Pittsburgh Entrepreneur Lani Lazzari

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.

Alumni Magazine Portrait Photography

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.

Editorial Portrait Photography

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

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.

C-Suite Executive Portraits

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 c-suite position on 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 portraits.

Editorial Portrait Photography

On a cold February afternoon, we headed out to a local university to shoot this editorial portrait of Barry for their Alumni Magazine.  The cool thing about this assignment was that we were shooting for multiple platforms, a printed magazine and also their iPad app which incorporates a lot of transition movements.  Really cool.  This also meant I had to stick to a tripod to make sure everything matched up.  We shot tethered so the art director could make sure we had plenty of options.   We found this awesome spot with tons of shapes and soft available light.  We added a single softbox to punch up the light on Barry.

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