Peter Samuels Photography

Apple Store presentation thursday 5.17.12 - 6:30-7:30

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May 082012

I’m excited [nervous?] to be doing a presentation at the Apple store next thursday. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say by the time it starts.. Okay, seriously, I’ll be speaking about my commercial work playing on the boundries of fine art and what I’ve been learning about fine art sales from a commercial photographers perspective.

The presentation is titled ‘merging fine art and commercial work’ I know it’s going to be great because I have much to share on the topic! Please come, it’d be great to say hello and see you there!

Click here for info

Apple Store Downtown San Francisco May 17th 2012 6:30-7:30

Apple Store presentation

Fairy tale animal series takes flight

Advertising, animal, art, Photography, studio No Responses »

May 082012

After photographing Stanley the donkey, I’ve been inspired to build a new series of animal pictures with fairy tales in mind. It’s a subtle twist to my existing work which is perfect since I always strive to build new work that doesn’t stray too far from what I’ve already been doing.

In this post is Banchie the baby barn owl and Jack the rabbit, a Belgian hare. I’m including a slightly revised image of Stanley to get a sense of group as a whole. In regards to fairy tales, Jack falls nicely into the Velveteen rabbit arena and the donkey from Grimm’s fairy tales (he poops gold..) An owl however, can be found in many tales, though I’m not sure which has a baby owl.. Hmm, poetic license may need to be implemented here.

The series is far from complete, but for now it’s a good sampling to sleep on for bit. And who knows, maybe a I’ll dream up a fairy tale of my own in the mean time. )

Banchie the baby barn owl

jack the rabbit, a Belgian hare

Stanley the miniture donkey

the donkey that wasn't an ass at all

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Mar 282012

Last week I got to photograph a donkey in the studio. Since I’ve often photographed horses on location in studio settings, I was thrilled at having a small horse in my studio without the confines of a barn like location.

I just completed a video shoot for Bidawee, a pet services company back east – more on that in the next post. For the Bidawee gig, we brought in animal trainers from Los Angeles and since they were town, we worked out a out deal for me to photograph the ass after the shoot.

All puns aside, Stanley wasn’t an ass at all. In fact he was polite and adoring – a model burro, if you will.. Stanley had that ‘just walked out of a fairy tale’ look about him. )

While the shoot was intended for my comercial portfolio, I’ve already sold two large prints of Stanley as fine art. One of those is going to Bar Bambino, a cafe restaurant in the mission, where they’ll feature the 5′ print in the front dining area – sweet! It’s exciting to see my comercial and fine art work blending so nicely and makes me wonder if the donkey image is the beginning of new series.

meet duke, the stellar and beautiful afghan hound

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Mar 032012

I always enjoy testing with new subjects that catch my eye and when I saw Duke, the afghan hound, in my neighborhood, it was a classic scenario of ’excuse me sir, but I must photograph your dog. I think I even used a british accent due to a wave of properness that came over me..

botanical, meet mechanical - may the stamin not be jaded

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Feb 102012

I did some work with an Los Angeles based agency a while called Boom Bang. They asked me to do some images of flowers and vibrators for a Trogan pitch they were working on. I recently went through the files looking to build a new image for that incorporated my still life and flora work, I think the composited result is successful and it’ll likely make the portfolio edit too.

lucky happy vibrant kitty

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Feb 102012

Lucky Kitty This image came about both to fill a need in the portfolio as well as a recent art show at project one in San Francisco. The original image was photographed against white and while liked the image a lot, it needed something extra to pull it together. Without the art show request or the portfolio need, I might not have kept pushing to find a solution that worked. You know an image works when you just have to print it out and have it sit by you just because you love to look at it.

There’s something very loving about the Good Fortune Kitty or Maneki Neko. She is a money blessing after all and the bright yellow/gold seems to invoke a positive emotional reaction which I find intriguing. Perhaps there’s a series in this for me if I can find more ‘happy vibe’ statuettes, not an easy task since many are somewhat odd or almost creepy looking.

Not just for hay.

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Sep 152011

I was recently asked to photograph a horse inside a showroom, the client, Coup d’tat, is an interior design showroom that features an visual ethic that I like to call ‘steampunk meets industrial design chic’. However, while the white bookshelf in the image is more Kubrik than Steampunk, I feel the the over look of the showroom is still fitting of my description.

The shoot was for an ad featured in California Home and Design and Chrysta Giffen of CG retouching did an outstanding job combing three variations into one final image. Great work Chrysta!

If the term Steampunk doesn’t ring a bell, one of favorite all time movies, ‘City of Lost Children’, is a good example as are the visuals described by the 18th century science fiction author, Jules Verne. My client wanted to feature the white bookshelf unit, one of a pair, that were custom built in the 80′s for the Macy family. The one of kind pair of bookshelves have a $300,000 price tag and it was obvious that Bugs, the horse, sincerely appreciated his fancy feeder..

The showroom also sells some of my personal work with a reasonable amount of success. The image below shows some of the work in on display, the flora images are 40×40″ and the horse is 60×60″.

Some of the Flora and Equestrian work on display at Coup in San Francisco

from the studio ~ the mystique of old lightbulbs

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Jul 082011

from the studio - toaster the labradoodle

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Jun 232011

I recently asked Kevin Rose if I could photograph his labradoodle, Toaster, here in the studio. Toaster is a bit of celebrity since he was just voted cutest dog in 7×7, he made a great model and I’m pleased with the evolution of this look for me.

On location - Equine

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Jun 142011

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