I’m a commercial photographer who is based in Albany, NY.
My work as a commercial photographer is focused on creating visual communications assets for businesses, institutions and industries as well as the publications that serve them or report on what they do.
You’ve found one of the best commercial photographers in Albany; one who is focuses as his defined specialty on creating images for business and commerce. You’ll see a website, social media feed and blog with deep experience in serving the needs of businesses, institutions and agencies without you having to detour through consumer, social and generalized photography that are irrelevant to your corporate communications and B2B photography needs.
With a career that began gathering full time experience as a photojournalist for news organizations, then transitioning into photography for business, publications and public relations, I’ve developed a skill set that includes problem solving and relating to diverse types of people while moving quickly and being extremely productive.
The formative background centered on earning a degree in journalism and spending a couple of decades as an award winning Albany editorial photographer and Albany photojournalist. Those years provide the foundation for the way I work today. The visual agility, ability to relate to people and the skill at thinking through producing a shoot means I’m highly productive while you enjoy a smooth production experience.
Those skills were learned and tuned by many years as a news photographer who had to balance widely conflicting demands.
There were days where I was given 12 planed assignments which had to be completed by a hard deadline. There were days where I was given zero, yes zero, assignments but was still responsible for creating lots of content for publication for that same un-moveable deadline. Thrown into the mix would always be unanticipated breaking news. My skills in thinking through a shoot were critical to being successful on those high-production days. My skill at being creative were paramount on those days where I was given zero direction while seeing giant blank rolls of newsprint being shuttled around that would be flying through the press that night. My skills at relating to people and having unobtrusive lighting skills were required to create images from not much source material that could be run as impactful section front images accompanying feature or business stories.
Working often as an Albany annual report photographer and corporate photographer, I am commissioned to photograph a wide variety of subjects ranging from portraits of firemen to C-suite portraits of executives. Manufacturing processes and slightly more abstract images that show the impact or benefits of a company’s products or services are often called for by a client brief. Never in a studio, I work in board rooms and barns. In factories and suburban homes. I work everywhere.
Look for one who offers a discernible vision and style that is consistent through the images that they show. In my work you’ll see a love for directional light as well as the occasional cinematic style of composition. My images are direct and connected to a human element, most often. I don’t lay back or photograph from a “personal perspective”. I use beautiful available light and I create light that looks like beautiful available light.
This photo of a dairy farmer evokes a sliver of the late day sunlight light sweeping across the landscape and falling on our subject. Bringing a feeling of the time of day into my photos is important. It can create a connection with the viewer who remembers seeing light like that. Lighting like this can create an emotional feeling.
This was my vision for this image. To create a feeling of the late day or early morning when the sun is low. Using the light to evoke emotion, to create warmth. Also, to create dimension on the farmer’s face instead of having him flattened out by a blast of flash coming from the same area as the camera. The viewer would get a sense of the day in all its promise beginning. Or maybe the hard-won day coming to a close.
The reality is that this image was created on a hot summer afternoon in the middle of the day when the sun was mercilessly high in the sky. The farmer, though graciously available to us, still had a business to run and responsibilities to take care of. So he couldn’t stand around, feeling self conscious, in front of others who were hard at doing the work he needed to be managing or doing himself.
This is where my skill sets in creating lighting, finding compositions and keeping a subject engaged and comfortable come in. Anybody can operate a camera. Being able to say “I want”, which is the beginning of the creative process, then executing that quickly is the hallmark of a good photographer bringing a great image to life. The real skill is in being able to do that again and again during a shoot, never sitting back and resting on the image already captured.
So with some simple lighting, guided by the way I visualized what I wanted as described above, I was set up and had the technical challenges ironed out within 10 minutes. We brought the farmer into the spot, made the photo, had him do a couple other things with equipment that was nearby, then sent him on his way. 15 minutes, tops, and a bunch of content created.
Decades of experience and my well developed technical skills, plus my journalist-inspired ability to relate to people, provides you with the confidence that great images will result from the creative brief you have for me.
You’ll have confidence that you get a great team member in me, helping you meet your communications goals. I’m someone who understands business, relating to businesspeople, and creating images that work for you. This isn’t about social or consumer photography. This isn’t about someone who does that sort of work and claims they can create the types of photos you need under the real world conditions we’ll experience … having never done it before. This type of photography requires a business specialist such as myself.
Contact Me Right Away At This Link so we can talk about your upcoming project. It will be great to hear about the challenges you need solved.
Mitch
Location: Albany, NY.