Political gridlock may have come to define the US capital in the past few years, but this facade of bellicosity is just that, a tough exterior hiding the true allure of DC. It’s a destination that reveres the past with its monuments and museums and celebrates the present with its promotion of various cultural facets, from the arts and music to media and sports. The city grows more vibrant by the day, welcoming diversity with open arms to create a vividly cosmopolitan image. Today, living in the capital could involve a plethora of delightful scenarios, captured beautifully by lifestyle photographers in Washington, DC.
At Wonderful Machine, lifestyle photography depicts an idealized, aspirational version of real life, often using professional models, hair/make-up, props, wardrobe, and locations, yet still looking authentic. It’s intended to help promote a product or service but can also be used editorially. The eight photographers we’ve listed below represent the best of DC life within the parameters of our specialty. So keep them in mind for your upcoming assignments!
Most of Shawn Hubbard’s portfolio is dedicated to the realms of competitive sports and fitness, which is no surprise given his background as a collegiate athlete. He finds ways to capture moments of action and pause in cinematic terms, whether his subject is a rookie basketball player admiring a perfect three-pointer or a superstar quarterback celebrating a Super Bowl win.
His lifestyle portfolio also shares this impactful approach, primarily through the use of lighting, whether he incorporates streaks of it to pour across the frame or paints portions of the composition with a uniform glow. Via this process, Shawn focuses on familial relationships in the most positive and aspirational terms, depicting them as a quality of life well lived.
Shawn’s clients include Target, Under Armour, Red Bull, New York Knicks, Washington Wizards, The NFL, XFL, Solidcore, Big Ten Network, M&T Bank, NBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Men’s Health Magazine, New York Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, and The Financial Times, among many others.
Jennifer Chase is one of our favorite lifestyle photographers in Washington, DC, presenting the specialty in relation to food, travel, and interiors. Her images explore the ways in which people connect through food and drink, places, and one another. It’s an approach fueled by her passion for experiencing cultures around the world, painting portraits of life in the richest and most vivid of colors. By doing so, she can turn a vacation at a luxury resort or a staycation in your backyard into experiences worth aspiring toward.
Jennifer is the Creative Director of Edible DC. Her images have also been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Domino, Afar, and other publications.
You can note Clark Vandergrift as another lifestyle photographer in Washington who loves to get lost in new and distant places. He’s an award-winning talent capable of furnishing both stills and video content, with his lifestyle portfolio sharing his sense of adventure and appreciation for the outdoors. With most of his time spent in nature, you could say he’s found a direct line to the sun, moon, and stars, using these sources of light to emphasize a splendid array of colors across his compositions.
Clark’s clients include Verizon, The Nature Conservancy, the American Red Cross Society, Deutsche Bank, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Meals on Wheels America, Mercedes-Benz, Strayer University, Southwest Airlines, and countless others.
You can always count on Ryan Donnell for bright and blithe compositions within the lifestyle specialty. Friends and family tend to be a centerpiece of his images as he reveals the joy of simple moments, such as grandparents taking their grandkids for a walk or a father cooking with his son on a Sunday morning. He can also illustrate the comfort we find in solitude, through a golfer navigating a course by himself or a cowboy wandering through an open field on horseback. Using his creativity and technical skill with the camera, Ryan’s compositions do justice to these wonderful moments that brim with bliss and jubilance.
Ryan’s clients include Beer Advocate, Bicycling, Midwest Living, Runner’s World, Washingtonian, Google, Microsoft, The Franklin Institute, Michigan Tourism, South Dakota Travel + Tourism, and many others.
Eli Meir Kaplan’s love of photography was inevitable once his parents gifted him a black-and-white video camera at four-years-old. Back then, his subjects were He-Man and Skeletor. Today, they take more human form. With lifestyle photographers in Washington, DC, drawing from different styles, Eli’s is informed by his past in documentary photography. It compels him to focus on the raw, genuine, and honest, giving his commercial projects a flourish of realism despite being carefully choreographed. This methodology has earned critical acclaim from the ADDY Awards, American Photography, Communication Arts, Lürzer’s Archive, and the PDN Photography Annual.
Eli’s clients include Novartis, Stanley Black + Decker, Ogilvy, TBWA, Bicycling, British Airways, USPS, Wired, The Hollywood Reporter, Capital One, PBS Kids, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and many others.
While his portfolio leans toward sports and fitness, Edgar Artiga’s work as a lifestyle photographer in Washington, DC, exhibits a fair share of variety. From familial settings to meetups between friends and co-workers, Edgar’s sun-soaked aesthetic exemplifies the balance we strive for in life, juggling roles and responsibilities at home and work. While we may struggle to make all these areas the best they can be, Edgar’s subjects get straight A’s without fail. The figurative rays of positivity emanating from his work are a result of planning and rolling with the punches.
“I love collaborating and working together to bring an idea to life. I believe in planning every detail but also know how to deal with the unexpected when it arises.”
Laura Chase de Formigny captures “the place where food, life, and storytelling combine.” With roots in photojournalism working for the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Laura has developed a knack for editorial assignments. Her images have garnered the attention of The Washington Post, AARP, NPR, Smithsonian Institute, Science Magazine, and the Michelin Guide. Her work isn’t merely concerned with food and drink right before or during consumption. Instead, her photography takes a farm-to-table approach, revealing the methods at work in the growing and preparing of food. Through each stage, our connection to food is fully displayed, showing its purpose as nourishment for both the body and soul.
In addition to her editorial work, Laura has bona fides in the commercial space, recently collaborating with National Geographic on their Attainable Sustainable project.
While Bob Rives eventually found his calling as a commercial and editorial photographer, he used to be a fisherman, wildland firefighter, and newspaper photographer. He has been among people from all walks of life, so connecting with a diverse range of subjects using his camera comes naturally to him. Bob’s a visual storyteller, and by harnessing his knowledge of light and color, he elevates ordinary experiences into the extraordinary category, steeping them in different varieties of love: both of people and life in general.
Bob’s clients include Capital One, Duke University, Bloomberg, Carnegie Foundation, MetLife, Rolling Stone, Walgreens, Golf Digest, LIFE.com, UPS, US Airways, Forbes, and many others.
There’s more to the US Capital than politics, and the work of these lifestyle photographers in Washington, DC, is Exhibit A. For editorial and commercial campaigns beyond the offices and congressional halls of DC, we highly recommend the eight individuals above.
Further Reading
See more lifestyle photographers in Washington, DC, through our Find Photographers Page.
Learn more about lifestyle photography on our Intel Blog.
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