From this week's fun and games.
Showing posts with label lifestyle photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifestyle photography. Show all posts
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Showing Off
It is hard to find the time to sit down with art buyers and show off the new portfolio in person.
But it is such a blast when we do it. The reaction is just so positive.
Zave Smith
Friday, February 11, 2011
It is almost an act of murder. In order to grow you often have to kill off the very things that have made you successful, in the first place.
At first I tried to understand and follow the marketplace. This was reasonably successful. But I was not after being reasonable. Besides, who was willing to pay for a cheaper imitation of the latest trend?
After ten years of some success at being a generic photographer, I started to become bored. I then started to put my craziness back into my work. I let go of the food and the products that had made my pay and started photographing shadows, kids, old people and even twenty-something cute girls. My only criterion was to make pictures that made me smile.
I used to get a lot of assignments that started with a layout. “Here, photographer, create a photograph that looks like this.” That is what I was paid for. Now I get assignments like, “Come down to Mardi Gras for a week and see what happens.” Or when Capital One called and ask me to spend some time photographing several small business clients of theirs in Dallas and in New York. No layouts, few directions, “Go see what’s there and bring us home something wonderful that captures the real life of our clients.”
I have learned that my best work, the work that makes my client’s smile is the work that happens when I let go. When I forget all the preconceived notions of what they want or what an “advertising” photograph should look like and I just react to what I see, I create photographs that sell.
Kill the concept and create a killer photograph.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Wisconsin Farm Project
Back in 1982 I did a series of photographs on the Fecter Family Farm in West Bend, Wisconsin. Today I had to revisit these images for a client. I had not looked at them in twenty years but they still bring a smile to my face.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Better Living Through Chemistry
Once in a while a project becomes much larger, much more interesting and more difficult than you imagined when the layouts first come across your desk. Recently we had such a project for a chemical company. The creative brief sounded simple. Three pictures. The first one would be of two kids sitting in front of a pool putting sunscreen on each other. The second image was a picture of a father and son playing with a toy car. The third photograph would be of a family of four watching a home movie in their backyard. There was nothing here that we had not done many times before.
Once again the devil was in the details. The pool house had to be a very upscale home, architecturally interesting, with a pool, a privacy fence, nice landscaping and non-while vinyl siding. The father and son and the family watching the movie turned out to be both period pieces, the first one had to look like it was shot in the 1960s’ and the second one like it came out of the 1950s’.
Once in a while a project becomes much larger, much more interesting and more difficult than you imagined when the layouts first come across your desk. Recently we had such a project. The creative brief sounded simple. Three pictures. The first one would be of two kids sitting in front of a pool putting sunscreen on each other. The second image was a picture of a father and son playing with a toy car. The third photograph would be of a family of four watching a home movie in their backyard. There was nothing here that we had not done many times before.
Once again the devil was in the details. The pool house had to be a very upscale home, architecturally interesting, with a pool, a privacy fence, nice landscaping and non-while vinyl siding. The father and son and the family watching the movie turned out to be both period pieces, the first one had to look like it was shot in the 1960s’ and the second one like it came out of the 1950s’.
Once again changes that the client made after production began added some more challenges. For example, after the three shots were cast, the demographics of the models changed and the whole project had to be re-cast. Many questions arose like do we style the father and son has if it was the early or late 1960s’? How upscale were these families?
With styling issues, the details matter. I believe that even when an object is out of focus and in the background it has to be authentic or the shot looses something. My producer stylist, Deborah Holljes, had to scour the whole country in order to fine the clothing that we need.
Luckily I work with an amazing crew and in spite of all these issues plus that added pleasure of working with little kids on shots that need very specific angles and gestures that shoot came off very smoothly.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
Once again the devil was in the details. The pool house had to be a very upscale home, architecturally interesting, with a pool, a privacy fence, nice landscaping and non-while vinyl siding. The father and son and the family watching the movie turned out to be both period pieces, the first one had to look like it was shot in the 1960s’ and the second one like it came out of the 1950s’.
Once in a while a project becomes much larger, much more interesting and more difficult than you imagined when the layouts first come across your desk. Recently we had such a project. The creative brief sounded simple. Three pictures. The first one would be of two kids sitting in front of a pool putting sunscreen on each other. The second image was a picture of a father and son playing with a toy car. The third photograph would be of a family of four watching a home movie in their backyard. There was nothing here that we had not done many times before.
Once again the devil was in the details. The pool house had to be a very upscale home, architecturally interesting, with a pool, a privacy fence, nice landscaping and non-while vinyl siding. The father and son and the family watching the movie turned out to be both period pieces, the first one had to look like it was shot in the 1960s’ and the second one like it came out of the 1950s’.
Once again changes that the client made after production began added some more challenges. For example, after the three shots were cast, the demographics of the models changed and the whole project had to be re-cast. Many questions arose like do we style the father and son has if it was the early or late 1960s’? How upscale were these families?
With styling issues, the details matter. I believe that even when an object is out of focus and in the background it has to be authentic or the shot looses something. My producer stylist, Deborah Holljes, had to scour the whole country in order to fine the clothing that we need.
Luckily I work with an amazing crew and in spite of all these issues plus that added pleasure of working with little kids on shots that need very specific angles and gestures that shoot came off very smoothly.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
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