Chandler Crowell Photography

Commercial Photography

by

In case you haven’t been there in a while, Cleveland is definitely a cool place to visit. We’ve been there a handful of times in the past few years and each time it becomes more clear that Cleveland does in fact rock.

On one of our trips, we were hired by a Pittsburgh Ad Agency to capture images for the Boler School of Business at John Carroll University. The cool thing was that our adventures took us not only to the campus, but also to several key companies around the area who have hired John Carroll graduates.

We traveled from the Eaton corporate campus, to the city center including the historic Higbee Building, financial district and to the theater district. It was an ambitious schedule, but an exciting assignment. We certainly got a nice tour of Cleveland along the way and got to meet a lot of great people and created environmental portraits that will serve the school well in highlighting their student successes.

These types of shoots require that you plan ahead and make sure that you have what you need to face unknown lighting conditions while also staying compact enough to easily maneuver between locations.

 

Magazine Cover Shoot

by

It was great to hear from Commercial Integrator again to shoot another cover for their magazine.
For this cover, we photographed Bill McIntosh, Co-Founder and President of Synergy Media Group.
The magazine’s Art Director wanted to show how Synergy Media Group is breaking all the rules by bringing integration and consulting under one roof.  Their idea of Bill ripping up the rules was a cool one and Bill was happy to play along.

After we had the cover shots done, we did several shots of Bill with CEO Greg Carpenter and principal David Vargo for the inside story. Thanks to the guys from Synergy Media Group, you were a blast to work with!

Pittsburgh-Photographers

Image 1 of 1

Editorial Photography – Pittsburgh Entrepreneur Lani Lazzari

by

We were commissioned by Auve Daily, a lifestyle magazine out of San Fransisco to photograph
local entrepreneur Lani Lazzari. Lani started her skincare product, Simple Sugars,
at 11 years old in her family’s kitchen. Her goal was to develop an all-natural product that would be safe for sensitive skin. At age 19, Lani appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank and landed an investment deal with Mark Cuban.  Simple Sugars is now a huge success!

We photographed Lani at her new office and distribution center. This place is really cool.
Lots of pink, graffiti and inspirational quotes all over the walls. We had 3 different set ups to shoot
of Lani and didn’t want to take up too much of her time so we worked fast. In between setups Lani was still able to get work done and we were able to get some great shots.

 

Pittsburgh-Editorial-Portrait-Photographer

Image 1 of 1

Alumni Magazine Portrait Photography

by

We were contacted by the Editor from Occidental College magazine from L.A. to photograph one of their alumns who is now an award winning Master of Science student at Carnegie Mellon University.  Even though we are very familiar with CMU’s campus, we wanted to find a location that was both really cool and also out of the way.  So we packed up the camera and took a beautiful spring morning to scout. We found many unique areas around campus and after sending the scout pics off to the
editor, we all agreed on a location for the shoot.

This location had tons of available light, but we wanted a little more control over the quality.
We also wanted to keep the setup small and tight since we were in a public area.
We used flags to keep most of the available light off of Juan and then lit him with
a single medium softbox on a battery powered head. Juan was awesome!  The magazine
was happy and we ended up with many great shots, it was hard to choose a final.

 

University-Portrait-Photography

Image 1 of 1

Editorial Portrait Photography

by

We were asked to be a part of a book project photographing veteran ace fighter pilots from WWII.
To be a flying ace you had to shoot down at least 5 enemy aircraft during aerial combat.
This is a project that was right up our alley.  We were excited to meet and photograph these extraordinary men.  Two ace’s lived in Virginia and one in Maryland.  After scheduling and working out the logistics, we loaded up the gear, the cooler and itunes and headed for Virginia Beach.

We only had about two hours with each Ace in their home so we wanted to keep setup simple.
Talk about southern hospitality.  They welcomed us into their homes and after some great
conversation, we left with some beautiful shots and even some cookies for the ride back to Pittsburgh.  Thanks to the ace’s and everyone involved that made this assignment a success!

Commercial Photography – Pennsylvania Solar Farm

by

On a gorgeous fall morning we were on location photographing for a local PA solar company.
I have never photographed solar panels before.  You don’t realize how huge these things are until you’re right up close to one.
For this portrait we left the battery packs in the car and used the sun as a back light.  We then front filled Dave with a silver reflector.  We shot low and wide skimming one of the panels for a little bit of drama.

photocrati gallery

Environmental Portraits for Advertising

by

We were fortunate to be sent on assignment for one of our oldest clients.  We love that we have been able to keep a relationship with this company for over a decade.  We happened to be traveling through Pennsylvania and Maryland on our way to Virginia for another assignment.  Since we were passing through their footprint, we were able to stop at two of their shop locations to capture some environmental portraits of a few of their long term employees.  These guys were all great to work with and we had a lot of laughs while capturing the images.  Great employees for sure!  The company is lucky to have them.

photocrati gallery

Corporate Headshot Photography

by

Pittsburgh has some awesome locations to shoot environmental corporate portraits.  Shooting on the street can be tricky.  You always have that dude that stands around watching the shoot while adding his two cents and asking questions about your gear.  Keeping your subject comfortable while politely getting your new best friend to move along is an art form in itself, but that is just part of the downtown experience.  It was a cloudy day in Pittsburgh (hard to believe, I know) which gave us beautiful soft natural light.  Soft light, strong composition and a great model = successful shoot.

photocrati gallery

Commercial Advertising Photography

by

Ahhh.. Spring. A much welcomed sunny and warm day in Pittsburgh found us photographing undergraduates around campus. On this assignment, we were asked to photograph four separate students, each at two different locations. The art director and I scouted a few locations in the morning while the crew unloaded the gear. The cool part about this job was after nailing down a few key locations to shoot, we still found different location options as we went through the day. Knowing we wanted to provide our client with a lot of options, it was important to have a crew that could keep up. A great crew plus talented art direction equals awesome shots! A few of our favorites are below.

photocrati gallery

Magazine Shoot with Debra Lam

by

We were commissioned by a magazine out of California to photograph Pittsburgh’s Chief Innovation and Performance Officer Debra Lam. This is a newly created position as part of Mayor Bill Peduto’s executive team and puts Pittsburgh on the sustainability map with other forward thinking cities such as San Francisco and Portland.

I have always loved the lobby of Pittsburgh’s City County Building. While I have photographed in the building before, I never had the opportunity to photograph in the lobby. Debra gave us the o.k. to shoot wherever we wanted, so we went for it. Photographing anyone in a busy public space always has its challenges. After making sure my liability insurance was paid up, I scouted and came up with a plan. You have to stay compact and out of the way, making sure no one stumbles over your gear. You also have to keep your subject relaxed as strangers walk by, stop, stare and of course comment on what you’re doing. I’ve become immune to the public audience, but find it important to remember that often times, our subjects may feel uncomfortable. Debra handled it all like a pro and gave us these beautiful and elegant shots.photocrati gallery