Studio Livingston » Lifestyle

Portraits on Location

David — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:34:52 +0000

Often as a part of telling the whole story or the story in itself, my portraiture work cares the same natural feeling as my interior photographs.

Shooting people on location for magazines, companies and corporations I create my portraits in situation and with the context of the environment. The subjects are captured with positive, open expressions, that are welcoming to the lens and viewer alike. I strive to maintain a similar lighting style as the rest of the photos from a given shoot. Art direction elements involve selecting the location of the portrait and helping with wardrobe selection, ultimately making it all look effortless.

Hotel Renew Honolulu

David — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:21:17 +0000

The hotel photography of this Waikiki boutique property wanted a clean departure from the traditional Hawaiian mindset. Situated a block off the beach, Hotel Renew is providing a modern oasis in the land of tiki torches. Less than a year after it was re branded as Hotel Renew the property ran at the top of Tripadvisor’s picks for Honolulu hotels.

Hotel Renew has an urban vibe of a W Hotel without the attitude. The smallish room plates from the seventies were kept but the room interiors were fully outfitted with precision mill work. The interior designer Jiun Ho’s elements are sophisticated and simple with a nod to the understated principals that might be found in a Kyoto Ryokan.

My hotel photography used this clean and understated approach with minimal photo styling. The collection of photographs below match the art direction style of Interior Design Magazine where these photos were submitted.

www.jiunho.com

www.hotelrenew.com

Interior Design Magazine

Trip Advisor

Restaurant: Pampus in Palo Alto

David — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:00:34 +0000

The team of designer Matthew Leverone and Fink Architecture wanted clean interior architectural photographs showing their collaboration on Pampas Restaurant in Palo Alto. With the benefit of large skylights and in-house post production capabilities of Photoshop we created a great set of images in a half-day of shooting.

Restaurant: Le Colonial in San Francisco

David — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:46:40 +0000

When restaurant Le Colonial wanted to update their website they needed a photographer who understood the food, felt the mood and could deliver photographs that are inviting. A lean team of just photographer and assistant created over a dozen shots in a day. The photographs had multi uses for Web, Print Ad & PR along with in-house banquet sales.

Here are some of the tasty offerings with more seen at lecolonialsf.com

Restaurant: Brix in Napa Valley

David — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:18:11 +0000

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.

www.brix.com

Food Photography

David — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:37:58 +0000

Inviting, fresh and clean are some of the thoughts I seek to invoke when seeing my food photography. There is a natural and bright mindset here that brings the plate right to you ready for that perfect first bite.

With decades of experience as a home chef, I understand the food and the process of working directly with the chef to capture their creation. The food photographed is the real thing and not overly fussed with. I will mock up the setting working out the details of composition and lighting first. I next “fire” the order and get the shot in it’s freshness for a strong graphic photograph. Sometimes a couple of takes are needed to get all elements to come together as you see here.