Nike Running Shoe

I’ve been talking about this shot lately and I realized I hadn’t ever posted it here. It was this shot that inspired the work I did for Portland Monthly. 

It’s a rare occurrence, but this wasn’t a shot that I planned out far ahead. I was getting ready for a meeting with Nike and I had been warned I couldn’t show the Adidas shoes I had in my book. With that in mind I dropped by the Nike factory store to see what caught my eye. I grabbed a bright orange basketball shoe then went looking for something that would work together with that shot. I saw these and when I noticed one of the selling points was their lightweight construction this idea popped into my head. The biggest challenge was keeping the batting from falling apart while balancing a shoe on top of it all on top of a light stand. 

Check out lots more shoes, as well as all kinds of other cool stuff, on my website.

Tear Sheet:

I am very excited to report that this months Portland Monthly magazine (7th largest city magazine in the country) comes to you featuring my images. Every time I have an opportunity to shoot editorial work I am freshly reminded how good it feels to have your images in print in your hands.    

The way this shoot came together was very much a story of how things are “supposed to” work in the photography marketing game. I went to a Biznik meeting and made a contact who I had coffee with a few times. She then introduced me to one of the art directors at the magazine. We setup a meeting and one of the images I showed when we were meeting was a personal shoot I had done which had the same fake clouds. It sparked an idea and later that month I was asked to help out on this shoot. This is pretty much exactly what I always hope to have happen. Once the shoot was underway it was just as smooth. The art director was smart, pleasant, and really good at her job. The shoot took all day and a ton of fishing line but there weren’t any surprises.

One of the biggest pleasures of working with a good client is that the images come back in layout looking even better than when you sent them. That is exactly what happened here and I can’t wait to work with them again.

See more of my work still life work, including the shot that inspired this, at joshrosscreative.com

Hammer & Sickle Vodka

I shot this almost a month ago but never got a chance to post it here, so here it is. I have been shooting a ton of bottles lately and when I was at the liquor store one day I spotted this gorgeous packaging. Pretty much had to shoot it but originally I had planned to add a bunch of vector graphics to the background. Soviet propaganda style stuff was what I had in mind but after I shot it and finished the retouching on the bottle nothing seemed to work quite right. After sitting with it for a bit I realized it was because the bottle was so simple and clean and the image needed to reflect that. I really love this bottle and I definitely recommend you check out the guys who designed it. 

As always you can see more bottles, liquor, and splashes as well as all kinds of other cool stuff on my website.

Family

I shot this during a family outing a week or two ago. It was a beautiful day and we were out enjoying the weather along with our new Osprey baby backpack. The little guy loves it and we had an amazing day walking through Forest park in Portland. I brought my Rolleiflex along and finished a roll during the day. 

It Gives You Wings

Last time I shot a can of Redbull I knew right away the shot I wanted to do. However I also lamented the fact that it didn’t directly include a nod to their cartoon commercials. I always enjoyed those commercials and when I think of Redbull advertising that’s what I immediately bring to mind even with all the other things they have done over the years. When I finished the image I showed it to Redbull on twitter and they responded with a follow and a retweet. As time passed I continued to think about the “it gives you wings” tagline as well as how much I loved the design of Redbulls new line of flavors. I decided to shoot them a tweet and see if they would send me some of the new cans. Turns out they were happy to. 

This time around I knew I wanted to incorporate the wings. The original plan had been to have all three of the cans and background colors in one image but after I finished all the images I couldn’t bring myself to shrink them down to fit all three into one image. I love how graphic they turned out and I really wanted each can to shine on it’s own.  

Check out more bottles, cans, splashes, and general awesomeness at http://www.joshrosscreative.com/still_life.php

Yeyo Tequila

The owner of Yeyo and I connected on twitter and I checked out their site. When it comes to still life work I have always specialized in luxury goods and there are a few specialties within that umbrella including bottles and liquid photography. Yeyo as a brand fits perfectly so I asked if he would mind sending me a bottle as I wanted to shoot it. He said yes and asked for my address. It seemed odd how quick and nonchalant he was about sending a nice bottle of tequila to someone he didn’t know off of twitter. Then yesterday when I got the package it all made more sense. He took me literally at my word and sent an empty bottle! That’s fine with me though as that’s all I needed. 

As a photographer there is always something new and unexpected to problem solve and this was no different. I filled it with water and as soon as I backlit the bottle tons of little bubbles showed up. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do as it was definitely going to be an issue. It turns out this is around a second grade level science fact and a bit of googling turned up that I needed to use distilled water. With that out of the way the rest of the shot was fairly straight forward. The only other problem I encountered was a lot of imperfection in the glass. This isn’t actually all that unusual but the nature of the imperfections combined with the frosted glass made for a challenge. Nothing I couldn’t handle but it did require a good amount of time. 

Check out more bottle and liquor photography on my website at http://www.joshrosscreative.com/still_life.php

For The Music

Yesterday I posted about the retirement of my AC100 images. Today it’s the For The Music gallery. Just continuing to focus. 

In the beginning of 2011 I decided to take a Rolleiflex and some film and spend some time getting to know the people who are involved in todays rave scene. A lot of people think of the rave scene in Southern California as being something from the 90’s and yet many of the people I met weren’t even walking by 1990. Some weren’t even alive. What I found was that the whole movement had matured but the core value of acceptance and the love of the music was as strong as ever.

See more of my portrait work at joshrosscreative.com.

The 2011 AC100

I have decided it’s time to retire some of the images in my portfolio. I love them all but it’s important to stay focused.

A friend of mine shoots finish line portraits at many of the west coast ultramarathons and since I am a fellow runner, no ultras for me, and photographer he invited me to come hang out. These races are far from the commercial polish of your typical marathon and I wanted to be sure to stay true to the spirit of the race. So although I did not shoot this particular event on film I post processed them as Neopan 1600. It’s a film I love when I want gritty, grainy, look with lots of energy and it perfectly fits the event. 

An Interview About… Me

Modelixir is an international magazine produced in French and English covering a variety of topics. In each issue they pick a different type of photographer to be interviewed and in the most recent issue I was chosen to represent product photography. Let me know if you learn anything new about me. I think I did.  

As always, check out more of my still life work on my website at joshrosscreative.com.

Troemner Website Images

Troemner is a company that makes scientific measuring equipment. They are incredibly well known and respected when it comes to certified weights but they also make and sell a variety of other lab equipment. Right now they are getting a new website and the art director who is handling it thought I would be perfect for the type of shots he wanted for each section. He wanted to shoot low, wide, and heroic, or in other words exactly how I like to shoot. What I didn’t know at the time is that the weights have a mirror finish and that was going to prove to be an extra challenge! Nothing insurmountable though and we were able to get some great images for the new site. 

As always, check out more of my still life work on my website at joshrosscreative.com.