A while back a great friend contacted me to ask about my rates for good photos. Kymberli was starting a business and needed photos for her website. After a very intense negotiation period, we settled on a mutually beneficial amount. Items were shipped via FedEx (my preferred shipper, they just make it easy). After receiving the props and a little experimentation I came up with a pretty good starting point. Test photos were taken, some quick edits were made and sample the photos e-mailed. Kymberli didn’t like some of the props, so more were dropped shipped to me. Several video conferences and work sessions later…Viola! The photography portion of Kymberli’s website Peridot Dragonfly Editing were delivered and items used as props were FedEx’d back.

While I was primarily doing real estate and commercial properties at this time, it was this shoot that made me step back and look at myself and my equipment. I had several flashes and flash modifiers in use; I had a lot more in their cases and bags. I had a “studio” and the ability to do “studio-level” work. Up until this moment, I was thinking in terms of technical aspects, this flash at that power, that modifier to make this color pop or suppress that color, do I like the picture in focus or blurred…etc. This was a pretty cool revelation, as all the various equipment had been acquired one or two at a time as projects warranted. Most items were for my personal photo sessions when I needed to light some object in the middle of the night while I was photographing the night sky. Or were purchased to light some part of a room to eliminate a random shadow for real estate photos and get magazine quality images. But, until that moment I had never put it all together, and that was a pretty amazing moment. A plan was coming together that would enable me to exit one part of my life and enter another one.

As you can see the concept was for the viewer to have Kymberli’s perspective. She is sitting at her work table which is warm and rustic. Shadows were muted, but left in so as not to create a unnatural viewing.

Do you have a new project?

I’ve got you covered, contact me and we’ll start the discussion on what you are looking for me to photograph. I look forward to hearing from you.