Coming from a photojournalism background, I had ZERO experience with studio photography (let alone product photography) before shooting for Maverick’s social media. A few wines per week were featured on the feed, but working with many small production and/or foreign producers, it was often tough finding lifestyle photographs of hundreds of wines.
I constantly ran into roadblocks when asked to highlight a wine on social media with little-to-no images to be found online or from the producer, or too poor of image quality to use. Knowing I had a nice DSLR just building dust in my closet, I proposed a solution to my boss: if those wines are at the Denver warehouse, why not take the photos ourselves? After many hours online studying all the product photography (+ equipment) dos & don’ts, I built a small studio in our marketing office and got to work!
My “self-taught” self still has much to learn when it comes to studio & product photography, and branding, so I’m lucky to continue that education today in my freelance work with local Denver shop, Sweet Action Ice Cream.
Photographing wine is easy because it doesn’t move (unless you’re poppin’ Champagne!), so, working with a frozen product that melts quickly was a learning experience in and of itself. Many reshoots, a permanent freezer in my home office, and 10 lbs later (it’s impossible to not eat the ice cream after shooting…), I’m starting to get the hang of it! See below for a few recent social media images, with flat lay images for Sweet Action’s new website coming soon in Spring 2022.
Cadbury Egg
Buttered Pecan
Sugar Cookie + Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches
PRIDE Rainbow Swirl
Vegan Sweethearts
Pineapple Peppercorn
Strooper Doopers
Peppermint Stick
