The Making of: TKO Punch with Go Shrimpin'

This was a shot that wasn’t planned at all but I love how it turned out. When I was at Joe’s Crab Shack, I went there purposely to create the Shark Bite shot. After I finished with that one, however, I decided to order another drink and some food. I picked the drink for two reasons, because it looked cool, and because it sounded good.

Once the order was placed in front of me though, I knew I had to take some photos of it. I arranged the food, the drink, and the silverware bucket so it would fit in a vertical frame. The exposure was already correct from the last drink shot but I still bracketed just in case.

Creating the shot was easy. The more involved part was the editing. I cropped it a little, took out something in the background that was distracting, brightened the drink’s colors, and removed a distracting reflection.

Looking back at it now that it’s finished, I realize that, yes, I could have done it better but I like how it turned out. I could have turned the camera to shoot it horizontally to get more of the food and drink but by doing it vertical, I took away any blank space there may have been. Also, I could have lit the drink with a flashlight like when I did the Shark Bite photo. It would have been an easier post processing job but it still turned out nice. The last change I could have made is to just photograph the drink without the food but I think by adding the food and the silverware to the photo, it brought more feeling and meaning to the photo. The drink is still the star as it’s so bright but there’s atmosphere as well.

The Making of: Candlelit Bottles

For this shot, I knew I wanted most of the light to come from the candles. My goal was to make a very moody shot. In order to achieve this look, I used continuous lights and bounced them off white foam boards. I had to place the lights pretty far away so as to not ruin the look I was going for.

For the set-up, the first thing I had to figure out was the positioning of the objects. I didn’t want to make it look too crowded but I also didn’t want it to look empty. Before I even set the lights up, I positioned them many different ways before I came up with the final one. The next step was to figure out the lighting. As I said above, I bounced the light off some boards and scooted them about 20 feet away from the subjects. I took some exposure test shots before I lit the candles. Then I had to take more exposure test shots because the light had changed slightly.

I bracketed my exposures as I took the photos and as I was doing that, the air conditioning unit decided to blow right onto the candles. I thought they were going to blow out but instead, the air was pushing smoke into the jugs. This both helped and hindered me. At first I didn’t want any smoke in them, but as it dissipated, I liked the effect. Therefore, I decided to not worry about it and picked the best photo from the brackets based on the overall look, not the smoke.

I like how the shot turned out. The only thing I would’ve done differently is brought the table forward a lot more so the background wouldn’t be lit up at all. Then it would have looked more moody and dark. 

The Making of: Bubbles

I have a friend with a cat named Bubbles. This cat was very shy the day I took this photo, making it a fun challenge. Without a pet’s trust, it’s real hard to capture its personality well. When I first walked into the house, the cat ran. I decided to sit on the couch and ignore him until he came out from behind the furniture. While I was waiting, I talked with the owner about random things and how he normally gets him out to come out. He said he hadn’t really socialized him and that’s why he was unsure of new people. So I continued to wait until I saw him poke his head out.

I had the camera in my hands and ready for him. I tried to get a few shots of him sticking his ears above the couch but he didn’t stay there long enough for the photos to be in focus. Because he saw me there, he went to hide in a different spot that time. He ran under an end table and glared at me. I did take photos of him like this but I didn’t keep them because they didn’t describe him.

Finally, he decided to go to a more comfortable spot on a shelf underneath a table. I found out his plan was to sunbathe on top of the table at some point and that was as close as he would get for a long time. I tried giving him treats, let him smell me, and eventually he let me pet him a little. He wouldn’t touch the treats but his face and body tension was easing away until he started purring. That’s when I got this photo. I love the way he positioned himself so the sun is lighting his face.  

The Making of: Takashi

Remember the photo of Mizuki the cat I talked about earlier? Takashi is her “brother”. Compared to his “sister”, Takashi is very hyper. Because of this, it was real hard to get him in focus in a lot of the shots I took of him. The owner said although he’s only a year old, he is usually more calm than when I was there. Maybe he was excited to meet me. Anyway, after taking many, many shots of the cats, Takashi finally calmed down to get this photo and a few others completely in focus. Most of the photos before this one were just too blurry and didn’t look good at all. I love how this photo says, “Can I go play now? Are you done taking pictures?”

To achieve this look, the background was a tannish wall with a tungsten lamp next to the wall for added light. The only other light was from outside. It was about 9am when I took it so the light from outside was strong and bright. I like using natural light on pets because it looks best with the colors and I don’t have to worry about a flash causing harsh-looking shadows or eye glow.

I didn’t do much to the photo in post but I did work on the eyes a little. As the cat wasn’t facing the light directly head-on, one of the eyes looked too dark so I lightened it by selecting it in Adobe Camera RAW. Since I changed that eye, I decided to brighten the blue on both of them as well. The only other thing I did was change the color balance a bit. The original photo was a little too red. I added some yellow, making the colors look more natural. I think my color balance on the camera was set on custom.