Zach Petschek Photography Blog

It comes only once a year and it is a benchmark in our lives to society. So it deserves a celebration right? Well Amy was no different. And since I am a complete dork I bring my camera along with me whenever I can and take photos. Here let me show you what I mean.

For the rest of the photos click here

Telephone pole from the grass's point of view

Always look at an object from the objects point of view. Try to look at a sunset from the sun’s point of view. At 2 inches tall a tree will reach the stars. A few photographs of alternate points of view.

Close skateboard grind on a rail

Band from the front row's point of view

Street after the rain

Wandering the city has its perks. Some of the best things I have ever found were by chance, random and with no prior destination in mind. My trip to New York is no different.

Escalator to the network below the city.

An entire fungus can cover acres of land underground and only have a few mushrooms on the surface. This is what the transit system in New York feels like. It is this underground network linked to the entire city. As a passerby you hardly catch a glimpse of the complex system that lies beneath your feet. Your only sign is the subway entrances seemingly sporadic in location. They seem to grow out of the ground every so often in strange places along the city roads. They sprout out like mushrooms. Every mushroom you see is a link to the network of roots below.

For all of the photos from New York click here

Night Sky in Backyard

Sometimes you just gotta go shoot. I was sitting outside the other day as the sun was setting. It was a clouds day with small patches of sky. It looked cool but nothing special. Well apparently the clouds didn’t go all the way to the horizon because the underside of the clouds started turning red. Being the photo dork that I am I quickly grabbed my camera just in time to miss it. Just my luck.

But the cool part is that the street lights started to reflect off the clouds instead. Sodium vapor is an ugly red color. HOWEVER I made light of it. (pun intended). I switched my white balance to tungsten and fired off a few.
I after playing around with the sunset it got too dark so I started playing around with the evening light, shutter drag and painting with light. I first took a photo at the pool. The light looked good but there was no character to the shot. I grabbed a flash and set my exposure to 30 seconds. During th exposure I walked to the other side of an iron gate and popped the flash towards the area being exposed. I then played with other angles, popping the flash into the water of the pool and the array of colored lights available in night photography.

Pool with night clouds

Sunset in Vista

Pool with night clouds

Pool deep end

House and a pool at night

Kill your babies. Sometimes that’s a hard lesson to learn. I have had to relearn it recently regarding my website. Although I put a lot of time and energy into my current website, it’s just not working out. I built the entire website from scratch. I have given it multiple facelifts in the past to clean it up or optimize its perfomance.

I gotta say though I’m proud of myself. I brought my alexa ranking from about 8 million to 600,000 in 8 months. That’s a boasting right on my part. But the time has come to start making my website look clean and simple. It doesn’t elevate my photography the way I’d like it to and my current design just isn’t going to cut it. It’s time to tear it down and start over.

Well I’m not starting completely over. My friend Jonathan Spooner is giving me some help… a lot of help. So now I am learning action script, java, and xml. Isn’t that swell. I will have my website more or less up and running in 3 weeks. Keep a weather eye. It’s gonna rock.

I finally had a chance to submit to the San Diego Fair photo competition. After some careful consideration this is the image I chose to send in. I now wait for the printers to mail it off to me. I am just stoked to finally have an entry again. It’s been like 10 years.

I did some headshots for a friend. Quick use of natural light. See I don’t only shoot with flash.

I get asked this question all the time. All the photographer is doing is pointing the camera and clicking the button, why do they think they can charge so much for it? Anyone can point a camera and click the button but there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes that to ensure you get the photos you are paying for. The day of the wedding is only one of many days of work involved.

“Well I can hire my nephew to photograph my wedding for much cheaper. He has a camera and he takes really good photos of his dog.” This is a very important day in your life. There are no reshoots, the moment only happens once in history, is that much pressure really something you can trust with your nephew who owns a camera and has no idea what to expect during a wedding? If you’re still not convinced here is a shortened version of a lot of the things that a photographer does during the shoot to ensure that he gets an accurately exposed, in focus, hi resolution image everytime of every moment. This is the explanation I usually send out to skeptical clients that do not understand why I charge “so much” to shoot a wedding. The context is as if I were talking directly to a potential client.

(all text on this website is copyrighted and I, Zach Petschek, do not authorize any usage rights without prior written consent)

List of expenses

equipment – the equipment I use is expensive to repair. every shoot wears on my equipment more and more. eventually it will break and so part of my fee should cover the estimated wear and tear on my equipment.

meeting – Whether it’s on the phone or in person, it is time spent communicating and clarifying all of the details of the shoot as well as any necessary research, scouting and prop shopping necessary for the shoot and travel to and from on site location

setup lights – time spent adjusting lights to accurately light the products in the best way possible to give the consumer as much information as possible to avoid returns. (samples?)

consistency – keep size and angle consistent through out entire shoot so each product looks clean on a catalog grid

assistant – in order to speed up the process and get the most out of the day I will need an assistant at $200/day. he/she will help me carry equipment, setup lights, adjust exposure and positioning and help maintain a smooth day

photo management – download, backup and file all of the images so they can be found later

post production – to color correct, spot retouch, color/contrast enhance, repair blemishes, resize, straighten and otherwise perfect each image takes between 5-10 minutes a piece.

processing – process and convert each image into a format that can be easily printed at any print lab

deliver – burn/transfer images to a medium and deliver within one week.

Expenses and Why:

I use the best equipment possible to give you the best photographic representation of the products you are trying to sell. This equipment includes high megapixel cameras, sharp clarity lenses and minimal aberration lenses, high powered lights that are 100% consistent with fine tuning capabilities and an accurate predictable color temperature, wireless triggering devices to avoid dangerous wires and allow for multiple lights to be fired simultaneously, and sturdy stands and tripods. These components are essential in creating a high quality and accurate photograph of your products. As with everything in this world they slowly wear out. My equipment is robust and long lasting however it will eventually break down. Therefore i must compensate the wear on it.

In order to keep all the channels clear and for me to meet all of your needs I will need to discuss the details of the shoot whether it be in person or over the phone. This puts everything on the table so that on the day of the shoot or the delivery of the photos there are no miscommunications about what either of us should expect. In addition to our meeting I will spend time researching any needed props and any previous images you have used so that I can closely match (or enhance) the photos I hand over to you. This may include finding any additional equipment needed for the shoot and finding the best price on it to save you money or finding the best way to produce or purchase any props possibly required for the set.

On the day of the shoot I will need 1 hour minimum of prep time to setup and fine tune the lighting for the shoot so that I can quickly and easily photograph everything scheduled for that day. This makes sure that once we start shooting and everyone on set does not have to waste time doing nothing. Time is money and I know that you have plenty of other things to do than watch a photo shoot. To keep a quick pace of everything I will need a second set of hands to carry equipment, set it up, adjust products and lights while I take photos and adjust the camera, and swap out products during the shoot. My assistant will charge $250/day.

After the shoot is done and we have packed up the photos will have to be uploaded and backed up to an external drive. From there I will catalog every photo so it can be easily found at a later date for reuse or reference. The photos must be sorted through and the duds pulled out. The images I get from the camera are raw data from the sensor. They have not been automatically processed to a generic standard like point and shoot cameras. This gives the most latitude and information to each photo that can be edited and enhanced. That also means that each photo must be handled one by one adjusting the exact and accurate color balance, brightness, and contrast of light and dark. Products in real life have minor flaws that are unnacceptable for any type of advertising. This is a fact of true life. Each image will be attended to eliminate any wrinkles, blemishes, or bent corners so the box looks perfect. You would not buy a product that looks like it has been battered and the same thing goes with catalog work. The images also need to be straightened, resized and cropped to the same dimensions for the catalog grid. This process takes between 5 and 10 minutes per product.

Processing the photos into the final dimensions and requirements that you requested takes time that needs to be accounted for. Processing a handful of photos takes very little time but processing several hundred or thousand will tie up my computer for hours. Transferring the final product to a medium you have requested and delivering takes some time and delivery charges for hand delivery or shipping are charged as well.

The music photography is getting popular right now and I am slowly booking more and more gigs. I really enjoy music photography because it leaves the most creativity in production. It let’s me flex my creative muscle. Recently Brick By Brick held a show featuring Despite The Wolves, Man Made Man, One Theory, Aizen, and Silence Betrayed. Fuckin kick ass show. I got there early to setup my lighting. It’s difficult to plan out a shoot on stage because the band is constantly moving, the stage lights keep changing, and you can’t make the crowd feel intimidated. I like shooting at Brick By Brick because of all the open space on and around the stage. I have room to get any angle and put my lights to somewhat evenly light the stage. I played around with different combinations of strobes, ambient light and on camera flash through out the entire night. I was there for 6 hours so I had plenty of time to dial it in and try something new. I’d say the most difficult scenario was when Man Made Man and Silence Betrayed used a lot of smoke on stage. It renders my on camera flash useless. The flash just bounces the light off the smoke right back into the camera without even lighting my subject. Stage lighting and off camera flash are the solution here. This is all photography 101.

The year of the rat is over and it went out with a bang. The day started on a foggy morning. I was driving down Jimmy Durante in Del Mar and found this site. I had to stop and take some shots. I love when an image comes right of the camera without needing any photoshop whatsoever. I began the day with a few shots of whiskey and a little editing. New Years Eve is a special day and so it deserves a special beginning. I didn’t get much work done but I was having a lot of fun. After a couple hours I left to head down south. I met up with Bryan Reilly to skate Dallas park in La Mesa. I got the insider tip that there was going to be an imitation hesh sesh so I was obliged to attend. Jesse from the Dallas skate crew brought a few rails to the skatepark and it was on.

I have never seen so many people there in my life. It was almost too many people. I met up with Jomar and Lawrence there and eventually it was too much. Looking for something a little more subtle we went to La Mesa Middle School. Boy does that bring back memories. It was much more peaceful. Jomar claimed an ollie across the sidewalk. This is fucking huge. Off the 3 stair across the sidewalk is a good 8 feet. The 3 stair is small too. It’s more like a 2 so you don’t have much air time. Jomar barely made it. His tail scraped the curb. We skated the bike rails for a bit before it was time to begin the nighttime festivities. We cruised to Bryan’s house in El Cajon as a quick stop before heading out. Nothing special happened from there. At Christian’s house we began drinking and planning the evening. I couldn’t have too much to drink because I was driving so I was a bit anxious to get to wherever we were going. A few people met up with us and we were off. Now this is the raddest party I have been to in a long time. It was a residential street somewhere in El Cajon. 2 houses on each side of the street were raging. The first thing that caught my eye was the buffet just chillin. Chicken, beef, salads, and other things that I cannot remember anymore. There is no line, no payment area or guard, it was just up for the taking. A 60″ tv on the driveway with guitar hero hooked up, beer pong in the street and a good 70+ people. We were escorted into the house of the person we knew. I think they robbed a convenience store because this was too much alcohol. Or maybe they just know how to party. So many people puked, so many awkward scenarios, so many good times. The cops came to break it up and 45 minutes later they were filling a plate at the buffet table with. I think one of them even had a beer. At 3 it was time to go. We went to Carrie’s house out in Santee to chill. I setup the camera and snapped a few drunken late night pics. I just setup my flash to bounce off the furthest wall and set it on a remote trigger.

That way I didn’t have to think about lighting angles and such. It lit up almost the entire room evenly. I was stoked. As it turns out no one else even realized I had setup a light. They just thought all the light was coming from the remote on top of my camera. Good times.

It was getting late and time for food. It’s amazing that Denny’s can have that many people at 430 in the morning. One guy was lying on the waiting bench. He greeted us in his own language of slurs, cheers and drunken jibberish. He was stoked. It’s amazing how most of my Denny’s memories are at 4 am with a few drinks in me. I guess that’s livin. Denny’s never fails me. . The night was almost over and we dosed off back at Carrie’s. I know the liquid bread was wearing off because it suddenly got way cold. Like painfully cold. The girls huddled up in blankets next to the fire. It was cute. At 530 we peaced out only to skate again the next day.

What a day. More photos of new years eve 2008