Commercial Photography | COAST Products | Ron Lake Knives

A short while back I received an inquiry from COAST Products about shooting some commercial images for one of their esteemed knife-makers, Ron Lake. COAST Products partnered with Ron a while back to offer one of his patents exclusively, which has become the Rapid Response design with Blade Assist. To promote this partnership and for some upcoming national knife shows, COAST hired me to shoot some commercial portraits of the knife-maker in his workshop. This was so fun, and very different from my normal commercial photography! In short, I got to hang out with one of the world’s best knife-makers (literally, some of his custom knives sell for more than $30,000 each, and he is in the cutlery hall of fame) and see a bunch of knife-making behind the scenes. I scored some points right away when Ron asked me what a good substitute for a sharp knife is, and I answered, nothing.

From there on out we shot a few portraits, shot some environmental workshop images, and talked plenty. I even received a COAST Products Rapid Response knife and some peppers from Ron’s garden as a tip. Stoked! This guy is the real deal and this job was really interesting! I even got to shoot some of Ron’s custom knives a short while later in the studio, each selling for more than $20,000.

On a photography note, all of these images are shot using a combination of existing light in the workshop and one studio strobe controlled by the camera. So, here you go, the fun part, photographs.