Covering the Oakland Food Scene

I was recently given several assignments to cover the Oakland food scene. If you don't live in the Bay Area then you may not know that Oakland has recently taken some of the spot light off of San Francisco as being the place to dine in the Bay Area. Many East Bay and San Francisco chefs looking for cheaper rents have opened restaurants in Oakland over the past few years, with many others in the works. Having lived in Oakland on and off now for over ten years, it is exciting to see what's going on here. Having grown up in a community that grew its own food, had its own bakery, and even made its own tofu and soy milk, seeing restaurants like Ramen, where they make all their own broth and noodles, thrive, is just great. I love what's going on here and getting paid to photograph it brings it all full circle for me.

My Work

Moved Back to Bay Area!

We've just moved back to the Bay Area from Austin, Texas. My husband just finished this big project there, you can see it on his website if you like: http://www.ezrawheeler.com/ It's the White Cliff project. We've lived in Austin on and off over the years, and went back there to do this project and test the waters for staying permanently. After some weighing and seeing how things are going there, we decided the Bay Area and the landscape of Northern California was just too engrained in us to give it up. It's our home, so we are so happy to be back!!

The move back was long, we had to drive at 55mph for the moving truck and unlike all of our other adventures across the country we couldn't stop to dilly dally.  It was hard to look out on this vast landscape and not take any side trips. Stuck in the drivers seat, I could at least enjoy the views.

Sally Brown on the cover of Austin Woman

I got to do a cover shoot for Austin Woman last month-Sally Brown at The Lake Austin Spa and Resort. A great location and a beautiful, sassy subject to boot. The weather was not so cooperative though, it was actually raining when this shot was taken. A little digital retouching and...Check out the sky I added (below).

Suzanna Choffel for Austin Woman

I recently had the pleasure of shooting Suzanna Choffel for an Austin Woman style shoot. Suzanna is a singer/songwriter and doesn't normally model. She is amazingly photogenic and was very laid back about the shoot, willing to try whatever. It was a lot of fun. I got to choose the location-an artist compound in East Austin called Artpost. (They host open studios once or twice a year and if you have a chance to get to one, the place itself is worth the trip.) For more images go to http://www.smcintyre.com/

Suzanna waiting for the shooting to start.

Another Cover!

I recently finished a story on the art scene in Austin for Austin Home Magazine and am pleased to see my portrait of artist Roi James on the cover! For other portraits in this series see my website, in the main portfolio: http://www.smcintyre.com/

Rallyhood Campaign!

Back in the late 90's I used to shoot a lot for an advertising agency called the Olson Group. We did lots of fun stuff together and I became friends with Patti Olson. Recently Patti has started a new company called Rallyhood (https://rallyhood.com/) and I got to work with her again, as well as Lewis Carnegie (http://lewiscarnegie.com/)

for this campaign.

For more work see the Kids portfolio at http://www.smcintyre.com/

Hill Country Getaway!

I finally got out of Austin! A nice little jaunt to the country side. My friends arranged a girls trip to the Hill Country over Mother's Day weekend. We stayed at a house in Center Point, a small town on the Guadalupe River.

The weekend was all about relaxation, laughing, and also FOOD. Mary Louise Butters (of Butters Brownies) was along with us for the weekend and her family has a ranch nearby. We were invited to the Ranch for dinner, and what a treat! This family loves it's food-smoked a pig for the occasion! We also had skillet cornbread, roasted turkey, two kinds of cole slaw, rosemary roasted potatoes, pound cake with berries and cream for dessert. We ate out on their patio which has amazing views, overlooking the valley.

The next day I meandered home, stopping here and there to take photos. I've always wanted to stop and photograph those hay bales! It was Mothers Day, and a perfect way to spend it was wandering around in a field in the middle of the country. Why don't I do this more?

See more photos at http://www.smcintyre.com/

Austin Monthly Style Shoot

I pitched a story to Austin Monthly in April for a style shoot. The concept I pitched was for how the photos should look and a rough idea of what the models might be wearing. I had wanted the shots to be all outside, showing the beauty of early spring. The crew at Austin Monthly does not want to travel far, so I scouted all over the city for wild places of beauty-places that would you would think were out in the country (which there are many).

The weather was not looking good though, it was dark, dark, dark, and rain seemed imminent. So I began to look at indoor spaces to shoot in for a back up.  I found this cabin near lake Travis that looked like it could be a good back drop, went out there and shot a lot of potential backgrounds and matched them up with a rough shot list I had put together. On the day of the shoot it gets very hectic; getting in six shots between the hours of 9-5 with out an assistant can be challenging, (especially when you have to factor in time for hair and make up and choosing clothing) so I was really glad I had done a lot of prep work. The magazine came out two weeks ago and the spread looks great.

See the layouts in the InPrint Portfolio http://www.smcintyre.com/

Bad weather makes good photos...

On our Bay Area Christmas trip this year we decided to go the beach one day. At that time of year the weather at the beach is a very hit or miss-that is if you're looking for sunny weather. On this day we had very heavy fog, it wasn't quite what you would call rain, but it might as well have been, everything, including my camera was getting soaked. I put it under my jacket in between photos (until I got smart and went to get an umbrella out of the car). Despite, or maybe because of the weather, I loved this day. It wasn't just that it was beautiful. I looked around and saw all of these people completely enjoying themselves; kids playing in the sand, families playing soccer, groups huddled around fires, who cares if it's wet and cold? An authentic Northern California day. 

see more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

 

Tom Smothers

Another story that didn't make it to the About page:

I don't shoot celebrities often. It really is easier to do my job if I'm not distracted by the giddiness that comes from meeting someone bigger than life. But I loved spending the afternoon with Tom Smothers. He was the John Stewart of his day, and had many incites to share, not all of them funny, some in fact, rather dark. But he loved to tell them, loved having an audience to share with. A real people person, you don't often meet.

See more portraits: http://www.smcintyre.com/

Shooting naked

While working on my new website I wrote some stories for the About page that didn't make it into the mix. I thought this blog would be a good place to share them. Here's one:

Most challenging shoot: 5 naked sax players on Auditorium Shores for the Naked Austin Calendar.  I've had more physically difficult shoots, like shooting in a clean room in silicon valley with a mask and gloves on and high humidity (try seeing through a plastic mask when your breath keeps fogging it up), or shooting out of a helicopter, but this shoot sticks out in my mind because of pesky passersby and their camera phones. I like my subjects to feel comfortable, and while this was a very uncomfortable shoot, people stopping to take photos bothered me and I had to run a few off. Note to self...next time maybe don't shoot the naked guys on Auditorium Shores.

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

Found that country feeling in middle of Austin

At the beginning of August Austin Monthly contacted me about shooting a cover for their 'Weekend Trips' September issue. They had a good idea of what we would shoot; a family with a Wagoneer and a canoe on top, but we needed a location. I wanted to shoot out of the city, but logistically it's a little difficult to coordinate so many elements; kid, couple, car, canoe, us, did I mention a dog? I suggested an empty lot in middle of the city where I had shot in the past, which turned out to be just the trick for a easy shoot. The grass had grown up nicely and caught the afternoon sun beautifully.

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

THE MAN SHOOT

I just finished shooting Austin's 10 most eligible bachelors for Austin Monthly. It was a lot of fun and also challenging. The magazine doesn't have a budget for an assistant, hair and makeup or a stylist. The images they showed me for examples were highly styled, and great images, but tears from magazines with very large budgets. My approach was to make the images more about the guy in it, while having some fun with the atmosphere of the pictures. The ladies from the magazine (Cory Rivademar and Jessica Power) did an excellent job making it all work.

See more in InPrint Portfolio: http://www.smcintyre.com/

My favorite outtake.