Alas, after 25+ years, I have decided to semi-retire... I have closed both studios, and I will now concentrate on travel photography and on creating 'stock' photography, digitized from my thousands of images. It's been a wonderful studio career, but now it's time for the next phase of my professional life. I've left the descriptions below until such time as I can re-write them. My philosophies are the same, but the environment is different - my new 'studio' is "inside the computer". I'll update soon!

---Bob Forrest

Welcome to my Web Page. I'm Bob Forrest, and I've been doing special effects photography since before dirt was invented. Yeah, I'm one of those dozen or so guys who used to do SFX work in-camera or in the darkroom; the computer is just the latest tool in my high-tech arsenal. I've recently moved most of my photography operations from New York City, where I've had a photography and design shop on Fifth Avenue - since 1980. Now, I use that smaller home studio for my web design and image consultation business, and I've built my ultimate 'superstudio' here in downtown San Francisco (okay, almost totally partially half-built!). A web page is the perfect medium to showcase my work, especially now that I'm working in this Mecca of the future...the land of fruits and nuts, silicon and silicone, beautiful scenics, sumptuous food, widespread anarchy, and universal brou-ha-ha. Here's some quick info on the studio and the work, but the images really show what I'm about. Check 'em out, and enjoy. E-mail me for assignments or stock or fine art prints.

History (and philosophy...)

I didn't start out as a photographer, but as an engineer working for NASA on various space projects, the LEM, and the F-111 fighter-bomber. Nights, and weekends, I took pictures of girls and pictures of rock groups and pictures of anything related to aerospace, since those were the only things of interest to a boy-child of the sixties. Take that precocious whiz-kid and throw him into the Woodstock of yore and its sex-drugs-r&r atmosphere, melt his brain just enough to make him quit his high-paying government gig, start a rock&roll band and open a photo studio... Add a couple of decades of photographing covers and ads for Polaroid, American Airlines, Panasonic, Volkswagon, AT&T, Clairol, Sony, The New York Times and Video Magazine, and you get the creative curmudgeon that I am today. Although the studio can stand up to heavy bustle, I prefer to handle no more than two clients at a time--every new assignment is the most important one I've ever had, and I like to devote myself fully to the needs of the job. I don't keep a large staff, so I don't have to overcharge just to break even. An artist can't do his best work in a factory environment -- and I do my best work in a small, specialized shop for select clients. I keep my style clean and to the point, using the "KISS" rule, (Keep It Simple, Stupid), so you won't find any cluttered, overly-PhotoShopped "rasterbation" among my images. Products and concepts that stand out from a beautiful but benign background still sell best. Period.

The Studio (and philosophy...)

The Workspace is a whole building with drive-in access for cars and boats and horses and wheelchairs and scantily-clad women bringing me shopping carts full of money. The column-free 30x40 shooting area has a 30-foot height and a room below the studio floor with a glass ceiling; I can shoot down-at or up-at anything you need to photograph. Full-motion 3-ton and 5-ton cranes on the ceiling move vehicles, equipment or sets into position. Everything is in-house: set building, photography, and post production. Retouching, sizing, photocomposition, and special effects are done in real time on two server-sized computer workstations. With these facilities, I can handle rush work within a day or two, but remember-- I'm a "creative", and top quality work takes a little longer. Doing the impossible takes me about a week.