Photo of the Week: When nature calls is my first jab at doing product photography. A couple years back, I was asked by an old friend, Will (who was opening his own company, Oak+Tonic) asked if I would be interested in photographing some of his products that he planned on selling.
As a first time request, I suggested we just do a test as I wasn’t confident in what I could provide to him as a client. We both agreed and we had a brain-storming session to see what we wanted to achieve. Since I didn’t have studio experience with products but had a keen eye for on-location shooting, I suggested we shoot in nature.
Mother Nature provided us with a beautiful day to shoot the products. Will brought a handful of props to go along with the wide variety of “natural beauty products as an alternative to the mainstream…” to photograph. On top of that, we had a backdrop of the natural beauty in the middle of Calgary at Fish Creek Park.
We began shooting each brand of product in a separate location, using what nature provided to us to join the composition. We shoot using natural light and fill light, creating a different feeling in each image.
For the last set of products, I thought it would be a great idea to go further into the underbrush and trees; the untouched areas of a very popular destination. The set was ready for me with a perfectly placed fallen tree and overgrowth that beautiful dotted the background.
The shots were coming out perfect, but I thought it needed just a bit more. Low and behold, Will had a spray bottle. I asked him to liberally mist as I shot away. The whimsy was captured and we called it a wrap.
For being one my first product shoots, I was very happy with the outcome and I can say Will was too. If you want to check out more of the images from Will’s shoot, check out the album here. If you want to see more of our entirety of work, check out our Facebook and Instagram.
Stay tuned for our next photo of the week. If you want to see a certain niche, let us know and we will try hard to bring our favourite shots to you via PofW.