Rob Hammer Photography - San Diego Advertising Photographer

PB Crossfit-San Diego

Rob Hammer — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:49:32 +0000

Wish I could shoot in a gym like this everyday of my life. I love the gritty warehouse look with raw light coming through the windows.You can check out the set-up shot for this shoot here. No modifiers, no scrims, nothing. I wanted it as filthy as possible.And love the outcome. Really happy with some of these. Much different from the rest of my stuff with semi-soft directional light from big modifiers. And none of this was staged. Everything happening in each shot was captured as it was going on. Oh, on top of the lights in that BTS shot, there is also another bare light inside bouncing off a white wall for a little fill.

PB CROSSFIT. These guys are nuts.

TAGS: Crossfit Photography, PB Crossfit, San Diego Crossfit, Crossfit Athletes, Athletes, Sports, Training, Workouts, Strength, Power, Deadlifts, Power Cleans, Advertising Photography, Warehouse Gym, Muscle, Rob Hammer Photography

DeMel Tarver-Fitness Photography

Rob Hammer — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:18:59 +0000

Linked up with DeMel a few months ago in LA. He came out to get certified to train Olympic athletes. Long story short, DeMel is a beast. If your looking for a trainer, he is the guy. Extremely passionate and knowledgeable about the human body, fitness, health, and pushing your body to the limit. He will get you where you wanna go.

Mr. Tarver

TAGS: Fitness Photography, Fitness, Cross Fit, LAX Crossfit, Fitness Photography, Athlete, Sports, Strength, Power, Lifting, Training, Trainer, Personal Trainer, Muscle, Los Angeles, Rob Hammer Photography

Chuck The Welder

Rob Hammer — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:49:28 +0000

For the past 6 months I have been walking by C.& D.Q. Welding. A really cool family owned company with an outdoor work area that was begging to be shot. So one day I walked in and asked the owner if he would mind me coming in and taking some pictures. He seemed skeptical, but said they would call when they had a big project come in. Time went by and I never heard from them. Stopped in again and got the same answer. More time went by and still no call. So late last week I had some free time and decided it needed to happen. Walked over and told them I wanted to come in “TODAY” to shoot. I guess after the 3rd time seeing me they realized I was serious. Come to find out, they thought I was an inspector who wanted to get a good look at their operation. Funny, but I see where they were coming from. Either way, I got in that day and did my thing. Obviously my main objective was to get some cool portraits, but I also wanted to grab some shots of the guys at work. Sparks flying, welding machines blaring, etc. Unfortunately, the sun was so bright that it was virtually impossible to capture those shots the way I wanted them. Then there was Chuck. Chuck is the owner and about as old school as they come. Total character. Been running this welding business for 50 years. Everything about him screams Welder. Really happy to have met him and make some images that I feel represent him.

Broke out the 6ft. Chimera Soft box for this one. Only happens a couple times a year, but he deserved it. Coupled that with a 3ft Chimera Octa for fill on the back of the scene which was far out of frame right. White Lightning’s in both of those. Triggered with Pocket Wizard’s.

CHUCK

TAGS: Welder, Welding, Portrait of a Welder, C.& D.Q. Welding, Portrait, Advertising Photography, San Diego Welding Company, San Diego, California, Rob Hammer Photography

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Rob Hammer — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:36:19 +0000

Good times down in Puerto Vallarta. Didn’t shoot as mach as I would have liked, but there is always the next time. PV is a cool little town that is very easy to get around. We took the bus quite a bit. And had no problem until we fell asleep, missed our stop, and woke up somewhere very unfamiliar. Ha. The main streets are very similar to most Mexican tourist towns. If you look a little further though, it has a lot to offer. The thing that stood out the most to me is the texture. The whole town had tons of texture and tons of color. Fantastic street tacos too. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

I noticed this guy sleeping in his chair from across the street. Asked the lady inside the store (think it was his wife) if I could take his picture and she said no multiple times. So I literally snapped this from my hip while walking by him. Dig it.

Found a really cool cigar factory in a little corner of town. Turns out the owner is from San Diego, but also has a house in PV.

Getting our tourist on!

TAGS: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Travel Photography, Cigars, Cigar Factory, Para Sailing, Rob Hammer Photography

Havasu Falls, Grand Canyon

Rob Hammer — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:28:00 +0000

Throughout my life I’ve been lucky enough to visit some amazing places and spend time with some great people. Last week however, MIGHT have topped them all. Our backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon was just incredible. If you’ve never done it, add this trip to your bucket list. And then do it again every year! I certainly don’t have writing skills to describe how amazing it was. Nor will my pictures ever do it justice. It’s just something you have to see for yourself.

We left Sunday morning from San Diego and drove 8 hours into Arizona. Found a random field to pitch our tents in and met up with the other half of our crew. Which was coming from Denver. Got some sleep, woke up, cooked some grub and drove about an hour to the trail head. The campsite is 10 miles into the canyon, so you can only bring what your willing to hike in with on your back. The hike was a great time, but the blazing sun had us worn down by the time we got to the site. The entire time your looking around in amazement at what your walking through. It just kept getting cooler and cooler the further you got into the canyon. FYI: You can’t bring enough water for this hike! Load up. After passing the Indian reservation in Supai, it’s 2 miles to the campground. That’s where it really got interesting. Around each corner is a great view and a new waterfall. The water is what really blew my mind. It’s a crazy neon blue that I’ve never seen before. And the rocks around the big waterfalls seems to be melting. Crazy. After setting up camp we went for a swim in Havasu Falls. It was almost a total reset. Then went back, cooked some dinner, played some cards, and went to bed. Tuesday might have been one of the best days of my life. We hiked further and further into the canyon on a trail and down through the river itself. Every time you turn around the views are just ridiculous. Swimming holes and cliffs to jump off of everywhere. And we didn’t miss an opportunity to cliff jump off every waterfall along the way.Some of the trails were through rock tunnels and down sheer cliffs. Extremely unsafe, but such a great time. At one point Lou said “I feel like I’m in Jurassic Park.” Couldn’t have been a better description. At multiple times of the day I had to ask myself if this was real life? Seemed like we were going through multiple different countries as the hike went along. We figured at the end of three days we had hiked 30 miles and twenty of that was with a full pack. The final mile and a half back up to the parking lot were killer. All up hill and switchbacks for the final mile. Felt great at the end though after we cooled down. After all that we packed up the car and drove 9 hours back to SD. I was in bed by 1 a.m., and woke up at 4:45 a.m. for a flight to Mexico. Quite the week!

Hopefully these images will give a small idea of how amazing this place is…..

Havasu Falls

Not sure what the name of these falls are, but they were great for some cliff jumping…

Beaver Falls. Total playground.

TAGS: Grand Canyon, Havasu Falls, Mooney Falls, Beaver Falls, Havasupai, Supai, Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, Cliff jumping, travel, travel photography, landscape photography, waterfalls, Colorado River, Rob Hammer Photography

Random Photos of the Week

Rob Hammer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:53:08 +0000

Von Miller-Denver Broncos

Rob Hammer — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:04:05 +0000

Went to Texas a few weeks ago for one shoot and only planned on staying a few days. That one shoot turned into three and we ended up staying a week. It was my first time in Texas, so I was happy having some extra time to check it out. Can’t imagine I smelled too good by the end though. As I only brought enough close for three days. The first shoot was in Dallas, which I was not impressed with at all. We walked around a lot of the city and there was nothing that made it feel like Texas. On top of that it felt like a ghost town. Nobody was out in the streets. Not even a single person riding a bike. Fortunately we got a call saying that we needed to be in Austin a few days later for another shoot. So we caught a 33 minute flight down to Austin and had a totally different experience. Austin is incredible. The city, the people, and most of all THE FOOD. Incredible. There just seems to be a lot going on there. People are very active and the streets are bustling. Great energy. Can’t remember the last time I enjoyed food so much, and I eat a lot. The BBQ alone is worth the flight. We found a little whole in the wall BBQ joint who’s food was mind blowing. Unreal flavor. Never been a huge fan of seafood, but we hit a crawfish boil that totally changed my mind. On the last day we ate some alligator, which really sealed the deal. People REALLY know how to eat down there. The culture in Austin is really great. Top notch city. Definitely want to go back for a football game. You can tell the entire town just rallies around that program.

Anyway, here are some shots from our shoot with Von Miller of the Denver Broncos. Von was the NFL’s Rookie of the Year and the latest athlete with GO PRO WORKOUTS. As you can see, he is a beast but also a really chill dude. Very easy to shoot with and accommodating to whatever we needed. Between takes he was having a great time dancing to whatever music was coming through the speakers. It was obvious that Von is the kind of person that really likes to enjoy life. Gotta love that.

This first two shots were both taken outside. I wanted to somehow incorporate a barbell, but didn’t want the distracting elements of an indoor gym. So I had two guys hold the bar outdoors under my lighting set up. Also needed to get some shots with a different background, but wasn’t loving anything at the facility. Good thing the sky was full of these cool looking clouds. Seemed like the entire time I was in Texas, the sky looked like this. I’m sure all the local photographers in TX never complain about that. Shot a bunch of different poses with Von, but for some reason only liked the ones with his arms crossed. Maybe it’s the tattoos.

TAGS: Von Miller, NFL Photography, Rookie of The Year, Denver Broncos, Athlete, Sports, Portrait of Von Miller, Portrait of an Athlete, Lifting, Workout, Go Pro Workouts, Training, Strength, Endurance, National Football League, Dallas, Texas, Michael Johnson Performance, Michael Johnson, Rob Hammer Photography

Random

Rob Hammer — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:45:19 +0000

Never know what you’ll find on your way to lunch…….

TAGS: Car Photography, Classic Car, Cars, Old Cars, Automobile Photography, San Diego, California, Rob Hammer Photography

Salton Sea, CA

Rob Hammer — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:02:38 +0000

To see the dead fish images from my first trip click HERE

Had an itch that needed scratching, so I took a ride out to the Salton Sea again yesterday. Something about this place that I find very interesting. Certainly not a positive place to be or live, but great if you just feel like shooting. In an all honesty, it’s a very depressing part of the country. However, something everybody should see at least once. A lot of the day was spent driving around the little towns scattered around the sea shore. I’ve been to a lot of shitty places and this is without a doubt the poorest of them all. Bombay Beach and Salton Sea Beach are flat out poverty. It’s a few country blocks of trailer homes. Half of them occupied, and the other half are either vacant or partially burned to the ground. No doubt, the result of an accident caused by drugs or alcohol. True there are trailer parks all across the country, but none in the middle of a dessert that sit on a contaminated sea with millions of dead fish washed up on the shore. It’s just a really bizarre place. I still can’t believe that it exists. I’ve heard “Post-Apocalyptic” used to describe the Salton Sea, and that has to be the perfect word. The whole things sort of feels like a weird dream. Definitely not completely satisfied with these images, but I’m getting there. Had a really hard time successfully capturing images that accurately showed the decay of the towns themselves. The details I got, but the rest is hard. Suppose Ill have to go back sometime….

This is Roger. He rode by, introduced himself, and told me I was in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. He had one tooth that I could see. You can image where the conversation went from there.

TAGS: Salton Sea, California, Salton Sea Photography, Bombay Beach, Salton Sea Beach, Dead Fish, Talapia, Travel Photography, Portrait, Rob Hammer Photography

Sweeney Todd’s Barber Shop

Rob Hammer — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Just got back from a week in Texas and trying to get caught up on the blog. Have a lot of posts on the way, so stay tuned. Went up to LA for another shoot a few weeks ago and hit up Sweeney Todd’s before hand. Really cool old shop. Had a lot of fun shooting this one. It’s been a Barber Shop since 1947 and has gone through 4 owners in that time. Sweeney himself is the guy cutting in the right hand chair. On the wall is a pricing list and on the bottom of that list it says “no cellphones.” This is something they take very seriously in Sweeney Todd’s. They told one guy to go outside because he started talking on his phone. I couldn’t agree more with that rule. Nobody gives a shit about your personal business and nobody wants to hear it. Especially not a full barber shop. Take it outside. Another unique tradition they have is the chalkboard on the back wall. When you walk in you write your name down along with the first initial of the barber you want to cut your hair. Or “Sween” if you want it cut by the man. That way there is no confusion about who came first. It’s a really chill shop, but being in LA it’s no surprise that they have some A-List clientele. Mr. Mad Man; Don Draper himself gets his ears lowered at Sweeney Todd’s! I asked if they had any down days? “The only time were not busy is Sunday and Monday when were closed.” In fact, they actually had to start a night shift because so many people were being turned away at closing time. All the guys in here were real cool and offered a lot of tips about other old shops to hit up in other parts of the country. They even told me about a shop in Ireland where they use fire and a comb to cut your hair. An ancient art called “singeing.” Might have to take a trip!!

TAGS: Sweeney Todd’s Barber Shop, Sweeney Todd, Barber Shop, Barber Shop Photography, Barber, Portrait of a Barber, Los Angeles Barber Shop, Los Angeles, California, Rob Hammer Photography