In regards to this shoot, the objective was simple. Branding images that echo the BELLASOL mantra, BEAUTIFUL SOUL crossed with an ART BASED BRAND. In the past we’ve used models for all of BELLASOL’s advertising, but these images had a different end use, mainly PR, company branding and social media marketing. Christina wanted people to identify with the soul behind BELLASOL, since she is the CEO and head artist/designer we photographed her. Photographing a gorgeous woman makes my job easy but she did have some reservations, mainly because she isn’t a professional model. No problem. Prior to the shoot I provided her with a shoot treatment to act as sort of a script for the day. In doing this Christina didn’t have to pose for the camera and flash cheezy-fake smiles. We took the day at the beach to do what she would normally do before catching some waves. In the process we laughed, we danced, we spent the day at a stunning location with a dope vintage VW Bus! Come on, not to shabby for a day at the office eh? More happy snaps brookpifer.com

Dam do I love portraits! What can seem on the surface as something simple is really quite layered when you start to look deeper. Celebrities, Supermodels, Regular Joes, doesn’t matter. Goal is the same. Create and document a glimpse into who they are as a person, be it contentment, confidence, vision, brilliance, swagger and even goofiness. Part of my process involves taking the time to connect with them. Yes, sometimes with the big fancy people we don’t have much time to become BFFs, but the effort is there just the same. You need to read people quickly. Be observant of hints that can lead you down a path of creative excellence, but most importantly, doesn’t matter who you’re shooting, you need to be yourself. For me that involves taking an internal moment to figure out what I love, yes love, about who I’m shooting. It helps me approach the assignment and/or personal work from a place of excitement and discovery. Think about the Mona Lisa. What does the world find so fascinating about that painting? Some say her smile holds a secret, some say she knows how many licks it will take to get to the center of a tootsie pop. The world may never know but come on, how fun is it to be curious about something?! For me a successful portrait leaves you wanting to be curious and discover more about a person or in this case, a rad agency called Monkeyfoot.

Delicious new images coming soon. Here’s something to keep you at bay. Addis, featuring Lionezz and Viper.

Speaking of delicious, I had a chocolate catastrophe last night. Ever try Godiva Chocolate Truffles? Don’t. Awful to say the least. While at the mall, hitting up the Apple store, the husband and I made a pit stop at Barnes & Noble. I left without books (big surprise) but picked up a bag of what I hoped would be a delicious treat. Our cashier even confirmed that they were indeed worth the purchase price. This chocoholic disagrees, emphatically. After dinner, I gave one a try, hmmm, this sucks. I try one more, hmmm, still sucks. You know its bad when I don’t even want to finish. I’m sticking with Lindt.

Addis, formerly Raptile, for a big shot he’s a super rad dude. I feel blessed to have clients this cool. Behind the scenes video will be posted eventually….awesomely busy here. Gotta get back to it. Namaste.

I’ve had some really dope shoots lately and trust me, I can’t wait to share, but the schedule here is pretty stacked. Not enough time in the day, yadda, yadda, yadda… Here’s something to tide you over. Peace out.

We launched a new website, loads of new work, including tearsheets and ads like the ones you see here, please enjoy!

http://brookpifer.com

Prior to Kait’s shoot I had a walk-thu at MTV for pre-pro regarding locations, logistics, shoot day scheduling, etc. This really played to our advantage because Viacom takes up the entire building, MTV’s offices take up multiple floors, all of which translates to moving from one setup to the next can eat into valuable shoot time. Keep in mind we have not just my crew and gear to think about but also hair, makeup, wardrobe, Kait’s peeps, MTV peeps….pretty big production. Then top it off with part of Broadway in Times Square is closed to traffic therefore load-in can be hectic too.

No worries though. All the legwork put in before the actual shoot day paid off tremendously. Actually we were ahead of schedule at one point in the day to where we could, dare I say, take our time with a couple of the setups. The entire crew’s synergy was so A-game it helped fuel the day’s creative juices. The Clients kept saying over and over how smooth everything was going and how great everything was looking. Mission Accomplished!

Not only was Kait a bad ass but a total doll to work with. You can check out her music in the upcoming MTV movie Turn the Beat Around. She has a ton of other fancy stuff going on in her life but I’m going to let you discover that. Enjoy the behind the scenes!

I’m in NYC this week, chilling at the apartment before we get started on the final production details for tomorrows shoot with MTV. Check out my twitter, facebook, and tumblr for exclusive behind the scenes action! Now onto the meat and potatoes…

Sometimes you have to sit on photos for a while because the Client wants to share them with the world before you do. Case in point, Full Sail’s Creative Minds shoot. The effort that went into the pre-production and the teamwork on shoot day was incredible. Yep that’s right teamwork! I may have been the one taking the photos but I had a lot of help that day. When you work on a big shoot like this its very satisfying to see a synergy amongst everyone involved, the hustle and bustle of the studio, everyone giving it 110%. I hope you pick up on that in the behind the scenes video. Everyone from Client, Talent and Crew kept saying how smooth everything was going, how much fun they were having, the photos were looking amazing, all in all a totally RAD day!

Happy January everyone! How many people think the holiday vacation was too short? If anyone is curious, we sent out holiday cards that look like this.

Combine all the usual holiday activity with a busy schedule, then top it off with a food drive…yeah goodbye December! Anyway, for the food drive I wanted to do things a bit differently. I spoke to my studio manager about the rough idea and we set to work to make it happen. I wanted to give people something in exchange for the food or money donation..ie, PORTRAITS FOR FOOD. To be perfectly honest we didn’t really promote the event to its fullest potential. That being said, we had a pretty large turnout. Friends, collegues, photographers, directors, lawyers, students, munchkins and complete strangers came by the studio with generous food and financial donations for Second Harvest Food Bank. When it was all said and done I had the hummer packed to the brim with donations. Giving back felt incredible! We are planning to make this an annual event and expand it to both studios in NY and FL for 2010. Mahalo to everyone who donated and volunteered that day!

The Lip Dub to Don’t Stop Believing by Journey strikes again! This time it won first place in the New Media category for the 6th annual AltPick Awards. Earlier this year the video also won a PDN Self Promo Award. AltPick also hooked us up with an honorable mention for this lightning photo. You can see the full winners list here.