Brian Mullins Wedding Photography -Wedding Photographers Raleigh -Raleigh senior, family, portraits and commercial photographer » Commercial Photography

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Brian Mullins — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:26:03 +0000

One of the things I really love about this area is how well all the Raleigh wedding vendors interact and help each other out. I know this sounds a bit campy, but we really do have a tight-knit community of vendors here and it’s always a pleasure to work with them, either with clients or directly, as in this case. Barry Herndon from the Party Nuts (A Raleigh band who I’ve worked with on a few occasions) called me asking about getting some cool photos for their bands website.

We agreed to do some studio work at my place in Apex that included the band as well as cameos of each band member. With a black backdrop, quite a few lights, we got started. Now, the one thing about studio photography which is greatly different over wedding photography, is there is not an external event to focus on. It’s just 5 guys in a room, without a TV or sporting event, trying to get some great photos. We actually had a blast! It turns out we know alot of the same people from my time in the music/sound business so we talked at length about the “good ole days” and, generally speaking, really had a great shoot.

Here are a few photos we got from the session. I hope you enjoy!

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Southern Bride & Groom food photos

Brian Mullins — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:41:17 +0000

I had the really cool opportunity to photograph the food section for Southern Bride & Groom Magazine. I couldn’t publish the photos until the article came out and, well, when it came out I had a huge backlog of other material to blog, so I am just now getting around to it. You can see the blog post of the magazine food spread they released to me a while back but I wanted to post the larger size photos here. Part of the honor of being asked this is as a Raleigh Food Photographer, getting your work published is much more difficult then you would imagine so, yes, I was completely flattered.

We ended up going to several locations for the shoot and I had an opportunity to consult with the chefs before they prepared the food, which is really key to making a good photo. We had a great time and managed to accomplish all of this work in one day. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Brian Mullins — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:47:27 +0000

I’ve got a little downtime until my next week – don’t worry, will be getting new ones up very soon! With my downtime, I’m catching up on my blogging from shoots I did in 2010. One of the coolest, in my opinion, was some commercial photography work I was commissioned for by the Durham Museum of Life & Science. They needed some updated photography for their vast, and I mean VAST amount of attractions at their facility. I am very used to arriving at a location and working around obstacles, but I had so many firsts during this shoot that, honestly, there are too many to mention. I can say, however, I was 6 feet away from a very large owl (while in his cage), got up close and personal to a bear (luckily, for me, I was across the water from him) and enjoyed the company of pigs, rabbits and a not so friendly goose.

After all was said and done, I had so many pictures that even this blog post just doesn’t show how large and diverse the Durham Museum of Life & Science really is. I highly recommend you taking your kids, wife or girlfriend out to spend a day here. Between the train, bugs, bears, wolves, lemurs, dinosaurs and really cool science stuff (water vapor, remote controlled sailboats and air cannons), you will not be disappointed. I hope you enjoy the photos and if you do head out there, please mention where you saw the photos!

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Brian Mullins — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:59:05 +0000

For what was supposed to be break in action for me, August turned out to be my busiest month yet. I think other Raleigh commercial photographers has to be busy as I was getting quite a few calls for commercial work. I had also mentally “misplaced” how many shoots I had delayed until August as I had a little time away in my wedding photography. All in all, it was my best month yet and I am absolutely loving every minute of it!

I have a long relationship with a local dental facility and they had asked me to photograph a few of their folks for an upcoming ad campaign. The idea behind the campaign is to have a few of their current patients talking about their experiences and showing the final results. To achieve what the ad agency needed, we photographed everyone on both a black backdrop as well as in their office. All of the work took place in their office (which is absolutely gorgeous by the way) and all of my “models” were awesome. As my first model walked in, it turns out she is a real, well, model. Moreso, she is somewhat famous. Kaylee Schatz is the current reigning Mrs. North Carolina Globe 2009-2010 and, well, to say I was pleasantly surprised would be the understatement of the year.

All of our models were fabulous and a real joy to work with. As we had some specific criteria for the shoot, I had a full studio setup on location so, to say the least, I’m sure it was a bit intimidating. I would like to take a moment and thank all of my models, office staff of Renaissance Dental and the marketing firm for their hospitality and time to make this shoot happen. The last shot on this post is off Ann Whitehead of PortaCreative, the marketing agency helping with this campaign. Now on to the photos!

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

NACE Event at the Greystone Inn

Brian Mullins — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:31:40 +0000

As a professional photographer, I am involved with many local groups in and around the Raleigh, NC area. Many of these are specific to wedding photography but one of the groups, the Triangle NACE organization, is one that involves many different aspects of the wedding industry, including photographers of course. The Triangle NACE chapter holds monthly meetings at different properties around the Raleigh, Durham & Chapel Hill areas. The purpose of these events is to both educate each other on the different aspects of wedding & events as well as a fundraiser for the Interfaith Food Shuttle. This event was held at the Greystone Inn located in Durham, NC. I was responsible for photographing the event for historical purposes as well as promotion.

As luck would have it, I also donated a prize to the raffle we have at each event. Prizes are donated by different wedding vendors with all of the proceeds benefiting the Interfaith Food Shuttle. On this occasion at the Greystone Inn, I donated a “business makeover” that consisted of a commercial photography session for the winners business. This is a pretty large prize as the photography, editing and licensing were all included. The winners of the auction was American Party Rentals. At the time of this post, I have already photographed their beautiful facility and will be making another post with that included.

If you have never been to the Greystone Inn, you really are missing something. The mansion has a storied history and was purchased from the Greystone family descendants by the current owners. They painstakingly renovated the entire property, including the furniture, to bring it back to its original beauty. I really have an affinity for historic architecture so, as you can imagine, I really enjoyed photographing this event. I’d like to thank the Triangle chapter of NACE, the Greystone Inn and everyone involved for this meeting. Now, on to the photos of this breatakingly beautiful facility.

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Rudy’s of Apex – Food Photography

Brian Mullins — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:40:41 +0000

In addition to wedding photography, which is my primary business, I do a good amount of commercial and other types of photography as well. One of my former clients has opened up his new restaurant in Apex and needed food photography for his amazing creations for print advertising and general marketing purposes. Phil, the owner, and I met while he was the executive chef of Heron’s, in the Umstead Hotel. Rudys Pub & Grill is Apex’s first GastroPub and features some amazing food that will certainly have your mouth watering. I can honestly say that after shooting 6 plates of food, I had to get one of his famous hamburgers for myself then went back for the wings two days later. Really good food and if you are looking for a family friendly pub atmosphere, Rudy’s is definitely the place to go.

We shot all the food photography in the pub itself and used the surrounding elements to bring a little more feeling to his dishes. I must say the favorite of mine was the hamburger. It really was that tall and I can speak from experience when I tell you it was delicious as well. I hope you enjoy a few photographs that will, hopefully, make you a little hungry as well.

Bon Appetite!

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Commercial Photography | Syeni Day Spa in Apex, NC

Brian Mullins — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:54:27 +0000

With moving into my new office I’ve gotten to know alot of the surrounding vendors. I had a great welcome to the area by being asked to do some commercial photography work for the Syeni Day Spa in Downtown Apex, NC. After talking with Sarah, the owner, a bit we determined we would do it right and get architectural, employees and modeling photography over 3 different weekends.

The first weekend was architecture, which was quite alot of fun to shoot. The 2nd was shooting the employees and we saved the modeling photo shoot until last. It was really a great change of pace from weddings and I really enjoyed every aspect of the shoot.

As always, here are a few photographs:

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

American Tobacco Campus | Bay 7 | Light Up Durham!

Brian Mullins — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:41:10 +0000

Ahh.. the holidays are really here! I love being a part of larger organizations that allow me to network with other wedding professionals. Back in November, I was asked to cover this years Light Up Durham! celebration at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham. I had a chance to discuss it over dinner with Valerie Ward and, frankly, I was immediately excited! If you are not familiar with the event, the American Tobacco Campus has a huge water tower at its center. Instead of flying in a Christmas tree, they string lights on the water tower and have a huge event, open to the public, to celebrate the throwing of the switch! This year, they had 4 different groups of singers, from elementary, middle, high school & college performing along with the Raleigh Ringers and several local personalities and a VIP reception at Bay 7.

Fake snow along with a beautifully decorated campus completed the feeling (thanks to the cold weather as well) and made the event a HUGE success with over 1000 people attending which filled out almost the entire American Tobacco Campus. Bay 7 housed a beautiful VIP reception where local brewers and a culinary school had suds & food for everyone. Complete with Christmas decorations and Wull E. Bull made an appearance to try out the food and help celebrate the lighting of the tower.

Here are a few photos from the event!

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Tobacco Road | Raleigh Food Photographer

Brian Mullins — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:56:11 +0000

Funnily enough, out of all the skills I find important to possess as a photographer, networking is right up there with the photography. A little bit of a back story for this post. My wife and I had our first date night in quite a while two weeks ago. We were in downtown Raleigh enjoying a nice evening out and walking down Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh. We passed a new place, Tobacco Road, and were peeking inside. A gentlemen, Juan, was also outside, overheard our conversation and brought us inside. Turns out, he is the chef and they were opening in two days. He showed us the menu (some great looking food BTW) and we chatted for a few minutes. I mentioned I was a Raleigh food photographer and had done quite a bit of food & commercial work with Cary Magazine and Heron’s in the Umstead hotel. I didn’t have any cards on me at the moment so I made a mental note to get back to him.

So, go back a few months before that, when I had Amy & Rommi in my office for a consult on their photography. I have the pleasure of shooting their wedding next month and, during our consult, they mentioned they were opening a new business and might need some food photography. Well, you can probably see where this is going… turns out Tobacco Road is their new business and, you guessed it, they needed some food and interior photography for their website.

Here’s a few of my favorites from our photo shoot!

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Raleigh Commercial Photographer – WakeMed – Apex, NC

Brian Mullins — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:27:53 +0000

One of my commerical photography clients is WakeMed Public Relations who I do alot of event photography for. This weekend, they held their “Families First” event at the Halle Cultural Center in Apex, NC. Parents and kids were treated to arts & crafts, a special visit by “Twinkle”, the WakeMed mascot as well as a great Christmas music show. Two very special guests took time out of their busy schedule to make an appearance and sign along with everyone, Frosty & Santa.

The event was very well done, as usual, by WakeMed and I would highly encourage anyone who is looking for kid friendly activities to keep an eye out for the next WakeMed event!

Here’s a few photographs from the event:

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Herons Food Photography | The Umstead Hotel

Brian Mullins — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:38:26 +0000

I had the pleasure of going back out to the one of the area’s finest Restaraunt’s, Heron’s. Two of their exclusive menu items have been chosen to be published in a national magazine and I was chosen to photograph these culinary delights. If you are not familiar with Heron’s, it’s located in the 5-diamond Umstead Hotel in Cary, NC. This is fine dining at its best and the beauty of their facility is only surpassed by the quality of their cusine.

Now, I would normally name the dishes for you but I am afraid I would (warning, bad pun ahead) butcher them so badly that Chef Kellum would come after me. So, you’ll just have to go in for yourself to sample these delightful courses.

The last photo is something I photographed for the Hotel. I am unsure of its exact purpose but I believe it sits on the room service tray and will actually alert the staff once it’s set into the hallway. This insures a prompt pickup of any meal items once outside the room… ya, I thought it was pretty cool myself.

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Architecture in Durham, NC

Brian Mullins — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:23:31 +0000

John Warasila of Alliance Architecture, the company that designed the wonderful meeting space for Rigsbee Hall, saw my photos from a monthly NACE event and contacted me to photograph some of his other designs. As it turns out, the space above Rigsbee Hall (and behind it for that matter) are condominiums designed by John and he wanted me to photograph them for his company. Since I hadn’t seen one previously I wasn’t sure what I was going to find when I arrived. Well, I’ll have to let the pictures speak for themselves but the property is amazing! John managed to save much of the historical feeling of the building – exposed brick, ceiling joists, etc. The condominium I was in had a great ultra-modern feel that nicely accentuated John’s design.

Here are a few photos from the session:

Yes, I’m still here!

Brian Mullins — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:41:57 +0000

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I was inundated with shoots last week then I had the fortune of catching the flu this weekend. I’ll be posting some shots of that later but for now, I wanted to post a quick one that I caught while shooting in Vaughn Towers (Just outside the chancellors box at the NCSU football stadium).

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

WakeMed opens in Apex, NC

Brian Mullins — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:21:59 +0000

Tonight I went out to cover the private opening of the new WakeMed hospital in Apex, NC. It’s a beautiful 4 story facility boasting a helicopter landing pad, emergency room, full surgical facilities (opening soon) as well as a full compliment of imaging and diagnosis tools. The inside of the facility is state-of-the-art and I know WakeMed is very proud to have such a top of the line facility in a growing community. Here’s a few shots from the evening:

The Umstead Hotel | Food Photography | Heron’s

Brian Mullins — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:45:09 +0000

Today I was out at the Umstead Hotel in Cary, NC doing some food photography for the Heron’s restaurant. Heron’s is a 5 star restaurant which prides itself on using only locally owned & grown produce, herbs and anything else they can get their hands on. From delicious truffles to hand crafted desserts, Heron’s food and service is certainly the highest example of fine dining in Cary that you can find. I was out here today focusing on the facility, the food and the fabulous chefs that make this such a wonderful place to visit.

After I finished photographing Chef Phil and Chef Daniel, they brought out 9 plates of different types consisting of 6 appetizer/entrees and 3 desserts. Trying to photograph the food and not eat it is certainly a challenge but, as you can see below, Heron’s really does such an amazing job I almost would feel bad to destroy it by eating. After the food, we focused more on the restaurant furnishings, table settings and other various things around the Umstead Hotel. Their wine cellar, for one, is quite impressive and knowing a little about wine myself, let’s just say I was VERY careful when walking around in there… they really had some wonderful vintages that I would love to try. Below are a few food photography and restaurant photos.

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Boom.. headshots!

Brian Mullins — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:57:12 +0000

Ok, so those who aren’t hardcore FPS gamers probably don’t get that reference, but if you ever get bored, look up FPSDoug on youtube sometime…

Back to the entry.. I got a call from John Moraites who is launching his consulting firm this week. The F.I.R.M Consulting Group specializes in benefit packages for smaller companies to give them the same advantages larger companies have by bundling services. I probably really bungled that explanation so, John, I welcome you to straighten me out. Anyway, John needed some headshots for press releases and their website so we got together tonight and made the “magic” happen. On a sidenote, go see John and ask him about giving a young Mr. Connick rides to his piano lessons in New Orleans…

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Products!!!

Brian Mullins — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:04:42 +0000

Yes! That’s right, more product photography. Let me say, every time I start working with products, I enjoy it more and more then the last time. I picked up a new client this week, Blue Tiger Gifts, who specialize in “uncommonly chic” gifts ranging from glassware to jewelry to baby items. The ladies brought me a wide range of goodies from their storefront which opens in the middle of December 2007. I really had a great time working with these items, especially the chocolates which unselfishly sacrificed themselves all in the name of “art”. Here’s a few images from the session:

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Products!!!

Brian Mullins — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:35:29 +0000

Thru my work with Cary Magazine as well as past clients, my name was passed to Andrea and Janet from Imaginese. Their store offers a wide array of boutique items, from solid wood bowls (incredible to see the grain in the these bowls as they are one sold piece of wood) to absinthe service sets to handmade pottery. I setup a product photography studio right in their store and we captured some amazing photos. Look for a catalog coming out soon with more information about their products. Their store is located at the corner of Davis and High House roads in stone creek shopping center, beside the Red Bowl Restaraunt.

Here’s a couple of my favorite shots:

By the way, this chair is bad to the bone. Absolutely a spectacular piece of furniture.

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

University Dining | Commercial Photography Client

Brian Mullins — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:32:45 +0000

Well, I must say its been a quite enjoyable couple of weeks without having the camera stuck to my face every day. My shooting schedule has been very relaxed for the past 2-3 weeks but now its time to get back to work. I started the month off nicely by visiting NC State University in Raleigh, NC and shooting student workers for University Dining, a commercial photography client. The end product will be a marketing campaign geared towards increasing student interest for on-campus jobs, from the C-store to catering. The photography session included visiting a ktichen where student workers are making pizza then to the “c-store” which is an on-campus convenient store with several locations around the NCSU campus. Here’s a couple of the shots I got from the trip.

Lucky 32 | Food Photographer | Cary, NC

Brian Mullins — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:21:14 +0000

I wear many hats throughout the week and this week is not different. I visited the fine folks at Lucky 32 in Cary, NC today for to be their food photographer for the latest restaurant spotlight for Cary Magazine. Andy (General Manager), Mark (Marketing Director) and Jay (Executive Chef) were all on hand to answer our questions, provide some gorgeous meals to photograph and give us more knowledge of their operation. One thing I was not aware of, Lucky 32 really prides itself on working with local farmers to get all of their produce. It never really occurred to me, before this, of where other restaurants actually get their fresh produce from. I always assumed it was shipped in from some other place. Anyway, their chicken dishes also use completely organic chicken (Sorry Jay, you explained it much more eloquently then I can hope to here) that are, essentially, immunization free which means for a healthier meal for you and I.

Being involved in magazine photography really pushes my artistic sensibilities with all of the photography disciplines you must learn. Being a food photographer is really a very technically demanding discipline but when you get it right, the results are outstanding. The food, obviously, looks wonderful but being able to translate that to a photograph is something altogether different. The below photograph was my favorite from the session and I think Lucky 32 enjoyed it as well as they ended up using many of these on their website.

Durham Museum of Life & Science | Commercial Photography

Commercial Photography | Architectural | Ball rentals

Brian Mullins — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:03:02 +0000

I had the opportunity, as the weather was pleasant, to finish a project for a commercial photography client. Ball Rentals contacted me about photographing their newly renovated property, Aversboro Square, in Garner, NC. The shopping center contains 3 separate buildings in a U shaped configuration and a large parking lot making the photography, well, interesting. Architectural photography is very challenging but it happens to also be a favorite of mine because of the technical discipline it requires.

Since the shopping center was 3 sided, the photography had to be done at a specific time of day because the sun would be glaring off of at least one of the buildings making it inconsistent, so I took a chance and waited for twilight to even out the lighting. Sitting on the roof of my explorer (who said commercial photography was easy) I shot well into the evening and got some beautiful evening skies over the property. Here’s one of my favorites from the session.

Commercial Photographer | Raleigh, NC | Hopper Piano

Brian Mullins — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:42:12 +0000

Being a commercial photographer gives me such cool opportunities to see things I would not ordinarily have the chance to. This week, I had the great pleasure of photographing some of the, in my opinion, most beautiful musical instruments ever created to this day, Pianos. I payed a visit to Hopper Piano in Raleigh, NC to photograph their latest ad in the Cary Magazine CM Home section. Working with Greg Barfield, we captured some beautiful images of these statuesque instruments. Getting up close and personal with a hand-crafted concert grand piano imported from Hamburg was definitely a treat. Greg was so very accommodating and didn’t break a sweat even once (that I could see) as I held about 5 pounds of metal & glass directly above the keys and strings of these works of art to get some great angles. You can see his advertisement in the upcoming release of Cary Magazine, hitting the bookstores in September.

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

Day Spa Commercial Photography | B-Roman

Brian Mullins — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:50:00 +0000

One thing I truly love about photography, you’ll never know from one day to the next what you’ll be photographing. Today I had the opportunity to do a little Day Spa Commercial Photography. The Day Spa is located on the Corner of Davis & High House road in Cary). Was a great day to be indoors with my car thermostat registering 113 degrees on the way over. Yes, that’s 113 degrees on the asphalt. It was a real joy to photography a Day spa, so many great architectural features, opportunities to focus on both people and products. I would show you the inside of the spa, but you’ll have to stop by and see if for yourself.

Here’s a single shot of their makeup area, which has a great feeling as the tungsten and natural daylight combine to give a great warmth to the area.

Raleigh Commerical Work | Portraits for an advertising agency

University Dining | Commercial Photographer

Brian Mullins — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:06:45 +0000

I’ve certainly been busy with projects lately. As a commercial photographer, I gain access to quite a few very cool places and meet (and photograph) great people with extremely innovative ideas. A client of mine is working with University Dining at NCSU and needed a photographer to cover a swanky lunch setup on the campus of NC State. The event was setup in Vaughn Towers which is the pressbox for Cater-Finley stadium (Go Pack!). I’ve never been inside before and was blown away by how nice whole area was from the furnishings to the architecture.

Everything was, of course, color coordinated for NCSU and he 1st floor had floor to ceiling windows with doors going to outside box seats. Then I went up to the third floor where dessert was being served in the Chancellors box. WOW! I kept thinking to myself I need to find a way to hang out with these guys! Such a great facility and wonderful people to work with. To steal a phrase from a favorite movie of mine, “If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”. Working as a commercial photographer in my hometown of Raleigh certainly has its perks and I really enjoyed getting access into Vaughn Towers and working with University Dining. Here’s a shot of Chuck Norman modeling the “thumbs-up” plate. An ingenious idea that holds food and drink while the plate is secured with your thumb.