It's deep fall, like "has it always rained this much?" and "am I really going to ruin this outfit with a puffy jacket?" season. The Big Dark is quick approaching.
Completing this product photography assignment was a race with the waning Pacific Northwest sunlight, a fight against perfectionism, and a lucky accident involving a trip to the Seattle Animal Shelter for a lost dog's return—that led to finding the exact turf prop I had envisioned.
I often have a vision for creative projects but get paralyzed before ever starting. Fear wins; I don't want to start unless I'm confident I'll be proud of the result. I haven't quite figured out how to exist in the messy middle where learning happens. I did, however, massively narrow the scope of my original ideas to become something that I could accomplish in the span of one post-class afternoon before my porch lost its last sunlight. Small wins.
The heart behind this orange soda shoot is found in the halftime of a childhood soccer game. Think sweaty polyester and sticky orange slices. Add a bit of adulthood class, and you have Poppi. Targeted towards Gen Z, the vertical images would appear in Instagram ads and the horizontal would be used for in-store signage around a refrigerated display case. Especially with FIFA 2026 coming to Seattle and the United States at large next year, many brands are capitalizing on an incoming soccer craze, and these images do just that.
The Process
Mood board: I originally wanted to work with sprinkles and cake, but I narrowed my tools to fit within the time constraints. I was drawn to bold colors and repetitive symmetry in other product images which I remixed with this concept. The simple inclusion of hands helped keep focus on the product. I chose to work with an orange soda for simplicity; I would pair orange slices with a green backdrop to provide contrast and a connection to youth soccer games, probably the last time I ate a bonafide orange slice.
Get sidetracked: On the way to the store for supplies, I found a tiny dog wandering in the middle of the street. One hour and one scanned microchip later, Pebbles the 10-year-old rescue was reunited with her family, and I was across town with no photoshoot supplies and rapidly disappearing sunlight. I was, however, near a craft store. I ran in looking for colored paper, but what I found was much better: an artificial turf table runner. Jackpot. I collected a bag of oranges and three different orange sodas, grabbing the least-dented cans Fred Meyer could offer.
Shoot and iterate: I didn't love my first few setups. Sure, the horizontal repetition photo came from one of those attempts, but the backgrounds (a light green tablecloth and a white sheer fabric) looked cheap and my flash was reflecting in ways I didn't love and my light refracting idea wasn't panning out. I pivoted—literally—and draped the table runner vertically off the porch. In the process, I tried to keep the orange slices in their (not so) perfect rows, but they slid into a pile. I decided I liked it and rearranged them before becoming both hand model and photog to shoot the pouring frames. Documentary photography taught me to be nimble and flexible on the fly, skills I'm thankful for in these scenarios that require a quick plan B, C, and D.
Cheers: With images I was happy with on my card, I drank the props and dumped the files into Lightroom for some adjustments. Next time, I'd like to experiment with cutting the oranges more perfectly to enhance the symmetry in the horizontal shot. I would take the time to find my camera trigger and attach a monitor so I could dial in the hand shots without the limitations of needing to reach both the shutter button and the coupe glass. I would use a light stand to position the flash for dramatic shadows. The shoot left me with countless ideas for the future. I've had pages and pages of product photography ideas in my notebooks for ages; finally being forced to just make one happen might have opened the floodgates.