idea for this shot while I was working on the Las Vegas strip. I had seen a few people walking around carrying drinks that had gummy bears in them. I love gummy candies so I made it my mission to seek out where they could be bought, buy one, and shoot it as a location shot. My plans failed, however as I couldn’t find the place. Because I wanted to shoot a drink, I decided to shoot my own creation in the studio.

I went to the grocery store to pick up the needed items and ingredients including the gummies, cherries, a lemon, sugar, toothpicks, and a glass. After I had all of that, I checked out my strobes, grabbed my camera, and headed to the studio. After we set the lights up, my assistant and I assembled the drink. He cut the lemon in half, then cut off a slice for the drink. Another piece was cut to a quarter and the juice was wiped around the edge of the glass. The sugar was poured in a ring and the juiced glass was dipped in the sugar. The gummies were thrown in the glass in a somewhat scattered order and water was added. I didn’t use vodka because both the alcohol and water are clear so they would be indistinguishable from each other in a photo.

Before the garnish was added, I set the glass on the table so I could find the right camera angle, exposure, and light positioning. Afterwards, I threw extra bears around the drink and only moved one of them later. Lastly, the garnish was set. I had to work quickly after that because the juice from the cherries was dripping down the glass and I didn’t want that in the photo.