This ice cold lemonade was another great background prop on a Smithfield set. It was sitting in the background of the scene and after we wrapped up the beautiful hero meat shot we saw an extra photo. So we pulled the lemonade glass forward and refocused the camera. I love the twin just behind it in the background, the blue plates and the perfect tassels on the perfectly laid napkin.

The scene was beautifully propped by Shelly Migliazzo, and Sarah Hunt did an amazing job on styling the perfect glass.

This is one of our lovely splash shots, In this photo shoot we wanted to play with some whiskey and ice and entertain, and hopefully educate some UMKC design students. We brought them into the studio to give them an insight into how we work and how they might expect to work with a photographer in the future. 

In this shoot we used our B1 strobes and Canon 1Dx to capture a whole sequence of images to allow us to customize the ice drop and the splash and movement in the glass.

We've been capturing drinks and food and interiors for Houlihan's restaurants for many years and it's been a fantastic relationship. We regularly capture the new menu items as they are developed and ready to be released to the world. 

This was a delicious recipe for a fall cocktail.

We've been capturing drinks and food and interiors for Houlihan's restaurants for many years and it's been a fantastic relationship. We regularly capture the new menu items as they are developed and ready to be released to the world. 

This was a delicious recipe for a fall cocktail.

Another test shoot for a beverage shot! Again we worked on this as a test for UMKC's design department. In this shoot we laid a sheet of plexi over a sheet of blue seamless paper. I love the texture that the paper gave us through the plexi. When we first set the lights we noticed we got a really strong glare off one of them, so we slid that into the corner of the frame to keep a little glare, but make it something that was a part of the frame rather than distracting from the frame.

I love the result that we created in the overall shot and I really enjoy grabbing together a small set of tools and pushing something like this out for the students to participate in.

This image was inspired by a cover of Bon Appétit. I loved the backlit shadows and the super clean surface. I worked with my prop stylist, Shelly Migliazzo, to find a fantastic array of glassware for the shoot and then my food stylist, Sarah Hunt, made an amazing series of perfect cocktails with bright and vibrant colors to really pull the scene together. We spent a long time playing with the set and props and lighting to create a beautiful scene.

This iced tea was one of our earliest collaborations with the awesome Hannah Brantley. I love what we created here, this was an image we created as a test shoot to see what we coudl capture with the new Phase One camera and to play with some natural light.

This was one of my first shots where I steered the light up and around subject - I love how we got the deep shadow on the back drop and drew all the light on to the front of the subject.

Here's another angle of the delicious fall cocktail for Houlihan's. I love the look of real ice and the real condensation we get from it. I know the temptation is to always work with the fake stuff to make the shot easier to work with, but it's just so much fun to actually have real ice and it's always nice to have to move a little quicker too!

This is a still from one of our many stop motion videos that we created while shooting for Sutter Home. We would capture three videos a day working on two different angles - the "into" in the morning and the "overhead" in the afternoon. We'd have a mixologist on-set and a great hand model going through all the actions.

Another whisky splash shot - this one is a little more dynamic than some of the ones on the splash page where we have lots of in-camera lens flares and that deeply toned backdrop.

We captured this as a test shoot for showing some students around the studio and we love the result for it. It's a composite of several frames, so we could capture the perfect splash and the ice cube in motion.

This was shot on the same day as our perfect Guinness pint. We did a dark set and then a white set making sure we had the official glassware for each drink.

For this image I was working the lighting to get those black lines on both sides of the chalice and also to get that deep highlight in the center of the glass on the gold rim. 

One of the things we tried was to style it according to official guidelines; where you use a knife to "cut" off the excess head...of course it was right before they started a whole new campaign where they never cut the head off the beer! Ironic, but I still like the look of this shot a lot.

Another Shelly Migliazzo test shoot. In this one we were testing out our new Profoto B2's and we could light quickly and easily on a small set. Shelly works as our prop stylist for almost all our major shoots and in this one she did a great job of finding some lovely props and mixing up a couple of delicious salt encrusted margaritas.

This was a delicious old fashioned styled by the amazing Shelly Migliazo. For this image we decided to create a scene with some dynamic sunlight which we created using some Profoto B1 strobes. You can see how they rake the light across the table with some dynamic shadows and high-lights while we still have lots of natural fill light and a little bit of reflected light.

We captured this on the same day as the beautiful iced-teas in the ball jars. For this shot we again used natural light and the wonderfully talented Hannah Brantley come in and styled up a beautiful scene. I love the tray and the glassware and the linen she picked, the details are wonderful. Oh, and the cocktails look amazing too.

Another image with Hannah Brantley. In this photo we found some beautiful old beer bottles and some lovely old glasses. I love the look of the slate and it's reflections from the glass.

This shot is so old school the restaurant doesn't exist there anymore! The old 75th Street Brewery was an icon for the Waldo neighborhood for years and years before finally shutting it's doors. We captured this photograph in an editorial assignment for the old KC Magazine along with images of the beer being brewed.

The new restaurant Summit Grill is definitely worth a visit! Brunch is very nice and the main menu is tasty too.

This silhouette image was created in studio as a test shot in studio. For this image we backlit the glass with a softbox but flagged the overlap with the subject. That's what gives the perfect rim lighting. Then added a little fill to bring the red color in the glass. It's a super simple one light set-up with a little work on the modifiers to bring in the color.

Quay Coffee is so damn popular! We photographed this delicious latte in a quick photoshoot. I managed to persuade the barista to provide some delicious context.

This was another image we captured for the book "America's Best Breakfasts" in a quick one day shoot touring around the best breakfast restaurant options in Kansas City. This was a wonderful book that literally landed on me one day. We visited a half dozen locations photographing all the food and beverages using natural light and simple reflectors to make a series of wonderful images.

A fun shot with the wonderful Trina Kahl, we captured this in-studio as a beverage test shot for fun one day. I love the frothy hot chocolate!

The hazelnuts and hazelnut spread are lovely, but the gooseberries at the front of the shot and their delicate leaves were a wonderful touch.

This is a Trina Kahl classic, a deliciously styled table scape filled with two yummy lemonade ice cream floats. I love the loose ice she included on the tray. 

Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery is a classic vineyard from the heart of America with a history dating back to pre-Prohibition. Completely unassuming, family owned and surprisingly fun tasting. This was a lovely shoot as part of a feature article for the Kansas Official Travel Guide we were invited to the Vineyard for one of their wine tasting dinners. It was a beautiful night and we had a ton of fun hanging out with the vineyard folk and the customers.

We got to have some lovely shoots throughout Kansas from Somerset Ridge Vineyard in Paola, to Pichler’s Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s in Pittsburg and finally Augustine’s Bakery with their delicious German bierocks and kolaches and spitzbuben in Hays.

After the wine bottle image we captured this beautiful soft wine glass image. There are definitely some trendy vineyards out West, but it was so lovely to capture some wine images here in the Midwest.

This whole article for Kansas Official Travel Guide was a wonderful journey. We got to have some lovely shoots throughout Kansas from Somerset Ridge Vineyard in Paola, to Pichler’s Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s in Pittsburg and finally Augustine’s Bakery with their delicious German bierocks and kolaches and spitzbuben in Hays.

A delicious mimosa cocktail for a perfect start to your day. This was captured in the bar area where they have some beautiful red walls with lovely textures.

We built a lighting scheme with a cucoloris for the backdrop and some dramatic side lighting on the product, all using our Profoto Lights. 

After my shoot for  assignment for Feast Magazine at the Drum Room I got to go back and shoot a whole new series of web images for the Providence New American restaurant at the Presidents Hotel and including more cocktails by their master bartender Brock Schulte and food items.

This was another great magazine assignment for Feast Magazine. This time we went to the Drum Room in the Providence New American restaurant at the Presidents Hotel and photographed a wonderful new cocktail by their master bartender Brock Schulte.

This is a bottled cocktail, made in-house, combining citrusy, juniper-forward Greyling gin, floral St-Germain elderflower liqueur and Malbec-poached strawberry soda.

More cocktails at the drum room. For this shoot we used our Profoto lights and surfaces and textures that were at the restaurant.

After my shoot for  assignment for Feast Magazine at the Drum Room I got to go back and shoot a whole new series of web images for the Providence New American restaurant at the Presidents Hotel and including more cocktails by their master bartender Brock Schulte and food items.

This was a test image in one of our favorite lighting set-up's. We use a backlight with a softbox but flagged the overlap with the subject. That's what gives the perfect rim lighting. Then added a little softbox to bring the front highlights. It's a super simple two light set-up with a little work on the modifiers to bring in the color, we did a lot of composites to add in highlights in each of the labels on the bottle.

I love this quick image we set up in the studio. I must admit I can't remember who we worked with to style the scene but it was that perfect freshly poured coke in the right sized glass with the mini coke bottle that blends with that wrap around light and the blue toned board and the dark background that make me so happy when it comes up in the portfolio.