Woot! So excited!

[d2creative]

Man, I've been scarce around these parts recently, just been busy.
But while I've been gone I've been doing a lot of shooting for my company. As some of you know I'm a graphic designer and we do packaging graphics. We do a lot with food photography and other product photography and this is where my interest in the photography field is for the most part, even though I like to dabble in other areas. So I've been lucky enough to practice my skills at work here and there, mostly shooting stuff for presenting concepts to the client, and then buying stock or getting 'real' photos from professional photographers. Yeah, I'm one of those nutty art directors that make your life miserable. Anyway, my coworkers and bosses have noticed my skills improving and have been letting me shoot more and more. Now whenever someone needs a shot they come to me because they'll get something pretty good and it makes their lives easier as the designer. I think it helps too that I'm a designer since I can shoot something knowing exactly what they want and how they are going to use it.

So anywayyyy.... the exciting part is that not only do they see the value in what I do and I'm getting positive feedback, but I am now allowed to buy NEW EQUIPMENT!
So far I've been using a canon 20d there since that's what they had. No offense to canon users (I especially dig the low noise) but I never liked that camera. Might have been the lens that came with it, or that particular camera body but it never took as nice shots as my d70 or d200. Sharpness issues mostly. And I used the 20d ALOT so it wasn't operator error. Since I don't care for the controls, and my office see's the results I get from my own equipment that I had starting using instead, I get to buy all new Nikon equipment! Which is great because I'm used to it, I like the controls/buttons better and I don't need to worry about noise in the studio. The canon will be our backup. I'll also be purchasing more modifiers for the lights, better light stands, a background stand, boom kit, etc. And I really like the look of the curved plexiglass shooting table I saw at B&H. That would come in really handy compared to the old drafting table with white plotter paper I'm using now.

One equipment question I have is if anyone can recommend some kind of cabinet that would work well for storage of the camera equipment? Something with a lock. Not worried about theft, but sometimes employees like to take the other camera home to use and we don't want that happening with the new stuff.

Here's a couple shots to show what I've been doing most recently... mostly shots for our website and marketing materials. Simple enough, but they like them. I have more but haven't uploaded them to my server yet... And keep in mind I'm making this stuff up as I go along, tpf being just one place I learn from. So I'm sure these shots leave vast room for improvement. But I guess that's for one of the showcase forums.
BTW, Abel... still no commercial forum? C'mon, man!!! Am I really the only one around here shooting commercial stuff that doesn't involve models?

[jstpeter]

I am by far no expert here, but these are great product shots. you know how to use DOF perfectly. ie #1 and 3 benefit from the large DOF but #2 and 4 are awesome with the shallow DOF.

Jason