Commercial

Jan 6th

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Last month I had the pleasure of shooting the new STK resturant/bar/club in the also very new and ultra hip Cosmopolitan Resort + Casino in Las Vegas. So new in fact, we were there the day before the grand opening. The hotel is absolutely amazing, even by Vegas standards. Incredible attention to detail in all of its design, luxurious and hip at the same time. STK was no different.  It is billed as a “female friendly steakhouse” and with its beautiful design and downright sexy vibe, its not hard to see why. With locations in the Meat Packing District of NYC and West Hollywood, CA the new STK feels right at home in the trendy Cosmopolitan.

We spent the entire day shooting, about 11 hours total.  Shooting tethered (direct to computer), I was able to build some on-site composite images to show the client the potential of creating ultra wide angle shots by stitching multiple images together.  The client was really happy with the test shots/composites I put together so we decided that the majority of the day would be spent shooting this way.  While I had done quite a bit of this type of work on personal projects, this was the first time shooting composite images for a commercial client. With my extensive background in stitching full 360 panoramas I was confident that I could put together some really amazing images in post production.  Shooting tethered allowed me to put together quick comps of the stitched images as we went, making sure the final images would have the angle and look we were going for.  Visualizing final images in my head comes relatively easy after shooting and stitching panoramas for years, but being able to share the ideas and get immediate approval from the client was incredibly valuable.

Shooting tethered also allowed me to immediately review images and make necessary lighting adjustments. Keeping the dark ambiance of a restaurant while illuminating necessary elements is not a simple task.  I did so using anywhere from 4-6 Nikon speed lights at each location, all remotely triggered using either pocket wizards or optical slaves, and shot through a wide variety of light modifiers. This allowed me to put little bits of light where needed, and keep the ambient light low.

All in all I was really happy with this shoot. I tried some new things, got to work with a great new client in a beautiful new property, and ended up with some really hot images. Big ups to my Art Director, Assistant, and big brother Brett Jorgensen for all the help and also to my good friend Brett “Pedro” Rubin, Director of Marketing for STK Las Vegas, for putting the whole thing together…

Click any image to load a larger version…

Jul 26th

Posted by admin in Commercial

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Less than 6 months ago I got an email from the DJhere camp about a project they were working on. They had a new restaurant in the works and wanted to shoot some images to get a print ad campaign going before they even broke ground on the venue build out.  This kind of media savvy forward thinking is part of what makes these guys good at what they do. Matt Spencer and his team of creatives are the force behind Firehouse Eatery, Vin de Syrah, SD Creative Media, and now Analog Bar.  I have been shooting with them for several years and they always have exciting projects going on.  We arranged to shoot at a super cool recording studio just east of San Diego called Secret Cedar. This was the extent of my creative brief:

“Analog is going to be a play on a classic dive bar – reinvented, so it will still have the great design aspect that Syrah has, all though TOTALLY different look, think 1975 – 1985.  So for this shoot we are going for a bit of a rock n roll theme, should be a fun one.”

Arriving at the shoot, Matt grabbed a binder out of his truck and proceed to flip through several pages containing images of tall boys, old stereo equipment, and exotic woods. He spouted out ideas, sounding half crazed, as if he was building a restaurant in his head. If you didn’t know Matt you might have thought this guy had lost his mind. I had seen his wild ideas come to life before but it was hard to imagine that these excited ramblings could ever turn into a functioning restaurant, much less one in the heart of San Diego’s super busy and extremely competitive Gaslamp District.  However, with Michael Soriano of onairosdesign on board as creative director the project had already taken a step in the right direction.

6 months later, on the corner of 5th and F, Analog Bar is alive and kicking…

They brought me out last week to do some venue shots that will be used for print ads, website, and PR. We had the place to ourselves for the night and got some really great stuff.

Check out a few selects below, then a little behind the scenes video, and finally a link to a full gallery from the shoot.

Behind the Scenes video (if playback is jumpy pause the vid and let it load for a few seconds):

Click here for full gallery

Apr 7th

Posted by admin in Commercial

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Secret Cedar Studios Sounds Super Secretive… probably because it is.

Hidden in an unassuming blue warehouse 50 feet from the end of an small airstrip and 20 minutes east of downtown San Diego sits a state of the art recording studio with an impressive history and client list to match. Bloc Party, Death Cab For Cutie, Kieth Richards, and the Silversun Pickups have all made the studio their workspace, and today we would make it ours.  DJhere, the creators of Vin De Syrah wine bar, are opening a new Burger and Music Bar in downtown San Diego called Analog. Although the restaurant/bar isn’t finished being built out, the owners wanted to come up with some marketing images that they could run prior to launch to generate excitement.  Built in 1975, Secret Cedar provided the perfect location for a photo shoot with both a highly “musical” and strongly “analog” feel. The images (as per usual with this client) will be used for full page ad’s in 944 and Pacific magazine and in bi-weekly email blasts.

The studio was both a perfect location and a lighting nightmare. With more character than you could shake a stick at I knew immediately that once I could get a few speed lights wrangled around the room I would be able to make some pretty exciting images.

Check out a few standouts below, if you want some more detailed strobist type info and a full gallery follow the “more” link after the the photos.

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Mar 18th

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Shot some images for Vin de Syrah last week. Syrah is an underground wine bar located in the heart of the Gas Lamp district in Downtown San Diego, CA. Its an amazing location “inspired by the eclectic lounges of New York’s “meatpacking district” and the warm brasseries of turn of the century Paris”. To see what that looks like, check out the interactive panoramas I shot for them a while back.

Scroll down to check out a few of the images from the shoot, click “more” for technical details.

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