Food photography IGA Festive Season
We were enlisted by long time collaborators March One to work with them on the 2018 Christmas campaign for IGA. Food photography is my personal favourite. The multi-layered brief required us to cover stills while the TVC was being shot, as well as a stand alone 3 day shoot to cover images for the website, social media, and catalogue.
Within the brief for social media and website content, we had to create animations and short instructional videos. For the 3 day shoot we hired a house in Bronte. It provided a kitchen to suit the work and also allow us different areas to shoot in.
Kai, worked hard on the styling for the food photography making sure everything was ready at the right time. One of the ice-cream cakes wanted to melt very quickly and caused us some issues, for example, but also showed us we needed to do the 2nd one in a different way.
For the stills content, Christmas decorations in the styling were to be kept to a minimum as it was to be used over the whole summer holiday season, not just in the run to Christmas. We used pieces from the “how to” videos we were making to style and decorate the final food products and show in a real way how they can be used. Things like chocolate cups to build the banofie pie in, or how to glaze and carve a ham.
Kai & clients pondering cheese placement
The shoot went fairly smooth all in all, with 3 of us from the studio on hand, we didn’t run into any real problems.
Kai’s cutlery collection
TVC stills were shot around Taren Point and surrounding areas. We captured behind the scenes shots of the whole shoot, building a library of stills that could be used in various ways to support the TVC. Between shots, we needed to get some options of stills for a catalogue cover using the talent that was booked for the TVC so it all tied together.
One of the biggest challenges on the day was to work around the very busy film crew (Ideas of Dean) who had to cram lots of scenes into one long shooting day, so there was no time to stop or for us to hold them up at all. Add to this how many people were actually involved on the TVC part of the shoot and it made for an interesting long day. In the end we got the shots for the cover that were needed as well as a huge range of other stills that can be used to support the TVC and give the whole campaign a consistent look and feel.
Awesome to work with this guy, so professional.
Cheers, Andrew.
Adriano Zumbo
Adriano Zumbo Photo Shoot from Studio Commercial.
We had alot of fun during this photo shoot of Pastry Celebrity Adriano Zumbo.
Recipes for salted caramel macaroons and scraps of paper with ingredient lists was strewn around his home kitchen. Gadgets and dehydrators were lined against every available wall.
Adriano Zumbo is certainly a warm personality and he was keen to experiment and whip up something on the fly.
The best part of the day was getting to take all of the desserts you see in the video back to the studio and sample every one.
Pete Evans - Celebrity Chef
This photo shoot of Pete Evans was shot in Bondi. The client, House Magazine, wanted a light summer feel. We decided to source some beautiful fresh fruit.
Pete had just come back from an overseas trip and was feeling a bit jet lagged. But it was nothing a slice of mango couldn’t fix.
Visit Pete Evan’s site to see his latest work.
Celebrity Chef Pete Evans Photo Shoot from Studio Commercial.
Bicycling Australia: Fashion Shoot
It’s always a busy day when you have five models, more than a dozen wardrobe changes and sixteen images to create.
By 9am our studio was covered in cycling gear and our clothes rack was used to stack bicycles that cost more than a small car.
This was the third year that we’ve shot the Bicycling Australia annual fashion shoot, it’s the largest segment of the magazine and we’re really excited to continue to be a part of it.
It’s really fun for the models to work with the props, most of them were riders and could appreciate the gear. We’re really passionate about cycling as well, so I love getting the little details right. It has to look realistic because cyclists are going to know at a glance if the model is holding the handlebars the wrong way.
The client wanted the photography to be fun and approachable. Cycling can be intimidated so we wanted to make this gear look easily accessible to those that are just starting out. It was loads of fun to shoot something that we’re so enthusiastic about.
Bicycling Australia: Mag Fashion Shoot from Studio Commercial.
Stirling Mortlock
Stirling Mortlock Photo Shoot from Studio Commercial.
Rugby legend Stirling Mortlock stepped into our studio for one day of photography. Watch the video to see man vs fish.
This advert will be in the October 2011 issue of Australian Men’s Health. Also keep an eye out for posters at health stores country-wide.
Our thanks goes to Herbs of Gold for the fantastic shoot. A special shout out to Diana for making everything seamless.
Background knowledge on Stirling:
The year 2000, was a landmark year for Stirling – he became the fastest Australian to reach 50 and 100 Test points, he scored the most points and highest number of penalties [16] by any Australian in his first five Tests and created history by becoming the first Australian to score 20 points or more in four consecutive Tests.
In 2006, Stirling was passed the honour of becoming the 73rd player to Captain the Wallabies. Stirling lead the team from the front and they claimed the Cook Cup from England.Stirling received his greatest honour when he was asked to Captain the Wallabies at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France.
Stirling’s uncanny ability to score tries and kick goals has positioned him third on the all-time list of Australian Test point scorers (with 463 points) and he holds the mantle as the highest ACT Brumbies all-time point-scorer (with 875 points).
Fashion Photo Shoot: Latitude
In late May we alluded to a fashion shoot that we can now talk about in all it’s glory.
Studio Commercial and the folks from Latitude Montagut took part in a three day fashion marathon.
We photographed twins Jordon and Zachary Stenmark and Nick Boogert against a multitude of changing backgrounds. The highlight was the amazing Seidler House; wedged atop a mountain in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, it was a beautiful piece of architecture. On the second day, we launched into look book shots and as it got darker, we hit the streets of Sydney to take some night life photos.
The third day was spent at the Sugar Mill, listening to 70s funk and mixing faux drinks for our models.
Enjoy the behind the scenes video and as always, let us know what you think.
Magazine cover: Active Retirees
Thanks to Active Retirees and Mahlab for the photo shoot.
This was shot on a golf course in Willahra, Sydney.
Dave post-hair
We had a last minute change at a photo shoot and Dave had to fill a talent position, fast.
I think Dave shaving without complaint shows his commitment to the Studio, he managed to avoid a razor for two years but only spilt a couple of tears when he was told his hair would have to go.
Have a great Easter five day holiday fellow Aussies! We look forward to hearing stories of your escapades.
Food shoot with Yalla
This was my first time assisting at a food shoot.
I fell head over heels in love when Cherie, the food stylist offered us “mineral water with lemon barley cordial and mint” as we stepped through the door.
It was fantastic to see people getting excited about cooking good produce. For each dish, we spent an hour perfecting the shot: adding herbs and sauces, taking away an almond sliver or adding crushed pepper.
Finally, after photographing the food at it’s best, we got to eat it. I may have pigged out.
The thing I enjoyed about this shoot was that it was natural. Everyone was down to earth and relaxed. There was no glycerine nor dry ice.
It was just honest, fresh food prepared with love.
And you can never go wrong with that.
NRL players and NRG
In December last year, I had a shoot for NRG Strength Bands. High profile NRL players spent the day at the studio: Todd Carney, Sam Thaiday, Ben Hannant, Mitchell Pearce and Ben Barba.
We had an outline of how the client wanted to display the product and we also created improv images.
The day before Dave and I did some lighting tests, then spent an hour before the shoot fine tuning the glowing, edgy look we were trying to achieve.
We designed the lighting style specifically for the shoot and used image treatment afterwards to give a gritty, tough look. I also added contrast in post-production. It took about half an hour to edit each image, which I was quite happy about.
It was a really interesting visual project.
Vodka and Whiskey Photoshoot
I had heaps of fun giving orders from my comfortable chair to our Managing Director, Jason, during this shoot.
This was the first photo shoot I was involved with after breaking my hip earlier this year. I’ve been doing alot of retouching so it was great to take control of a shoot.
We had a great cocktail stylist on site, which made the whole day a breeze.