Portfolio for Aquarium Co-Op
You've seen a lot of this work already, so I put this page together with some explanation alongside it. The thinking behind an image doesn't really show up in the finished image, and that felt like the part worth sharing.
Most of these are projects where a straight product shot wasn't going to answer the question.
Easy Root Tabs
Root tabs go under the substrate, so once they're in there's nothing to see. Their work usually happens out of sight. I wanted to visually demonstrate how they work. Showing roots filling in around the tab is a way to visualize something you can't otherwise watch happen.
I got a 2.5 gallon tank, filled it with gravel, and shot from the front. The tank, the gravel and the tab are photographed. The root growth is created in post.
If I did it again, I'd have the tab break down and spread as the roots grow as well.
The product had also changed form, from a capsule to a tablet. The ingredients are close to the same and the delivery is different. Part of the reason for the change is that capsules trap air and float.
The goal was to show this transformation visually. I shot both versions and built the transition between them: the capsule opening, the powder moving across, the tablet forming out of it.
Magic Small Fish Feed
The size comparison between baby brine shrimp and Magic Small Fish Feed was very important, but it didn’t exist visually. I wanted to find a way to show the size difference at a glance.
I hatched brine shrimp, put them in a 2.5 gallon tank, and shot them with 2x magnification. At that magnification the depth of field is thin enough that focusing on one shrimp turns the one behind it into a blur, so I shot them individually across dozens of frames, kept the ones that were sharp, and composited them into a single image. Then I did the same for the Magic Small Fish Feed.
The result is the size comparison the copy was describing. There wasn't anything like it on the site before.
Easy Shrimp and Snail Shells
The goal was to visually show that spirulina was added to the product. I thought of many different ways that we could demonstrate this, but one image was stuck in my head. When someone makes pasta by hand, they add egg yolk on top of flour. The image of that egg yolk on top of a mound of flour was stuck in my head, and I thought I could recreate that with spirulina.
I made a pile of spirulina and dropped the product into it. It took several attempts to catch the drop where I wanted it, and the pile had to be rebuilt each time. This is the frame that worked.
CO2 Regulator
This product is discontinued now. I'm including it because most of the image was assembled rather than shot in one place.
The aquarium is one I used to own, photographed. The regulator and the CO2 cylinder are also photographed. The wall and the light streak were images I photographed on a piece of cream foamboard. The stand was a stock image. All of them were composited together to create this image.
With a library of photographed tanks, plants and scenes, a setup like this can be put together without owning the room it appears to be in. Tanks I shoot will be usable on later projects.
Delhi Sands Restoration
This was made for Rivers and Lands Conservancy, about restoring a sand dune damaged by off-road vehicles. The animated section explains a chain of cause and effect that couldn't have been shown any other way.
It's a different kind of piece, but the same approach applies to both the marketing and educational side of what you do. Designed in Illustrator, animated in After Effects.