Impatience Is A Virtue

I couldn't wait till I got back to NYC to work on the polaroid images from the shoot, so I borrowed my brothers scanner and got to work. Here is a quick one of Emily up against the "wood" paneling.

Run 4 Miles A Day

And have an Olympic silver medalist as your personal trainer, and you might just get a body like this. Now the "right out of the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue" face? Yeah, that's genetic. No amount of deep knee bends is going to get us that. Mackenzie was super cool, and I already put in a call to Ford NY about this one. I might just have to put in a call to Bruce about A&F as well. I think she'd be perfect.

Dirty, Sexy

Here are a couple images from the digital portion of our shoot today. I'm in love with the polaroid portion, but I wont be able to post them until I get back to NYC. Everything worked out great. Great model, great styling, and great make-up! The location was amazing, although no doubt dusty and possible a little moldy. Thanks to everyone who braved the environment to put together on incredible shoot!

Where's Waldo

See if you can spot me in this fashion week photo of Mikel I found on the web. Here's a hint, think plaid.

Christmas Pics

Here are a couple shots of the kids opening their presents, and one of little Josef and some bearded guy wearing multiple plaids.

Merry Christmas!

Well, I tried to post this Holiday youtube video to my blog, but for some reason it didn't work. It said it worked, but obviously it lied, (and on Christmas too!). So I'll take this opportunity to give you a quick recap of the days events. Erik "Look dad, Santa got the spiderman game from Target!" Lauren "Yeah, and he got the Hanna Montana book that we saw at Costco!" Well, now that we know where Santa shops, we'll have to ask him to pick up that 3 gallon tub of mayonnaise, and a 64 pack of toilet paper next Christmas. I also had a little dilemma that really shouldn't bother me, but for arguments sake I'll describe it briefly. In trying to do a good thing, I think my niece and nephew think I'm a real loser. I got them both really cool presents for Christmas. Hanna Montana make-up for Lauren along with a Cinderella book that she loved, and a spiderman plane and a how-to draw book on race cars for Erik. They loved them! LOVED! But, I didn't tell them they were from me, I told them they were from Santa. I mean, I'm not looking for recognition from my niece and nephew, I thought everything was fine, until I heard Lauren talking about the presents she got from her uncle on the other side of the family and from everyone else. Now I think that they think their uncle Karl is a cheapskate, who didn't get them anything for Christmas! I can't now go tell them "Hey, you know that make-up kit and that spiderman plane you love?, yeah, Santa didn't get those for you, I lied, I got them for you". That's even worse! I guess I'll just have to make it up to them on their birthdays. Boy I hope this recession is over quickly, I have alot of shopping ahead of me.

Location Scouting For Editorial

Here are some quick pics of the location for my shoot on the 29th. Very Gritty. Love.

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That is the best Pac Man I can do via punctuation. Here is some Chicago snow-graffiti I found on we heart it. Very nostalgic.

Another Find

Found another cool collage featuring one of my shots of Drielle. Check out Polyvore to create one of your own! Heck, throw a Santa hat on a supermodel and email it as a Christmas card! (save a tree in the process). Spread holiday cheer AND save the environment? Done and done.

Are You Kidding Me?!!!

I woke up this morning all prepared to do some much needed last minute Christmas shopping at it was -6 degrees!!! -6, not +6, -6. On the plus side I invented a new word, "mustache-icles". And without going into too much detail, yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. Icicles on your mustache. Now as far as shopping goes, all the boys are done, they're easy. But Lauren is starting to get to an age where she's not satisfied with just anything that's pink and sparkly. She's 7, which is just after pink and sparkly and right before full on Hanna Montana. She loves horses so I got her some horse-related items, stickers, a puzzle, etc., but she also wants make-up. And given my line of work you think I'd be good at this. Wrong. How do you buy make-up for a 7 year old? And should you buy make-up for a 7 year old??? But you know what? They have it, and wouldn't ya know it, its pink and sparkly.

File Under "Not Too Shabby"

I downloaded a camera function on my phone that coverts your photos to classic profiles like instant (polaroid), Helga (Holga) and others. I tried "instant" with this image and I thought it came out alright, for a iphone app. It would be nice if photoshop had a powerful, more realistic version to use on digital photos, polaroid is expensive, not to mention almost extinct.

Flame On!

By now you've probably heard that Burger King has come out with a new body spray that smells like cooked meat. Now there are many issues one might have with this product. Like, "How do they get it to smell like cooked meat? Are their any bits of meat in the spray?" (ala Brian Fantana from Anchorman "It's called Sex Panther by Odeon. It's illegal in nine countries... Yep, it's made with bits of real panther, so you know it's good.") My issue however, is with the marketing. See it's marketed for men to use. Shouldn't it be marketed to women? Unless I'm mistaken, men like the smell of cooked meat and women like. . . . . . well, let's be safe and say other things besides the smell of cooked meat. I say, if women spayed this on themselves then they would attract more guys. . . . . come to think of it, generally women aren't really having trouble attracting guys, at least in NYC, so I guess my whole argument is de-bunked, or bunk. . . . . . . incorrect. So nevermind. But, if you want to see the cool, somewhat creepy advertising of said meat spray, go here, and keep clicking on the spray nozzle for new "meaty" environments.

More Polaroids

I scanned a few more polaroids from Chelsea's shoot. I would have posted some color images from my last few shoots, but I left that hard drive in NYC. I do have a couple on my website, so if you feel inclined, be my guest. I will be shooting a lot here in Chicago, so be prepared for an onslaught of images in the new year. Expecting about 10 inches of snow tonight. Time to put down the computer and break out the snow shovel!

"Enough With The Black And White Already!"

OK, OK, I got it, but not before I post more images of Chelsea. She was such a sweetheart. I will post some color images tomorrow.

Michael Angel Backstage

Check out Michael Angel's website for backstage images, by yours truly, from his show last season. Just click on collections, then Spring Summer 09. He also incorporated my image of Regina exiting the runway as his background. Nice.

I Love Photobooths, I Do

Here is a shot Jen, myself, and Tanya from the photobooth at the "Ones To Watch" party the other night. I need to grab some images off of Tanya's camera, as soon as that happens I'll post some more.

Sunday Is For Sarah

Blonde with bangs in black and white. Sarah was in town for a week from sunny Arizona, (with that skin tone, I hope she bathes in sunscreen)! Here are a few images from our shoot on Thursday.

Saturdays

What better way to spend a Saturday than listening to "Saturday's" by Cut Copy while editing Chelsea's shoot! (how appropo) Cut Copy was the soundtrack when we shot last Tuesday, and I'm continuing that theme this morning, (listen for yourself by accessing my playlist). Here are a few more B&W images from that shoot.

Big Thanks!

To everyone who came out last night in the cold rain to support me at the "Ones To Watch" photo exhibition at Bathhouse Studios. I know the weather totally sucked, but it was nice to see so many friendly faces in the crowd. I will post some images from the event tomorrow. Meanwhile, here is a shot of Chelsea from my foray into B&W. I will be spending the whole weekend editing before I venture back to Chicago for the Holidays, so look for more updates of Chelsea in the days to come.

L.A. Woman

I've been wanting to write a post about the song L.A. Woman by The Doors for a few months now. See, I realized one day that the songs length is the exact amount of time it takes me to get from my apt to my subway stop. Pretty ridiculous reason to write a post, then came Chelsea who was born and raised in Los Angeles. Now I can reminisce about my days back in L.A., driving along the 101 while listening to L.A Woman, (one of the best driving songs of all time by the way) all while I edit images from our shoot yesterday. Look for the song in my playlist towards the bottom right-hand side of this page. Here is a polaroid from our final look which ended late last night.

Sometimes

Sometimes, as I do my edit, I run across an image that epitomizes (good word huh?) exactly what I wanted to achieve during a shoot. Michelle was such a sweetheart, and I explained to her before we started shooting what I wanted to achieve for this shoot. She exceeded my expectations.

Soft and Warm

Here are a couple shots from my light test with Michelle yesterday. I'm hoping to shoot the Chicago editorial with this "feel". Still working on fine tuning my lighting. But I like the fact that the images are soft and warm. And who doesn't like things that are soft and warm?! I will post a different type of polaroid later.

Sneak Peek

Sneak peek at Michelle from Chicago. She was great to work with and has killer ice blue eyes. Chalk up one more for the windy city!

Let's Revisit Shall We?

As per my previous post. All this free time early in the morning has caused me to go back through my backstage images from last seasons NY Fashion Week and swap out a few pics. Here is a shot of Myf from day 1. I had such a blast shooting her, partly because of her cool look, and partly because of her even cooler personality. She was a relative unknown then, but has quickly turned into a superstar! Keep checking my backstage section of my website for some previously unpublished images. Also big thanks to Roberto Ligresti for my new website bio pic!

Gotta Love Insomnia

Well, it's not technically insomnia, but I have been waking up at 3 am the past few mornings. Downside? I'm exhausted by about 7 pm. Upside? I get to watch the best/worst commercials on TV! Like that Amish fake fireplace heating unit, and those hearing amplifiers that allow you to hear what other people are saying about you without them knowing. Isn't that called eavesdropping? and isn't that kinda a bad thing? Anyway, they're hilarious. So, if you find yourself awake around say 4 ish give me a holler, I should be on my second cup of coffee by then, and learning how I can qualify for my own Medicare reimbursed travel oxygen tank! Perfect gift for the holidays.

Gritty

I'm working on a unique editorial later this month. I have the opportunity to shoot at a vacant apt that hasn't been touched since about 1960. We're talking peeled paint, vintage wallpaper, and grime, lots and lots of grime. Might shoot the whole thing on polaroid, still not sure yet. Here are some images, (not of the actual apt) but it gives you a feel for the environment. Very excited!