Founder of Ricotti Saddle, Rick Ricotti

Rick and his grand daughter Cassidy. She took the behind the scenes photos. (Side note; Cassidy is a stunt double and has been in movies such as Cowboys and Aliens, True Grit, and just recently, The Avengers! We always get to meet fun people.) Thanks Cassidy!

Photographer Frank Haxton and Rick Ricotti

Only one soft box was used for these portraits. Sometimes simplicity works best.

Special thanks to Amy Mager for getting this assignment for us, along with everyone at the Younger Agency, Rick Ricotti, Susan, Cassidy, and everyone else at Ricotti Saddle Company. Your products are outstanding and we feel lucky to photograph the great work that you do. Look for some of these images soon at Ricotti Saddle Company!

Make up prep, Gaynel, the stylist and Tamy Riggs, our client

Like with all set ups, nothing is really simple. We had Tammy standing on a box, on top of a bench, in order to get the effect that we wanted. We used one strobe light powered by Paul Buff power supply, and had our assistant Halen holding a scrim to diffuse some of the direct light.

Halen Haxton and Tammy Riggs

Tammy Riggs

We changed our angle slightly to get a different look.

Photographer Frank Haxton

Halen Haxton and Tammy Riggs

Final un-retouched shot, Attorney Tammy Riggs

For our second location we went up on the steps of the courthouse. The nice thing about photographing on this day was that all judges in Northern Nevada were at a conference in Las Vegas, leaving the grounds almost vacant. We used two lights for this set up, a soft box for foreground lighting and a rim light from behind.

The Digiman gang! Minus Amy Hunter, who was taking these pictures for the blog.

We loved the end results for this set up. All of the lighting seemed to mold together to create a beautiful natural lighting effect that was pleasing for our subject and the surrounding location.

Thanks to Tammy Riggs, Gaynel Wadsworth, Kevin Jones, Halen Haxton, and Amy Hunter for a successful photo shoot and a fun day. You made our job at Digiman Studio fun!

 Michelle, Scott, Caroline, and Katilyn

Mike, Megan, Shawna, Matt, and Caroline

On the scene of our second set. We were using three main lights for this set, one medium soft box on one model and another soft box on the opposite side as a light for the other model. In the back ground we had our third light which gave us that extra punch that we needed to light up everyone behind our main models.

Myself & Dax Victorino, who also works at Comm Row and helped us out for the day.

I loved the looks on everyone’s faces here, I must have made a silly comment. I have been told I am good with people and making everyone feel relaxed and have fun on set; we all had fun this day.

Our second location for Comm Row, Base Camp. We had four main lights for this set and one huge ladder to get a better perspective of our climbers. You can see the umbrella on the left, and behind that we also had a large soft box to light our subjects. Behind the boulder on the right we had a background strobe to light the bar behind a little, and across from the umbrella we had our fourth light aimed at our subjects below the climbers. This was intense, but worth it in the end.

…and no this is not camera dust, this is chalk dust in the air….

This was such a great project to work on. We couldn’t have done it without the help of Mike Robertson, Dax Victorino, and all of our outstanding models. Thanks Comm Row for working with Digiman Studio and we hope to work with you again soon!

Photographer Frank Haxton

Although we started out with a basic lighting set up, it changed throughout the photo shoot so much. To give you all those details would be boring, let’s just say it was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun!

Assistant Amy Hunter and owner of Wilborn Guitars, Ben Wilborn

Of course, we couldn’t help but test a few out at the end of the day. Thanks to Ben for another great photo shoot here at Digiman Studio. Rock on!

Owner of Safer Moto Alan Cunningham

Photographer Frank Haxton on set at Digiman Studio

Some close ups to get more detail of the product

For this photo shoot we used four background lights, two on each side, one small soft box from behind as a rim light, one medium softbox for a front light that we moved around on occasion depending on the different angles we were shooting from, and one large soft box from above as an over head light. It may seem like a bit much but lighting is always key and can make or break any shot.

Beth and Alan Cunningham

What a fun pair to work with, we all had a great time and the results were just what the team at Safer Moto were looking for. Thanks to Alan, Beth, and Larry for making our job at Digiman Studio easy and fun!

Photographer Frank Haxton and Account Executive for Clear Channel Outdoor, Sara McDaniel

This is the owner of Bavarian World, Klaus Ginschel. He continued to bring us mounds and mounds of product that looked and smelled wonderful! We were sold.

 For each set up we changed lighting arrangements but you can get a good idea from these photos what we did with the two product shots. It always takes more lights then you would think to create a great photograph.

A huge thanks to Sarah McDaniel, Klaus Ginschel, Christa, Misty Dunlap, and Carl Eismann for all of their hard work in making this photo shoot a success! Watch for the billboard along HWY 395 and stop by Bavarian World for a great meal or goodie made by a Reno, NV local, you won’t be disapointed.

We started photographing Laura and her husband Doug in their main show room to really capture all that colorful yarn in it’s different varieties. We used Norman strobe lights for this assignment, one medium sized soft box for our subjects and one fill light in the background to help illuminate the product on the shelves. Just being there and seeing all that yarn made us want to take up knitting, but we will leave that to the seasoned professionals.

After taking portraits in the showroom we went out to the warehouse to set up our next photograph. We really wanted to capture this enormous space in a fun and creative way, so we took a pile of existing pallets and stacked them up for Laura and Doug to stand on. Photographer Frank Haxton had a 16 ft. ladder that he climbed to the top of to get above our clients and the pallets to get this shot. We used a large soft box to light the clients and a smaller grid light behind to create a rim lighting effect.

And of course, what would any company be without the team and a friendly pet? Frank again climbed the ladder to take this photograph and we loved it. Below is the full view of the set up, taken with our trusty iphone on yet another ladder on the opposite side of the warehouse.

What a fun project to be apart of. Thanks to everyone at Jimmy Beans Wool to help make this photo shoot such a great experience. Again, check out their website and the Forbes article and we promise that you will be as inspired by Laura Zander and her team as much as we were. Thanks everyone!!

There is a lot of work that goes into creating a project of this magnitude but the results turned out great and we are excited to see this project in its completed form. We were outside for three of the four locations, with 2 photography assistants, eight different models, Samantha as the director and Frank Haxton as the photographer. To say that it was a busy day would be an understatement!

With each location we used strobe lights and tethered the camera to out laptop in order to do a rough crop right there to show the client before moving on to the next location. This particular shot we used one large soft box in the two front models and a smaller soft box for the girls looking the window on the right.

For this set up we had lights all over the place! The large soft box was again on the two front models, and a medium soft box was used on the two models that were walking towards the stairs. We had to bring out a second strobe pack and light for the two models in the back. We tired to do without it at first, but it made such a difference when we added that extra light back there. Little things can make a big difference.

This location was a little tricky because at this point the sun was starting to go down on the west side, (left of the camera), and it was also popping in and out of the clouds. We had the large soft box in the front, with the power amped up enough to cover the two models on the left and the right, and our second soft box was set up on the left to light the two models shopping in the back.

The last location was indoors and we used mostly ambient light, and a handheld flash to fill the subjects. The area was a lot tighter then it looks but both of these shots also turned out great. In all four locations while considering the backgrounds and placement of the subjects, we had to leave room in the photographs for the advertising logos that would later be added for the campaign. Whenever we are doing work that will later be adjusted for final advertising production, we always work closely with the marketing director to coordinate our vision with theirs.

This was a great group of models to work with and everything flowed smoothly with all the help of the assistants, and of course Samantha as the main director. These are the days that we really love what we do. Thanks to everyone at Legends Outlet and Strike a Pose model search for your help and hard work, the results are outstanding!

For this shot we used a medium soft box, and an ambient fill light with a warm gel. We added another light with a course grid to light the mosaic pieces in the foreground.

These jars were so fun

This was Katie’s inspiration wall

Thanks Katie for allowing us to photograph you and your studio and for inspiring us today here at Digiman Studio, we all had fun!