AzulOx Commercial Photography

Commercial, Stock, Food and Advertising Photography for Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Texas

lifestyle

Texas De Brazil

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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.

Guests walk in to Texas De Brazil during a Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography Shoot

Texas De Brazil - Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography - Guests enjoying a drink at the bar.

Texas De Brazil bartender pouring a drink during a Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography Shoot.

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 waiter taking drink orders during Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography

Texas De Brazil Lifestyle Photo of Guests around Appetizer Spread at Texas de Brazil

The Main Course

Texas De Brazil Churrascaria Preparing Stakes during Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography

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.

Texas De Brazil Churrascaria Preparing Stakes during Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography

Texas De Brazil Meat Roasting Over the Fire

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

Texas De Brazil Waiters bringing steaks to the table during a Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography Shoot

Texas De Brazil Waiter Carving Meat During a Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography Shoot

Texas De Brazil Guests are served by waiters during Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography Shoot

Texas De Brazil Guests are served by waiters during Commercial Lifestyle Restaurant Photography Shoot

Hawkins Furniture – Product Photography of Unique Wooden Creations

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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.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography - Hand Made Furniture - Rosenberge Texas - Rustic tables outside in the grass for a country meal.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography of One of a kind pecan table top.

Rustic Furniture Photography of rustic live edge table.

Rustic Furniture Photography of a rustic table leg.

Rustic Furniture Photography of a large farm table with omish chairs.

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.

Rustic Furniture Photography of a rustic mesquite stool.

Rustic Furniture Photography of Live Edge Mesquite Stool

Rustic Furniture Photography of a pecan bench with log spreader.

Rustic Furniture Photography of Live Edge Pecan Bench

Rustic Furniture Photography of Pecan Benches made from logs and crotches. 

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.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography of hand made table created from a large mesquite stump.

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.

Rustic Furniture Photography of hand made table created from a large mesquite stump.

Rustic Furniture Photography of hand made table created from a large mesquite stump. 

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 Furniture Product Photography of a hand made desk celebrating the wood.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography of a hand made desk celebrating the wood.

Rustic Furniture Photography of a hand made desk celebrating the wood.

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.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography of Hawkins working on a Reclaimed table top.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography of incomplete live edge bar top.

Rustic Furniture Product Photography of incomplete live edge bar top.

Installing drawer pulls.

Lifestyle Medical Product Photography

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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.

Lifestyle medical product photography of a female nurse using the device on a female patient.

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.

Lifestyle medical product photography of a medical device in the foreground and a nurse and patient in the background.

Lifestyle medical product photography of a model nurse using a medical device on a model patient.

Lifestyle photo of a model nurse using a medical device on a model patient.

Lifestyle medical product photography of a model nurse using a medical device on a model patient.

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

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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, but it gets the job done and helps get pets adopted.

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 Bear is a 1-2 year old pittie mix who is looking for a real home. Claire excels at sitting pretty and waiting patiently! She’s had a lot of practice; she’s been at the shelter for months waiting for just the right family to find her. Claire loves playing in the water, learning new moves, and snuggling with her favorite people.

City of Taylor Texas - Claire the Adoptable Dog - Dancing for Treats - or not - with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Claire the Adoptable Dog - Dancing for Treats - or not - with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Claire the Adoptable Dog - Dancing for Treats - or not - with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Claire the Adoptable Dog - Dancing for Treats - or not - with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Claire the Adoptable Dog - Dancing for Treats - or not - with Eryn the Ballerina

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.

City of Taylor Texas - Dotti the Adoptable Dog - Meaningful stares with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Dotti the Adoptable Dog - Meaningful stares with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Dotti the Adoptable Dog - Looking Cool with Eryn the Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Dotti the Adoptable Dog - Cuddles with Eryn the Ballerina

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.

City of Taylor Texas - Adoptable Kitten Cuddles with a Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Adoptable Kitten Cuddles with a Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Adoptable Kitten Cuddles with a Ballerina

City of Taylor Texas - Adoptable Kitten - Well this is awkward...

The Cast

This is a pro bono shoot. 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

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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. 

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

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 - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

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. 

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

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. 

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

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. 

GTR - Austin Texas - Automotive Photographer

The Combine – Commercial Headshots

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We work with amazing clients who do cool and interesting things; the Combine commercial head shot session was another of the same. We got to know the great coaches at The Combine when they brought us in on a cold Austin day. They’re a strength and conditioning gym, as well as a CSC Crossfit gym, located off of Highway 290 servicing Westlake, Oak Hill, Circle C, and Bellterra neighborhoods in Austin. 

The facility itself was interesting and fun to shoot in. It’s inside an old oil field supply warehouse built in 1938 that was moved from Snyder, Texas. They completely renovated the inside to make it a state of the art fitness facility.

The Combine – Commercial Head Shots

We shot right there in the warehouse, and decided to create a dramatic look with the lighting. We don’t always use such dramatic shadow on a head shot, but the contrast is perfect to highlights the athletes’ physique. Their warehouse is both clean and gritty because of the intense work they do. We re-created the same tone in the head shots. We included details of the warehouse in the background that give context, but don’t detract attention away from each coach in the shot.

Don’t let their strength intimidate you – the coaches are all amazing people and a pleasure to work with. 

After the head shots, we stuck around to get a few shots of the workout. 

Combine Crossfit Commercial Headshots - Portrait Photography

Combine Crossfit Commercial Headshot - Portrait Photography

Combine Crossfit Commercial Headshot - Portrait Photography

Combine Crossfit Commercial Headshot - Portrait Photography

Custom Stock Photography for Urban Airship

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AzulOx traveled to Portland, OR to work with Urban Airship. We shot custom stock images for use on their website, and used editorial lifestyle photography styles to capture it.

Urban Airship provides mobile engagement services companies to keep in contact with their customers in a personal way.

Editorial Photography - Custom Stock Editorial - Lifestyle Photographer

Editorial Lifestyle Photography

Editorial lifestyle photography is fun; we used clean lines and bright colors with great models to advertise their product. Lifestyle photography aims to capture people doing real life things in an artistic way. A great lifestyle photo is simple, eye-catching, and interesting. A great editorial photo tells a story. With a skilled photographer, a picture of two women looking at a phone suddenly turns into an interesting story. Even though it seems like a simple scene, you can see the interaction happening between the women. 

Editorial Photography - Custom Stock Editorial - Lifestyle Photographer

Fun fact: the woman on the left wasn’t a hired model, but rather a staff member of Urban Airship. She stepped in front of the camera because we were short a person the day of the shoot, and she did an amazing job.

Editorial Photography - Custom Stock Editorial - Lifestyle Photographer

Because Urban Airship is a Portland startup company, we incorporated a professional yet relaxed and carefree style into the photos. Doing an editorial shoot means a little bit more artistic freedom. The use of negative space makes the model in the picture stand out, and the lines in the wall give the eye something to follow towards the woman as an off-centered focal point. 

Editorial Lifestyle Photography - Custom Stock Editorial - Lifestyle Photographer

Editorial Photography - Custom Stock Editorial - Lifestyle Photographer

You may have noticed the green on the electronics in some of the pictures. We shot all of the electronics with green tape on the screen. If you’ve ever heard of a green screen, it’s the same concept. This way, Urban Airship could easily edit the devices in the pictures with screenshots of their products or services in action.

Editorial Photography - Custom Stock Editorial - Lifestyle Photographer

We had a great team all around for this shoot, and had so much fun working in Portland. We can’t wait to go back!

 

 

Spectrum Trail Racing at Sky Island

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Spectrum Trail Racing specializes in stunning cross country trail races across Texas. Runners get a beautiful experience as they’re doing what they love. Spectrum Trail Racing offer many different races and locations; this gorgeous landscape is appropriately named Sky Island at the beautiful Davis Mountain State Park in west Texas. For this race, our goal was editorial sports photographs like you would see in a national magazine. 

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer

The Races

Spectrum Trail provides the whole experience for runners. A 50k or 25k expertly mapped out, amazing people to run with, and a “stellar after party.” Few people can smile after running such a long distance, but these runners clearly enjoyed themselves and the stunning views.

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer

It’s impossible not to smile while traversing some of Texas’ most picture perfect terrain.

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer

Editorial Sports Photography

Often we shoot “full coverage” for race photography. Our goal is to take a picture of every runner at one or more places along the race course. Coverage is about capturing an important moment for each runner as they hit milestones in the race. Because Sky Island is so gorgeous, we put a twist on the sports photography and shot it editorial style. This scenery just begged for amazing pictures, and we still captured each runner performing amazing feats.

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial PhotographerSpectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer

The Terrain

Sky Island is a part of historic Davis Mountains State Park in Fort Davis, Texas. Spectrum Trail hosts the only footrace in these gorgeous mountains, and runners pass through hills, up switchbacks, and down rocky terrain. The area also hosts lots of other fantastic attractions, such as Balmorea Springs, art and camping in Marfa, or star gazing at McDonald Observatory. 

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer

We love that our job brings us to incredible places. As the sun set, the colors grew more vibrant and stunning. Can’t you just smell the fresh air and feel the warm sun on your face? 

Spectrum Trail Sky Island - Editorial Sports Photography - Editorial Photographer