GoodEye Photography + Design Blog » Bars

Cafe Cruz, Soquel – Drinks (Restaurant Photography)

Chris Schmauch — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:09:00 +0000

Cafe Cruz in Soquel, California is a well-known gem of a restaurant for locals and visitors alike. They’ve got tons of great Yelp reviews, and for good reason! Nikki and her husband have done a great job over the last 15-odd-years making thie restaurant into a part of Santa Cruz culture and frequent destination for discerning diners. The food and drinks are great, and the atmosphere is very friendly to families and intimate date nights alike.

But enough of that, on to the photos! Here’s some drink photography I captured while visiting – and a few shots of the bartender in action. More photos to see at www.GoodEyePhotography.com. Leave a comment if you can think of something clever to say.

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Kaama Lounge Cocktails

Chris Schmauch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:41:05 +0000

Jared at Kaama Lounge whipped up some snazzy new cocktails to photograph today. The ones I tasted are as great on the palate as they are on the eyes! Feast your peepers on these, folks – my faves below. Or you can just check out all the photos from the shoot.

For you strobist people, I shot most of these with four speedlights – two SB-800s firing through a softbox camera left; one unmodified SB-800 firing directly behind/through the drinks (or gridded camera right and back for the martinis), and one SB-600 about 8′ away in the next booth – which is what’s creating the amazing background through the grid-like wall.

Bling Nation + Paypal + Local Business = Awesomeness

Chris Schmauch — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:23:29 +0000

I met up with my friend and business partner Joelle Cruz today to do a shoot for one of our new advertising clients – Bling Nation. This is a fast-growing, well funded company that has entered the financial processing arena – competing with credit & debit cards at the local business level. They’ve recently partnered with a little company named PayPal, so it’s just a matter of time before everyone’s “blinging” to pay for their coffee at the local shop. In a nutshell, the consumer puts a sticker (with a unique, embedded RFID inside) on their cell phone. To pay for an item, you simply tap your phone on the business’ bling thing and the receipt is texted to you. A small business can start using the Bling setup at no cost (for now) – and can even manage and track their customers’ usage and control promotions. On top of that, Bling charges half the amount as credit and debit card companies for processing transactions. Bling is only in Palo Alto for now, but they’ll be expanding dramatically in the coming months!

Joelle and I visited some of the local Palo Alto businesses to get shots of the owners and the Bling point-of-sale collateral. One of Bling’s promotions is they’re giving out their stickers to consumers pre-loaded with $20! You simply register it at the business you picked it up at and start spending right away. Check out the next issue of Made in Palo Alto magazine as we’ll be bundling these $20 bling tags in every issue…

This is Patama Roj, owner of Fraiche Yogurt in Palo Alto. I’d actually met her before when I took some photos of her place back in April. She’s promoting her baked goods right now, and as I pushed a sample into my mouth I can say that’s a growth business for Fraiche – man they are good!!

This is a cashier at Coupa Cafe on the Stanford University campus – he was kind enough to pose for a few shots even though he had no idea we were coming. He was a pretty photogenic guy, though, and was a good sport.

This is Jean Paul Coupal, owner of both Coupa Cafes in Palo Alto – this one on Ramona St. Note the Bling gear and the signature shamrock in the latte. Nice!

This is Jimmy Viglizzo, owner of Johnny V’s Sports Cafe on the Stanford Campus. Jimmy is a friendly guy and was excited to show off his Bling point-of-sale setup.

Lynn at University Cafe was kind enough to pose for us during the busy lunch hour, showing us her Bling setup. Another great coffee joint!

Lastly we ventured over to Antonio’s Nut House on California Ave. in Palo Alto. Bling works in bars too, as our friendly motorcycle dude demonstrated below.

Junnoon (New Lounge, Cocktails)

Chris Schmauch — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:25:50 +0000

I shot Junnoon in 2008 a couple times. The first time was overall coverage of the place, my typical new-client-gets-a-little-bit-of-everything photography. A couple months later I took a few shots to promote their outside brunch dining area, which is really nice. Fast forward two years, and Priya, the COO, calls me up saying they’ve redesigned the lounge area and need some shots for the PR Firm Wagstaff Worldwide to promote. Having worked with Wagstaff frequently in the past, I knew what they’d be looking for, and also was keenly aware that they’re used to my “several hour” turnaround time for the shots. With an evening shoot set up and those high expectations on my shoulders, I was prepped for a late night!

Even though Priya only needed a few shots of the lounge, I couldn’t sit still and just wait for people to show up. I took a few interiors, some candids of the hostesses, some shots outside, some details here and there, some cocktails… you get the picture. In the end, the shots they needed were probably lost in the middle of a full portfolio of new photos – but hey, when you pay for my services you always get more than you bargained for! Enjoy the photos and slideshow below, click here for all the photos from the shoot.

Enjoy the Slideshow Below, Click for a Full Screen Presentation

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Drink it up Palo Altans!

Chris Schmauch — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:50:17 +0000

If you’re looking for a place to drop in for a cocktail with friends, maybe some fine dining or enjoy a custom-made chocolate – stop by Shokolaat on University Ave. in Palo Alto. It’s a restaurant, patisserie, chocolatier and lounge, all wrapped up in one neat little package. Tell them Chris from GoodEye Photography says “hey”! We spent about ten minutes with this “lifestyle” shoot – our “models” did a pretty good job looking natural; I know it’s a tough thing to do with a camera in your face and strobes firing every few seconds. We really only needed a couple shots, so it was relatively quick and painless. I think if there was actually alcohol in those drinks things could’ve gotten a little crazy… Enjoy all 50 photos here.

Fibbar & Molly Magee’s

Chris Schmauch — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Nice guy named Liam owns both these well-known local Irish bars. Molly Magee’s is in Mountain View, Fibbar Magee’s is in Sunnyvale. They are very similar in execution, here’s a few photos from the shoot. I did do some HDR processing on some of the shots as they are very dark inside, but the flip side is all the grungy details are really brought out – well I guess you can say the “character” shows through

Trevese, the Inside Story

Chris Schmauch — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Like that other restaurant, Trevese has whipped the old victorian-style mansion into an environmentally-friendly frenzy. I don’t know exactly what it means but The Wave can explain it better here. Something about ethics. Whatever.

I’d been trying for over a year to find an excuse to get some interior photos of this fancy restaurant and finally it worked out. The place is pretty amazing, I can only imagine the food lives up to the ambience. Maybe next time.

UPDATE 8/2009: Unfortunately Trevese has closed its doors. It’s unfortunate as it had so much going for it, especially with its recently-acquired Michelin Star rating. Best of luck to you, Michael Miller. Can’t wait to see what’s next!