Wyatt (Director of Maryland Leaf Magazine ) called me with a date and some ideas in mind, we made it happen. First off is Khalifa Kush coming at you from big cannabis co Trulieve , and this is a branding partnership with the aforementioned artist: Next up was Beezle Brands MD , we went for some POP with this shot: The product is a fine example of this brands focused attention to HIGH quality, and they are nice guys, kudos Beezle brands. Lastly we shot the Patient Of The Month: A local artist and cannabis activist, Angelica Rawls. That is all for now, thanks for tuning in.

Cannador is actually pretty amazing and a HUGE step up from the Dutch Masters stash box of our collective Gen X memory: As you can see the fit and finish is super premium as is the price but nice things cost money for sure and this company has it figured out, the connoisseur angle. Every single person I have shown these stash boxes too has walked away with much desire to purchase them. Blue velvet on black leather, crystal glass bongs and high quality accessories, product still life. Last months shoot for Cannador was another still life session but with red leather chairs, my art deco coffee table and cubist shag carpet, the things we do for art! Next month I have a lifestyle shoot planned with a young hip couple in their apartment, check back you all.

I have been wanting to expand a bit into drink photography and see if my moody edgy bold & graphic style fit with the genre. First off was local rum brand: Lyon Rum Windon Distilling Company - Saint Michaels Maryland. I spent three hours getting the lighting dialed in for this shot: In the end I opted for a four light setup with scrim diffusion to create the rim gradient, a direct frontal strobe on the label, I was getting glare from a overhead key light so I opted to move it to eye level and voila no more huge key light reflection. I added a drink glass in a classic side stance, the background was originally black and backlit, but I opted to for black velvet to make the subjects really pop and stand out. Up next I got a six pack of a local brewery, Key Brewing Co that had ever so subtle Grateful Dead imprint and references, see for yourself: Simple and effective hero shot on brand and in a fun color palette. Next was a still life scene that took about 20 mins or so to get how I wanted it: Then to take these amps to 11, I concepted the next couple shots with the "hazy" nature of things in mind, oh the memories: Added the old school fractals to the hero shot and to the trio: All in all a fun session, I will work a few more concept themes with Lyon rum and post something back here so stay tuned.

Another product and patient session with my main magazine: Maryland Leaf . Wyatt texted the date and we made it happen once more, the subjects: Isana Connoisseur Cannabis & Chris the Patient Of The Month for February 2023. First up is the Isana, this is a newish brand owned by the owners of Remedy Dispensaries and grown by Shore Naturals and by the looks it's probably dope. I was going for a classy trendy vibe, low key and on brand of course: I opted for a mix of black blocks, column, silver box and translucent props built in a leading lines style, it took about 15 mins to get this one how I liked it. This is Chris Manley , he is the February Patient Of The Month: I decided to use a backlit crystal blue background that suited his skin tone and wardrobe. I set Chris facing away from the key light and ramped up the rim light for a bold graphic effect, he supplied the sly smile. Super nice and very tall gent, his head is in the clouds atm. Standard and side poses, enjoy fellow Connoisseurs that's all till next months MD Leaf session.

Another marathon test concept session this week, first up was Curio Wellness and their exclusive flower collection starring: Chocolate Mint OG, I decided to do a simple still life set up: The I zagged a bit and took some images of Lienenkugels Summer Shandy Collection, I decided to make the colors pop and it made me miss summer whilst in the dead of MD winter, sigh: These images are very pleasing and I liked them, what do you think? Next up was SunMed Growers and their current hero strain Snoop Dogg OG, another minimal still life set up: Lastly was a company that I know very little about, Triple Seven Cannabis , I believe they are licensed through G-Leaf but I could be wrong anyhow here is the hero picture I took: This was a long but very worthwhile test session, I am loving the beer photography and I will pursue it for the time being, until next time fellow connoisseurs.

For this session the subject is Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy Collection. These images started out as hero shots high contrast on bright poppy blue background, I lit this scene with four strobes, two as rim lights a key and then a fill light. I brought the lights in very close for the dramatic effect on a new pedestal: Next I added the "rain" to Leinenkugel's ginger shandy to help bring more of the summer concept into focus: Then I added the backgrounds (to reflect different staggered times after a summer storm where a rainbow appears) to reflect the overall concept I was striving for, summer rain for the summer shandy collection: Here are the other two flavors, my favorite is the watermelon shandy but I digress: I had to respray the cans a few times, I have to reorder some glycerine asap. I think the coloring worked best with the grapefruit shandy, what do you think of beer photography and cannabis photography coming together, someone on IG reminded me that hops and cannabis are cousins and they go great together, responsibly that is. As a bonus I also worked on another low key image for Lyon Rum A great local distillery on the eastern shore, I decided to go with this set up: And in the spirit of the session, I covered it with a nice misty frost, what do you think? That is all for this session thanks for tuning in fellow Connoisseurs.

Greetings fellow Connoisseurs and thanks for tuning in... For this week's edition I will highlight some of the collage work I have been doing of late, in particular two brands: Alt-Sol and Grow West Cannabis . First up is a collage for Alt-Sol, I decided on a dark edgy low key look and feel, just like the brand itself, the assets were from a branding session a few months ago, very postmodern: The collage itself reminded me those 80s action movie posters, so I decided to just go with it full tilt: I had to rearrange the items to a vertical format, and added the graphics and marquee, the overall result is the client was very pleased and we are thinking about making a "movie poster" series for dispensaries. I also had some Grow West items from a test session a few weeks back, I really like the glossy high end feel of the packaging so this became the subject in my next collage: I added a Bouqe hemp rolling paper as a prop and it ended up rather nice with an organic healthy wellness vibe going on, pleased so I made a vertical version: I actually liked this one better, the mix of organics and metals, flowers etc just kinda worked so I went with it. I will have my collage session with Curio Wellness & This Is Strane next up, thanks for tuning in.

For this concept test session I set a goal of building three scenes with Curio Wellness two new flower collections, I knew I wanted something using the compositing digital sculpture building techniques I have been exploring creatively and technically the last few weeks, and I also wanted to do a classy still life in camera scene so I set about planning the scenes, first as sketches on paper (I am old school!) then a list of items I needed and finally studio day. Their new exclusive line uses a fresh color palette that I wanted to match, I had my eye on this colorful stick and peel tile set and decided to order it and I wanted to use my new clay props I got in from a Ukrainian etsy artisan last month, the combining of all those colors, textures and aesthetics was bound to come up with something interesting. The pose would be the clincher. The flower containers I used were Chocolate Mint OG and Garlic Wizard two super dope specimens that I very much enjoyed shooting and sampling... whistle while you work ya know. the GW being the stand out here, kudos Curio. Here is the same scene shot in vertical 16x10 full frame format, the arrangements did not change but the perspective did slightly and that was ok. I shot this @ f16 and then f11 to get everything in focus, leaving a bit of softness in the back corners. This scene's lighting was built around two rim lights a key light, a white bounce card for the fill and a flash for the background gradient, so four in total and a bounce, it took me about 2 hours and a couple dozen test shots to get the look I wanted, patience is a virtue in this business, but I digress... Both images I sent to my retoucher - Rajan, who removed the stickers magically from the jars & some dust on the tops. Dust is ever present in my studio, it is in an old warehouse, the graffiti and community are great the dust not so much. sigh. I took some of the everyday jars from another session and built another digital sculpture composite, I wanted to go for a high key, colorful, bright and organic look with a wellness vibe - just like the brand I might add, after spending a few hours cutting out the props and arranging them to create something out of nothing, this is the result: The mix materials, woods, metallics, flowers, tropical leaves, cannabis and visual props arranged in a vertical composition that was pleasing to these eyes, the whole structure was built over several hours using much trial and error until slowly the final vision started to emerge, I was pleased with the result, never satisfied (sigh) but pleased. This scene I called "Your Happy Week - Seven Days Seven Smiles" was actually the first collage I created in the session, the concept was simple as was the arrangement compared to the final vertical image: I was thinking about making a "pillbox" out of the containers to connect the concept with the idea of "everyday relief" but decided to leave this concept to be developed into a pitch for the client - Curio, I'll let you know if they bite.

One of the more challenging aspects of working with the cannabis industry is doing on location shoots @ their grow facilities, there are the security and safety provisions, the hostile filming environments which make bringing in a ton of sensitive studio gear problematic at best and prohibitive at worse, for this shoot we made the best of it all. Here's a short summary of my long day for Holistic Industries @ their Cap Heights grow facility. That being said, it was a long day lugging equipment around, tearing down, setting up etc, thanks to the marketing & facilities crew for organizing this shoot and helping lug around the aforementioned equipment. After setting up in an used section of the grow I got some great macros of the strains of the day, here's a couple rather gorgeous samples: I also shot video clips of the strains, this was especially challenging as the HVAC system was on and I got some wobble on the spinning specimens, I was able to take care of most of it in post. Here are a couple super crops of the focused stacked macros: The inner beauty of the cannabis plant really comes out when you zoom in to see all the hidden details, I am starting to really enjoy doing focus stacking with cannabis plants. Here's a 30 second mixed media clip I made from some of the footage and macro shots as a proof of concept for their marketing director: The company will use all the clips I shot for them in couple of their brands, This Is Strane and Garcia Brands I believe. Their media wizards will assemble the clips and images impressively I have no doubt and on brand. We tore down and then moved into the lab area and I got some cool concentrate shots, pours and mixing clips, here's a couple please note how moody dark and low key these are, be still my heart this is my fave style and totally on brand for Strane: I have several pours, mixes video clips shot @ 4k 60fps for that creamy butter smooth cinematic slow motion... but you'll have to use your imagination (hint they were shot in this same low key style) until Holistic Ind releases the media as part of their spring/summer marketing efforts... look closely and you'll see the "Connoisseur" pieces. Until next time fellow Connoisseurs thanks for tuning in.

One of my favorite partners is Maryland Leaf Magazine , they represent the regional cannabis community well with reviews, insight, articles and images. The state director texted me this months studio agenda: Strain of the Month, Concentrate of the Month and Patient of the Month were in order for this month's issue, with that being said here's the first image from the session, Patient of the Month: After some discussion on the style, colors etc I set-up and took the shot for the Strain of the Month from CULTA Cannabis : I decided to go with a minimal and moody "crown of bud" low key style with a two light setup. One key light bare bulb for specular highlights and rim light in a strip softbox, shot @ f11 with my Sony 90mm f2.8 Macro G OSS Prime lens, I love how this lens brings out rich textures. Next up and lastly was for the concentrate featured review by Kind Tree Cannabis , I decided to go with a more colorful, rich and high key style concepted around the concentrate itself: I added the faux fruit strawberries into a sushi style serving tray with old school stainless steel chopsticks/dab tools, then HSL color matched the background in post, shot with the same Sony macro prime lens. You can find this session in the April issue of Maryland Leaf Magazine available now @ dispensaries and kind retail establishments all over Maryland, and you can view and download it here as well: Maryland Leaf Magazine - April Issue

Here's a quick update on the Maryland Leaf June session, we started with GAGE Cannabis , a new brand in Maryland. We went with a slightly minimalistic "Cookies" vibe to match the equally minimalist packaging. Sundae Driver is pretty and potent with an uplifting cool type of heady vibe going on. Next up, Blueberry Muffins Live Resin Badder extracted by Kings & Queens from Vireo , the aroma kind of exploded out of the jar upon opening, fruity stinky good. We went with a blue hue to match the strain and vibe: Patient Of The Month - Sammi Martin: I landed on a peachy pink background and a three point Rembrandt style lighting setup. You can find out more about her in the current issue HERE Maryland is going rec legal on July 1st, we have some cool stuff lined up for then so stay tuned connoisseurs!

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since the last Concentrates Issue, and a special issue it is as we are shooting all of the concentrates, bud and patient of the month... whew! Here is the cover for the Maryland Leaf Magazine issue, it is a composite of the five products that I took the photos of then cut out and reassembled in a sculpture like structure - very postmodern but I digress.... Next up is Bud Of The Month - this month's honor goes to Curio Wellness and their very popular and potent strain - Blissful Wizard I decided on white acrylic, peel and stick tile, My Bud Vase Bong and a couple risers to complete the effect, the color palette works with the product and mood nicely. Here are some of the issue's concentrate shots: The Alchemist MD , Temple Hash Balls, Beezel Brands MD , Kings and Queens , Nature's Heritage and CULTA Cannabis. And last but certainly not least was Keidy Weedy , our Patient Of The Month: Also On July 1st Maryland legalized recreational cannabis, we were @ two Zenleaf Dispensary locations for the day's events, here's a preview of the next newsletter: That's it for now, stay tuned for the next newsletter where I'll go over the BIG Day In Maryland from Verano's Zenleaf Dispensaries.