Erik Knudsen: Our Newest Team Member

We are so thrilled to inform you that someone has joined the fun house! Welcome our newest team member, Erik! He has a great story and we are excited to be apart of it.  Read below to learn more about Studio 3 Seattle’s new Assistant!

            I grew up on a skateboard in a small, Florida town. Constantly exploring my area and other cities, I met interesting people and saw many sides of many cities. With so many places to skate, trick combinations to experiment with and attempts gone wrong, I realized that skateboarding was a mental game. Those experiences pushed me to be creative and persistent – which is a great starting point for someone entering photography.
 
            Another personality-molding factor was that while I skated around in Florida, my mother was living in The Netherlands. Almost every year I would spend a month or two overseas. Being exposed to alternative cultures and ways of thinking at such a young age made me realize how much the world has to offer – and that Florida could never be my last stop.
 
            What I hadn’t yet mentioned, was that my father constantly talked to me about photography. Most of the time I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was more interested in skateboarding. Years later, I now realize his plan was flawless. The black-and-white film class in high school was my favorite. Followed up with a host of photography and video classes, I was hooked. Graduating with a photojournalism degree, I was well on my way to a career in photography.
 
            Realizing that my true interests reside in commercial photography and that the world was a giant place to explore, I convinced my fiancé to fly with me to Seattle. Without any idea of how it would work, we bought a couple of one-way tickets and headed west to crash my friend’s couch. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
 
            After a suspenseful interviewing process, I was brought onto the Studio 3 Seattle team and couldn’t be happier. It just seems right.

Erik_Portrait_0749

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!
portfolio
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row

Commercial Lifestyle Photographer Matt Jebbia Summer Fun!

This shoot was a fun collaboration between many of us here at the studio. What made it work was having access to some great vintage props, a great model and a perfect morning of Seattle summer weather. A few words from Commercial Lifestyle Photographer Matt Jebbia!

We came up with the concept of using Dick’s burgers due to the upcoming 60th anniversary of “Dick’s Drive-In”, and we were lucky that fellow Studio 3’s Commercial Product Photographer David Bell had the perfect vintage VW that he allowed us to use.

Commercial Lifestyle Photographer

Since we were a bit worried about taking this awesome vintage car on location I decided to use the Studio 3 parking lot. It provided a nice backdrop and allowed us to utilize some studio equipment that would have been harder to use out on location.
We set up a 6×12 foot sail in the parking lot that helped to diffuse the harsh noon sun, added a medium soft-box to add some light to our models face, and played around with some different camera angles and props to bring this shoot to life.  We use a variety of camera systems at Studio 3 but for this shoot I opted to use the Hasselblad H2d with an 80mm lens.  It’s not my camera of choice for location shoots but since we were 10 feet from the studio door it made it easy to use and allowed us to shoot tethered for quick image review.

Commercial Lifestyle Photographer

I have a coca cola image in my portfolio already and decided to add the coke bottle at the end of the shoot, just to add a different prop and I felt that we had the perfect model, vehicle, and location to make it work. It was a bit stressful working so closely with a vintage convertible owned by our Senior Photographer. But once we all got into the flow of creating the perfect shot, it all seemed to come together. And luckily for all of us no vehicles were damaged in the process!

Commercial Lifestyle Photographer

To view more Commercial Lifestyle images created at Studio 3, Inc. click here!

Lifestyle Photographer Dana Jonas: Dumped Series!

When we first saw Dana Jonas’ Portfolio these are the images we viewed. Searching for a new Lifestyle Photographer can be a challenge these days, but we were very intrigued. The entire hiring crew at Studio 3 was awestruck by the creativity and inventiveness. We later learned these images were a collaborative brain-child of stylist and set designer, Dennis Turner and of course photography was exclusively by Dana Jonas. This project aimed to put a visual face on the feeling of rejection and loss. If you’ve ever experienced either of those emotions then you understand we immediately had to meet her. We  loved her drive, passion, personality, camera technique, and lighting ability. She shoots exclusively with the Canon system, into Lightroom, and finesses her images in Adobe Photoshop. As far as lighting she enjoys being able to control her subject in a set environment. One of Dana’s many strengths is her ability to preconceive the image and follow through to the end. It is very rare that you meet a Photographer that also brings Digital Art into her creativity. Now that she’s part of the team she will have a full Post Production crew to support her efforts! We look forward to showcasing more of her amazing talent in many future blogs and for years to come.

Here’s a sneak peak at our very own Dana Jonas’ infamous “Dumped” Series!

Lifestyle Photographer

Lifestyle Photographer

Lifestyle Photographer

To see the entire “Dumped” series by Dana Jonas, please visit the Vermillion on Thursday evening September 12, 2012.

Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar: 1508 11th Ave, Seattle, Washington 98122

For full event details please follow this link.

To view more Lifestyle Photography by the Studio 3 team, please click here.

Or you can go directly to: www.studio3.com

Coca-Cola With A Twist!

Nothing is quite as iconic as guzzling down a refreshing Coca-Cola after a long day of playing in the sun. That irreplaceable feeling is what inspired a recent shoot, which included Coca-Cola along with a fun outdoor location. Dana Jonas loves the challenge of mixing classic, vintage Coke bottles, and modern, therefore shooting Coca-Cola with adorable blonde models was right up her alley. The day of the shoot was of course typical Seattle; hideous, including rain, clouds, and no sun breaks, yet the pictures still conveyed that young, summer, fun, feeling. Dana explains in her own words how she created sunshine on a cloudy day:

“Believe it or not, this was one of the rainiest shoots I’ve been on. As we shlepped through the wet grass, soaking our feet and testing  Ashli’s (MU&H) patience, I realized I would have to work pretty hard to achieve the look I was going for. But, I was certainly determined if nothing else. The girls were troopers and we made the best of it by playing with the focus, composition, warmth of the image and backlighting by using some of my favorite on-location lighting (speedlights). The images turned out great and no one can ever believe that it was raining. Mission Accomplished.”

These sunshiny pictures are here to offer hope to Seattlites everywhere; that summer may come after all. 🙂
 


 

Portrait Photography of the Seattle Mist!

DList has commissioned Dana Jonas and Studio 3 to do editorial, fashion, and portrait photography. It is always great fun working with the lifestyle brand that represents a lavish, VIP lifestyle that includes dress, dine, drink, & dance. DList has some of the premiere events in the Northwest, including parties at local nightclubs, cover model searches, award shows, and an exclusive gold membership. It tends to be a great read full of must sees and highlights of favorite spots around Seattle.

In our recent shoot with the magazine we had the pleasure of shooting for the Seattle Mist, Seattle’s very own lingerie football league. These girls are serious athletes, practicing often and having more wins than losses. The LFL has gained popularity throughout Seattle as well of the rest of the country, with a huge tournament in Las Vegas, drawing hundreds of fans who root on the sport.  Shooting portrait photography of these girls was beyond fun. In Dana’s words, “we had sooooooooo much fun on this shoot with Seattle Mist for the cover and inside spread of DList’s January Issue. The girls had tons of personality, making it easy to tell they are truly an inspiring team of people”.  It was great having the whole team in studio and seeing the passion these girls have for the game. They also happened to make great models and perhaps we’ll have the opportunity to work with them on future projects.

We hope you’ll grab an issue when you see it on the stands to check out our portrait photography on the cover as well as learn about the girls of Seattle Mist! 🙂

Check out the full digital version of the magazine here!

Portrait Photography

Portrait Photography

Portrait Photography

To View More Studio 3 Portrait Photography Check Out Our Website!

To learn more about DList and Read the Current Issue Check Out Their Website!

For Information on the Seattle Mist, As Well as Game Day Stats Check Out Their Website!