California's Nutty Food Photographer

A world without good foods is chaos. That's the motto of Good Foods, a major nuts supplier to Trader Joe's.

I had the help of the wonderful Randy Mon, food stylist on these. We averaged one image per hour, meticulously arranging the nuts based on composition of color, angle, shape, quality and texture.

The food photography & lighting are creatively setup with only two lights. Who needs more when we can add, shape and remove the photons to whatever direction, quality and quantity that I desire. ;-)

The image on the right (to be used as their brochure cover) is carefully taken with a tilt-shift lens, manual focused with the help of an angle finder C. Only the two middle bowls that are not on the same focus plane, are in focus. This is to create an artistic look that that leaves the front and back bowl out of focus, melting into the foreground/background.

Good Foods is owned by Sara Tidhar, the owner and a great chef. Her dreams are beyond imagination and she plans to takeover the world using her political prowess in her fast expanding nut industry. Yee Haw!

She found me via Tom Lauck of Creative Ops, a local eMarketing company. "I absolutely love your cupcake image with the little girl", she said. I guess what completely convinced her to use me are really the images I did for Monterey Bay Spice Company that packages & supplies tea Peet's Coffee & Tea.

I have strong confidence in her success in the near future. This woman has the drive and marketing brains to go with it. She was telling us the story of her son and daughter, helping her pack 160,000 packages and labels for delivery when they first started out. Gawd! I genuinely feel that she is heading towards a great path in her life with all the resources she needs to make it prosperous. God speed, Sara!

Children Photographer - Comp Cards

Normally, I would collaborate with the model or with the model's parents (under 18 years old models) for modeling comp card (also known as composite cards or zed cards) creation. Planning tend to start weeks in advanced so that we're certain what to expect, the styles, market segment to go after as well as the environment.

This shoot unfortunately was postponed twice due to bad weather and family emergencies. So, the proper planning was shorter than average. I spent only 2 hours on this shoot (unlike other modeling shoots for model's portfolio that can span 3-5 hours).

A 7 year old model tend to not have the attention span to work for long period of times for a shoot. Going beyond 2 hours tend to wear them out fast. It is also crucial for the Ad agencies to see environmental shots where the model has an action oriented image where she is reading or playing.

Agencies and Art Directors often like to see the models' versatility.

After all, modeling is a form of acting. Who wouldn't hire an active looking model when the product that goes with the model is an active wear or even an music player?

Creating comp cards for modeling use isn't rocket science, or is it? Is it really just taking lots of pictures and slapping them together as a card, then print as many as you can to send to Ad Agencies, Producers and Art Directors. hoping, just hoping to get a break. We're in the realm of statistics here, right? The more you send, the better chance of getting a call back.

The market estimate survey shows that the chance to get a call back is 0.5% for the average model. So, in order to get 5 phone calls, you will need to send out 1000 cards! Realize that not all 5 calls will work out either. Now, 1000 cards isn't cheap. Neither is the price of stamps nor the time it take to fill them out and send them off. So, wouldn't you be better served to increase that chance by improving the statistics? How do we go about doing that?!

Before we even start, here are the things you should NOT do as they will decrease the statistics even lower than the market estimate of 0.5%

1. Don't have your family & friends take your modeling images for the comp cards (with the exception that they are professional photographers and done it comp cards extensively). With all due respect, photographing a model is just a bit more involved than clicking the shutter. Posing a model and understanding the market needs are two of the major components missing from your boyfriend's mind while he drools over the camera while photographing you. ;)
2. Using the same background/situation for all of the images in the comp card. You need a bit more variety to proof your ability to adapt and express.
3. Using the same expression for all of the images in the comp card. Botox won't win you a modeling job, unfortunately.

Doing all of the above will get you to the 0.5% acceptance ratio. We are getting somewhere, aren't we? What if I tell you that you can triple or quadrupling that percentage? It takes time to create a WOW comp card.

1. Time to plan on the outfit that suits your style
2. environmental or action shots to show your versatility and your ability to fit into various roles
3. the spectrum of expressions to show your adaptability
4. masterful lighting that will showcase your charm (notice I'm not using the word beauty. Being beautiful doesn't necessary make you a great model)
5. post-processing or retouching to enhance your look will push your comp further than you can imagine.

Modeling isn't always about how beautiful you are or how sexy you look. Rather, it's your style and look that will fit the requirement, might that be a need for an athletic sportsman or a grumpy woman with an intriguing frown. Plan to collaborate with your photographer. It takes two hands to clap and only by working together, can this be achieved.


Here's the final Comp Card.

- Michael Soo
Soo Photography

Strength in Diversity

By now, you probably think I'm a nutty professional photographer, dipping my toes into such a wide variety of subjects, from product photography to food photography to fashion photography to glamour photography to landscape photography and fine art photography to gosh, portrait photography, wedding photography and what else, commercial photography. On top of all that, I'm also well versed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Design!!. Still think I'm sane?! I think not. While 90% of professional photographers out there strive to specialize in one field of photography, I spread my wings and claim strength in all. Is my brain really that slow? Contrary to what you might think, I have good explanations on what I've done thus far.

1. Mastering different facets of photography has allowed me to apply my knowledge in one to another. For example, if I were to shoot an engagement session at a seemingly boring golf course, I can utilize my knowledge as a landscape photographer for composition; my discipline in fashion and glamour photography to pose my subject beautifully; my in depth experience with studio lighting to use bounce multiple light sources to the subjects to create a wonderful interplay of light and shadow.
2. It keeps me excited as a photographer and continually challenge my ability to improve. It is much more often to hear of, say a specialized wedding photographer to get bored of his craft due to lack of innovation, creativity and exciting work. He/She will tend to do the same style over and over again with overall little improvements. For me, however, I am never bored since I have been peaking my performance by learning everything I know from one area of photography to the next. What I thought about in one area of photography has constantly been applied to another.

However, in spite of the above, most clients tend to think of a photographer is best when he or she is specialized. Just think, a bride probably will be more apt to choose a photographer who is specialized in weddings versus one who does everything. How do you, as a photographer prove otherwise? Show them your portfolio. The images needs to speak and they will, if you are good.

- MS

$20,000 Boucheron Watch

How often do you get to photograph a $20,000 watch? I did today. Boucheron watches has been up on the Top Ten Luxury Watches List quite a few times and not surprising too. The styling is classy without overdoing the gold and diamonds. The face of the watch is the mother of pearl, framed with 124+ diamonds, with a few more on the time markers.

For this specific product photography photoshoot, the gold, I mean goal is to bring out the depth of each diamonds and definition of the watch without the watch fading into the white background. This can be difficult since there are quite a few reflective surfaces. I used a total of 2 lights. One for the background and the other for the watch. I've also employed several prisms, mirrors, gobos & flags to get light into specific areas of the watch that will make the metal gloss from highlights to dark shadows, not easy to accomplish.

To shoot this, I was given only an hour, truly too little time by product photography standards to shoot a $20k item. But by employing a technique that I've developed and mastered, I took 10 images and siphoned the specific details that I want from each, to create the final print. The three images you see in the gallery are created from over 30 images, carefully overlaid over each other to create the final image that is far stronger than a shot of a single image.

- MS

Eat, Drink, Video and a Studio shoot

What better things to do than to have friends over (who bring beers and wines), edit some videos, have a great meal, have a couple of beers, some Chardonnay and a photoshoot? Good times! Ok, my idea of fun can be different than the average Joe and that's that. ;)

So Jen & Paul came by to edit Jen's video to showcase her experience as a news
broadcaster. Jen, being a real sweetheart, brought not one, not two but TWENTY-FOUR bottles of beer and a bottle of chardonnay. I'm not sure where she got the idea that I edit video much more artistically while intoxicated. Brittany came over at 6pm. You don't know who Brittany is? Shame on you, go back into my past blog and read the Angel's Descent. Yes, you. You with the big nose! Go read it NOW and don't come back till you show this young lady some freaking respect.

Breathe! Breathe! Anyways, we finished the video editing. Damn fast job too. I managed to trick Jenny into thinking that it was extremely difficult and will take 20 engineers and 20 hours to edit, but with my spanking NEW Apple iMac, that typical 20 hour task shrunk down to a mere 2 hours using only half a brain (the other half is intoxicated, remember?). Anyways, went to BJ's for dinner, came back, and NOW, the fun begins. Rolled out the seamless gray and setup the lights, ready, set, SHOOT, SHOOT, FLASH, POSE, POSE, SHOOT, DRINK, DRINK, BURP, SHOOT AGAIN.

I have not had so much fun in a long long time. The absolute best shot of the night? Without a doubt, that prize winning photography goes to Paul who captured this winning image. I think I'm going to submit this image to some contest. I bet I'll win lots of money.

- MS