Robert Bengtson is a freelance commercial photographer and visual artist who works from his studio in Sausalito, CA. Specializing in event, travel and studio photography, he has handled assignments for clients such as Macy’s, L’Oreal, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, and Teen Vogue magazine. He has traveled and photographed in more than 20 countries and has been shooting professionally since 1994.
Currently Bengtson is taking his photography business in a new direction, called The Art of Detail, by bringing a heightened sense of intention and art to his commercial projects. By creating fine-art images out of details found in locations for residential and commercial clients, his work speaks to his belief that every moment and every place has something worth paying attention to. Now he’s adopting the same technique to help clients visually express the qualities that make them unique.
For example, for the interior décor of Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants, Bengtson captured artfully composed images that visually reinforce some of the details that help make the dining experience so special. One image highlights the onsite production of beer via a sea of caps. Another image emphasizes live music through hands on a trumpet. Groupings of his images have been permanently installed on the walls of over 20 Gordon Biersch restaurants nationwide.
Over the course of his career, Bengtson has acquired the technical prowess to shoot a wide diversity of assignments—both in the studio and on location. He shares some of this knowledge with students of the Digital Photo Academy sponsored by Panasonic/Lumix. In addition to tips on how to operate camera equipment under different types of shooting conditions, Bengtson emphasizes the need to determine the artistic intention for each image and incorporate it into the capture process.
