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!

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

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