Holiday Pancakes

There’s nothing like food for the holidays…when I say food I mean pancakes from scratch…Butter Milk pancakes. I really had my fill! I wish this was a scratch and sniff post!

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Snowman To Go

It’s that time of the year to send joyful holiday wishes to all of you with great exceptions for a wonderful 2012!

Peace,

Rick

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Illy Coffee

Peter Shikany from PS Studios contacted me to shoot a recipe booklet for his client Illy Coffee. The main content of the project were recipes for drinks that fit into different times of the day to show the versatility of the product. This assignment is exactly what I love to shoot…tight graphic images.

Here’s the layouts Peter supplied followed by a few spreads from the booklet.

Thanks goes out to my assistant Robert Humanski, Creative Director Peter Shikany and Art Director Andy Cruz!

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Save The Date Oct. 20th

Just  a heads up…The Portraits Of Opportunity exhibit I participated in along with other area photographers is this Thursday night. Southwest Human Development started this fundraiser 3 years ago…a wonderful organization. Check out the Channel 8 interview with Laura Chasko and me.

http://www.azpbs.org/horizonte/detailvid.php?id=798

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Fun In The Kitchen #2

I love the days when I can shoot for myself. I enjoy building still lifes of ingredients and then showing the process of the preparation of a recipe. Simply stated I want to share with you some of my exploration.

 

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Brownies 2011

Ten days of shooting brownies and cookies…what a great gig! We wrapped the shoot just a couple of days ago and thought I would share a couple of the cover shoots. So, here they are…this is no time to be counting calories! Big thanks to Robert Humanski, KimKrejca, Jill Flewellen and my clients David Kravetz, Erin, Kari and of course Kat!

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Photography Improv

My two favorite improvisational comedians are Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams. Their minds are fast and furious. They can respond to a word, a sentence or a prop of any kind and create their own world and bring the audience along with them. I regularly go on photo walk-abouts and shoot whatever attracts my eye…to me this is like a photographers exercise program. So, I decided to pull things from the house and bring them into the guesthouse and set up an available light studio. Window light, one camera, one lens and me. The idea was to do improv still lifes where objects were composed simply for the pure relationships that developed. I worked fast and loose and had a great time. I processed the files to look and feel like some of the autochrome color images from early in the 20th century….http://www.galerie-photo.com/autochrome_plate.html

The Light Source:

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Plastic Glass

Russ Hahn from After Hours Creative contacted me a few weeks ago to do the photography for a new company called Drinique. They specialize in manufacturing high end plastic-ware for hotels, restaurants and bars. The beauty of this new product is the design and longevity of the glasses. I love what light can do with glass and how you can play with highlights and reflections. The cover shot allowed me to really play…thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Some inside spreads:

Back Cover:

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Healthy Cereal

Besides shooting ice cream cereal is probably next in line for complexity. In the world of packaging photography food products require a clean, simple and meticulous approach. A fast read and a quick to the point design is a must because the shopper has rows and rows of products competing for attention.

We recently shot a cereal-packaging project for “Peace” brand healthy cereals with graphic designer Randy Palmer.  I thought I’d share the process and the final outcome with you folks.

Here’s one of the shots:

Here are a few of the packages:

We had several shipping boxes full of product that was used to painstakingly go through and pick the best flakes and clusters:

Individual clusters were built into larger clusters using hot glue:

Each bowl was built on a foundation of Crisco that acted like a platform to keep the composition of flakes and clusters in place:

Once on set final adjustment to the contents were made to adjust for lighting and composition:

The final touch is adding white glue to the bowl in place of milk. Glue is heavier and whiter then milk and also doesn’t make the cereal soggy:

Finally, yours truly and designer Randy Palmer and the client and marketing folks:

Thanks goes out to Randy my trusty assistant Robert Humanski and the stylists Kim and Jill.

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Not Just Beans And Rice

I got a whole new appreciation for Mexican cuisine while shooting 20 plus food images for Macayo’s menu and new web presence. The reason for my new found food joy is because we ate their food every day for lunch during are four day shoot. I never realized there was such a variety of food choices available. I always figured Mexican food was a once a month deal…now I could eat it every day! These are some of the shots from this project along with some behind the scenes snap shots.

This is the site design. It will be live by the first of March.

Behind the scenes.

Special thanks to my ace assistant Robert Humanski and the two styling twins Kim Krejca and Jill Flewellen.

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