Of all the things I shoot, lifestyle photography is by far my favorite. 75% of what I do is some sort of lifestyle photography for advertising purposes.
So in September of 2018 I got the idea to do a series of lifestyle images that looked as though they were shot in various decades past. I just finished the project and you can see the results HERE.
To create photos that look authentic to the individual time periods took some work, including buying and making my own props. I wanted to include a running theme of including the Coke, McDonalds and Volkswagen brands in each shoot since they are some of the most iconic brands that have spanned several generations. On the 70’s however I decided to go with a custom van rather than a VW Beetle or Thing.
For the props I started with items I could find on eBay. I bought Coke products in bottles and cans as well as things like actual vintage McDonalds styrofoam chicken nugget containers. One of the props I bought in a store in Nashville was an unopened bottle of Tab from the 70’s. What I couldn’t find I made. With the exception of the chicken nuggets, I designed and printed all of the McDonalds packaging including; bags, sandwich containers, french fry bags and cups. I also printed the coke can for the 1960’s shoot that you see in the VW van. I also employed various Photoshop and real world techniques to achieve the look of old snapshots.
Some of the props I either bought or made…
Model selection as well as Wardrobe and Hair/Makeup were key and I’m so proud of the team I had working with me on all of this.
Here’s a behind the scenes video featuring the various photo shoots.
All photos were taken in the Nashville area with a Canon 5D Mark IV and Profoto B1 and/or A1’s. I didn’t want to “cheat” and use film for these shoots. I wanted to show that I could re-create these time periods using modern technology.