After doing almost exclusively location work so far this year, we finally got a chance to not only get back into the studio but also have a bit of fun! In June we shot a campaign for a security technology company who had a sense of humor!

The concepts came from Fritz Creative out of Santa Barbara, and Kathy Bryant, the Creative Director brought us in to execute them. There were three images we needed to produce with a few variations; A gypsy fortune-teller, a mad scientist, and a doubtful superhero.

The biggest challenge on this particular job was that we had to produce the job in two days. We found out final concepts on a Monday evening around 6:30 p.m. and we needed to cast, prop and wardrobe the shots for a Thursday morning shoot. Thank God for the internet! We spent most of Tuesday running the casting over the web. I felt so sorry for the stylist as she had to be out shopping for wardrobe and props for characters who weren’t even selected yet. Finally around 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday the client gave us final picks on the casting and poor Melissa (the stylist) and her assistant had half a day to wrap it all up and be ready for the next morning.

Once we had talent locked in and were confident we were going to have everything we needed for the shoot, we were able to head over to the studio and have a lot of laughs. Although our casting was fast and furious we got three great people who portrayed their characters perfectly as well as providing much comic relief for all of us behind the camera! Thankfully the shoot day was very calm and relaxed in contrast to everything leading up to it. We got to play with some lighting, camera angles, lots of fabric, and little dry ice to boot!

It was a wonderful change of pace and a chance to flex some photographic muscles that we hadn’t used recently. We have been shooting so much black and white and a fair amount of “color accurate” work lately that given the chance to play with some vivid and vibrant colors and work with some off-beat characters …we definitely took advantage!