Advertising Photography in the New Age

Family?

As an advertising photographer in Los Angles California, I am called upon to illustrate concepts in my advertising and editorial photography.  The first read should be clear and understandable while there might and hopefully are many other layers and some subtexts with the image.  So what is up with this image?

The first read is that of a women, probably a mother with two boys, probably her sons and brother to each other.  There is no one else in the image so we start with these conclusions.   Now we start to read into the image based on our own biases.

Where is the father?  Is he just outside of frame or hidden by the horizon? Or is this a modern single parent family?  What else is hidden by the sand?  What has caught the boy’s attention?  This brings up why is the view such that we cannot see what the boys are looking at?  Where are they…? at the beach…?in the desert…?  The clothing give so no clue so we are left wondering.

Some advertising and editorial images can be used just to capture the viewer’s attention and bring them into the story told by the text.  I would allow comments and would enjoy them except for the crazy spammers.

Studio Sale This Saturday Dec. 3

I’m getting rid of extra gear this Saturday Dec. 3 form 10 AM to 3 PM.  14005 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, CA 91401.

Cameras – Sinar P 4×5 Professional kit (will not separate), 8X10 and 4X5 lenses

Hasseblad

(2) Camera body 500C/m     $350 ea.

(3) A12 Camera back   $175 ea

Hasselblad PLANAR  Black T* 80mm f/2.8 Lens $525

Hasselblad PLANAR  silver 80mm f/2.8 Lens $425

Hasselblad 150mm f/4 Sonnar Chrome $450

HASSELBLAD 40MM C F/4 DISTAGON LENS $850

Hasselblad Bellows Pro Lens Shade With 2 Masks

NC-2 NON-METERING PRISM FINDER/500C/M $75

KOMURA TELEMORE95 2X TELECONVERTER FOR HASSELBLAD  $75

Hasselblad 100 Polaroid Back for 500CM  $55

Hasselblad rapid winding handle for 500c/m.  $35

Hasselblad 500 C/M Back Body Cap  $40

Equipment

Manfrotto 501HDV Pro Video Head

Beachtek DXA-5D

Calumet Medium soft box

Red wing medium soft box

Chimera large Strip softbox 21X84

Chimera medium Strip softbox  14X56

Photoflex Halfdome Xlarge

Calumet 3-D reflector  Large

Photoflex 3X6 frame and fabric

Studio – Equipment – Mono camera stand internal conterweight, umbrellas, softboxes, Balcar strobe pack, darkroom equipment and more.

Photo backgrounds – Painted scenes and abstract, assorted seamless, flats, strong boys, etc.

Props – wardrobe, furniture, shoes etc.

Tools

Flicker Around The World

As an editorial photographer based in Los Angeles, California my assignments have given me an opportunity to shoot all over the world.  I have shot photographs and video in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and above the arctic circle (I know it’s not a continent by it’s still very cool).

Any type of travel bring with it certain difficulties and far off lands bring the add problems of different electrical issues.  There are different plugs, voltages and cycling.  I have a fist full of plug adapters.  I shoot my still photography with Balcar multi voltage strobes.  And take special care when setting my shutter speed shooting video.

In the US, it is usually fine to shoot video under fluorescent lights with shutter speeds at 1/48 to 1/60 of a second to prevent flicker and that holds true for any 60 Hz country.  In european countries and other places in the world that use 50 Hz AC power shooting video at 1/100 of a second usually solves the problem of fluorescent flicker.