Sneak Preview: Grand Designs

Last week was a busy week with furniture client Grand Designs. Both Diana and Oggy had their hands full shooting this little guy.


And by "little guy," I mean, "BIG GUY." This giant, beautiful sofa takes up most of the space in our 600 sq. ft. back stage. Imagine the size of the living rooms it will eventually sit in!

Here at Interfoto, though, we don't mind keeping it for a few extra days...mostly because...we get to shoot it again.

That's right. Tomorrow we're bringing in some models to shoot here, there, and everywhere in the studio. It's a big promo shoot and I can't wait to see what we get out of it.

You can't wait either, huh? Stay tuned for that, and, as a bonus, a process post on this Grand Designs shoot!

The Interstory

Oggy has been in the photography business for over thirty years now, which means he has some amazing stories! In the last six months, Diana and I have heard about Oggy’s background in furniture, in jewelry, in art, in fashion, in portraits, and in just about anything else you could imagine! The man just isn’t happy unless there’s a camera in his hands.

So where did this remarkable man get started?

Well, back in Bulgaria, Oggy was the Head of the Department of Photography at the National Art Gallery in Sofia. There, he had the honor of photographing every collection, every exhibition, and also providing photography for museum publications. And, since he held that post for ten years, you can imagine the sheer quantity of rare and valuable art that has passed before his lens.

Then, when he had to leave Bulgaria for America, he started shooting whatever he could over here. He got his stateside start at “Exacta,” a commercial photography studio for furniture and other small products. But Oggy was only there for a couple years before he left to start Interfoto!

This was in 1989. Interfoto was designed to be a specialized creative and technological service that could meet the full range of commercial photography, digital, and publication needs for any type of client. Specifically, Oggy targeted interior design companies, publishers, museums, galleries, and private collectors. And here’s where it gets really incredible.

Since that time, Oggy has shot for everybody. EVERYBODY. His client list (at a glance!) includes Sharp Electronics, Phyllis Morris, CBS, the LA County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Gamble House Museum, Kneedler-Fauchere, Houles, Piazza Italia, Architectural Digest Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, and Elle Décor Magazine. He was also the photography director of Interior Expressions Magazine at Pacific Design Center for 7 years.

Then, in the early 2000s, Oggy moved Interfoto out of the city and settled us down here in the San Gabriel Valley. And, well, you know the rest.

But it’s one thing to read his resume. You’ve got to hear about his adventures from Oggy’s own mouth. The time he guest lectured at a photography convention in Bulgaria and wound up speaking for 24 hours straight? The rare coin he photographed hours before the CIA reclaimed it? How he met Steve McQueen’s widow?

If you want to hear about that, you can either a) take him to dinner, or b) keep reading!

Interfriends

Well, our internet access and phone lines here at the studio have been down for the past two days.  It seems unbelievable that this type of thing is still happening; last time I checked, it was 2009!  Fortunately, after many long verbal battles with our “friends” over in Customer Service Hell, Oggy has single-handedly managed to bring us back from the Stone Age. 

Meanwhile, some new, real friends have moved in!  Isaac Alvarez and Greg Macias of Vinco Limited are now officially renting one of our second-story offices.  Owner and President Isaac founded Vinco as a graphics company about five years ago, and has done a thrifty trade since then helping startups around the country with graphic design, product photography, and marketing materials. 

About six months ago, though, Isaac realized that his true passion lay with portraiture and special event photography.  So he teamed up with buddy and cinephile Greg and branched off to form Vinco Photography.  And now, with over a decade of combined business and photography experience, these guys are unstoppable.  They’re already in talks to partner with Hollywood Casting for headshot work.

Wanna know more?  Drop Isaac a line at Isaac.Alvarez@vincographics.com.  Or you can always swing by the studio sometime!

Up next is a shoot for furniture client “Grand Designs” and a look back into Oggy’s storied photo history.  Read on, friends.  Read on.

Behind-the-Scenes: Marvelous

Every great product shot can be credited to the work of two different people. First, of course, the photographer. But also, the product stylist. And here at Interfoto, our product stylist is interior design wonder girl Diana.

Diana’s process starts with a long, hard look at the furniture. What style is it? And if the answer is contemporary, like it was for this Marvelous shoot, Diana cracks open the latest issue of Metropolitan Home or West Elm for inspiration. Check out this super-chic bedroom from Frank Roop in Metropolitan Home, for instance.


The beautiful, muted colors here make this image exactly the type of thing we shoot for when our client, like Marvelous, is a manufacturer.

After brainstorming (and daydreaming) for a while, Diana’s then ready to dialogue with Oggy about the floorplan of the set. The two of them talk about light and layout. How many windows does this room need? Where will the bed sit? Remember, product photography is about the product. How can we show off the details of the furniture? What angle will we shoot it from? (You might notice that it’s all the rage to shoot beds straight from the foot these days. We’re so trendy.)

And once that stuff is figured out, Diana really lets her imagination run wild. She asks, what is the story behind this room? Who lives here? What do they do for a living? Are they married, single, do they have kids? What part of the country is the room in? What floor of the building? Translate those answers into some controlling adjectives, add some bedding, a trip to the prop room, shake well, and ta-da!

Her work here is done.
Diana’s story here: A young couple, living together, somewhere just outside of Chicago. Controlling Adjectives: Bright, innovative, suburban.

This Week in the Studio

As of today, we’ve finished up a shoot for an old and trusted furniture client, “Marvelous.” Marvelous asked us to shoot an entire line for them, which has been several weeks of work and six different custom sets! So was it worth it? Judge for yourself.





And these aren't even finalized!

Stay tuned! Up next is a behind-the-scenes look at the above Marvelous shoot and our cooler-than-cool new renters!

The Interniche

So if we’re just now beginning to rent our studio space, what have we been doing for the last five years? I’m so glad you asked.

Interfoto Productions, in-house, primarily shoots furniture and home interiors. Oggy has a deep and mysterious background in every type of photography (including jewelry, art, fashion, etc.), but somehow in the last decade or so he settled in furniture. Like Oggy always says, “It’s a small niche, but it’s our niche.”

And, if I do say so myself, by now we do it better than pretty much everyone else. Some of our furniture photography competitors have standing sets. They put the furniture in, snap the picture, and throw the furniture out. But at Interfoto, Oggy and Diana custom build every set, dress and accessorize it, then light and shoot the furniture with care.

Then comes post-production. We clean up the image, and we can change anything. The color of the walls, the floor, the bedding, we can put scenery outside the windows, add or change art in picture frames, we can digitally put in ceilings and lights…you get the idea.

Every shot is unique. Every shot is a work of art.

That’s how we do things here.

Anyway, all of that should be great news for potential renters because it means that we’re a boutique-style studio with all the equipment, capabilities, and resources of a huge Hollywood-style studio. Want to talk to Oggy about lighting a room? Need advice from Diana about color? Or, for that matter, do you need a wall, a prop, or an entire room? We’re all over it. It’s what we do!

Need proof? Keep reading. Up next is a recap of this week’s shoot and some of our most promising new renters!

The Interduction

Though Interfoto Productions opened its studio doors to clients almost five years ago, we’ve just now realized that the commercial photography business is changing. It’s going green. It’s going digital. And, most importantly, in this economy, there’s room for everyone with a camera and a little talent. And we mean EVERYONE. Like Oggy always says, “It’s all about the community, baby.”

Thus, we’ve decided two very important things:

Thing 1) Our 7,000 sq. ft. studio is way too gorgeous and way too much fun to keep to ourselves! So we’re making it available to our fellow photographers – and videographers, ad agencies, and whoever, really – for rental. (See pics, specs, and pricing on our website.)

Thing 2) We’ve gotta get out more. A lot more. We want to meet everybody in the LA area and around the world who has ever felt the jolt of joy that only holding a camera can bring. And thank you, technology, for making such a thing even possible.

And so here we are. Blogging.

Welcome to The Interlife.