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.

Wrangler -Rock 47 Denim, in Las Vegas

I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and shoot one of Wrangler's high-end line of jeans, Rock 47. It was a quick trip, we flew in on Wednesday, shot all day Thursday and flew back on the red-eye Thursday night. We were there to shoot Rodeo Cowboys, Richmond Champion, Douglas Duncan and Cody Cassidy, as well as the first Native American to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, Kassidy Dennison.
Even though it was a quick trip, it was a fun one. An hour or two after we arrived at the hotel, we had a pre-production meeting and a quick dinner. That was followed by a trip to the rodeo to watch Kassidy do her thing, barrel racing. Thursday morning we started off shooting Kassidy and then spent the last half of the day shooting the guys.
When the shoot was over, we packed up, had dinner and then headed to the airport. I didn't see a lot of Vegas but I got some great images and I also got to go to my first rodeo!

Here are two of the ads from that shoot:

 

Launching new Wrangler Jeans!

Back in late Summer I had the opportunity to shoot images for the product launch of a new line of high-end jeans for Wrangler. We spent the day shooting these images and more on a large farm in Greensboro, NC.
I had a great time working the team at Wrangler and I think the images came out great!

Models....On A Boat!

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to be down in Miami for a fashion shoot on a boat. This time though, unlike the last time I shot models on a boat, these models were all under the age of 10!
We had a lot of fun shooting these kids, even when the boys and girls didn't necessarily want to be next to each other :)  They all did a great job and we were able to get some really wonderful images from the shoot.
Here are a few samples of what we shot, including the magazine cover. If you would like to see a few additional images from this shoot, you can see those on my website, in the kids section.  www.MarkHansonPhoto.com

Shoot for Allen & Roth / Lowe's Home Improvement

I recently had the opportunity to shoot for Allen & Roth, a Lowe's Home Improvement company. We did multiple shoots, some in store and some in studio. I don't do a lot of shoots where I have to use strobes, but we did on both of these shoots. I loved the change from available light and the challenge that using strobes brought to the shoot. And in the end, the images turned out great!

New Covers!

A few Months ago I had the privilege to shoot 2 Covers in a row for Ser Padres magazine.

We went to Miami to shoot Telemundo celebrities, Sophia LaChapelle and her sons and then we went back to Miami to shoot David Chocarro and his daughters. We had a great crew for each shoot and a wonderful time shooting these covers. I love shooting with everyone at Ser Padres and I look forward to the next time!

National Advertising shoot for BOB strollers by Briatx

I was contacted to shoot a magazine advertisement plus additional campaign images for the BOB stroller by Britax. The time frame for the shoot was tight because the magazine that we were shooting the ad for, had a specific deadline for turning in the Ad artwork. So between my schedule and the client's availability, the only day we could make the shoot work, was the same day as the magazine deadline! This meant we had to shoot, select images, upload them, have them retouched and have copy added to them all within a few hours,
 while on location! NO PROBLEM.
We got it all done, thanks to a great team of people who worked very well together.
And here is the final result:

New Campaign Shoot for Britax

The end of last year I shot a National advertising campaign for Britax to launch the new Affinity, high-end stroller. We shot multiple images on "green-screen", however, ours was actually medium grey and not green. The images were then retouched to depict the different colors for the stroller as well as the different scenarios in which it might be used. The images were also shot to match the accompanying video which was being shot at the same time.
The Campaign has just recently been launched, so I can now show you the final images from this shoot.
Let me know what you think.

New Images

Here are a few new images I recently shot as a test with a great new stylist and makeup artist. I recently shot these images of Buddy with stylist Lauren Kornegay and makeup artist Sara Egri.
It's been a while since I've done a test with a male model and even longer since I've shot one in studio, but I was happy with the way these came out!

Lowe's Home Improvement Catalog

Earlier, I posted some images I shot for the Lowe's "Outdoor Power Equipment" catalog.
Now that the catalog is out and I was able to get one, I thought I would post some images of what my work looked like in the catalog.
This was a big shoot, two photographers shooting on location for 5 days. I would be on one end of the location shooting, while the other photographer was shooting at the other end of the location. I had a great time shooting it and we ended up getting some nice images. I was fortunate enough to have my images chosen for both the front and back covers as well as the front and back inside covers!
So, here those images are along with a few interior images that I shot:

Kids shoot for Ser Padres magazine

Here are some final images from a shoot I did for Ser Padres magazine. I love working with these guys. I ALWAYS have a great time with them. I wish we worked together more often, they always make it fun!