lifestyle

Haide’s Personal Branding Session at West Pecan Coffee + Beer

May 23, 2019 by Josh Baker

We love working local. Haide is a north Austin native and West Pecan Coffee + Beer is quickly becoming our go-to meeting location on the run. It was a perfect location for Haide’s personal branding session in Pflugerville.

West Pecan‘s space is bright and airy, and also full of tasteful furniture and other elements. It makes a perfect location for a personal branding session like this. Haide favors bright colors in her outfits and they fit right in with the coffee shop’s brightly colored retro-style furniture.

We were able to get a variety of backgrounds and poses quickly in a small space thanks to the decor. West Pecan’s colorful art and furnishing matched Haide’s bright spring look.

Haide’s Personal Branding

Haide, like us, is almost always on the run. She curates the CiaoBonita blog (and on Instagram) covering lifestyle, travel & fashion. One might safely assume that that her personal brand involves a lot of working on the go, grabbing a latte and bite to eat between other meetings. Adding those elements to her Pflugerville personal branding session felt natural.

A Change of Look

Haide describes this shirt as Neon Yellow on her own blog. Working with such a bold color, we used some of the more neutral areas of the coffee shop to balance out her outfit.

Personal branding sessions are always a bit of a journey of discovery. Like at portraiture, we strive to find images of our subject that tell a more in-depth story than a simple image might seem to at first. Fashionably working on the go in Pflugerville (and around the world) was the story we arrived at for this personal branding session.

We want to give a big thanks to West Pecan Coffee + Beer for letting us use their beautiful space. It’s always a pleasure working there, whether it’s answering emails, or a full photo shoot. We’ve photographed West Pecan before, in particular, some of their menu items, as a part of their own marketing effort.

Marketing Photography for ZDT’s Hometown Seguin Amusement Park

February 28, 2019 by Josh Baker

Who doesn’t love a good go-cart race track? That’s one of the things that ZDT has brought to my home town of Seguin. They’ve built a hometown amusement park with go-carts, wooden roller coasters, climbing walls and a water park. We set out one hot summer day to make some amusement park marketing photography to help the park show-case the hometown fun it offers.

ZDT converted an old grain co-op into an amusement park. Going into their 2018 season, they wanted to update some of their marketing materials with amusement park marketing photography and video.

Hot Texas Summers

Anyone that has spent any time in South central Texas knows it is hot during the summer. ZDT includes a great water park including an uphill water-coaster.

Enjoying a splash in the water park at ZDT in Seguin - Amusement Park Marketing Photography

We love working with other home grown businesses, like ourselves. With photography (and video) playing such a key roll in marketing, local relationships like this are more valuable than ever.

For those that are interested, much of the photo and video from this project was shot from a large scissor truck. It allowed us to get close to the action at the top of the rides safely.

Got That Sports Wear 2018

December 6, 2018 by Josh Baker

Lifestyle commercial apparel photography is all about showing the product in use. Got That Sportswear makes apparel for men and woman. Like AzulOx, GTS is a local company from Pflugerville working to serve the needs of folks in the boxing world among other sports.

Got That Sportswear works with a number of boxers in Houston at Main Street Boxing and in particular Mason Menard. He was prepping for an upcoming fight so we packed our bags and made the short drive from Austin to Houston.

The gym had tons of character and we wanted to give the photos a uniform look. Mason was wearing a green GTS shirt for the shoot so we went with a green hue. Green may seem like a strange choice, but it gives the photos a look that feels gritty . It fit well with the gritty boxing gym and florescent lights.

Our goal was to capture a workout session with Mason. We wanted to give the audience a taste of what it is like to be a professional boxer. It’s a profession that involves long days, a lot of sweat and a fair amount of pain.

Boxers aren’t in it alone. Mason is surrounded by fellow boxers who train with him and his coach. It was important to capture that part of his training as well. They push him and that is a key part of any sport, even something seemingly solo like boxing.

Lifestyle shoots like this are a voyeuristic pleasure. We step into a world we don’t personally inhabit, even if just for a few hours. Seeing the daily work a boxer like Mason does to stay at the top of his game is inspiring. He works hard training for fights and his record shows what that type of dedication can do. His 34-3 record with 24KO’s is proof.

Texas De Brazil

October 4, 2018 by Josh Baker

Some restaurants are about the experience. They have great food, but a meal there is about more than just that. Lifestyle restaurant photography tries to highlight the experience of eating in a restaurant right along side the great food. It brings together atmosphere the setting creates, the shared good time with friends and the way the food makes everyone feel.

Lifestyle Restaurant Photography

A lot of restaurant photography centers around food, and rightly so. For this shoot we chose to focus on the guests and use the location and food as seasoning for the story. For a shoot like this there are a lot of elements to bring together. You need a reasonable size party of model guests for starters. You also need to be able to visit the restaurant when they are not open, usually after hours. The restaurant needs to bring in their star staff to work the shoot as well. That staff is “on stage” and also handling the food prep for the shoot. Luckily, at a restaurant like Texas de Brazil, the staff is used to performing under pressure and to the highest level.

Cocktails at the Bar

Our guests experience at Texas de Brazil kicked off as they entered and enjoyed some cocktails at the bar.

Appetizers

Great meals are less a single event than an entire sequence of one great thing after another. That all starts with appetizers and wine along with the wait staff that serves it. The entire process is an enjoyable experience.

Texas De Brazil House White Wine Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography

Texas De Brazil House Red Wine Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography

The Main Course

Texas de Brazil is a Brazilian steak house. That means that meat and fire are front and center. Besides capturing the guests’ experience, we want to give everyone a peak behind the curtain to the process the Churrascaria go through to prep the meat. Guests at the restaurant get to watch them and we wanted to bring that experience to the viewers of the photos.

There is a lot of motion and energy during the main course service. Adding some motion blur helps us convey that energy.

Hawkins Furniture – Product Photography of Unique Wooden Creations

September 27, 2018 by Andrew Fritz

Hawkins Furniture is a company we’ve worked with before. Hawkins makes world class rustic furniture that celebrates the character of the wood. He creates pieces from slabs and reclaimed material such as flooring or old bowling ally lanes. When creating rustic furniture product photography, I highlight the beauty of the materials it is created from. The photos celebrate the individual variations in the pieces, the character of the wood and the warmth it brings to any space.

Speed is of the Essence

Many of the finishes are high gloss and that creates an entire set of difficulties with glare and reflection. Solving those issues requires careful positioning of light sources as well as proper use of a circular polarizing filter. I balance that effort with the need to photograph all the desired pieces in the allotted window of time.

Multiple Angles

One of the main pieces we were there to photograph was this beautiful and totally unique mesquite table. Hawkins made the base from a large (and extremely heavy) mesquite stump paired with a large mesquite log and crotch.

There is no way one photo could do a piece like this justice. Instead we start by capturing a photo to show the entire table in context and then drill in on details.

We Love Repeat Customers

We’ve photographed for Hawkins Furniture before. The first time Josh and I spent an entire day at his shop documenting numerous pieces. It was his first time cataloging much of his work. This shoot was much smaller in scope. I worked alone to photography a few items that were unique in Hawkins portfolio of furniture. While I was there I photographed the other items in his shop before they were delivered to the customers.

Rustic Behind the Scenes Photography

I also stepped away from photographing the furniture to capture some photos of Hawkins and his staff working on incomplete pieces.

Lifestyle Medical Product Photography

September 20, 2018 by Josh Baker

Creating lifestyle medical product photography can be challenging. Because of patient confidentiality rules and patient safety, it can almost never be done “in the real world.” There are complications not found with other product photography. Instead we create lifestyle photos in a studio setting using models and a demo device.

On White Product Photography

The customer had a need for on white photos of their product for use in their marketing material. This is pretty straight forward with a cyclorama wall and appropriate lighting. The only complication is a need to retain contract on the while and light grey portions of he devices.

During the shoot we captured a variety of angles, close ups and “full body” medical device portraits.

Lifestyle Medical Product Photography

With that out of the way, we moved on to the lifestyle medical production photography with our models. The market for this device is older patients and so we made sure to have both a male and female model of the proper demographic. During a shoot like this we create a lot of variations on a theme.

The goal was to showcase the design of the product, and also realistic use scenarios. In fact, the company had trained representatives there that helped actually set up the devices. Our models got to experience the therapies both provide.

By the end of the day we delivered around 750 possible images for selection and retouching. The images documented the process of using the devices for patients and also showcased their design. Ultimately the images will be used for both marketing and training material.

Ballet Dogs – Adoptable Pets

May 25, 2018 by Andrew Fritz

We love pets. My wife and I volunteer at the City of Taylor Animal Shelter. Mostly we walk dogs and help out with pet photography around the shelter. Nothing special. We normally just photograph the dogs around the shelter.

My wife however, has started instigating more elaborate pet photography shoots to raise the profile of the shelter. She gets the credit for producing this shoot. She was also adamant that I credit her for building the dog tutu.

Claire Bear

Claire is a 1-2 year old pittie mix who is looking for a real home. She excels at sitting pretty and waiting patiently! She practiced a lot during her long stay at the shelter waiting for just the right family to find her. Claire loves playing in the water, learning new moves, and snuggling with her favorite people.

Dottie

Dottie is a new arrival at the Taylor Animal Shelter. Her family surrendered her and she just can’t figure out why. Dottie is pretty chill mastiff heeler mix. She loves hanging out with other dogs and humans. Dottie will happily accept a hug from little and big humans alike. She is particularly skilled at cuddling and not drooling while her tongue hangs out.

The Kittens

OMG KITTENS! It’s kitten season and that means that the Taylor Animal Shelter, like most animal shelters, has a never-ending supply of kittens. This time of year folks find kittens wandering on the streets, hiding in infrequently used buildings and sometimes kittens even seem to grow on trees! These two kittens, Prada and Gucci were recently found with their siblings Tic, Tac, and Toe. They have come the the Taylor animal shelter to get fattened up and socialized so that they will be awesome happy healthy pets.

The Cast

This is a ProBono shoot in support of animal wellfare. Everyone that participated donated their skill, time and supplies, all in an effort to get these pets adopted.

Pets: City of Taylor, Texas Animal Shelter (a no kill shelter)
Ballerina: Eryn Hanes
Photographer: Andrew Fritz (that’s me)
Producer/Instigator/Tutu Maker: Adrian Dahood-Fritz
Hair and Makeup: Adrian Hernandez of Revelry Beauty
Assistants: Stacy and Sophie
Location: Mccrory Timmerman Building

Beautiful Machines: The GT-R

August 29, 2017 by Kari Burke

Power, metal, and shine: there’s so much to love about an expertly crafted machine, and capturing this GT-R was a treat. It’s owned by professional snowboarder and car enthusiast Nick Langkamp in Austin, Texas.

Nick and his GT-R regularly showed up at Cars and Coffee at the Oasis on Lake Travis. Cars and Coffee is a charity based show sponsored by ELITE Motorsports. The “cruise-in” is the largest monthly show in Texas, and is open to cars of all types.

The GT-R, made by Nissan and assembled in Japan, is a fairly new high performance vehicle (unveiled in 2007.) While most other high performance vehicles are rear powered, The GT-R is all wheel drive. This gives it more power and earned it the nickname Godzilla.

Like most high performance cars, Nick’s is a work in progress. When we saw it last, it had a 800awhp boostlogic package on it. If you don’t know what that means, all you need to know is it goes really, really fast.

GTR Automotive Photographer

Not only did we get to shoot this gorgeous model, we got to take it for a spin. We found a great neighborhood outside of the Oasis (we weren’t supposed to be there, but we just couldnt resist – look at that perfect winding road!) Seeing the GT-R in action was amazing.

We added multi-talented and faceted model Adrian Hale into the mix. She’s been a member of teamBlue with AzulOx for years behind the scenes styling our models. (She’s also an author.) We finally got her in front of the camera for some creative fun with the GT-R.

This car is gorgeously crafted, inside and out. It’s rare that we get so much time with a subject to shoot, and we got to style the GT-R still, in motion, and with a model. We had so much fun capturing its beauty and power.

lifestyle