I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

For years we have photographed ice cream.  Lately, we have been shooting a lot of both stills and video ice cream projects.  Both fake and real ice cream photography have their challenges but by far some of the hardest photography you will ever do is real ice cream.

The obvious is that real ice cream melts.  But what may not be so obvious are all the other factors that effect real ice cream shots.  Here are just a few:

Studio humidity
Studio temperature
Freezer temperature
Ice cream temperature to get the right barking on the scoop
Types of nuggets, nuts, chocolate ribbons, carmel ribbons, etc that is in the ice cream.
Temperature of the ice cream bar coating
Fat content of the ice cream
etc., etc., etc.

Although ice cream photography isn't brain surgery, it's one of the closest think you'll come to it as a photographer.

Stills from a recent video shoot

Stills from a recent video shoot

Stills from a recent video shoot of a coke float on a spinning turn table

doing a final check of the glass and product

what you don't see is a clear tube inside the glass holding up the ice cream 

using my 10x glasses to make sure the chocolate coating is just right 

orange cream popcicle

A basket of dry ice hovering over the set to keep the ice cream from melting

lots of ice cream scoops

food stylist perfectly positioning ice cream in the bowl 

lighting test

Lot's of ice cream sandwich options 

dueling 10x glasses

Adding sauce and nuggets to the scoop

food stylist having fun

food stylist holding fake ice cream

the real thing

Thanks, Tiffany for all the great behind the scenes photos.

Latest Work / Sculpting Light

I’m so excited to show you our latest work!

 Lately we’ve been using our ability to sculpt light in a unique and creative way. Yes, what you’re looking at is all light!  In the next few weeks we’ll be unveiling a series of image ads where we’re using light a little differently.  We’re thrilled about this unique visual approach to get your client's products to stand out.

Credits:

Model: Alex Griffey

Photo Assistant: Tiffany Matson

Lighting assistant:  Braden Edwards

Product:  HJC helmets

Motorcycle:  Shawnee Cycle Plaza

Photography: David D. Morris

Retouching: David D. Morris

 Credits:

Model: Katherine Garcia

Photo Assistant: Tiffany Matson

Lighting assistant:  Braden Edwards

Product:  Blue Angle Martini

Photography: David D. Morris

Retouching: David D. Morris

 Credits:

Model: Abuk

Modeling Agency: I and I Agency

Photo Assistant: Tiffany Matson

Lighting assistant:  Braden Edwards

Product:  Chanel Purse

Photography: David D. Morris

Retouching: David D. Morris

Light and sparkly

 Credits:

Model: Cara Dunsmoor

Photo Assistant: Tiffany Matson

Lighting assistant:  Braden Edwards

Product: Citrine Bracelet

Photography: David D. Morris

Retouching: David D. Morris

Light and magical

Credits:

Model: Shelby Mathews

Photo Assistant: Tiffany Matson

Lighting assistant:  Braden Edwards

Product: Kubler Absinthe

Photography: David D. Morris

Retouching: David D. Morris

Hair and Make-up: Sarah Uhler

Lets collaborate!

Working in the advertising photography business can be extremely fun, yet at times very stressful. 

My goal is always to produce the best imagery as we can for our clients, and have fun doing it.

I'm normally a serious person when working, but, I find it pretty easy to laugh at myself!  I say and do some pretty silly stuff. What helps is to surround yourself with people that are fun and funny.  Life is a lot more interesting that way.  If you really stop and think about it what we do and how we do it seems pretty silly to the outside world.  That is -outside of the advertising world.

Take for example food photography.  We pick through cases and cases of food to find 6-10 perfect chips, we glue seeds on buns so they look perfect, we spend hours playing with the food on set just to get everything in it's right place, we glue hotdog buns together so they don't spread apart on set then we pin the hotdogs and buns together so they don't move.  We use a fabric steamer to steam bread so it doesn't dry out and crack and we use steaming hot tampons hidden behind food so it looks like the food is steaming hot.  Now you have to admit, this seems pretty silly to someone not in the business.  Quite frankly just writing about it puts a silly grin on my face.

In spite of how silly it looks or is, we all work hard making it happen.  Over the years we've put together a fun and hard working team of people that make the work look outstanding.

Food stylists, assistant food stylist, photo assistants, retouchers, producers, production coordinators, digital techs, grips, directors, set builders, hair and make-up stylists,  the list goes on and on.  We truly appreciate all the team members we've been able to work with.

At the end of the day if you love what you do, have fun doing it, and like the people you do it with, life doesn't get much better. 

Sarah styling the salsa to perfection

Making sure everything fits in the layouts

Working with the stylist to arrange the food

Now you have to admit, four adults standing around discussing the merits of sauce on a bun looks pretty silly to most people, but it's what we do.   

Our Retoucher (Tiffany) working hard.

Pretzel retouching

Pizza surgery

The behind the scenes tools to do our pizza pull shot. 

Sarah having fun for the camera.

What, your food stylist doesn't style your food like this?  You are missing out! 

Commercial Food Video

I recently had the privilege to work on a food video project where we captured product falling in slow motion and hand models in action.  Had a great crew to work with that exercised a ton of patience with shooting food in action.   When you have pans, tilts, dolly action, food moving and hand models dipping product, the project can get fairly complex and tedious.

Kudos to all for a great video shoot!

Big Production Shoots are a blast! The key is organization.

We had the privilege to shoot another large production for our friends at VML and Tom's of Maine.   When shooting large projects like these there are a lot of moving parts and people to keep organized.

You have a number of people from the client and agency. We also had second photographers, photo assistants, set builder, models, talent agencies, producer, production coordinator, chef, hair and make-up stylist, and photo retoucher.  Not to mention we needed to do a casting session to find the right models.

The project involved hundreds of email, texts, five different estimate versions, creating a shooting schedule for both photographers to make sure we got all the shots done on schedule, photo retouching schedule, building sets, prop shopping, checking in product to make sure everything is at the studio and in photo condition.

Of course then we needed to pre-light the sets, get all the props in place, check that all the set lights to make sure they work, add dimmers to make sure they didn't over power the natural light, make sure the set paint was dry and that everything looked perfect.

One of the things I've learned over the years is that you always have to be ready for the unexpected.  This project was no exception. In some of the photos below we had to spin the sink and vanity around backwards.  We had to do this so the shot fit the layout better.  It worked perfectly!

The bottom line is with any project you need to be organized and ready for the unexpected, this is especially true with big productions.    

Production Board and hourly schedule.

Casting session included photographing models hands, teeth, and action shots.

Hair and Make-up stylist in action.

Our second photographer and retoucher Tiffany ( upper left ) shooting product on white while I shot product families on set.

Props and wardrobe choices for the shoot.

A peek behind the photo sets.

As I mentioned we had to turn the sink and vanity around to fit one of the layout.

Shooting the lifestyle shots in the green room.

The blue room set.

Chef Pauline putting the final touches on lunch for the clients and crew.

Beef tenderloin filet with roasted veggies and salad.  It was awesome!

Shooting our lifestyle model in the blue bathroom set. 

That's a wrap!