There’s one problem that every photographer faces and must find their own solutions to.
You see photography is all about light and yet you don’t have to be a photographer for very long before you find yourself wanting to take photos in a place where there isn’t much light at all.
It takes awhile to learn that our eyes are much more capable than even the amazing cameras that we have in 2026, scenes that our eyes can easily take in are beyond the reach of our technology and gear.
I’ve been working as a professional photographer for over twenty years now, and I’ve dedicated years behind the camera (and many camera gear purchases :)) to learning how I can use natural light for photography, even in extremely dark situations.
Don’t get me wrong, I currently own 9 studio lights, and I’m an ambassador for Westcott, and I use my lights regularly, but only for when they fit the situation and give the feel that I want out of my final images.
I was really excited when the Downtown Nampa Association reached out about needing commercial lifestyle photography for downtown Nampa.
Their creative brief specifically called out that they wanted the photoshoot to be focused around using natural light to capture the feel of being in some of the most awesome businesses in downtown Nampa.
They also wanted to use real people in Nampa to capture natural moments.
I’ve been training my whole career for photoshoots like this, this photoshoot contained so much that I love in my work, so regardless to say I was incredibly grateful to get the email telling me that I had won the contract for this full day commercial photoshoot for Downtown Nampa.
I’ve always wanted to try Mesa Tacos & Tequila and I’ve heard such great things about it, well I still haven’t tried it :)., but now I’ve been there and it looks delicious. I loved this photo of this couple smiling and enjoying tacos in downtown Nampa. And yes, you can cheers tacos :).
Discover records was another awesome business that we visited in downtown Nampa, and I had the idea to do this shot with motion blur on one subject, while keeping the man in the background shopping sharp. I was excited when the downtown Nampa Association chose this as one of their favorite images and final selects.
I’ve been to several Flying M’s in the Treasure Valley but never had been to the Nampa location. This location use to be a tire shop and I loved the repurposing they did with these original sign letters, changing it from “Firestone” to “Finestore” and keeping the original vibe of the tire shop. Huge thank you to our models here who did such a great job of smiling candidly and enjoying themselves, even when I was pointing a big camera at them :).
Why Downtowns Need Lifestyle Photos, Not Just Storefronts
I was so happy that the Downtown Nampa Association didn’t need any convincing about the need for lifestyle photos, they knew that they needed them and called that out in their creative brief.
Photos of patios, buildings and storefronts aren’t enough in 2026, people want to be able to feel what it’s like to visit a place.
I can remember being in a meeting of photographers a long time ago and one of the photographers said, “having a person in a photo always makes it better. You can have an amazing photo of a landscape, but stick a little person in there and it’s even better.”
I agree wholeheartedly. I can’t remember this photographers name, but I can remember the conversation and I think his point is rooted in the fact that we are relational people, we connect more with images with people in them. A photo of a restaurant or bar can be great, but put people in that restaurant or bar photo enjoying it and that’s going to be much better and go much further as far as marketing these businesses.
We started the day off with photos at Messenger Pizza. There were a few slices of pizza left over, so I can confirm that the pizza was indeed delicious :).
Sick stag was the single location that was the most difficult for this photoshoot. It’s such a cool location and has so much feel, but it’s small and extremely dark, but luckily I knew how to handle it. I did bring in lighting for this location, but in the end my client chose final images only taken with available light.
Flying M has a great patio too, and it was really important to us to showcase a variety of both indoor and outdoor business locations in Downtown Nampa.
Planning a Shoot Across Multiple Downtown Businesses
For this full day photoshoot I handled all of the scheduling and logistics for all five of the businesses we visited in downtown Nampa. We did this photoshoot on a Friday in July, and these are real businesses operating with real customers so I put a lot of intention into the timing of each location to make sure we didn’t throw any of these businesses off or negatively interfere with their business operations.
Every single one of these businesses was great to deal with and incredibly helpful throughout the pre-production process. I talked to each business about what would work the best for them and then put together a solid in-depth plan, outlining the entire day.
For Messenger Pizza and Sick Stag I setup our timeline so that we were taking photos there right before they opened. This made it easy for them because they were on site prepping for the day, and yet we weren’t interfering with their business operations or customers at all.
For Flying M, Discover Records and Mesa Tacos, I planned things out during their operating hours, but when things would be slower so as again to not intefere too much with operating their businesses.
Here’s a few behind the scenes photos from my phone so you can see what things really looked like as I ran this photoshoot.
You can see my light setup here at Discover Records, I’m so grateful for an easy to transport and cordless light setup.
You can get a sense for how dark and narrow Sick Stag is here. It’s in a basement below street level in Downtown Nampa and has such a cool vibe for going to get drinks.
Here’s Flying M, I had window light on my left, which worked great to light my subjects
Mesa Tacos & Tequila had beautiful natural light from all of the windows and I loved all of the wood in their booths and decor, they have a really strong brand and it shows.
Capturing Real People and Real Moments in Downtown Nampa
Like I mentioned before we used all real people on this photoshoot. Not paid models. That was important for Downtown Nampa for a couple of reasons. It helped keep cost down and secondly and most importantly it gave us real moments with real people, which was the main focus of the photoshoot.
Downtown Nampa took the lead on sourcing the people for the photoshoot and I handled all of the coordinating and communication with them.
From all of my years of working as a professional photographer, I know that people have all kinds of feelings around photoshoots. Often times a lot of those feelings are not great.
So I prepared everyone really well, let them know that I’d be leading the photoshoot and would be sure that they had great directions on what to do and would have a great experience at the photoshoot. I also communicated clearly about what they should expect and around what wardrobe they should wear as well.
When it comes down to it there’s so many pieces that go into producing a successful photoshoot and the pre-production and planning and in depth communication with everyone is crucial to making sure it goes off with out a hitch. I always handle all of this for my clients and see that it pays big dividends on shoots going well, people having great experiences and producing the very best photography work.
This was an incredibly dark scene in Sick Stag (huge thanks to Jonah here too for being our bartender), but by using really intentional camera equipment and settings I was able to capture it in a way that both looks authentic to the scene and is a high quality image even though it was taken in such low light.
Here’s Clayton listening to a record in Discover Records. I loved the background wall of records and the lines it created that lead into Clayton standing in the corner listening to records.
This patio outside of Mesa Tacos & Tequila is awesome, and I think we can all agree there’s not much better than sitting on a patio during an Idaho summer enjoying delicious food and drinks with someone you love.
How the Downtown Nampa Association Is Using the Photos
It is crucial to understand how photos are being used before you ever take them. The Downtown Nampa Association is using these images both digitally and in print, which meant that images had to be delivered in both horizontal and vertical versions, which I had to take into consideration while I was taking the photos, trying to find compositions that would work for both formats.
For print these photos will be printed on 4’ x 2’ banners that will be hung in Downtown Nampa, as well as being used in other print advertisements.
Digitally the photos will be used on Downtown Nampa’s website, social media and for digital advertising.
I delivered 14 final images to Downtown Nampa and here’s some of the vertical versions. I’m really excited to see this in print in the real world in Downtown Nampa.
Commercial Photography for Treasure Valley Organizations
I’ve spent two decades working as a photographer and I have loved it. Just like this commercial photoshoot for the Downtown Nampa Association, working as a photographer has been such a fun adventure of working with incredible people and businesses in this wonderful place that I call home and spend my days, the Treasure Valley.
If your business or brand is in need of commercial photography, I’d love to talk with you about your project, click here to reach out to me and let’s get the conversation started.
Huge thank you to Clayton and the Downtown Nampa Association Board for trusting me with this project and thank you to all of the wonderful people who helped out. Photoshoots take a village and I’m so grateful I got to work with the people of Nampa.