In 2011 we worked with McGuire furniture on their indoor and outdoor catalogs (On Set With McGuire furniture). To our delight, we were asked once again to source unique homes for a their 2013 books.

Those complete collection catalogs can be found here: http://mcguirefurniture.com/litreq/catalog.mcg.

Here are our favorite images from this most recent campaign.

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Robert McMillan

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Modern Home - Wine Country

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Robert McMillan

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Stylish Rustic/Modern Home - Marin Country

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Brian Andriola

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Modern Home - Wine Country

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Chelsea Cooper

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Victorian Home - San Francisco

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Chelsea Cooper

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Modern Loft - San Francisco

We have the pleasure of working with photographer Erik Almas often. He is always capturing our locations in the most unique ways, creating stunning images like no other photographer. For this shoot he teamed up with Stuart Hart of The New Cruelty on a still photo project for Starwood Westin. Westin was looking to show some activities their guests can enjoy in the communities that surround their hotels.What made this project challenging was the request for a lush and full fruiting orchard in the middle of the winter. At that time of year, most fruit bearing trees are void of both leaves and fruit. After a little research (and experience with fruit trees) we focused our search on citrus. The wonderful thing about Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, is that almost everything can be grown here. So, we didn't need to go too far from our backyard to find the perfect location.Here are our scouting images along side Erik's final images. And beneath that, is the behind the scenes video of the production. We did not go to Hawaii for this one... maybe next time!

SCOUTING IMAGE

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

FINAL AD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=D8M54_7qKbQ

We sparked up a project in December of last year with photographer Eric Kiel for a new product from Swisher. The e-Swisher is a non-tobacco device that has no smoke, ash or smell that can be enjoyed in places that traditional cigarettes and cigars can not be. Like a bar or your friends house while playing poker, those are the locations we were asked to find for this shoot. Hilary Weekes of Team Kiel was great to work with and the locations matched up great for this campaign. I think Eric enjoyed shooting in San Francisco as well, this is a link to his Blog entry on the shoot here in the Bay Area. Here are some of the results form the e-Swisher website and some examples of our scouting.

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

FINAL AD - SHOT OUTSIDE THE HOUSE

FINAL ADS

SCOUTING IMAGES

It's always fun when a client involves an aircraft in their photo shoot. In June and July of 2012, we worked with Toni Bashinelli at Lockbox Productions and photographer Brian Bailey on a pharmaceutical campaign that called for a seaplane. We've built a great relationship with a local seaplane pilot that loves having his airplanes in photo shoots! They also had us searching for the perfect backdrop for the plane as well as many other locations for several additional layouts. We love working with Toni, she and the rest of the Lockbox team are among the best in the business. This was our first time working with Brian, but hope its not the last. Here are some final ads from the web, a few samples of our scouting images and a couple production stills from the 4 day shoot. If you need a seaplane for your shoot, give us a call!

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGES

PRODUCTION STILL

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

PRODUCTION STILL

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

PRODUCTION STILL

Over the past few months we have had several clients looking for river locations for their Northern California based productions. Here is a small sample of what we found between the coast and the mountains.

Over the past year Birdman has been building a solid relationship with Roe Photo from the Detroit, MI area. Together we have completed projects for several General Motors brands here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our most recent project was completed earlier this year for Chevy the badge. Those images are now being featured on the Chevy homepage.Because the Roe Photo team combines location background plates and CGI's of the vehicles, we are allowed a lot of latitude in the locations we can present. The final product will often show vehicles in places that they would normally not be allowed. In some cases multiple backgrounds are combined to create a certain look the art direction calls for. Scouting for Roe and John Kwiecien of Roe Photo is always a delightful challenge and we are excited to be working with them!Here are some samples of our scouting images along side the final images seen on the Chevy homepage.

All of us here at Birdman have a natural love for the outdoors and adventure. We work hard and we play hard. This has been a really busy year filled with exceptionally interesting and satisfying projects. So we decided to have a weekend of playing hard to celebrate our successful year. Our destination was Lake Tahoe and here is a recap of our weekend. We sincerely appreciate all of our wonderful clients, new and old, and we dedicate these images to you.

Our first destination was Angora Lake. We swam across the lake to a 20 (some say 30) foot cliff and plunged into the chilly waters! After swimming back as the sun was setting, Jason threw a line in the water but didn't have any luck.

The following morning we headed to Sand Harbor on the east shore of Lake Tahoe for a standup paddle boarding cruise on calm waters.

We stopped for a rest on a sandy beach on the north shore for a nice swim. The water of Lake Tahoe is clearer and bluer than most swimming pools. Amazing!

Post Paddle Portrait

(Rick, Matt, Jason, Garrett)

After lunch we geared up for a mountain biking adventure!

Ready for an epic ride along the Tahoe Rim and Tahoe Flume trails!

We concluded our trip on Sunday morning with a fun, peaceful and relaxing float down the Truckee River!

We are pleased to announce that we were just featured in the Production Paradise spotlight magazine! Being featured along side the world's best location specialists is an honor. Click the images below to see more. Thank you Production Paradise! 

We have started a scouting journal on our Facebook page for posting images from our most recent discoveries.Please go to our Facebook page by clicking HERE and 'LIKE' us to stay current with our recent scouting and projects.Here is a sample of our most recent scouting journal.

The beginning of 2012 put us on a successful run with photographer Erik Almas and producer Jenna Alcala of Applebox Production Company. In late March we started a project with them for Dassault Systems that had us looking for a huge jet engine!Some scouting adventures we go on are never forgotten, this one was definitely one to remember! After meeting our contact at SFO right before sunrise, we headed through some restricted areas for a long drive on the tarmac dodging luggage carts, fuel trucks and of course, huge planes. Our eventual destination was a large jet storage and repair facility. Wow... Those things are huge! One specific request was to look for an engine that was "open" for repair. Sort of like having the hood of your car open and ready for a tune up. From our scouting photos below, you'll see that's just what we found.Erik was pleased with our scouting and moved forward with the shoot at SFO where the staff is very film friendly. Erik's final image speaks for itself, huge success! Take a look...

SCOUTING IMAGES

FINAL IMAGE

Our scouting journey took us to beautiful Wine Country last week, where we photographed this gem of a renovated historic farmhouse.  This location will be a great match for many productions.  There are so many interesting details, the home owner is not only interested in hosting shoots but also 'easy going' and it was very inspiring to photograph.

This 100 year old, renovated home offers so much for your next production.  From the open see-through kitchen, to the park-like backyard, to its multiple brightly colored rooms, this North Bay beauty is sure to please a few photographers and art directors alike.

Lorena Arnold at Workbook introduced us to their new Production Specialist division in August of last year. This online resource combines today's technology with their 30 years of experience connecting industry professionals. Since we joined last year, we have seen a nice little increase in our national recognition.Earlier this month we received word from Lorena letting us know that our portfolio will be featured on their site! Just in time too because we recently updated our comparatives. Those show our scouting images along side the final ads. We always get comments about how cool they are and how they tell the story of what Birdman does. Once on our portfolio page, choose the "Scouting" tab to the left to check them out. We hope you have  a little time to take a look.Thank you Lorena and Workbook!

We are always on the hunt for new, interesting and film friendly homes for photo/video shoots.This past month has provided us with a extensive variety of homes for your next production.Here is just a sampling of some of the new residences that we've added to our database!

Birdman had the pleasure of working with legendary photographer Peter Linberg on a project for Banana Republic in April of 2011. We were contacted by Los Angeles based producer Ricardo Martins of NORTH6 to find a great wine country location for a Banana Republic fall collection. Fashion shoots are typically fun to work on, but working with Mr Lindberg was an absolute blast! Once we located the property in Healdsburg we were also asked to manage the two day shoot. It was great to see Peter in action! The whole shoot felt like wine country get away complete with beautiful weather, stunning scenery, delicious food, great architecture and a little wine tasting from the hosting winery. Here are a few of the ads that ran last fall along with a few of our scouting images.

 Final Ads

Scouting Images

In August of last year we were contacted by NZK productions to help with a location need for an ABC reality show. At the time, nobody knew that The Bachelor would be coming to San Francisco so we had to keep thIngs as quiet as possible. What were we asked to do? Shut down a block of Filbert St, cover it with snow and convert it into a temporary ski slope! All while keeping it a secret.. Our response, let's do this!We worked closely with The San Francisco Film Commission to conduct the the community out reach and assist with the timing and logistics of pulling this off in one day. They started at 5:00 a.m. and were to have everything cleaned up by midnight. After several weeks of planning, drawing maps, knocking on doors, hiring a bilingual location professional (Saisie Jang) and knocking on more doors; our signature survey of the local residents was complete and we were all set to make it snow!Not being regular viewers of the program, we didn't know what to expect. When Episode 3  aired on January 16th we were very proud of our work, a little surprised and well, definitely entertained. Here are the results of our hard work.

I stopped by that morning to watch the snow fall in San Francisco!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oh! So that's how they do that...

Being from upstate New York, I always wondered what would happen if it snowed in San Francisco...

I had to get a shot of myself with the San Francisco snow!

Clip from Episode 3

Screen captures

A few years ago we worked with photographer Vincent Dixon and Porkchop Productions on a project for State Farm. Here are a few of the final images along with our scouting. 

When we are not on assignment we like to work on expanding our location database. What better way to spend down time than a stroll through the park? Nearly every bay area city, town and village has a park for it's residents to enjoy. Over the past several months we found everything from quaint slices of land set aside for historical preservation to vast expanses with sweeping views. We discovered some great lakes, paths, benches and meadows that offer wonderful backdrops. Permission to shoot in many of these parks is granted by city departments that are often happy to host photo shoots and are great to work with! Here are some of our favorite additions to our ever growing location library.

A job recently had us scouring neighborhood streets of Marin.  San Rafael and Larkspur in particular are fairly easy to permit and have an idyllic residential appeal.  Whether you're looking for a sleek mid century modern or a quintessential middle America environment, Marin has it.  Beautiful rolling hills, manicured lawns and well kept streets and sidewalks make this area a great backdrop for any production.