A food blog dedicated to the Kansas City commercial photography studio - Alistair Tutton Photography
Stage 2: Toddler Puppies.
They grew up…and they are definitely cute…still. Aren’t they just the most incredible, beautiful, huggable things. At least I think so. I love the markings and the furry'ness, and did I mention how cute they are. Ok, so they take direction even less now but, who cares?
Yep, I love dogs.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Stage 1: Young Puppies
I love puppies, really love them. I don’t get to work with too many young puppies unfortunately, but this was truly incredible. These husky puppies were only four weeks old that are absolutely beautiful.
Sure they don’t take direction very well on-set.
But, wow, are they just the epitome of cute?
Be sure to check back in a day or so for Stage 2.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Legos and Fish…What Could Be Better?
Another wonderful new addition to Kansas City is this project - a collaboration between ZGF Architects and our long-standing, and wonderful, client, Burns & McDonnell. It’s a beautiful insertion, into a much loved civic space at Crown Center, and Kansas City’s response has been incredible. Thousands of people have been visiting the Lego Land and Sea Life exhibits and it’s a great addition to our offerings to visitors.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Client: ZGF Architects
Client: Burns and McDonnell
Location: Crown Center
Location: Sea Life Aquarium
Location: Legoland Kansas City
We’re With The Band.
Antenna’s Up are some old friends of mine, who, until very recently, were my very lovely neighbors. They just released another incredible new album and as part of the album artwork they needed new photos. So…we worked with them to develop this concept and it’s now all over their artwork.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Client: Antenna’s Up
Field Trips Are Cool.
Science City has an incredible educational facility, called the Engineerium that was designed by Burns & McDonnell. We recently had the chance to get photographs of the space in use with a school group getting their hands dirty on a robotics project. It’s a superb resource that is definitely being well-used.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Client: Burns & McDonnell
Location: Science City
Hungry???
I have no idea how to make a cinnamon roll, let alone a roll as incredible as the one’s that Dolce Baking Company makes. They are a-mazing. So here’s a beautiful step-by-step series of photos of how to make the most a-mazing cinnamon rolls ever.
Enjoy!
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Location: Dolce Baking Company
Fun with Fireworks!
Adam and I were looking for a fun way to celebrate the 4th of July, so we decided to set off some large smoke bombs and fire of some sprinklers…luckily we only set the backdrop on fire once.
Also, Adam really can cross his eyes like that…the things we learn at work.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Friday Is For Cakes!
I love cakes! That is all. It is absolutely amazing knowing the people at Dolce and the best part is we not only get to take photos of something this beautiful, we get to munch on them.
Yum.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Location: Dolce Baking Company
Science Is Cool….To Photograph.
One of the best features of Union Station’s Science City Exhibit is the new Science on a Sphere…again one of our fantastic clients, Burns & McDonnell, designed this project. It’s absolutely breathtaking. The operator can literally show all kinds of incredible scientific facts on a sphere using a series of projectors that display images directly on to the globe. We even got to take it for a spin - seriously, this thing is wonderful.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Client: Burns & McDonnell
Location: Science City
Beer :30.
Beer…yummy. Here’s some shots we took in studio recently for fun. I love the look of the Guinness surge and we worked really precisely to get the lighting where we wanted - lots of shape on the glass and then a little spray to style the glasses for a final touch.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Product: Guinness
Product: Stella Artois
The Importance of Being Creative.
Since I started working back at the ripe old age of 15 I have worked in and amongst what people refer to as “creatives”. These are folks that use the right side of their brain primarily to do things like make music, create films, design things, draw, paint or any one of a hundred ways to express ones creativity for profit. But I’ve always thought that giving someone the label of “creative” implies that those on the other side of the equation - the planners and organizers are not creative. While this might be true of some who work on the flip side of the ‘creative coin’ I have always felt that those who are best at what they do - no matter what they do - are extremely creative. It takes creativity to problem solve, it takes creativity to juggle a clients whims and needs, it take creativity to schedule, plan and organize a project. Without creativity your options for solving a dilemma decrease dramatically. Just because your title might not have the word creative in it don’t let that dictate how you go about the job you do. We could all stand to be a little more creative, no?
Author: Kate Crockett
How do you retouch a cup of coffee?
Ahhh, smell that? That’s the smell of coffee brewing and Photoshop layers. This was a shot we did in studio while experimenting with different beverages. Trina Kahl was our food stylist extraordinaire. What might appear to be a cup of espresso is actually a mosh pit of a few images and lots and lots of cloning.
To get the swirls, we shot the coffee as the milk was being poured into the glass. It mixes quickly so you only have a second or two before the coffee and milk merge. I took these shots of the coffee and milk mixing and cloned them over and over. It would have been a lot easier to use the liquify filter to make these swirls look genuine, but because of the design of the glass I had to alter the liquid without altering the shape of the glass. Arrr, photography, she’s a cruel mistress! Oh, and of course the reflection had to be added in after all the swirls were done. I would love to say that I had an exact image in my head, and it was a symphony of retouching, but to be honest, it was a whole lot of trial and error, and what I like to call the “optometrist method”. What is the “optometrist method? You know when you go in to the optometrist’s office and they put that eyesight machine up to your face and ask you, “Better or worse? Better or worse?” That’s what I did with this image. I would manipulate for five or ten minutes, then turn the layer on and off asking, “Better or worse?” Occasionally the image will get worse before it gets better, but that’s for another blog post.
Sometimes an image is retouched without an exact destination. Alistair knew what he did and did not want out of the image, and that was enough for me to create this delicious composite. Excuse me, I think I’m going to go make myself a cup of coffee.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Food Stylist: Trina Kahl
Retouching/Assistant/Author: Adam Caselman
A Little Photoshop Makeover
Our retoucher, Adam Caselman shares a unique perspective on post production.
Here was a situation where the conditions for making a beauty shot were a little less than awesome, so I gave it a healthy dose of Photoshop. This is a shot from a project we did in Washington DC for Ply Gem. There was quite a bit to do on this photo, and I remember sitting in my chair looking at this thinking, ‘Where do I start?’ I think the best approach is to just pick the most obvious thing, make it look fantastic, then move on to the next thing. Just about everything in the image has been worked on in some way, so put on your gloves kids, we’re about to get messy.
The most obvious things to me were the basketball pole, the 'Case’ pole just to the left of that, the zig zag gutter in the middle of the frame, and the mailbox on the left. Everything must go! While these tasks weren’t like flipping on a kitchen light, I luckily had enough material around the objects. The challenging part of taking these objects out was cloning the siding of the house and keeping the pattern believable. The mailbox and the 'Case’ pole weren’t hard to deal with, but the basketball goal and the gutter were tricky.
Now that the cloning was done, I felt like I could take on the house. The large tree on the left was shading the left side of the house, so I had to lighten the left side and even out the tone. The tone gradually changed from right to left on the house, so I had to do my best to match that, lots of feathering. Then the color of the shutters had to be bumped up. Easy enough.
Next came the grass, which I had to bring in from a shot we had on hand that we use for cloning in grass. Grass can be very tricky to match. Special attention needs to be given to the time of day when putting completely new grass into a scene. Even the contrast of the grass needs to be correct for the time of day, or it won’t be convincing. The driveway needed replacing, and in an amazing coincidence Alistair came back the day I needed a new shot for it with a nice clean shot of a driveway, almost like it was meant to be.
The last piece was more challenging than I originally thought, the sky. I was able to replace the sky without too much painting. I used a series of contrast and color selections. Those techniques saved me what might have been hours in painting. Phew! I’m really pleased with how the image turned out, especially the cloning. I’ll admit to smiling when I flick through the before and after shots. I hope the client did too.
Credits:
Photographer: Alistair Tutton
Assistant: Adam Caselman
Retoucher: Adam Caselman
Author: Adam Caselman
Client: Ply Gem
Client: Blacktop Creative
…even mine! I learnt a few different things in school; primary amongst them were:
1) How to tie a real bow tie - yep, I actually learnt this during a math lesson - the teacher brought in a whole bunch of bow ties and taught us how to tie them. You may be wondering how this could ever be useful - well…if you’re a little tipsy at a black-tie event there’s no better chat-up line than actually knowing how to tie up a bow tie.
2) The other lesson I learnt was that only your friends would tell you when you “stank”; your real friends, the useful ones. And this was a really useful life lesson.
I’ve long been told and believe very strongly that the best way to find success and to accomplish great things very quickly is to find mentors…ones that will tell you that your poop stinks AND how to freshen it up a little, or even make fresh, better poop, that isn’t poop at all. This proved invaluable as I made the shift from architectural designer to photographer, a career move that has been unbelievably enriching and challenging.
In architecture the first mentors I found were those seasoned industry veterans who could tell me the pitfalls and the trampolines and most importantly how to think completely differently - learning how to think is very useful. As I moved into photography I found many mentors in the ranks of local and national photographers who were willing to give me incredible advice on how to look. Learning how to look is pretty much essential in this line of work. They also told me how the industry worked and taught me how even though I was a small part of the industry it was essential that I protect that industry and play a roll in improving it. So who are my latest mentors? Luckily my mentors now include the people that work with me at the studio. Last week I had a really challenging conversation with my studio manager, Kate, who’s kinda awesome. We made an overview of all the work I’ve done and then chatted about the industry, clients and both the strengths and weaknesses of my work in it. It was one of those tricky conversations where it’s really important to be objective and have an opinion and it was a lot of fun and really bloody productive. You will definitely be seeing the product of this conversation very soon.
So, I would definitely recommend finding yourself a mentor and making sure you keep them very handy as you make decisions and develop your portfolio, your business, your brand and you.
So we’ve been doing a lot of images in the studio with strobes, and so today we decided to play a little with our windows. You may not have had a chance to taste Nutella - it’s one of those European things - but if you see it, buy it, spread it, eat it. It’s yummy.
We all know how it goes…you’ve created something. Whether it’s an image, a piece of art, a campaign or even a recipe it’s something you spent your time and energy creating. The creation of anything, whether creative or not is an emotional event. It’s exciting, exhilarating and wonderful. You have experienced a range of emotions surrounding this amazing thing you’ve created. The downside is you’ve experienced this range of emotions and now you are emotionally connected to this creation. So when it comes time to decide how to edit it, share it, ditch it, promote it or sell it you can’t separate yourself from the emotions you now feel for it. And the emotions aren’t always good ones. Let’s face it not all projects go as smoothly as you want them to. Some projects take more out of you than you anticipated. Some projects weren’t as exciting as others.
Does that make the work any less impactful? Not to the end viewer, but sometimes you have trouble seeing past the emotion and experience of the creation to be impartial. It’s these times when you need to engage and rely on the input of someone you trust to be impartial and help you select the best of your work to represent your talents and skills.
We trust our portfolio to the talents of Amanda Sosa Stone. She takes a years worth of images and culls them down to the few we need to showcase on our website and in our printed portfolio. She has the amazing knack of looking at an image for what it is, not how it was created, what the experience was like shooting it or GASP how much money we made or didn’t make creating it. We benefit in more ways than we can count by having someone like Amanda as part of our team.
Check out her work on our latest website update.
Credits:
Amanda Sosa Stone
DLR Group just got a beeeeeaaaaautiful new office space in Omaha, designed and owned by them. It’s pretty darn gorgeous. Last fall, we made the trip up there, while the whole of I-29 was submerged, and got the chance to photograph it for posterity. The interiors and exteriors are lovely, but I have to admit the roof angle was my favorite - glad someone had a hold of the back of my pants!
Credits: DLR Group, Adam Caselman - Assistant
So the new VisitKC magazine is out for 2012. We are excited to be included representing the wonderful KC Chiefs - from our great shoot last year with Populous. Last year wasn’t all I’ve come to expect from the Chiefs. But I’m quietly confident for this next one!
Credits: Burns & McDonnell, Populous, Turner Construction, Kansas City Chiefs
Kate, our lovely studio manager, promised her husband, Shaun, some beautiful portraits of their puppies as a present - and then we got the chance to take them. So welcome to Hunter and Gracie, Hunter is the Hunter looking one, while Gracie is the soft, fluffy lab. Definitely a pair of lovely pups.
Credits: Adam Caselman - Assistant
The oddest things can happen - I’m always certain to meet incredible people and see some of the most beautiful, creative offices around the country. But without a doubt my favorite was this year when visiting Campbell Mithun. Yep, this is a photo of me in a soundbooth, doing a voiceover for the agencies entries into “The One” show. I have to admit that while my silly accent has proven very entertaining over the years I’ve spent in America, this was the first time I actually had someone choose to record it for posterity - thanks go to Kat Dalager for a very entertaining time.
Credits:
Kat Dalager, Campbell Mithun
