Archive for the 'Creative Projects' Category

Arizona photographer Patrick Darby teams up with Taser to produce some really cool conceptual photography

Published October 15, 2012 Creative Projects Leave a Comment
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Over our long creative partnership with Taser we have had the opportunity to shoot some really awesome products and scenarios showcasing their engineering and innovation. Just recently we produced several shoots with them that showcased both their B2C and B2B lines of products (that’s business to consumer and business to business for those that needed a little refresher, you’re welcome).

The police officer shoots included some really cool conceptual work that incorporated Oakley sunglasses paired with their new state of the art evidence monitor system that clips right to the sunglass frame. Our goal for this shoot was to produce epic like images that fit the clients creative direction and blended seamlessly into the supplied background imagery to portray a movie poster appearance. Some elements were shot in studio and some were produced on location (ie police car). In all cases our goal was to match the lighting and overall perspective to create the cohesive blend into the existing backgrounds.

The consumer (C2 Product) shoot highlighted the personal protection and piece of mind security aspects of the brand through three scenarios that included a nurse, real estate agent, and graduating high school senior. This project included casting just the right talent and scouting for the perfect locations.  The nurse scenario (featured below) utilized both the actual existing and composited backgrounds.

We were thrilled with all the final shots and have a few of them hanging on our studio walls. We’re looking forward to the next round of shoots with the Taser team!

Mitzie Rakich / Studio Rep / tonic photo studios

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Arizona’s food, product and architecture photography studio reveals some of the stories behind the photo

Published August 21, 2012 Behind the Scenes , Creative Projects Leave a Comment
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Arizona photographer Patrick Darby and his studio, tonic photo studios will be busy shooting for some of the best known brands and ad agencies producing stellar product, food and architecture photography on any given day. Working with these amazing local and national clients is always a pleasure. Showing the final project shots in our portfolio and on the tonic photo blog is always gratifying and a must. This current post is different as it’s about the production, space and team that goes into every shoot to create these amazing visuals.

tonic Founder and Photographer Patrick Darby not only brings talent, experience and technology onto the set, but runs a studio aligned with a team equipped to take on almost any shoot. tonic is comprised of 5,000 square feet of usable shooting space, rafters of props and backgrounds, a full kitchen with cold storage, client wifi lounge and work area.

Some of our larger production and project stories include:

  • A semi-truck being backed into the studio to unload 50 large amplifiers for a product catalog shoot.
  • 5 straight days of shooting food to include a production team of: 3 corporate chefs, an entire corporate/ client marketing team, a food stylist, prop stylist and tables upon tables of props for the shoot to be capture on two lit sets shot by Patrick and his tech assistant.
  • 3 fully constructed and propped room sets to depict: a living room, kitchen and bedroom to shoot various home scenes showcasing close to a dozen cast talent interacting within each room.
  • A vehicle shot in the studio to capture various interior product components set within the car interior.
  • 8 large luxury pool tables built and shot in the studio.

The list goes on and on… but as we all know- a picture is worth a thousand words!

Here’s a handful of our favorite behind the scenes shots from our projects this summer in studio:

Many thanks ~  Mitzie Rakich

Studio Rep/ tonic photo studios

Arizona Food Photographer Patrick Darby brings the right food photography ingredients to Pei Wei Asian Market fare concept

Published June 13, 2012 Creative Projects Leave a Comment
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phoenix arizona table top photographer, Phoenix Arizona food photographer

A new national food concept that pulls inspiration from 5 Asian Countries, yum and sign us up! Well, that’s just what Pei Wei Asian Market did when needing a photography partner and studio to shoot their entire new menu for their recently launched Asian Market concept:  http://www.peiwei.com/market/.

We were thrilled to shoot 60 plus menu items and four conceptual billboards for this international client.  Back in January we talked about our massive project with their parent company, PF Changs. This new Pei Wei Asian Market project took on a very similar and extensive prop sourcing and styling needs approach. With having to create individual stories with rich and rustic backgrounds, our creative team consisting of Ellen Strain (Food Stylist) and Abby Ripes (Prop Stylist) with Patrick Darby (tonic Founder and Photographer) leading the way to execute this rich and tactile photo project.  The end result, some of the best food photography tonic photo studios has put out to-date!

The billboard imagery will be released shortly and will be on the blog.  Below is a great cross-section of work from this massive project. We are excited to see this market fare concept grow and hit major US cities this summer!

Keep checking back with us for more samples of work!

Cheers!

Mitzie Rakich  / tonic Studio Rep

tonic photo studios

tonic photo studios partners with IO Data Centers to produce epic imagery

Published January 22, 2012 Creative Projects , What's New? Leave a Comment
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tonic studios has been busy working with IO Data Centers for in excess of 5 years now and has had the pleasure of watching them grow to the forefront of their industry. IO Data‘s Always ON IO Anywhere modular technology allows for an incredibly efficient and secure Data Center infrastructure with maximum flexibility for growth in both scale and technology.

We’ve watched IO grow from a relatively small scale Data Center operation in Scottsdale to a massive provider with facilities in both Phoenix, Scottsdale, New Jersey and plans for more down the road.

Being inside one of the DC’s is truly other-worldly. Powerful technology fills multiple football field scaled spaces in a secure and controlled setting that varies in temperature no more than a fraction of a degree.

Sensors detect any abnormality and systems back up systems to insure there is never a disruption to the services the centers provide. In short, it’s seriously cool!

So where do we come in?  Well, we’ve pretty much shot every aspect of the facility inside and out and most recently (over the past 4 months or so) have worked closely with the marketing team to develop a unique style and approach for presenting IO’s visual content.

I would describe the approach for the imagery to be bright and airy while also bold in it’s depiction of surfaces, tones and textures.  We were really going for a look that would highlight the interest within each space and present a sense of epic scale and high technology.

Check out IO’s website and keep an eye on IO as they continue to forge ahead in the industry.

Patrick Darby

Founder/ Photographer

tonic photo studios

tonic photography work in action!

Published September 30, 2011 Creative Projects , Featured Clients Leave a Comment
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If you recall our post from mid-July, we highlighted Photographer Patrick Darby’s trip to the Grand Canyon Railway to shoot photos for a wrap which would be installed on the Metro light rail here in the Valley. We recently received a shot of our work in action, riding the light rails over the Tempe Town Lake bridge!

Metro LRV 127 glides over Tempe Town Lake sporting the wrap we helped create.

tonic studios captures classic Arizona in vibrant HDR

Published September 22, 2011 Creative Projects Leave a Comment
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We’ve been keeping ourselves busy as summer fades here in Phoenix. In addition to being occupied with client work, Patrick  Darby has been working on an internal project for tonic photo studios. We’ll spare you all the details, but the project recently required a quick road trip to the towns of Cottonwood and Jerome, and he headed over to Apache Junction as well.

Both Cottonwood and Jerome are delightful destinations for Arizonans and out-of-state visitors. Located in the high deserts of northern Arizona, they’re full of interesting history and quirky treasures. Jerome started in the 1870′s as a mining town clinging to the side of Cleopatra Hill, but fell into hard times as the mining industry changed. At one point Jerome was a ghost town with less than 100 residents. It has now reinvented itself as an eclectic artistic community and tourist destination.

Cottonwood was settled around the same time as Jerome, but took a different path to local notoriety. Founded on the banks of the Verde River, the town became known for an adventurous spirit and a lax attitude toward law enforcement. It earned a reputation for having the best bootleg alcohol in the state and attracted drinkers from as far away from Los Angeles. Cottonwood is a quieter and more law-abiding place today, but it’s full of museums and other places to discover Arizona’s past.

So why was Patrick gallivanting around these towns, camera in hand? He wanted to capture images of classic Arizona landscapes and buildings. Since both towns are full of historic places, old artifacts and gorgeous high desert panoramas, Patrick was able to find plenty of subjects for his photos.

He also wanted to work with high dynamic range (HDR) techniques to enhance the textures of his photos. HDR brings a tremendous amount of life and energy to an image. When shooting photos which feature fantastic surfaces like rusty truck bodies and aged wooden wagons, HDR can take a great image and make it pop in ways no other technique can.

Have a look at a few of the images Patrick produced from the road trip and be on the lookout for the full gallery on the tonic studios website and facebook!

tonic on location and in the studio with TASER International

Published September 14, 2011 Creative Projects , Featured Clients Leave a Comment
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If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that we have a wide range of clients here at tonic photo studios. We’ve photographed food for Flo’s, architecture in downtown Phoenix and a train for the Grand Canyon Railway. One of our longtime clients is TASER International, maker of electronic control devices used by individuals and law enforcement organizations around the world. TASER is headquartered here in Phoenix and they called up Studio Director and Photographer Patrick Darby and the tonic team to photograph Shockwave, a new perimeter control product.

TASER’s primary goal was to create updated images of Shockwave and other products for use in marketing materials. We chose to use two settings for photographing the range of images TASER needed. To capture Shockwave in a realistic setting, we coordinated a photoshoot on location at The Icehouse and followed that up with a session in our studio.

The location shoot involved several players including Patrick, TASER and a local SWAT team. The day was warm and the SWAT team spent nearly seven hours in their gear, but the shoot was successful. Take a look below at few of the images we captured. We appreciate the efforts of the SWAT team and The Icehouse in making the location shoot happen!

Shockwave on location

SWAT team on location

We also brought Shockwave and other products into the studio so we could capture precisely staged photos. Having the products in studio presented far fewer logistical challenges, as Patrick has all of his equipment available to him. You can see some highlights from the studio work below.

Shockwave set up in the studio

Shockwave with remote trigger

TASER X2

Take a look at TASER’s Shockwave page and keep an eye out for the new images to arrive there soon! Also, visit TASER’s Facebook page and have a look at the photos they posted from the The Icehouse shoot.

Inspiration at The Icehouse with tonic photo studios

Published August 19, 2011 Creative Projects , Featured Clients 1 Comment
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Here at tonic photo studios, we often get a chance to work on interesting projects. We’ve turned our attention to a new project partnering with TASER International and The Icehouse, a local art, performance and photography space located in downtown Phoenix.

Patrick is especially excited to shoot at The Icehouse, as it’s a very interesting venue from a photographer’s perspective. As the name suggests, it began operation as an icehouse over 100 years ago, producing ice to be used for keeping produce cold while being transported by rail. It has since been used for various purposes and over the past two decades has been a center for art exhibition and experimentation.

Amongst Phoenix architecture, the building is a rare gem. Very few buildings remain from the early 20th century, and fewer still have stood unaltered since their construction. The Icehouse is in that elite category. It has the feeling of a time capsule, unchanged since it was erected in 1910.

The texture of the concrete walls provide fantastic backdrops for photos and the windows add soft, natural light to the scene. The building is a unique space which offers inspiration to photographers who shoot there.

Patrick visited The Icehouse recently for scouting purposes and shot several photos. Their quiet simplicity speaks for itself.

If you’d like to know more about The Icehouse, connect with them via their Facebook page or on their website at http://theicehouseaz.com.

tonic photo studios getting serious about beer at SanTan Brewing Company

Published July 20, 2011 Creative Projects Leave a Comment
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Hot on the heels of our work with Flo’s Asian Kitchen, we were called upon by local brewery SanTan Brewing Company to produce a library of product shots. The brewery needed current photos for use across their marketing and advertising channels, so the tonic studios team headed to Chandler to shoot photos and learn something about brewing along the way.

Studio Director Patrick Darby, production assistant Sara Baldwin and local stylist Ellen Straine set up a studio on location at SanTan’s pub and brewery. During the course of one intense day of shooting, they captured over 100 product shots covering SanTan’s entire line of brews. We’ve included just a few below, but look for many, many more to appear on SanTan’s website and marketing materials.


Spending the day at SanTan was an all-around fun time and we learned a few things about the brewing industry from brewmaster Anthony Canecchia. He’s very passionate about craft beer and is constantly looking for ways to move the industry forward. For instance, he was an early adopter of can packaging for craft beers and is always looking for new ways to pair his brews with dishes created by Dennis Martinez, SanTan’s executive chef. Anthony taught us that in brewing, just like with diamonds, color and clarity are signs of quality. In fact, he’s so in tune with his brews that he needs only a glance to tell if a beer has been brewed to his exacting standards. Head over to SanTan’s website to read about their beers and check out Anthony’s blog for more fascinating brewing details!

While the beer photography is wrapped up, we expect to return to do styled food shots, architectural photography and some lifestyle images for SanTan in the near future. Keep watching for updates when we go back and in the meantime, head over to SanTan to see (and drink) their beer!

tonic photo studios captures food photography for Arizona’s Flo’s

Published July 18, 2011 Creative Projects , Featured Clients Leave a Comment
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tonic photo studios team has been busy lately with creative projects which have been outside the usual repertoire. Shooting for the Grand Canyon Railway and Mort Fleischer was both fun and challenging and Patrick enjoyed the chance to do some projects which were a little outside the norm. But, food, product, architecture and conceptual are what the phoenix commercial photography studio is known for, so we were bound to return to those at some point. That point arrived when our partners at The Lavidge Company approached us with a food photography project for Flo’s Asian Kitchen.

Flo’s wanted to add imagery to their website which tells the story of the great cuisine, energy and experience which can be found at the restaurant. Lavidge art director Melissa McFarlin turned to us, knowing that we could deliver photos which captured everything Flo’s has to offer.

Patrick, tonic’s food stylist Cathy Marshall and valley phoenix food stylist Ellen Straine spent two days on location at Flo’s, shooting not only food, but scenes of the kitchen staff in action and portraits of Flo herself. It was a great shoot and Flo was an incredibly gracious host. We were able to enjoy several of Flo’s dishes while we were there and all were awesome! We can highly recommend Flo’s as a dining destination after our firsthand experience there.

We’re proud of how the images turned out. They highlight tonic’s ability to capture strong and diverse images which fit into a larger narrative. Once again, we want to thank The Lavidge Company for choosing to partner with us on this project. As always, Melissa and the Lavidge staff were a pleasure to work with.

Welcome to our Blog!

tonic photo studios
3602 East La Salle Street
Phoenix, AZ 85040
602.437.6030
info@TonicPhotoStudios.com
TonicPhotoStudios.com

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