About two months ago, the art director for Sacramento magazine came to me with a concept for the upcoming Best of Sacramento issue. He wanted images with a highly saturated look. One of the things about doing photos like this is that everybody has a different idea of what high saturation looks like. The first thing we decided to do was run some tests, so we were all on the same page with the look. Testing was helpful to determine the level of saturation, as well as the color palette that we wanted to keep throughout the entire project.

A little bit on the technical part; most of the images were created with the Nikon Z6. The gels were by ROSCO. A majority of the shots were tethered to my laptop so the art director could watch as we were shooting, providing feedback and direction to the individuals. Shooting images like this requires a delicate balance between color saturation and exposure. You can get higher saturation, but you run the risk of losing detail in the highlights if you're not careful. I was able to find a perfect combination, and with the help of lightroom, I was able to pull the saturation to the desired level.

The full assignment ended up being 11 separate shoots, ranging from studio still life and tabletop, to a group of three women restauranteurs. Gabriel (SacMag art director) scheduled all the various shoots at my studio, which always proves to be one of the hardest things to do with so many people. Because my studio doesn't have air conditioning throughout and the temperature was registering 102 degrees, we tried to keep most of the shoots earlier in the day.

It's gratifying to see a project like this come together and then printed in one piece. I enjoyed meeting all the wonderful subjects and making images with them.

The Best Of Winners I made images for are.

• Best TVsportscaster: Del Rodgers, KCRA 3

• Best Mexican Dining: Tres Hermanas

• Best Bakery: Freeport Bakery

• Best Hair salon, Best Bath shop, Best Beauty supply store & Best place to buy a special gift: Total Beauty Experience

• Best Fitness Center: California Family Fitness

• Best place to get a tattoo: Emerald Tattoo and Piercing

• Best Afternoon Drive radio: “That Damn Show,” 98 Rock

• Best rock radio station: 98 Rock

• Best place to get a costume: Evangeline's Costume

• Best Dance Club Best LGBT Bar: Faces

• Best Bartender: Jim Wakeland, The Firehouse Restaurant

Special thanks to 

Art Director: Gabriel Teague

Makeup: Ernesto Robledo

Assistants: Christine Alward, Skip Jones, and Serena Starks

Equipment used:

Nikon Z6 & D810

Sigma 35 & 85mm

Phottix Indra 500's

ROSCO gels

Teather Tools cables