Stride Corporate Headshots

Something that I think every business strives for is repeat work.  It strengthens the relationship and helps to solidify that you’re a good match with that client.  With Stride, and more specifically Debbie Madden, I’ve been working with her on creative projects for a few years now.  She’s been growing her business and has some new hires that needed headshots so they called me to do the shoot.

Lucille is the Head of Talent at Stride and comes from the General Assembly and Google most recently.  Here are some favorites from our session around the streets of NYC.

Lisa is also new to Stride and is the VP of Engineering.  She’s worked with Debbie prior to Stride at Cyrus and comes from London where she worked for The Guardian.  She told me she had one headshot from that time that worked for all occasions and didn’t fancy being in front of the camera but got comfortable quickly after some initial shots.

I look forward to continued interactions with this great group of people.

http://plus.google.com/+DarrinEstepPhotography/
https://www.facebook.com/DarrinEstepPhotography
https://twitter.com/destep001  

Bottle & Bottega Studio Images

I first shot this space last July, when it opened.  I was asked back to photograph the updates to the space.  Rupa, the owner, has remained very busy since she opened and the evidence is on the walls.  There are so many great pieces in this space that weren’t there before.  It's looking great!

There are two sides to the space.  What’s shown above are both sides of the studio.  There’s plenty of seating to accommodate large parties. More shots of the interior here...

It's not common for me to work in Photoshop however, for this exterior shot, I saw the potential in the original image.  We planned this shoot on a Sunday night as it was the most likely time when we wouldn’t have someone parked in front of the building.  We were both disappointed to see that there was one car was parked in front during the shoot.  I continued to shoot inside but the sun was starting to go down and the lighting was nice outside.  Clock was ticking.  I took some shots with the car in front just in case but fortunately, the owner of the car arrived and left.  I quickly snapped the shot on the left and cleaned it up to become the image on the right.

http://plus.google.com/+DarrinEstepPhotography/
https://www.facebook.com/DarrinEstepPhotography
https://twitter.com/destep001  

Bottle & Bottega Corporate Event

What’s not to enjoy about events where people are getting together and having fun?  I’ve done a few events now for Bottle & Bottega and its always a great time!  Its interesting how there’s consistently trepodation as people enter the room (especially for corporate events since they are sometimes not told what their activity is until they arrive) and fears are quickly alleviated as the activity is explained by Rupa and her team.  

There’s lots of preparation that goes into planning the event.  Here are some shots of the preparation in progress.

The painting instruction begins and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

Rupa, the owner of the North Jersey Bottle & Bottega pulls double-duty this time and is teaching in addition to overseeing the event.

There were about 50 people at this event.  Here are a few taken while “working” on their art.

Each of the three tables gathered to present their final masterpiece.  I’m sure they’ll be hung throughout the offices shortly.

Web -> http://DarrinEstepPhotography.com
G+ -> http://plus.google.com/+DarrinEstepPhotography/
Facebook -> https://www.facebook.com/DarrinEstepPhotography
Twitter -> https://twitter.com/destep001 

Special thanks to: 
Tanya @ the Basking Ridge Country Club
Rupa and her team 

Catalog Shoot

Once in a while I come across something new and different.  This was one of those times.  I was commissioned to shoot approximately 150 pieces of clothing for the upcoming summer season (dreaming of summer right about now in January) by using 4 models which gave us a few minutes per outfit based on the time we had to shoot.  Yikes!

What you see above is about 1/3 of the line we shot that day.  Its a little hard to make out but you'll notice there's a small object in the lower left of all the photos.  This is an iPad with a product number on it so when Dave (the manufacturer) needs to take orders from his clients, they know what product they're talking about.  We had so many pieces of clothing to photograph that the MUA (Jennifer) ended up modeling for us as well.  Great shoot!

Credits
MUA: Jennifer Haines
Models: Melanie, Alina, Kiki, Sarah
Clothing Manufacturer: Satguru Enterprises
Photographer: me :-)

Stefania's 40th Birthday

As a referral from someone I used to work with, he connected me with Stefania and after a conversation about what she wanted she hired me for the gig.  It was a special occasion.  A 40th Birthday Party in Williamsburg Brooklyn.  This was held at the Wythe Hotel.  A very hip place in Brooklyn that had a line of people outside to get in - as I left the event at 1:00 AM.  Not something I'm used to these days.

Stefania had the idea of bringing some props to get people in front of a backdrop to have something entertaining for the group.  It did actually did the trick - but not until the end of the night.  The venue had some very attractive food for the guests to enjoy.

All the goods were out for snacking!

Great food and conversation prevailed.

Several people taking part in the props.

Blowing out the candles

Happy Birthday Stefania!

Agile 2014 Event

I've either been attending or covering the Agile Day event for many years at this point.  Its a great crowd and a bit of a reunion since I run into people I've worked with for over 10 years.  For the past several years its been at Pace University. 

Joe Krebs (on the left, above) has been running the show for several years now and has announced that he'll be passing the torch for next year.  It'll be exciting to see how the show evolves in the future.

Large crowd joined in for the keynote speaker.

This year, I managed to grab a few shots of a live-blogger of sorts.  He had some great sketches.

Lots of great speakers and reuniting.

Another sketch and juggling?  Yes, juggling.

The afternoon wrapped up with the Open Space.  Joe kicked off the introduction of the concept which is for the audience to determine what the topics are and the time slot and then if people are interested, there will be a conversation.  You can come and go as you please.  It can make for interesting conversation.

Author Headshots & Video: Heather

In the first of a two-part series for my work with Heather, I'm publishing some bio shots I completed recently for her.  She's wrapping up her first publication about empowering women to be able to make their own choices regarding marriage and children, without blindly following the traditional path.  As of this writing, I don't believe the book has a title yet so once we can link to it on Amazon (or wherever it will be available) I'll add the link here.

On the day we shot these headshots, we did both video and stills.  Heather's sister came along as well to help with Heather's wardrobe changes and to be the supportive sister that I'm sure she is.  

This shoot was the first time I'd ever tried to do both photography and video on the same day.  Since we had already had several conversations about how we wanted the content to feel, it wasn't too hard switching between the material.  Preplanning is huge when it comes to something more than just grabbing some updated portraits!

We chose Dumbo, in Brooklyn, as our shooting location.  It really offers a lot of options for different types of setup's and with the right angling, you can get some pretty different environmental settings within a small area.

At this point, we don't know what the book cover and art for the cover will look like so we kept our options open with the feel of the shoot.

A funny coincidence in the vertical shot of Heather with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background is that since her book is about following a non-traditional path, we stumbled upon several brides while we were shooting.  One of them is very small in the far background of this image.

I would be remiss in not crediting the help I received from Theresa Keil.  She captured these last couple images while I was still setting up.  I look forward to the next set of material we capture for Heather which will be more video content.

Video: Aspen Landscaping Advertisement

Aspen is leader in full-solution commercial landscaping in the NJ/NY area.  They have just added an irrigation division to their business and I was hired to shot an advertisement announcing this new venture.  

I worked with Mark (the project manager) and Angelo (spokesperson) to produce the video.  This was the first time they had ever put together a video like this and it was fun working through the requirements and messaging with them to arrive at this final product.  From what I understand from them, this is also pretty unusual in the landscape business to have a video like this so this should be a nice differentiator for Aspen Landscaping.

Bottle & Bottega: Team building Event

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve recently teamed up with Bottle & Bottega which is a paint and sip studio where you can bring some wine, food, friends and they have artists on hand to help you create your own masterpiece on canvas.

I tagged along to a team building event with Bottle & Bottega for Bayer at the Skytop Lounge in the Poconos.  The plan was for me to shoot video with the goal of capturing the event, featuring the painting and teamwork and ultimately the final mural the group put together.  In addition, I planned to interview as many people as I could get to sit down with me to give a sense of what their experience was like.  It all went even better than expected.

Upon arrival, I noticed one thing that was missing for me: a space to interview others.  I scanned the property and what I ended up with was an outside setup that unless I would have told you it was outside, you wouldn’t have known any different.  It happened to be a pretty hot/humid night so that was a little tough but everyone made it through the interview without a hitch.

After a couple of rounds with Bottle & Bottega, I have a finished product that they love and I’m proud to show.  I look forward to more events with this group! 

Music Licensed through Marmoset: Love and Oceans (Instrumental) by The Dimes

The Three Doctors: Raising Hope & Health

Earlier this year, I was connected with an organization called The Three Doctors Foundation.  They were holding an annual fund raiser with a theme of "Raising Hope & Health".  I was hired to shoot a video that showcased the event and something they could use to promote their organization.

My initial contact was with Windy White and she was very helpful and informative throughout the process.  This was held at the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick NJ and featured Pat Battle (NBC News) as the emcee for the event along with Rose Rock (mother of Chris Rock) and Sherri Shepherd as honoree’s that evening.

I approached this project with storytelling in mind.  Using a technique I learned from Stillmotion, I researched the organization and learned as much as I could without having much direct access to the individuals I'd meet that evening.  I derived the following keywords for the event: perseverance, inspirational, community, mentorship, health.

With the keywording done, I began to shape how I would cover the event.  There was a cocktail hour and then presentations.  Fortunately, I was able to interview the three doctors individually along with scholarship winners from various universities.  These proved to be invaluable.  Ultimately, I created two versions of the material.  A short version (see below - https://vimeo.com/102056542) and an extended version (coming soon) showing more of the material from the presentations.

Big thanks to Steve Kang and helping cover this event with me.  

Bottle & Bottega's Berkeley Heights, NJ studio

In preparation for a grand opening of a new location, and in partnership with Bottle & Bottega, I was able to grab some photos of the new studio.  They have a wonderful set of art work on the wall, lots of open space for painting, and plenty of supplies to allow you to get your creative juices flowing.  Overall, its a very inviting space and I'm sure it will be hosting many fabulous painting parties!

I look forward to many future events in this space.  Its in a great location and from what I've heard many parties have already been booked for this space.  To find out more about Bottle & Bottega, visit their site.

America's Night Of Hope Event

Back in January of 2013 I reconnected on a shoot of mine with a high school friend, Eric Forsythe.  I found out during that time that he is a full-time, very accomplished photographer out of Houston, TX. We've been in touch ever since.

A few months ago an opportunity came up for us to work a pretty large event together. Eric is the main photographer for Joel Osteen and they had an event called "America's Night Of Hope" planned for Yankee Stadium on June 6th.  Eric asked me to help shoot it.

A chance to work with a friend and all access to Yankee Stadium!?  That's a "yes"!  I picked up Eric at his hotel in the city and we parked near a train station that would take us right to the stadium.  Once we arrived, we met with the other photographers and marketing folks to go over the game plan for photography coverage during the event.

They ran through a rehearsal which we used to get an idea of placement and timing.  Very helpful.  Shortly after that we grabbed a little food before heading off to capture the main event. I was set to cover the stage from the stands and could roam anywhere to get the best shot.  Eric and one other photographer were on either side of the stage.

Composite of 4 images.  I'm certainly not a Photoshop wizard but this definitely gives the full scope of a sold-out Yankee Stadium.

Nice event!  Joel sold out Yankee Stadium (approximately 50,000 seats) so I'd call it a success even if that were the only measurement.  Looking forward to future work with Eric.

Model Headshots for Melissa

Last year, I shot for the first time working with Melissa and we hit it off.  She’s so great to work with and this session was just as awesome.  We proved again that spending some time before the shoot going over various looks via Pinterest and choosing outfits and accessories is a valuable activity. 

I snapped a couple shots of Amanda & Melissa before we started shooting.  She has so much hair that it turned out to be a bit of a blessing and a curse.  Styling all that hair takes time!

Prep for hair and make-up

Images that resonate with me have a simple composition and draw your eye directly to the subject.  I have a pretty simple lighting set up here that helps achieve the look I'm after.

Simple lighting and non-distracting background keeps your eye on Melissa

Alternate looks but still keeping it simple

Finally got to use my fan! - Thanks Amanda for standing in to help.

Hands up!

Hair everywhere. One of my favorites of the day was this composure where Melissa created her own frame.

The location I used was a little different than what I've used in the past.  I used a service called Breather where you can rent a small (and I mean Manhattan small) room by the hour.  Its a great business idea and someone else suggested this as an option so I thought I’d give it a shot.  Once we navigated our way to the room, I noticed this set of stairs and made that a second shooting location.  This turned out to be a bonus of shooting on the weekend since nobody was traveling up and down the stairs.

Stairs and railing helped to create some interest in the composure

And a few more back in the room to finish off the shoot.  A big thanks to Melissa for coming out to NYC from Boston and for Amanda for showing us her talents on hair and make-up.  I'm looking forward to the next shoot!

Relaxing on the couch

Clothing Promotion: Strong Minds & Body

Round two shooting for a person I've only met through some email exchanges.  Its a little unusual with photography for things to happen this way but the reason this works is that the client isn't the subject of my images.  The lovely Kait is.  I first met Kait on a tattoo shoot (surprise there) and we've connected a couple more times to shoot - one of which was this one to grab some photos of some casual clothing options for a brand called Strong Minds Apparel.

Here are some images from our recent shoot.

Always awesome working together.  I'll have more images from Kait coming up soon...

Agile NYC Promo Video

Back in September, I connected with Joe Krebs again to shoot material that would be used for a promotional video for the Agile NYC event that happens annually.  As you can imagine, there's a lot of planning and effort that goes into putting a day together that includes speakers, vendors, workshops, entertainers, keynote speakers, etc.  My role was to capture the day and showcase the vibe and the energy of both the presenters and the speakers.

As I started to think about what I wanted to see in a video, I knew I wanted to have Joe anchor the structure of the video so I had him talk about what the structure of the current event was and talk a little about what might be coming up next year.  I used this as a jumping off point for other material I show.  As was typical for this kind of thing, there's A LOT of material that I shoot that I don't show.  It gives you options as you start to tell the story and it can also provide ways to parse up smaller bits to feature in other ways.

After several revisions and working closely with Joe on the final output, I'm happy to show the finished result.  Check out the Agile NYC page for more information and future event details.

Crossfit - Texas Style

For me, it wouldn't be time off unless I'm also scheduling a shoot.  I took a visit to see family in Texas over a weekend and planned to also visit my sister & brother-in-law's Crossfit they own in Allen, TX.  Its called Crossfit FX TX.

I was given free reign to shoot whatever I want - something every photographer loves - since it gives me a chance to just explore anything I see that's interesting.

For their club, they have things divided into different divisions: Pink Barbell, Crossfit and for kids, etc.  I got started with the Pink Barbell group which happened to be a couple lovely ladies that can certainly lift more than I can so I made sure they were okay with me taking pictures before I started - kidding! They knew I would be there.

Next I kind of just moved my lights where i needed them to be and started shooting.  The vibe in the gym was very relaxed and everyone was very approachable.  Probably why they have so many consistent members return again and again.

Someone taking on a WOD (workout of the day)

My sister brought in some donuts from Max's Donut Shop (a local favorite).  As you can see, they are Texas size!

Rob was pushing some decent weight here.  As you can see from his face, he was pretty determined!

This is a client of Dylan's (my brother-in-law) and as you can see from her face, its hard work.

Thanks for the opportunity to capture what happens on any given Saturday at Crossfit FX TX.  I look forward to more shoots in the future.

Bohemian Beauty Headshots

Connections, connections.  I like to point out how important this is since it proves to be the way new opportunities present themselves.  We had a great team on this shoot: Alex on make-up, who I met through a friend I used to work with while shooting a wedding, Lauren, Alex's second cousin doing hair who I met on this shoot and of course Stephanie, the model, who I met through Alex.  Stephanie is signed with Aqua Model Management and has been involved with some exciting work recently - appearances on Dr. Oz, work in a Marc Anthony and Wyclef music videos, 50 cent, ESPN, FOX, Style Network, The Heavy, and the list goes on.  Keep an eye on her!  

The location we chose was Bear Mountain in NY.  It turned out to be a half-way point for most of us.  The setting really looked like it would work until, just as we were about to set up (I didn't get a full light stand up) and the park ranger stopped us and said, "Hey, you all have to leave!  Do you have a permit? I thought I told you to leave already."  He wasn't very nice about it and on top of his kind words, he called the local police to make sure we didn't hang around.  Yikes!  We packed up and went to a location that Alex knew of further north in Beacon, NY.

Our second location was "closed" as well but we were all determined to not waste the day so we parked and walked around those pesky things in the way....barricades, I think they're called - haha.  Anyway, let's get to the good stuff.  We scoped things out quickly and found some areas that would work within these grounds and because it was closed, there were no people to hassle us about permits :-) 

The first set of images I like to do are beauty shots.  Stephanie has an instant connection with the camera and has eyes that will melt - you - down!  There are some great behind the scenes (BTS) shots that were captured to give you an idea of how much a pretty location doesn't matter nearly as much as good light.

The catamaran was sitting near where the beauty shots were done and we thought it would be fun for Stephanie to chill out in the arm of the big CAT.

For this shoot we chose a theme of bohemian as you can see more of in these images.  Alex and Lauren did a great job along with Stephanie putting this look together.  Stephanie also has a background in dance so that helped with getting into some interesting positions on the railing. 

The last few from the shoot featuring the bohemian look.  Thanks to all that participated (even Stephanie's mom) and helped make the shoot happen!  I look forward to working with you all again. 

Millennium Tattoo Headshots

I'd have to say this is my most anticipated shoot so far this year.  Not only did I have several beautifully inked girls lined up to shoot with (thanks Kate), I also felt very challenged to carry out a vision I had for the images.  I wanted to craft the shoot around a story which took some work and planning.  I had no shortage of volunteers to assist with me :-)

The loose storyline here in the series of images is 1) All the girls gathered at the front desk of Millennium Tattoo checking out sample images for their "first tattoo".  Well, not really their first, but work with me...  

Looking over tattoo options

Then 2) feature each girl have them talk about the tattoo they are most proud of.  I had other questions but had to narrow it down to one so the font would be large enough to read.  

Last, we have a group shot on a most excellent red couch we used throughout the session. 

Big thanks to Kate for setting most everything up, to Frank for allowing us to use his shop on his day off, to Ross for helping with lights and adding music to the shoot, and to Nicole, Shannon, Kait, and Heather for modeling.  One other girl that was mostly behind the scenes was Rachel that helped with make-up for the girls and some modeling on the first set-up.  Great teamwork! 

The girls...and me :-)

Noise

I've had the recent pleasure to shoot some corporate gigs with my friend Joe.  This session was at a company called Noise.   Nice group of people.  They are an agency that focuses on creating campaigns, products and content for the young adult market.  They've recently taken on an engagement with Joe to bring Scrum practices to their organization.  Here are a few of the images from the shoot.

I also got some environmental images as well.  Since they're called "Noise", they of course, had a turn table in the office.  Of course.

MediaMath Corporate Shoot

Ah, the corporate shoot.  MediaMath has a pretty large room that we were able to use for this shoot that was scheduled on one particular day.  Each person had your standard, classic headshot (as shown below) and then we also did one "with a prop".  Those were fun.  Some were into it and some weren't.  They were funny nonetheless.

Below are a few of the 150+ images I took over multiple days and multiple locations. 

This now makes the third shoot done for MediaMath.  See more images from a recent event called The Future Series and a few months back the 5th Birthday Party.