Product Photography for the World's Hottest Pepper Sauce

What happens when the previous title holder for "the world's hottest pepper", "Jolokia," gets dethroned by a new king? A special hot sauce is made from it to delight those with a daring sense of adventure.

I am told that the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper is likely to leave an impression since some specimens have measured over 2,000,000 on the Scoville heat scale. For comparison, Tabasco Sauce is rated at no more than 5,000. Extreme caution and common sense is a good idea, unless you want to burn your taste buds clean off.

These pepers are locally grown in Georgia and packaged fresh so none of the potency is lost. If you are brave enough to try "Scorpion", then visit the Extreme Gourmet web site. You have been warned.

This product photo was taken with a soft box and strip box to control the reflection shape. Flames were added later from some explosions I photographed... What, do you think I wanted to burn the building down?

Boston Terrier Rescue at PawFest 2012

My wife (not in the photo) and I went to PawFest in Lawrenceville to support The Boston Terrier Rescue who does incredible work with putting dogs into new homes. Some of these animals have been rescued from inhumane conditions, but still love people. The little dog in the photo had one of her ears bitten off, but still would make a wonderful friend and part of the family. This one has been adopted, but there are more who need a home.

This organization is filled with wonderful, hard working and dedicated volunteers who love what they do.  Learn more about them and available adoptees on their site www.bostonterriertn.org

Package & Display Design for Bed Bug Pesticide

These bed bugs are
nasty little suckers

Remember that old saying "Don't let the bed bugs bite"? That was a reality for our parents' and grandparents' genrations. That changed when pesticides like DDT were used to devastating effect in the 1940s to practically wipe out bed bugs infestations. Decades later DDT was determined to be environmentally and medically dangerous and taken off the market. It is an unpleasant fact that bed bugs (that were once a thing of past) are now coming back with a vengeance in hotels, motels and even theaters.

My client, BugBand, manufacturers natural insect repellent products that deter insects by emitting Geraniol vapors. Geraniol contains a naturally derived extract from Geranium flowers which people have been using for hundreds of years in window boxes to keep insects out of their homes.

These packages are not shown to scale. The one of the left is only a small 3 oz. travel size bottle.

Last year, BugBand introduced their first pesticide aimed directly at bed bugs. Bed Bugs No More! uses a strong concentration of Geraniol to kill bed bug eggs, larvae, nymphs and adult bed bugs. Geraniol dissolves the exoskeleton of the bedbugs and they cannot become immune to the effects. This is different from the nerve agent pesticides that are usually used, and only affect adults insects with developed nervous systems. Bed Bugs No More! is not toxic and safe for humans. This is my layman's understanding of complicated chemical processes and biology. More information will soon be on the BugBand web site.

Long story short, I got to design the Bed Bugs No More! packages, two being your standard pump bottle and the other, a small travel size package that uses heat shrink technology to adhere the label to the bottle. In this case, labels are printed as circular plastic sleeves that shrink when heat is applied to them making a colorful and tamper-resistant package. I also designed the displays coming to a store near you.

Habitat for Humanity Group Photo

Last week I made a deceptively simple group photo for an Atlanta insurance company who had participated in Habitat for Humanity. I think 80% of the company helped build a house. Impressive. The day before the portrait, my boss took an iphone snapshot of the location. I could tell it was going to be relatively dak because we were shooting on the shadow side of the building.

I know it sounds ludicrous to say that shooting outside at 11 am will be dark, but everything is relative. Because I was shooting rows at least 5 people deep, I needed to have the subjects in the front row and back row equally in sharp focus.

Celebrating their accomplishment

This meant that I would need to use a small aperture for maximum depth of field. Small apertures need long exposures to gather light which would not work with a group of blinking people. The other option was to add light to the scene.

I set up a single flash 10 feet to the right of the camera's position and aimed it towards the crowd. The resulting image has the appearance of sunlight... if one is not a forensic specialist who can trace the origin of the light source. Without the flash, the photo would have lacked contrast, sharpness and definition. I used a slow enough shutter speed to let the flash and ambient light mix.

World War 1 Air Show in Pungo

Almost 100 years ago, the first aerial battles were fought during World War I. It was a different era where new fangled flying machines represented the state-of-the-art in speed and technology. Horse calvary was still relevant and tanks were just appearing in the muddy trenches.

Last year I attended avery unique air show in Pungo, Virginia at the Military Aviation Museum. The featured planes were all World War I vintage, more than likely scaled replicas.
 

Seeing these wood and cloth planes is kind of like looking a kite with a machine gun attached. 



Today we have stealth bombers, remote controlled drones and satellites, but all our current technology owes a great deal to these earlier pioneers and soldiers of the air.

In the photo below, the World War 2 era P-51 snuck into the background and illustrates the difference that 30 years can make on the battlefield, even ones in the air.



Instead of sitting in a dusty museum, bi-planes and tri-planes zoomed past the crowds in glorious flight.

The first airplanes had less horsepower than most cars on the road today. They employed different shapes and multiple wings for improved lift... two or three wings were better than one, right?

These types of events attract enthusiasts and enactors who are interested in the time period.

Evidently long sleeves were the norm back then, even when it was hot.

I met one gentleman who had an authentic Harley Davidson motorcycle that had seen actual war duty over in France where he found it. It was a joy to see and hear the old hog run. It was a noisy clattertrap.



There were a lot of Germans in uniform.

WW1 machines are not often seen at air shows. In fact, I would say that this was a very rare showing.

The planes had markings that identified the pilot or the air group (or what ever they were called back then).

As the sun went down, hot air balloons were launched over the field.

The fellow below had a solo hot air balloon just like the urban legend about the guy that tied a bunch of helium balloons to his lawn chair.

This show gets top rank, and should not be missed if you are in the Virginia Beach area.

My YouTube Videos in Japan

The web is a strange place. Somehow some old videos I posted on YouTube ended up on a Japanese video site.  I got a kick out of it. Konechewa Japan...

Atlanta Skyline at Sunset

After a photography gig in a downtown Atlanta hotel, I was able to capture a few frames of an amazing sunset. The photo does not do justice to what my own eyes saw.  I do not think I have the skill to reproduce the amazing colors and the small moving parts that quickly changed before my eyes. Within a minute or two, the magic was gone and so was I.