Art Direction

Our eyes are in constant motion; zooming in, zooming out, panning about. In static images our glance moves over the subject pausing with interest and passing with indifference. Great paintings often have mini scenes within the whole that our brain reflects upon.

Here are examples of framed views inside larger compositions. In web applications these cropped views, or mini moments can be used as a rollover application that expands to a broader view or in a flash based application that creates a dissolve effectively giving movement to the composition.

Here are the same image pairs before being cropped.

Joyce Hewins of SVI Interior Design created the San Francisco home.

A mid-size furniture company embracing today’s global market realities, Brownstone Furniture commission’s fresh design and they work with a range of quality manufacturing partners. They then layer on stylish marketing and provide timely distribution fulfillment. This classic furniture firm is on steady 20% growth year over year.

Working in today’s compressed product to market cycle, the photography is crucial to the marketing efforts. Like the product, the photography needs to be fresh, of quality and timely. Here are some examples from a shoot at the Las Vegas World Market on the last day of the show.

Ironies is a California based luxury furniture manufacture always at the design forefront. Here they show off not only great furnishings but also a clean modern take on styling.

The principals of Ironies and I took a great monochromatic assemblage of forms and textures and used a lighting and photography style to create a soft mood.

These photographs showcase an editorial and graphic perspective of Lyman’s work with a San Francisco home in a series of duets.

Samantha, who has had her practice for three years in Ross, wanted me to create photographs that would be paired together on her website samanthalyman.com. She sought to showcase the broad strokes and tasty details that make a room.

Careful consideration was given to the aspect ratio of the compositions so the photographs could work in a one third two third arrangement as tall verticals and horizontal rectangles. With pre-planning and attentive art direction throughout the day we created these perfect takes.

Brix Restaurant, the Napa Valley staple, recently under went a fresh and colorful face lift. The interiors were transformed in ten days and the menu is now farm to table fresh. The creative director heading up the change is David Gingrass with noted chef of Hawthorne Lane (now Two Restaurant).

Photographs for the website, magazine stories, and ads were created with close attention to capturing the feel of freshness and wine country casualness. Over two days of shooting, the tricky art direction required the same photographs to stand alone as either wide panoramic banner for web use or a traditional square/rectangle for print.

David Gingrass sought out my abilities to work collaboratively, be versatile and make fresh inviting photographs quickly.

These are the same image groupings without the cropping.

Optimizing Your Existing Images For Greater Impact

Viewing photos in a traditional portfolio is different than viewing photos on a website. Re-cropping your existing photos can change the impact and feeling of your work.

Photos on websites are viewed quickly and viewed small. Here are some examples of recropping.