Roberto Westbrook: New Photographs and Thoughts

I just added a new section to my website in a section called “Case Study.” It features photos I made for Blackboard Inc over 4 days in the Washington DC area. A few of the days were COLD, but everyone worked really hard to ensure the shoot went smoothly. You can see how some of the images were used on the Blackboard site.

I’m editing some images I made last week for Blackboard on the Georgetown campus. The work featured students on computers and PDAs. I got to work with some really creative people at a small agency in DC called the Pappas Group. They wanted a warm and natural look with some blown out areas at the top of the images. This is one I liked a lot. Later this week, I have a 2 day shoot in a prison, which will be a little different from the light and airy quality of this photo.

I was commissioned about two months ago by a local agency to photograph gas station prices for an ad about reducing reliance on foreign oil. They needed a pretty straight-forward image with prominent prices that would read quickly. I delivered an image that they liked and used in national ads. I also made this very different photo which was not used. I’m going to put it on Photoshelter and see if it sells.

Here is how the soccer photo was used in this testimonial ad for Sentara in local papers. I really miss the color. Color version here. Notice the designer moved the ball to fit the constraints of the ad. The kid would look really funny if there was no ball. The bottom photo in the ad is not mine.

This was a fun shoot for Sentara. It was a testimonial ad about this kid who broke his ankle during a game and was taken to a nearby Sentara hospital facility. We started with a straight forward portrait of mom and son together on the field and in the bleachers and finished with this shot which was a lot more fun. We moved the ball a little bit in post to fit the panoramic format better. I’ll post the ad soon.

I have a great client who uses me regularly for hospital work. A lot of the layouts he does require a panoramic style photo. This can be especially challenging indoors when you want a subjects face to line up with other interesting visual elements across a limited frame. Here is one of an administrator and another of a doctor.