The artful Decadence Caviar Staircase from Katsu Los Gatos is a $1,200 culinary treat featuring Russian Sevruga, Imperial Osetra, Kaluga Sturgeon, Golden Osetra caviars, Japanese Wagyu shabu shabu, and Pacific spiny lobster sashimi topped with 24-karat gold leaf.

Live Maine scallops nestle on a bed of barley risotto at The Sea.
Scott’s Seafood in San Jose pairs succulent Australian lobster tail with grilled asparagus.

Lemongrass and garlic sea bass is accompanied by a cold mango and cilantro glass noodle salad at Tamarine in Palo Alto.

Old Port Lobster Shack serves up Maine lobster rolls with sides of french fries, cole slaw, Hellman’s mayonnaise and drawn butter.

Blackened, wild, line-caught King salmon filets star in Zona Rosa’s tacos de salmon, with corn tomato relish, jalapeño, crispy bacon, shiitake mushrooms, cilantro aioli.

Looking for an on-location food photographer in the Bay Area?
San Francisco / Bay Area Commercial Food Photographer Chris Schmauch makes food look really yummy!
Call (831) 216-6210 for serious inquiries only.

If you haven’t already, feel free to review our portfolio site, browse past food & restaurant sessions, follow our business on Facebook (like us while you’re at it!), or read our awesome Yelp reviews.

Looking for a local editorial portrait photographer in Monterey/Pacific Grove?
Bay Area Photographer Chris Schmauch makes sure your article is submitted on time!
Call (831) 216-6210 for serious inquiries only.

If you haven’t already, feel free to review our portfolio site, browse past portrait sessions, follow our business on Facebook (like us while you’re at it!), or read our awesome Yelp reviews.

Scary. Yet exciting.

Scary for the business owners who have lost their entrepreneurial enthusiasm and love for the customer. Exciting for those who haven’t, because this will help bring that slow-swinging pendulum back towards a priority of service and quality first, and away from cheapest deal at any cost. The crowdsourced masses of Facebook, Yelp, et al highlight and therefore bring more business to those that offer the best value – which is essentially an ideal combination of price, service and quality. Even though we’re in the midst of the worst recession in almost a century, I believe Americans still crave and value quality goods and services – just look at Apple, Inc. – they’ve always made quality products, but only recently has the world waken up and realized this (including myself!). I see this as evidence of the pendulum swinging back to where it belongs.

I’m thinking of these things because I’m a small business owner, striving to figure out how to make this whole photography thing work. I believe simple, strong principals provide the answer. Follow the Golden Rule, treat every client like a million bucks and good things will come. I read on Mashable recently (and paraphrase) that if you want a $2,000 gig, but only get $200 for it – give it a $2,000 effort and eventually the client with that budget will find you. I couldn’t agree more. I treat every assignment, and I mean every assignment like it’s going to end up in my portfolio. I see this blog as a chronological portfolio, so I want to make sure I have something I feel is worth sharing with the world every time I step out the door.

This effort, this attitude, is resulting in positive growth for my business. My web traffic on my proofing/printing site, www.GoodEyePhotography.com, recently broke the 100,000 page views/month mark, this blog is taking off and my new portfolio site, www.GoodEye.co is bringing in business on a weekly basis. Add my strong placement with Yelp (without advertising, mind you!), and things are looking on the up-and-up. Wish me luck, guys – I look forward to working with you, even if you’re “simply” a $200 client. I still love you, and you know I’ll do you proud.

So as the cow plainly says, I took the above photo while walking along the Stanford Dish trail (I dramatized the lost part, but it could’ve happened!). I was thinking of green cover ideas, and since we’d just had all that rain, I was envisioning those hills off 280 where that big satellite dish is, but I wasn’t sure where I could get a good vantage point for them. A lot of the best places are private property, and I was afraid I’d have to go trespassing.

I pulled off at Alpine Rd. and parked at Webb Ranch, mostly because I’d done some photography with the owner Gary Webb a while back, and didn’t think he’d mind. I walked across the street and found myself on a bike trail that eventually led to a road that led to the entrance to the Stanford Dish Trail. There were big signs saying it isn’t a public park and to stay on the trail, etc. etc. – I saw some other people walking on it so figured as long as I didn’t feed the squirrels and chase the cows I wouldn’t have any guards tackling me.

I was walking in wool pants and long-sleeved shirt, donning my Nikon D3 with 70-200/2.8 lens on my Spider Holster (see my review here), and my Nikon D700 with 17-35/2.8 lens on my BlackRapid RS-5 strap over my shoulder, and did I mention that it’s all uphill to the dish? And that it was hot? And that I brought no water? I took it easy, and shot whatever looked interesting along the way. The weather was gorgeous, the clouds were all poofy and dramatically set in the cerulean blue sky, the fields were expansive and greeeen, and the cows, well… the cows were all laying around chewing cud, as cows will do. The money shot (above) was captured about halfway to the top with my D3/70-200 combo, and I was pretty sure it was gonna be a winner when I saw the composition. But I hiked all the way up to the dish because I’m not as lazy as I’d like to think, and I have to say it’s quite a nice little trail. I’ll have to go back again (with shorts) and do the whole loop.

There’s not much else to say, the photo was strong and I wanted to keep the cover clean and un-cluttered. My solution to avoiding a big Reader’s Choice Ballot snipe was to simply have another talking cow bubble. It was really the only design solution to be had, if you think about it.

Check out this issue of The Wave Magazine – it’s on the streets now, or you can view the interactive Flash version here.

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

What to do when the Sea Otter Classic people don’t have any good press images to use on the cover of your magazine? You look for other sources, of course! My fellow photographer/buddy Sam Fontejon is an avid sports enthusiast, and actually participates in the Sea Otter Classic every year, so I figured using some of his original artwork to depict the upcoming event was more than relevant. Not only does Sam excel at hurtling down mountains at breakneck speeds with astonished, goofy-faced expressions (amazed you made this jump, Sam?), but he’s a fantastic photographer in his own right, and often accompanies me on important shoots.

For this shot, Sam (the subject) set up two off-camera Nikon-SB-900 speedlights, one with a red gel. He used a Nikon D700 with a 50mm/1.4 lens. Sam set up the shot, then sped down the hill for his friend Raymond T. Mah to actually pull the trigger.

Thanks for the shot Sam, it made for a great cover!

That being said, I shot this beautifully-prepared scallop dish by Shokolaat almost six months ago for an advertising campaign. At the time I didn’t know I’d be using the image for The Wave’s Spring Dining issue cover, but here we are, using it this very day!

So what’s the take-home lesson for today? Shoot everything like it’s going to end up on a magazine cover! Well, not really – but it doesn’t hurt to think this way, you never know how your images will be used in the future.

When I wear my photographer hat, my natural inclination is to get nice, tight shots of a subject – to save myself from having to crop later. However, when the art director receives these files, he or she is left with little room to work with, potentially having to either force a re-shoot or simply end with a less-than-ideal cover. Here’s the limiting factors or barriers that can arise between the photographer and the AD:

1. Camera vs. Magazine Proportions
2. In-Camera Cropping vs. Magazine Bleed Requirements
3. Including Negative Space
4. Variety / Options

In this article, I’ll discuss these potential barriers and how they can be avoided in the photographer –> art director workflow.

Camera vs. Magazine Proportions

Most photos produced by digital SLRs have a length to width ratio of approximately 2:3 – or 4×6, like the common print size.  Although magazines vary widely in dimension, they tend to be closer to square than this wide rectangle proportion. If you’re into TV, allow me this analogy – cameras create a “widescreen HD” image but magazines tend to be more “standard def.” But instead of the infamous black bars, photos going on magazine covers are going to be seriously cropped!

What’s this mean to the photographer? You have to zoom out, my friends. Imagine the top and bottom of the image in your frame getting completely lopped off, so all your relevant content needs to be within that inner 4:5 ratio area. It feels really unnatural and uncreative from the photography standpoint, but trust me you’ll stay on the AD’s Christmas Card list if you follow these simple tips!

Not only do you need to consider the top and bottom areas being cropped off, but you need to allow even MORE space for the magazine trim (bleed area) and coverlines, which I’ll get to next.

In-Camera Cropping vs. Magazine Bleed Requirements

As you can see on the image to the right, pasting the original photo into the layout reveals how much is getting cut off on the top/bottom once the image is scaled to match the width of the cover.

The black bar shows the magazine’s “bleed” area – the part that will get trimmed off by the printer. Any photo/graphics that extend to the trim edge need to actually extend past this edge to avoid blank white paper showing along the edges in the final product. The bleed area on this particular magazine is pretty big (3/8″), but it’s typically about 1/8″ for most print media.

Even though I shot this photo, I didn’t allow myself enough headroom (literally!) for all the shots – it’s very challenging to envision the final product, especially when you’re crunched on time (I only had 20 minutes with the players for this shoot!). So as a photographer, you have this crazy pressure to be creative, get the lighting perfect, interact with your subject(s) to get them to relax, AND think about how the stupid AD is going to lay out the final magazine cover… it can be challenging to say the least!

To make this particular shot work as a cover mockup I (with my AD hat on) had to scale the image UP and crop the foreground player (Jason Hernandez) off at the knees. Sorry Jason, my bad. The photographer might get ticked that their “art” was cropped by the “designer,” but that’s the risk you run when not taking all the magazine factors to heart. Here’s the “fixed” layout below.

Including Negative Space

In a perfect world, your photos are SO good they grace the covers of national magazines without a single coverline covering them up. But let’s be realistic people – even National Geographic has to cover up their photos a little bit. A creative workaround is to include negative space in your compositions – areas for your eyes to rest (for photos), OR areas for type-crazy AD’s to fill up with copy (text). When I was shooting the shot in the mockup above, I was thinking about negative space, but not the overall cropping – so that nice open space I left on the green grass for coverlines was lost when I had to scale the image to fit the players correctly. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, right? Wrong.

Luckily I had another shot of a single player, Andre Luiz, kicking the ball towards me (I had protection). I left lots of open room around the edges of the frame (for cropping), and was able to include some decent amount of negative space (for coverlines). Plus, it had action, which is always a nice dynamic addition to grab potential readers’ attention.

The background has some distracting elements in it, but this was the best option I had at Stanton Field, and I didn’t want the sun (camera right) to be in Andre’s eyes. You can see on the final cover that the photo cropped really well; I was able to keep Andre’s whole body on the page, and doing some selective cutouts added some nice depth/3-dimensionality to the overall design. The aforementioned distracting background elements were easily masked out. Because Andre takes up a relatively small area on the cover, I was able to put the main coverline behind him, but make it very large. The ball, the V of the logo, and Andre’s body/leg position form a nice triangle to lead the eye and keep your attention on the page. And lastly, I was able to keep some of that nice negative space, even after adding the coverlines, which eases the eye and immediately draws your attention to that floating soccer ball.

Variety / Options

Whenever you are shooting for a magazine cover, you need to consider the ratio and bleed of the magazine when choosing your photographic compositions. You need to include negative space around your subject for coverlines. Lastly you need to offer a variety of concepts for the AD to choose from. If you have 20 minutes to shoot (see the 38 photos from my shoot with the San Jose Earthquakes here), make sure you’ve already set up your lighting for the first concept before anyone arrives – use an assistant or innocent bystander as a temporary subject to dial in all your settings. This will maximize the time you have with your subject as well as communicate to everyone involved that you’re on top of things and are a true professional.

Force yourself to change the shoot before you run out of time – to try another idea. If you work smart and are prepared, use any extra time to do something off-the-wall or unexpected. Getting the main concepts out of the way will not only boost your confidence, but it gives you the opportunity to really flex your creative muscle, without the stress that forces you into cookie-cutter, tried-and-true (see: boring) solutions. You never know, something crazy from the very end of your shoot may actually work and end up on the cover – you never know.

Regardless, giving your AD options, and a variety of compositions, angles, etc. will make their job easier, and make it more likely you’ll be called back for future work, which is kinda the point of all this, right? Right. Thanks for reading.

Special thanks to Earthquakes PR people Niki Shinn and Jordan Stepp for setting up the shoot. Thanks to players Andre Ruiz, Chris Leitch and Jason Hernandez for taking the time to show up and do whatever I said. Muchos gracias to Dean Davidson for being my lighting assistant. Thanks to The Wave Magazine for employing me, check out the final online-version of the magazine here.

Here’s a nice little co-branded design I came up with to promote both The Wave Magazine and its partnership with Live Nation’s concert giveaways. Is it simple enough? Probably not – but as designers we have to simply do our best.