Pick Up The Phone!

Stressed about your company’s visual needs? Would you rather spend time having fun in the sun? Let Studio 3 ease your mind this summer. We’ve been smashing out countless videos back to back, while continuously providing outstanding photography and flawless production. Oh, did we also mention that our digital team is amaze balls? Trust us, you don’t want to be the only tanless, overworked one at the company party because you didn’t know about Studio 3. Save the embarrassment of all the “are you kidding me?” looks. We’ll make sure you meet that crazy deadline. There’s no reason to miss out on all the perks of working with Studio 3. And no reason to keep on reading, you’re wasting precious beach time – make a Pina Colada, and start dialing!! Make that golden phone call!!!
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And to make it that much easier, if you didn’t have our number yet, here ya go:

Portland Studio 503.238.1748, ask for Dalcetta

Seattle Studio 206.282.0939, ask for Marcella

 
 

Studio 3, The Juicing Mixologist.

This summer, Studio 3 is checking off our to-do list to get ready for this hot bod rockin’ weather! Tanning spray, check. Sunscreen, check. Sunglasses, check. Healthy glowing summer bod, thanks to our new Breville Juicer, check! Studio 3 has officially caught the juicing fever! We’re hopping on the bandwagon and throwing in all the fresh produce this season has to offer us.
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Hearing the constant hype of the newest health craze, we could not wait to take part in it. Who better to capture the spirit of our new found lifestyle, than Lead Shooter Craig Wagner! Thanks to Craig for beautifully highlighting the latest addition to our kitchen and for making veggies and fruit look oh-so-juicing-good! Want to join in on the fun? Try one of our favorite refreshing juice recipes that will get you into a lean, mean, summer heat fighting machine!

1/2 cucumber 
1/4 a small Honeydew melon
Small bunch of seedless white grapes
2 kiwi fruits (without skin)
Large handful of spinach
Small sprig of mint
1 lemon

Cut a cucumber in half. Cut the honeydew, and remove the rind as it’s not good for juicers. Juice the cucumber, honeydew, grapes, kiwi, spinach, lemon and mint. Drink immediately.

*For an exclusive Studio 3 version…

Add a shot of ice cold Vodka.

Or two.

Check out this great blog to read more about the health benefits that come with juicing and find a recipe or two that works for you!

 
 
 

The Sweet Change Of Seasons!!

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In the change of seasons, we at Studio 3 like to capture the highlights of what each period has to offer. Here, we’ve highlighted the rustic winter feel with its bright beautiful contributions. Senior Shooter David Bell goes in depth about his inspiration behind the shoot:
“This is one of a series of 4 shots. The harvest season was coming to an end, winter was starting to set in. I wanted to show the beauty and pretty color of the season. The dark wood and lighting with longer shadows is indicative of winter. The sun is low and we have shortened days with more darkness. Within this is the pop of colors of the season. I am always so happy to see the Satsumas return to the market. They are so bright, sweet and refreshing. The bright green leaves contrasting against the bright orange is always a treat. The rich red color of local Tart Cranberries along with sweet earthy brown Chestnuts make for delicious feast to the taste and eyes.

Pretty dappled lighting created in studio with strobe light captured with a Hasselblad camera with a longer lens to compress the elements. Bringing all of this together.”
– David Bell
Below, are the rest of the series. These gorgeous shots embody everything David spoke of. What a great way to bring bold and beautiful color to a dark and cold season. The pop of color helps us prepare for what the upcoming seasons will bring! While we wait for the sunshine, it’s warmth, gardens of colorful flowers and bold greenery to make it’s comeback; we can thank David for reminding us to skip the hot chocolate and slices of pie every once in a while, and enjoy the sweet delicacies that nature has to offer during the winter season.
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Happy sweet change of seasons!!!

Portfolio Perfection!

At Studio 3, we are constantly improving our portfolio by being inspired by photography trends, current advertising campaigns, as well as feedback from local portfolio shows. This particular shoot was meant for photographer Craig Wagner. We had been constantly receiving client needs that included drinks, food, incorporated in a lifestyle environment. We decided to meet this need, by heading to a Portland hotspot, Produce Row. Below you can read Liz Swales, the Portland producer’s take on the shoot…

The Seattle marketing team came to me with the request of adding some beautiful, natural, and simple lifestyle, drink shots to Craig Wagner’s portfolio.
The first thing that came to my mind was Produce Row, a place that I used to manage and call home. The bar, lighting, classic nature and overall feel of the well known restaurant and bar in Portland, Oregon made it a dream to shoot in.
We were able to use what Produce Row has to offer, lots of whiskey, fancy mixology, and a bar with 25 taps. It was the perfect set up. With the addition of Craig’s beautiful lighting and creativity, we were able to create classy images that met the request.
I set up the shoot among two days, knowing from previous experience that there are only about 3 hours in the day the restaurant is slow. I didn’t want our shoot to affect or be effected by their overall patrons.
This made our team work well and get our creative ideas working in a timely fashion.
It was a great experience combining efforts with our team and my old team at Produce Row, while capturing the beauty and knowledge of drink mixing.
-Liz Swales

And of course, this story wouldn’t be complete without Craig Wagner’s insight on how he was able to capture such beautiful images.

The sequence of the bartender making a drink are amongst my favorite, I created a bit of energy by dragging the shutter to allow movement, the soft natural light was a bonus.
With mixology being all of the rage these days, I thought it be nice to expand my portfolio with some environmental shots, my producer sent our scout to a few locations including Produce Row, which was remodeled in 2010, the space, environment and lighting made it the perfect choice for this particular project.
Shooting on location can be challenging, light conditions can change rapidly, space can be tight and you may need to shoot during business
hours. We chose to break the shoot into two afternoon sessions to lower our impact on their patrons.
A large bank of north facing windows provided beautiful natural light. Only using a flexfill and a kicker light in addition allowed us to move
around the venue quickly.
-Craig Wagner

Check out Craig Wagner’s beautiful images below and be sure to give us a call for your next on location shoot!
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Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row

Drinks on Seattle Magazine!

Seattle Magazine recently approached Chris Eltrich, to do a drink photography shoot. Seattle Magazine’s goal was to showcase the best watering holes in Seattle. In order to truly capture the spirit of each Seattle destination, they gave Studio 3 the task of capturing each bar’s signature cocktail’s unique look and recipe. Luckily, we had help from a mixologist, from each bar. The mixologists whipped up the drinks, and we couldn’t be happier with their styling skills.
On set, we enjoyed hanging out with all of the talented mixologists and testing all of the different cocktails. Our favorite beverage included the salad drink, it made us all feel quite “healthy”. It’s multipurpose nature, won us all over. However, with that said there wasn’t a cocktail that didn’t agree with at least one of us! We can’t wait to visit these spots as a team and try all of their fun drinks!
Besides the team having a blast on set, Seattle magazine was quite impressed with the results, running one of the images as the cover. Stephanie Mennella, from Seattle Magazine, shared a few words with us on the feedback received regarding the images:

It looks AMAZING!! It’s getting tons of compliments, and I appreciate the extra mile you guys went to accommodate the hectic schedule of getting all the drinks shot.

With such awesome words, we couldn’t help but feel great. It’s always a blast working with Seattle Magazine, especially when spirits are involved. We look forward to our next shoot with them and hope perhaps it involves Seattle’s best restaurants…
On that note, we expect the months ahead to be full of fun drink photography shoots and hope to get a call to work with you on your next drink project!

drink photographyThe infamous salad cocktail from Rocco’s

 

Drink PhotographyA delightful concoction from Cafe Flora

 

Drink PhotographyThe cover image, a beautiful treat from Stoneburner

 
This edition of Seattle Magazine is now available on newsstands, so check it out!

Food Photographer David Bell Fish Out of Water

It’s finally summer and that means summer food, like delicious fish…or sardines? David Bell Studio 3’s Food Photographer had quite the challenge ahead of him making the shiny, little fish look quite scrumptious. He decided to shoot a recipe of sardines, radishes, and lemon, highlighting the freshness of it all. Read below to learn about his techniques and inspiration behind the series:

I wanted to shoot this particular recipe, because it is that time of year when the radishes are fresh, yummy, and abundant. As you will see in the images the radishes are roasted, which brings out that fresh, rich flavor that we all love. Not to mention the beautiful color!

Food Photographer

Pairing the radishes with a strong taste, like sardines, makes a very nice earth and ocean dish…delighting the taste buds. Knowing the mix between the two I knew I wanted to create a beautiful daylight effect. Being the control freak that I am I knew I could control this lighting and really bring out the uniqueness of this dish and to create that I used the Studio Strobes. I used the Hasselblad tilt shift adapter to capture the details and showcase the beauty in the elements. I wanted a surface that was not too rustic or modern. My intention was to find a table that could easily be in ones home or even a restaurant.
In the images below I was trying to attain a real & natural look, without everything being overly styled and perfect. For this project I chose to work with a stylist that was trying to break into the industry. This was a fun experience!
I think the lack of perfection in the styling is what draws you in and makes you want to try the dish. I hope this series will make the viewer want to experiment with sardines and fresh, earthy produce!

Food Photographer

Food Photographer

To view more Food Photography images created at Studio 3 please click here!

Beverage Photographer David Bell Espresso Made Easy!

It’s a known fact that all of us, at Studio 3 Inc., love coffee. One thing we love more than drinking this delectable beverage is highlighting its beauty through the lens. Our most recent Drink Series was shot and the set was designed by Beverage Photographer David Bell, characterizing the steps necessary to make a fantastic cup of coffee with the amazing Moka Pot. David, details his inspiration behind this specific shoot, along with his love for the product:

When I was in Italy, staying with a family, this was how our coffee was made every day. What a wonderful memory! Ahhh…the smell of espresso is always accessible when you have a Moka Pot, more commonly known as the “stovetop espresso maker”. The coffee that the Moka Pot makes is a cross between espresso and drip coffee. It’s simplicity is similar to Instant Coffee with an amazing flavor. It’s strong, but not bitter – perfection!

This product was brought to us thanks to it’s wonderful creators Luigi De Ponti and Alfonso Bialetti. This invention, has made enjoying espresso available to everyone, which is what I wanted to showcase in my step by step imagery. So I decided to create a series showcasing the brilliance of this machine.

I shot this series utilizing one of my favorite cameras the Hasselblad H-39. I also used a very long lens in order to capture the detail and the background. For image composition I used bright colored cups to help separate the pot from the background. This helps to create color and interesting reflections in the product.

As long as you have the right bean variety and grind, you can always count on a wonderful cup of joe anytime of day!

David Bell’s Espresso Made Easy Image Series is below!

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Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

 
To view more Drink Photography created by David Bell and other photographers at Studio 3 please click here!

Product Photography by Craig Wagner!

We love testing out the latest gear releases, so when we had the chance to test out the Broncolor Scoro S power pack we decided we wanted to test it to the limit! What better way to see what it can do then to combine it with an afternoon of water splashes and fruit drops. Here are a few words from Craig Wagner who loves Product Photography!

My first intention was just to test out the pack. What I found is that the Broncolor Scoro S pack is extremely versatile with the ability to adjust flash duration, as well as the triggering delay. We setup a 33 gallon tank filled it with water powered up the Scoro S pack, attached two heads, one with a medium umbrella on the background and another with 7-inch silver reflector coming from just right of camera.  Sometimes with the newer photo equipment you have to refer to the user manual in order to figure out all the little intricacies of the equipment.  But the Scoro S is very user friendly with a fantastic display menu allowing the user to easily navigate and adjust to the desired settings.  We played around a lot with the adjustable flash duration settings dialing it one way or the other depending on if we wanted a little motion drag or tack sharp precision in our image.  For the first image I suspended the apple just below the water surface and used a stream of water to create the burst.

Product Photography

 The second image was created by dropping the peppers into the tank of water.  Using the studio’s infrared triggering device allowed us to consistently capture the peppers in the desired placement.

Product Photography

For this shoot I used the Canon 5d Mklll with the Canon 100mm lens.  With the camera attached to the infrared trigger we were able to simultaneously remotely fire the camera when the infrared lazer stream was broken by the motion of the falling peppers. – Craig Wagner

Photographer Craig Wagner: Meet the FLESHRIPPER..

Photographer Craig Wagner at Studio 3 worked on this upcoming HALLOWEEN image! See below for the scary story.

This Halloween morning started out like any ordinary morning.  I arrived at the studio in the eerie dark, Starbucks coffee in hand ready for the days work.  I’m usually the first to arrive at the studio, but today I noticed something odd!  The back door was propped open and the alarm was not activated.  I peered inside not quite sure if it was safe to enter.  Behind me I heard foot steps, as I turned I was startled by our studio producer Rachel Meyer.  I was glad she showed up when she did since now I’m not alone…  Once inside I hit the lights, NOTHING! I grabbed a flash light from the cabinet and we started to head for the circuit breakers.  As we entered into the darkness of the wood shop, I encouraged fearless Rachel to lead the way, my trembling hand holding the dimming flashlight.  Suddenly I heard the deafening sound of a chainsaw with the words, “FLESHRIPPER” written on the blade! So I bolted…out the back door alone. As I ran down the street, I realized…..I survived my meeting with THE FLESHRIPPER!

– Studio 3 Survivor

Photographer Craig Wagner

THE FLESHRIPPER IN ACTION! Coming to a studio near you.

Photographer Craig Wagner

Try your own, “Fleshripper Martini”! You might be one of the lucky survivors…

Photographer Craig Wagner

I can’t really say where my inspiration came from for this image, perhaps it was from listening to Cosby’s “Chicken Heart” way to many time as a kid. What ever the exact inspiration we had a blast in the studio. Myself and the crew definitely had the “ghoulish spirit” this year. We pulled together props to build the set, sprayed fake blood all over our Studio Producer Rachel, and Matt chose to play the part of Michael Myers. We were ready to go! This is the type of scene I love to light because it’s dark and moody with subtle details. And the blood made it a fun challenge!
I found shooting with our Canon system exporting into Lightroom perfect for this adventure and of course I used my Speedtrons. I wonder what the sequel will be like. – Craig Wagner