Manufacturing Photography in San Diego
I bring technical expertise and 25 years of experience as an industrial manufacturing photographer in San Diego and Los Angeles. Through my lighting skills, I make the dimly lit and rough industrial environments of manufacturing facilities interesting and polished, making the manufacturing process easy to understand.
I create compelling visual stories of a manufacturing life cycle by transforming ordinary industrial settings into interesting and cohesive images that highlight the focus of industrial processes. Using as much available light as possible, I add strobe lighting and post-production to refine the images so they look natural but refined and focused on the person or a machine. This also allows me to cover more ground faster than if I had to heavily light every set, though sometimes it is required to differentiate a brand identity. Additionally, I always work with an assistant to help set up and haul lights.
Also, I pay attention to whether the client is most interested in emphasizing people or their manufacturing capabilities and technology. That determines where I place the emphasis on the image.
Typically, locations are scouted to plan the shoot and address potential issues, so I don’t need to figure things out on the fly. I also ask for a shot list and try to understand the client’s intent before deciding how to shoot the project.
The images below were shot for Magnetic Metals outside of San Diego County. The designer was most interested in their process and machines to show engineers who use their magnetic products, but some of their machines performed processes behind glass panels covered in oil grime, so I had to use techniques that required post-production to show the inside of the machines clearly. Additionally, some processes were not happening, so I had to choreograph the set and non-sequential plates to get the image.
Often, my commercial clients don’t understand my process, so I shoot to an iPad to show them images and how I will create the final pictures. This puts them at ease and allows me to work much faster than if I were shooting to a laptop.
One of the most interesting commercial industrial shoots I recently did was at a recycling facility run by Waste Management. I flew a drone through the facility to create a narrative of the process from beginning to end. It was super cool because I had to fly a drone through mounds of trash and moving vehicles without any coordination on the ground. It allowed me to show both capacity and capabilities in a one-minute video, and with the help of an editor on the ground, we were able to design the cuts so he could edit the take effectively.
