Having some fun at the laundromat!

A little while ago I had the idea to shoot a fun, Lifestyle shoot in a laundromat. So we set out to make it happen. We scouted a few laundromats and finally found the perfect one with the perfect light.

While we were taking some location photos, just with an iPhone, the owner saw us and didn't seem happy. He asked what we were doing and why were taking pictures of his laundromat. When we told him it was for a personal photoshoot, he seemed ok with it and let us keep going. For a second, I thought we were going to have to find another "perfect" location.

Once the location was locked down, we found our models, and then my team and I put everything into motion. And here is what we created!

This shoot was a lot of fun, and everyone did a great job!

2016 was good, I'm looking forward to 2017!

2016 was a great year. I picked up some new clients, kept working with my old clients and shot some great new work. Unfortunately I didn't have time to put it all on this blog. I've started out 2017 working on some new projects with new and old clients and it is looking like this is going to be an even better year than the last two. so come on 2017!

One big change in 2016 was that we added May-Z to the Family. She is our Yellow Lab. May-Z was a Birthday present for my oldest daughter Alexa . Alexa wants to make May-Z into a therapy dog. So we have started trainer and working with her and she is doing a great job. She will take the certification test in April.

The first few months with a puppy in the house were a little rough. It is safe to say that it is a good thing she is so cute, otherwise she may have become someone else's puppy. But now that the main part of the puppy stage is over, no more biting and scratching, she is a great dog and we love having her as part of our family. I can't wait to see her and Alexa at Levine's Children's Hospital. It will be the culmination of a three year long dream for Alexa.

Here is a video of when we surprised Alexa with May-Z. We were on our way back from Hilton Head, SC and stopped to get gas. May-Z met us there when Alexa went inside the gas station.

New Ad for Moen

Back a few months ago I was given the job of going to Cleveland and doing a shoot for Moen. The shoot was to consist of a group portrait and then individual portraits. All of this would be shot on location at a home under construction. So, no power, no heat or A/C, just the framing of the house to work with. We started early that morning and immediately started to figure out locations to shoot each of the individual portraits as well as the best location for the group portrait. Our goal was to make sure each of the team members from Moen could come in and be shot immediately and efficiently. We wanted the images to look as natural as possible, which meant very little additional lighting. We did have a Profoto B4 1000 with a 46" Photek softlighter we used for fill. After deciding on locations for everyone and doing a few test shots to prepare, we began shooting.  And it came out great! We were able to create some really nice images, Thanks to a great crew and a great Creative Director and Art Director, it all went smoothly.

Here are some samples of the final images:

                               

Guitar Legend George Lynch and 30 ESP Guitars!

The other week I was given the opportunity to shoot Rock Guitar Legend George Lynch. He was the original guitarist for the rock band Dokken and has since gone on to form the band Lynch Mob as well as start a line of custom, handmade guitars called "Mr. Scary"

For the shoot we wanted a rustic and gritty location. We found a great warehouse space that was exactly what we were looking for at The Charlotte Rescue Mission. Once we arrived at the location wee spent about 2.5 hours clearing out the space and setting up, as well as testing the lighting. The goal was to be completely set up and ready to shoot as soon as George arrived. He was coming to the shoot after driving up from their show in Atlanta the night before and right after sound check for that night's show, so he had very little time and was probably tired on top of all of it. We couldn't be adjusting the lighting once he got on set, we had to be ready to go.

So, when George finally arrived, he walked in greeting everyone. You could tell he was running behind schedule and was tight on time. Once we all said hello and he took some pictures with his iPhone of all the guitars (he seemed amazed at the collection), I stood him in the space we had prepared for him. He suggested some shots of him bending down by the guitars and we did those as well as him standing. He was a complete professional and nailed the shots extremely quick. The actual shooting time took less than 2 minutes. He then took a few pictures with some of the people on set, signed one of my guitars that I had brought and then headed back out the door to get ready for the show that night.
I was very impressed by how he acted and how nice he was to everyone, especially considering he was in a hurry and had a show to play that night and most likely was tired from 4 or 5 straight days of shows.

Here are a few of the shots from this shoot:

Campaign for Rack Room Shoes

A couple of months ago I had the fun experience of shooting for Rack Room shoes and Art Director Shara Knee. We shot for three days and got a lot of great images. Shara was great to work with. She knew what she wanted and we discussed options and angles to get the best images possible. I hope to work with her again soon.
TO achieve this look, we used one large Paul Buff parabolic umbrella  just off to the right as our main light and then we used two smaller umbrellas on the background, one on each side, pointed at the wall. We also had multiple V-flats to help reflect and block some of the light. We wanted to keep a very soft shadow on the floor and give a little depth and contour to the model and shoes. I think we achieved all of our goals.

Here is one of the images from that shoot:

LATEST SHORT FILM

Here is my latest short film. It's one I wrote and directed and had a lot of help with. I'm very thankful to everyone who helped me out with this. You can see the final result below. For a higher quality version, you can watch it on my website at http://markhansonphoto.com/#/vimeo/0 

Meineke Car Care National Advertising shoot

Here are just a few of the images I recently shot for Meineke Car Care's most recent National Advertising Campaign. It was a 3 day shoot where we were on location in a different setting each day. Day one was a neighborhood and home interior, day two was a park/camping ground and day 3 was at the Meineke Car Care store. It was a great shoot and I had the opportunity to shoot with both available light and artificial light, all with the objective of making each shot look as natural and unlit as possible.
Here are a few of the final images that have been released to me so far:

There should be more to come. I'll put those up as I get them.