Commercial

One of the latest vlogs from Casey Neistat was a little different to the others. If you are like me, you have subscribed to his channel, and have noticed that his approach and energy towards it has changed quite significantly since he took his break. But now it’s become a marketing platform, and his vlogs are just marketing brands and products. This vlog especially, with a teenage fantasy that he’s always wanted to experience during summertime as concept, and him pursuing it. At the end of the video the sponsorship messaging, which is obviously great from the brand’s perspective, but not so much for the viewer. We watch vlogs because of its candid, honest nature. With this vlog, it’s not true anymore.

Have you ever wondered where those amazing air-to-air shots you see in airline marketing videos and the like come from? Go behind the scenes of Wolfe Air Aviation's marketing work with Air Canada for their new livery on the Boeing 787-9 and one of the coolest photoshoots you'll ever see.

A little handshake can go a long way.

You might say they are late to the pack, and it's quite ironic. One of the largest photography communities in the world and Adobe Lightroom, the software many photographers use to make the photos look the way they do. I'm glad they are doing it, but why now? I mean, Fstoppers has over 325,000 followers on Instagram. It's because of the love of photography and the community that we form part of. And I am not sure I can say the same thing for Adobe Lightroom starting up their profile now. Instagram just became a very viable marketing platform too, so it makes sense for brands to come into the fray, especially brands who make products for the photographic market.

Sometimes the who, what, and how is surpassed by the when. Timing can be everything. It’s a fact of life, even if a rather cruel one.

At Monday’s WWDC keynote, Apple announced the latest iteration of the iPad Pro, leading with a 75 second commercial that is as slick as one would expect with any Apple product launch. The iPad Pro will sell by the bucketload no doubt, but “Any Given Wednesday,” directed by Leonardo Dalessandri, is worthy of recognition itself as a supreme piece of commercial filmmaking.

There are times that I’m more happy to be human than others. Thank you Gatorade, for creating one minute and one second of awesome video that excites me to be alive.

Within the framework of the WWDC conference, held in June 5-9 in San Jose, California, Apple introduced an advertisement video called Appocalypse, showing the consequences of the sudden removal of mobile applications from users' devices around the world.

Sometimes 30 seconds can change your life. Has the following story ever happened to you?

The third episode of Mike Kelley's Behind the Scenes series from his architectural tutorial is now live. In this episode, Mike shows you how you can turn an overcast day into a sunny afternoon, how to photograph a resort from a helicopter, and also teaches you an effective way to make a hotel lobby look more inviting. You can also watch as the Fstoppers crew goes night diving with massive manta rays off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

This Kickstarter smashed its goal in one day – and now stands at almost double the original target.

In 2006, Leah Caldwell was eating at a Chipotle near the University of Denver when a photographer took her picture. When she got up to leave, the photographer asked her to sign a release form for use of the images, but she said no. Eight years later, when Caldwell went into a Chipotle in Orlando, Florida, she saw her picture on one of the restaurant’s walls, and subsequently in two other locations in California.

Telling a joke to an audience large or small can be a risk. An edgier joke can offend as many people as it amuses. Using humor in photography carries that same risk. Many photos can have a natural humor, but when a professional photographer is tasked with creating a humorous photo from scratch it can be serious business.

As a professional photographer, money is never too far outside of the frame. But even as the budgets and day rates continue to rise, it is important that an artist never forget why it all started in the first place.

Becoming as a commercial photographer can't be defined with a formula. Each story is different but lots of stories share similar basic principles. They can be applied not only in the areas of photography and filmmaking, but also in other businesses.