Author: Zak

The the other half to Paper Photographs' two man team.

Columbus Product Photography // Lea Gray Design by Paper Photographs

Zak

PAPER PRODUCTS
When I ran into Lea at Agora 8 a couple months ago, she started telling me about how she was giving up her day job to focus on her business full time. I always love hearing stuff like that; people taking the plunge to start making a living doing what they love to do. So she was going to need some product photography done for her online portfolio she was putting together and I told her of course we’d be happy to help out.

We scheduled two different shoots – one for the products themselves, and the other at the Park of Roses to get some lifestyle shots of people interacting with her work. Our models for the shoot, Kate and Lea herself, did a great job acting like rain wasn’t pouring into their eyes. Chris clocked the shoot time at a total of 8 minutes before the rain and strong winds forced us inside. We really wanted a softly lit, sunset look to the images, so we had to work some computer magic to turn that dark gray evening into a bright, golden sunset.

Note to all photographers out there: Always shoot RAW!

You can take a look at all of what Lea does on her website here at Lea Gray Design. Thanks for being an awesome client Lea, and best of luck on the new Lea Gray enterprise!

Lifestyle_Photography_Lea_Gray_Design Product_Photography_Lea_Gray_Design_Handmade_Cards Product_Photography_Lea_Gray_Design_Handmade_Card_Handbag Product_Photography_Lea_Gray_Design_Origami_Kusudama Lea_Gray_Design_Product_Photography_Hand_Sewn_Pillows_Wallets

“Ya Got T-Fal?”

Zak2 Comments

ELASTIC WAISTBANDS…

As often as I can, I like to travel back home to Cleveland to visit with friends and family for the Holidays.  It’s always the same deal, as I’m sure it is with most family gatherings, a few people have been toiling away in the kitchen since 5am, making an insane amount of delicious food that’ll be gone in minutes.  I was feeling a little guilty about that, so this past year I decided to make a contribution.  Not by helping in the kitchen, that would get in the way of my lying around time, but by documenting all the great looking food for posterity.  You’re welcome family!  Nap time.

Paper Photographs Food Photography Table Setting Continue reading ““Ya Got T-Fal?”” →

“We had part of a slinky.

Zak

BUT I STRAIGHTENED IT.”
I’m still working on getting this blog up to snuff, so please excuse some of the random posts and layout changes. I really wish I had discovered the “private” post option before jotting down some of my inappropriate brilliant thoughts for all to read.  Hopefully this post will be the only indication that anything had gone awry.  Hopefully.

White Papers

Zak

A DATA SHEET THAT’S EVEN LESS INTERESTING
Here’s a quick Q&A session to help you readers get to know us, Chris Helman and Zak Kelley of Paper Photographs. Thoroughly Enjoy!

Who are you?
ZK:  Okay, well, I’m Zak. I’m the co-founder of Paper Photographs and a person interested in art, philosophy, funny things, and making photographs.
CH: Funnyman and magician…woops. sorry. musician.
ZK: What you did there, with that joke…magic.

How do you know each other?
CH: We both grew up in Parma, OH and came to Columbus to study Fine Art at Ohio State. We’ve known each other for, well, let’s see …18 years, and have collaborated on many pizzas.

Where are you?
ZK:  We both live in Columbus, but still make frequent trips back home to the Cleve.
CH: Don’t call it that.

How long have you been in Columbus?
CH: We founded Columbus.
ZK:  What Chris means is that we found Columbus 13 years ago.

Why photography?
ZK:  For me, photography started out of necessity while I was working on my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree  at OSU. A lot of the work I was doing was installation and performance based, which, by it’s nature, has a very short lifespan. The installations were very temporary and the performances were often over within minutes. The only way to really share this work was to document it on film. I quickly realized how important it was to have great images of my work and the photography itself soon became a significant aspect of my art making. It still is.
CH: I began similarly, using photography to document sculptural work. Eventually I became interested in using the camera as more than a tool to document other artwork. I now find myself photographing people. Funny, because I never really wanted to make figural sculpture. The two disciplines are quite different for me, but lighting for a photograph reminds me of sculpting. I especially like both the aesthetic and technical sides to photography. They allow me to be a beautiful nerd.