The Making of: The Macaw Experience

In my job as a Bird Handler and Photographer with Digiphoto, I get to play with birds all day. So I had the idea to make an ad for the Macaw Experience. The whole process essentially took three steps. I took photos of the birds, edited and arranged the photos in Photoshop, and then went back to take some photos of the various surroundings of one of the bird locations.

                On my day off, I went to take photos of my coworkers (i.e. the birds). I took photos each bird in different areas but decided to put them on a nearby bench one at a time. This gave me the best shots. It also helped afterward during editing since I would have had to cut out the perch from their feet or other various body parts. I used the same exposure for each bird so the photos would all match. I took mostly body shots in a side profile and decided to use those for the final pics.

                After I had all my photos picked out, I cut out the birds from their backgrounds. Then I moved them around the border of a black background in different ways to figure out which way looked the best. I had started out with a vertical layout but it wasn’t working so I chose the horizontal. Next, I added the words and logo to the middle and added drop shadows to the birds to make them pop. The black background wasn’t working so I went back to work and shot various scenes from the area and tried them all out on it. I chose the waterfall because we do shoots there and the colors really made the birds stand out. In total, I think the whole project took about hours to complete.

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.