Pomponio Ranch is a local ranch in San Gregoria, CA but they are anything but ordinary. I got invited to bid on their project and to tour their ranch and fell in love with the beauty, sustainability, and goodness of the people on the team. You can read their story on their website. They wanted to sell their meat online so I got chosen for the project to help them catalog all of the beef, pork, and jerky they are making right now.

We started with a few tests, do you like paper, do you like dark, do you like white? They definitely like the white look with the meat, but they also wanted to use their branded cutting board. Although I snuck in a dark, moody shot with the cutting board after visiting the ranch because it has a history and natural beauty, I felt that it could work very well. Then the foreman made a smaller cutting board to fit our set! Talk about teamwork. And Morgan Nicodemus, their talented marketing director was here for the shoot, helping us style the garnishes to show how the items are prepared and transmitting our creations virtually to the team while they were working.

A few iterations of our creation and branding process:

Test number one with top down camera view of a piece of meat on grey marble with white butcher paper and garnishes. This is the favorite color from the first test.
Test number two showing a 45 degree angle with a technical camera on dark marble with white butcher paper. This is the favorite angle from the first test.
Test number three using the favorite coloring with their branded cutting board on white marble.
Test number four takes a new twist. I took the liberty to style it a little more authentically with the board and a dark background and moody light and they loved this. The ranch manager saw this shot and was inspired to make a custom board that is a better size.
Final creation blooms! Here is one of the final sets that they loved complete with meatballs using their delicious ground beef. We shot everything top down and at the favorite 45 degree angle so they will have options for a website, marketing, social media, and more!
The favorite 45 degree angle in a branded format showing the preparation of the raw meat. The garnishes and colors really elevate the look and show the brand of local, sustainable ranching where the animals are raised out on the open pastures and kept in the same place their whole life.

Here are a few of my favorites! We shot everything top-down and at 45 degrees to show the branding, the usage of the cuts, and the closeup beauty of the meat and to give the marketing director many options.

The timing of the shoot was critical. My assistant and I were ready to go when the meat came off the truck from the USDA packing house and we maintained its temperature perfectly for the shoot. It was so enjoyable to work with the marketing director and to all style it together. Pomponio Ranch had a very authentic, branded shoot right on their budget and within their time frame.