Steve Giralt

When I moved into my new apartment in Park Slope , Brooklyn I had a housewarming wine and cheese party for friends and clients. I really enjoy planning parties, most probably because they’re kinda like photo shoots. Just like a great photo shoot, a great party needs to be well planned to make everything go smoothly.

For this party, I went to the cheese cave at Artisanal in Manhattan to get recommendations for the cheeses to serve at my party. The staff there is incredibly knowledgeable and you can taste the cheeses before you buy them. They also were kind enough to give me wine pairing suggestions as well.

Nothing goes better with cheese than fresh breads, fruits, and crackers. I stopped at the Park Slope farmers market on Saturday morning and picked up a wide variety of grapes, dried fruits, jams, breads, and more for the party. On the way home I stopped at the local wine shop, ordered my wines to pair with my cheeses, and away I went.

When planning your wine and cheese party, it’s nice to have proper serving dishes for you cheese and snacks. I recommend some wooden cutting boards or slate pieces that are nice and solid and won’t slide around too much. You’ll also need a variety of cheese knives to cut different consistency cheeses.

As a photographer, I couldn’t help but arrange my table as nice as I could and take some quick pictures of the setup.The party was a lot of fun and all the cheese was very happily consumed. Hopefully this gives you some ideas for your own party!

I had the opportunity to photograph Christopher Buckley for AARP the magazine a little while back. For those who may not know of him, he’s an amazing writer and political satirist. He wrote the book Thank you for Smoking which the recent movie was based on.

I only had a short time to photograph Christopher, but he was very entertaining and a good sport, even with my flash blinding him on every pop.

With the Holidays in full swing, I wanted to share a story I shot for Thanksgiving this year for Quick & Simple magazine. We had a grand old thanksgiving feast at my studio this past in September with all the traditional thanksgiving recipes including turkey, gravy, stuffing, creamed spinach, sweet potatoes, punch, and pecan pie. We even put together a leftovers turkey sandwich with a combination of the ingredients.

Food stylist on this shoot was Margarette Adams with Marnie Rose Agency. The prop stylist was Laurent Laborie with Halley Resources and on set for the magazine we had Teresa Wilcox, Kati Korpijaakko, and Keri Pampuch-Tollen.

I have always had a fascination with photographing and living around water. Maybe it’s because I’m a Cancer, or because I was born and raised in Miami, FL and was always close to water. Here are various images all taken on Lake Ontario at different points in my time living in Rochester.

The first image is my favorite of all the images I’ve shot on the lake. The color palate and the softness of the sky and water blending together as well as the addition of a small boat out in the water with a man fishing on it makes this image amazing when printed large.

The rest of the images mostly revolve around a night series I did around the lake. The long shutter speeds blend day into night and offer a surreal feeling to the images. Another fun aspect to these images is the way the poles in the ground, the rails on the pier, and the parking lot poles intertwine when viewing these images as a series. I miss the lake …

I don’t think there is a single photographer in existence who has never taken pictures of fruit. Painters have studied these divine shapes created by nature for centuries. It’s only natural that photographers have followed their path. Now, the challenge, how does one photograph something that has been studied in such detail by mankind for so long? How do you make unique and beautiful images of something that has been painted, drawn, and photographed in so many different ways?

A while back I did a few different series on fruit. The first images here were shot using a method called painting with light. I had like 3 different mag-lights of different sizes (AA, AAA, etc) and mixed and matched to get the painterly look I wanted. I also included some other images done at various times. Some where i put the fruit themselves on a painted background, and some fruit just in a bowl. I can start a whole thread on just fruit in a bowl. Enjoy!

Who doesn’t want to look slimmer in seconds? In the current (Jan ‘08) issue of Good Housekeeping you can find this story I photographed about ways to dress slimmer. Everything worked out great on this shoot. The models were great, the hair and makeup were perfect, the background and props fit everything nicely, and the direction was good.

This story was shot here in NYC at The Space studios a few months ago. On set for the magazine was Fashion Editor Aretha Busby and Photo Editor Bill Swan. Hair was done by Michael Johnson, Makeup by Jane Choi, and Prop Styling was by Richard Owings. Our Models on set were Kate Stone, Tierney Smith, Lauren Houdlett, and Lea Sorenson who were a lot of fun and looked beautiful Pick up a copy and check it out yourself.

I find it interesting how so many photographers feel they need to travel to far away places to find interesting images or to get inspired. The truth of the matter is that you can make interesting images just about anywhere and the most overlooked place is usually close to home.

There is something about going to a foreign place for the first time and the way one’s eye sees things that very first time. For me it’s not just about what I see, but the feeling I get from this new place. It all effects my pictures. At the same time, there is also something to be said about revisiting places you’ve been to 100 times before and taking a fresh look at everything.

When I got a call from AARP the magazine to shoot a story on Spanish Harlem, I was happy to accept the challenge. Shooting in a place so close to home was going to be a challenge. It’s easy to overlook those things which you see everyday. Once I got to the neighborhood and started talking to people, exploring the area, and taking pictures, I felt like I was no longer in Manhattan anymore. It was a great experience and I recommend everyone take a closer look at the spaces near your home … again … you may be surprised with what you find.

One of my favorite places I photographed was Justo Botanica. It has all sorts of religious and spiritual items and statues which are really cool and the owner is really nice. Best meal I had in the neighborhood was brunch at Itzocan Bistro, the eggs benedict were great as well as just about everything else I had there was tasty. I also photographed in the Museo del Barrio, which had some great hispanic artists on display. For a different cultural experience, you should walk by the Graffiti Hall of Fame if you’re ever in the neighborhood, they also give tours.

Changes in weather always provide for interesting images. This shot was taken one foggy frosty night a while ago in Rochester. The frost and the floating cloud of fog above the parking lot made for a cool environment. I just loved the texture of the car and the way the fog affected the lights in the parking lot. Maybe I’ll get another chance soon with winter here.

For almost 2 years now I have been working on a personal project about the people of Craigslist. I have photographed almost 100 people so far and plan on continuing the project indefinitely. Here are some of my newest images from the project. In order of appearance we have Bob James who is an Elvis and Neil Diamond impersonator, artist and musician Chelsea, dancer, choreographer, and actress Vergi Rodriguez, and consumer packaged goods company sales rep Sharon.

The project continues to get more and more exciting for me as I keep meeting new people with ever more interesting stories of their experiences on craigslist.org. You can watch video interviews of some of the craigslist project subjects on the website in the video section. You can also view more images from the project there as well.

A couple years ago while shooting a job in the Badlands for Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine I had the pleasure of photographing Mary “Chip” Tautkus of Chubby Chipmunk Chocolates in Deadwood, SD . It’s a chocolate oasis in a unique part of the US.

The writer of the story, Panio Gianopoulos had come across her little store while looking around Deadwood for interesting things to experience and write about. The next day, I went by with him and photographed some of Chips amazing truffles and also did a portrait of Chip. It was a great experience and we both left with a full stomach. If you’re ever in that part of the world, you should stop in and say hi to Chip who will probably be there working hard on new truffle flavors.

As a photographer I am always striving to make my clients happy and at the same time create images I really like myself. Sometimes these two ideals aren’t always synchronous. I may feel doing something different would be more creative where the client may be more focused on properly spotlighting all the product in an image. At the same time, making the best images is rarely just about just me. Much of the time it’s about the team of people who are working together to make these images.

For the last two years I have photographed the Petrossian Caviar catalog and every year it gets better and better. This year the client gave us lots of creative freedom for the covers of the catalog which made for some great photographs. For the last couple years the crew has been the same. The Catalog Agency was Pluzynski and Associates, the Art Director was Susan Klapholz, Food Stylist was Alison Attenborough, and Prop Stylist was Robert Quadrini.

Earlier this year I photographed an Ad for Nokia N Series with R/GA highlighting the N95 and N800 Devices for a huge campaign running mostly in NYC. You may have seen it in the local magazines and bus stops if you live in NYC.

On some of my more complex shoots it’s always fun to show some behind the scenes images. In this series I am showing the finished Ad, a view of how the background was created, and a view of the entire setup in my studio. In total I think I used 6 power packs, 12 lights, and a bunch of different types of diffusion material and reflective cards to make the final image.

With Black Friday already behind us some of you may be looking for gift ideas for the holidays. Here is a story that I photographed for a new magazine called Organize Magazine on clutter free gifting recently. The story is by Monica Ricci and it was styled by Linda Heiss. The article is about alternatives to the everyday gift and it offers fresh views on gift giving. Either try to pickup the magazine, or email me for the article. They also mentioned me on the contributers page. Thanks!