Grilled Peaches
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t's always a happy day when I get to do a food shoot at the Sierra Nut House. On this day I went straight back to the kitchen where chef Adrianna Oropeza was grilling peaches for a dessert which included this yummy almond paste and blueberries. I quickly grabbed my shots as my saliva glands were going into overdrive and I had to have a taste! Be on the lookout for the article on The Fresno Bee food page.
RC Commercial
[dropcap]R[/dropcap]C Commercial is a full-service real estate brokerage firm in Fresno. They represent landlords, tenants and investors in the sale and leasing of multifamily, land, retail, office and industrial properties. I photographed a few of the properties they've done business with as well as a "team" portrait and headshots of the two-member team for their new website. This is all being done by the guys who did my website and branding, Ignition Labs. A good choice!
Time for Berries
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] started out Friday photographing corn for the first day of corn sales at Fresno State and ended it photographing blackberries and blueberries at Berry Lady Farms in Kingsburg. So I got my fill of food assignments for The Bee. Who can complain? The best part was getting a chance to taste a wonderful blackberry pie after photographing it. Ah, the life of a photographer.
Pat Ricchiuti of P-R Farms
Today I photographed Pat Ricchiuti of P-R Farms in Clovis for McClatchy News Services. I had planned to do the shoot with lighting gear the day before and called Pat to make sure we were still on and to get some details on where to meet. I set up in a peach orchard by 8:45 a.m. for the 9 a.m. shoot. Pat was really gracious with his time and even though I felt I had what I needed he offered to take me to an olive orchard as well. Sure, why not? I thought. So we spent another 30 minutes or so taking those photos which gave us plenty of options for the article and helped me get some valuable time working with remote lighting in a place with no electrical outlets.
Bee Sweet Citrus
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]oday's commercial job was at the Bee Sweet Citrus packing house in Fowler. We opened the day with staff portraits in the office and then photographed a couple of hours working the naval orange line, the Mandarin orange line and the lemon line. Once we finished up with that we went out to a ranch partly owned by Bee Sweet to get a nice portrait of owner Jim Marderosian. For that we needed the big lights and lots of power. But because we were clear out in an orchard, we needed to rent a generator. Ya do what ya gotta do. Everything worked out in the end and we got a great picture of Jim.
Real Estate
[dropcap]H[/dropcap]ere's another home in the foothills northeast of Fresno that is going on the market from Jason Farris at Guarantee Real Estate. He has asked me a few times to photograph his homes. This one is pretty big, it sits really nice on a hill with a great view of the valley and the Table Mountains. I came out a few times to chase down some good light and even stood out in a field waiting for the sun to set to get a nice twilight scenic. Looks like a nice home that features a tennis court, pool and spa. If you buy it, don't forget who made it look too nice to pass up for you. I'll be over for the first pool party!
Cru Wine Bottles
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]y friend Jason Farris, who has done some work for the Cru Wine Company contacted me over a year ago to see about photographing the company's wine bottles. I told him I'd give it a try. Wine bottles by the way, since they are so reflective, are very difficult to shoot consistently. After a few trial and error experiments I was able to come up with an acceptable method for shooting wine bottles and have been doing several cases a year now. Makes it fun to stop by Cru and stock up too. I'm feeling more and more confident these days about doing product shots and can indeed be a big part of my forte.