While I wouldn’t consider myself a “commercial” photographer in the strict sense of the word, I do enjoy the challenge of shooting things that are a little different than what I’m used to. Plus, if there are people involved, then it is right up my alley.

I see photography in much the same way as I look at graphic design. You have a problem or need, you create a solution. I feel like that’s a huge part of why I’m able to translate my work as a graphic designer to photographer.

With this, the goal was to shoot promo photos for a local printer, Pacific NW Print & Fulfillment, to use on their website & printed materials so they could get away from having to use the same stock photos as every other printer around.

So I spent some time with the Chris and the crew, dragging my lights around, and seeing what they do while capturing it as well as their personalities through the lens.

They also had me photograph some sample prints (“be fast”) that they ran at 2 other local printers so they could show the quality of their work versus the other guys’ (PNW’s print is on the left).

Here are some of the photos from the shoot as well as a couple of photos of the brochure they produced utilizing the photos.

P.S. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be the forklift photo—mostly for the technical aspect. There are 2 different lights being used. One on the overall scene so I could keep the exposure down and the sky blue. But the one that gets me excited is the other light placed in the warehouse to give some extra definition to the boxes. Otherwise they would have been lost in the shadows.

Right after Christmas we packed up the family and headed over to Tacoma. One of the biggest reasons for this trip (besides the normal holiday festivities) was to say goodbye to my brother’s family as they were getting ready to relocate in South Carolina in a couple of weeks. One of the blessings of traveling back (besides always having someplace to stay) is getting all of the kid cousins together. Even though it may have been months since they last saw each other, they instantly go back to playing like they’ve never been apart.

We’ll miss seeing them next time we go back to visit.

So one of the important events this trip was getting a family photo of the four boys and our families. Of course it rained the entire week. After driving around looking for spots to get it done we ended up downtown in a parking garage where graffiti artists are welcome to show off their skills. As you can see, the kids had a blast (like always).

Since these are more of a personal project I felt I could take some liberties and edit these in a style that’s a little different than my own, but I felt the hyper-contrast look worked perfectly with the urban environment. I doubt I’ll be adopting this style for my other work.

A couple of weeks back we  were able to make a weekend trip back to Tacoma and while we were there I had the opportunity to take some family photos of my wife’s brother and his family.

Of course western Washington decided to set all kinds of rain records that weekend so we had to just go for it and hope for the best. I spent the morning drooling (and buying) at Glazer’s Camera Store in Seattle (the likes of which Spokane will never know). While my brother Travis & I were in Seattle, it was beautiful—unfortunately it was the only sun we saw all weekend.

Once we got started with the session we were driving around the south Puget Sound trying to chase the lighter color clouds so we could attempt to stay dry for some outside photos. We ended up at a park street corner with trees. We got some great shots before the cold got to be too much for the little ones and headed to the cars. As soon as our doors closed the downpour started skies emptied like a fire hose trying to put out a forest fire.

Then we headed back to their home for the “studio-type” photos. We had fun playing around and getting the kids’ personalities captured. It was much more relaxed for everyone since the likelihood of death by drowning was far smaller.