Every week I create photos working with talented people, here are some recent photo shoots. You will also find many articles describing the elements that make the best photo.


My informative magazine as a professional architectural photographer in San Francisco.

Posts Tagged ‘Art Direction’
Photography: Lighting Interior Photographs
Photography: Lighting Interior Photographs

A photograph holds a composition and captures light. Throughout the years, the lighting style in my photographs has been soft, natural and light handed. Whether working with digital cameras or film cameras, the need is the same: to reduce the contrast between the highlights and shadows. I like the analogy of what we can see [...]

Art Direction: Cropping
Art Direction: Cropping

Re purposing photos for the web requires making the perfect crop. I have always taken pride in my balanced compositions and how they would stand on their own. For many years I sought to make vertical compositions that worked great for the covers of books and magazines and excelled as a full page bleed. Now [...]

Hotel Renew Honolulu
Hotel Renew Honolulu

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 [...]

Product Photography on Location
Product Photography on Location

Brownstone Furniture is a mid-size furniture company embracing today’s global market realities. They commission fresh designs and work with a range of quality manufacturing partners. They then layer on stylish marketing and provide timely distribution fulfillment. Brownstonis on steady 20% growth path year over year.
For this two day photo shoot I brought my gear to [...]

Photo Styling: Real Simple
Photo Styling: Real Simple

Following the lead of magazines like Real Simple and Dwell, here are examples showing a minimum use of styling elements. Florals are non traditional and not floral at all. Items are tidy and not placed askew. Quiet restraint, with a touch of the natural, rules the day.

Photo Styling: A Harmonious Palette
Photo Styling: A Harmonious Palette

Styling interiors is much like finishing a puzzle, putting in the last piece to create a whole. Here are some examples of styling elements that blend in, add life, give texture and feel natural.
For me the elements of scale, color and texture need to come together supporting the balance and harmony of the space.

Art Direction: Samantha Lyman
Art Direction: Samantha Lyman

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 [...]

Restaurant: Le Colonial in San Francisco
Restaurant: Le Colonial in San Francisco

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 [...]

Restaurant: Brix in Napa Valley
Restaurant: Brix in Napa Valley

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, [...]