In New York:
While shooting on a project for Aerie, New York-based photographer Janelle Bendycki met the VP of creative at American Eagle, a sister brand to Aerie. After seeing the great work Janelle does, the brand hired her to shoot the digital assets for the winter holiday campaign for American Eagle.
The client was looking for colorful holiday-themed photos for their digital media assets. The goal was for them to stand apart from their usual holiday aesthetic. In the past, a lot of the holiday photos featured elements like Christmas trees and snow to portray the winter season. Differently, Janelle created images to convey the holiday spirit without classic holiday symbols.
The shoot took place at Pier59 studios in New York. A day leading up to the shoot, Janelle proactively went to the studio. She wanted to test different lighting options until she and her team came to a lighting conclusion. It can be quite tough to decide on a lighting configuration. An additional challenge was choosing which type and style of light works best to display when trying something new.
The shoot itself took place in the hot month of August, and it was a lot of fun! They blasted loud music throughout the studio and kept the energy light and joyful.
Being able to play and make something new in the studio and on this scale, was really exciting, and working with so much color was great! It is the most colorful shoot I have done so far, and I want to do more!
They loved the images and were very pleased with the overall look and feel. They are using the photos in stores as well as on the American Eagle website.
See more of Janelle’s photography on her website.
In San Francisco:
Houston-based photographer Michael Hart is an active member of American Photographic Artists (APA). APA chapters run exhibits and competitions around the country. Michael has many awards already, under his belt, in previous shows run by this organization. He has had work accepted into the San Francisco chapter’s “Something Personal” exhibit. Additionally, APA Los Angeles’ exhibit “Off The Clock” has accepted his images numerous times, as well as APA San Diego’s “Untitled” exhibit. So, when the time came to submit entries to this year’s “Something Personal” show, Michael was sure to submit a few recent pieces (six total).
Michael was thrilled to hear that they selected three of his images for the exhibit. Two of the selected photos are black and white images that Michael captured during a recent trip to Scotland. One of them is an illustration featuring two composited elements, a jet, and a moon. The second black-and-white image showcases a stunning scene of The Isle of Skye. The moment Michael captured this photo, he knew it was going to end up being a black-and-white photograph. He recognized that it shows such a wide range of tones and contrasts it displayed. Michael believed that this quality would make it extremely pleasing to the eye as a black-and-white image.
The third photo is a guitarist, old friend, and former bandmate of Michael’s named Danny Everitt. Michael shot this photo at 44 Farms in Central Texas. He has been working with this client for ten years.
The property has been in the family over 100 years, and I have had the idea for this image almost since I started shooting there. It was only 12 months ago that I finally got Danny to head up there with me and make it happen. It has ended up on the inside spread on his new CD, “Dream Big”.
When shooting these images, each one came with some challenges, but they were all photos that Michael thoroughly loved shooting. Recently, APA selected two of Michael’s photos, the guitarist, and the black-and-white tower photo. These images were chosen for another APA exhibit in Chicago, pleasantly surprising him. Michael always finds it surprising to see which images get selected. However, he is excited to see his work accepted and displayed in, yet, another exhibition.
See more of Michael’s photography on his website.
In Washington, D.C.:
Over the last 5 years, Los Angeles-based photographer Cade Martin has photographed various assignments for Smithsonian Magazine. His website also clearly demonstrates his affinity for Star Wars.
When Smithsonian photo editor Jeff Campagna needed a photographer to shoot a robot and minor celebrity C-3PO for the National Treasure section of the magazine, Cade Martin was the obvious choice.
Due to his status as a national treasure, not everyone gets to work with C-3PO.
Everything is really protected, for obvious reasons, and we weren’t allowed to touch C-3PO at all during the shoot. Even as an adult and a professional photographer doing a job, you can summon that feeling of a grade school field trip to the museum – “Don’t touch the artwork!!”
As difficult as this assignment would be, Cade was more than equal to it. He decided to pursue a cinematic look in his photography. He designed his images to look more like a movie still than a still-life photo. Despite this choice, there is still rich detail on display. You can observe this detail in the craft of creating the body, hinges, and pistons of the C-3PO suit. Additionally, Cade’s attention to detail in highlighting these aspects is noteworthy, as they are often easily missed during a movie screening.
And though I’m there working for my clients, there is no denying that I geeked out a little seeing C3PO up close. There is such craft and care taken to create him – the hinges, lines, and luster as well as those eyes.
The images accompany a profile on C-3PO published in the December 2017 issue of Smithsonian Magazine and were included in Smithsonian Magazine’s Most Powerful Photos of the Year.
See more of Cade’s photography on his website.
Further Reading
Read more articles about Janelle Bendycki.
Read more articles about Fashion photography.
Read more articles about Michael Hart.
Read more articles about Conceptual photography.
Read more articles about Cade Martin.
Read more articles about Still Life/Product photography.
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