Verona, Italy

Last year in November, I was blessed to have my first exhibit in Brescia, Italy. After the opening my girlfriend and I went to Venice via the train and passed Verona on the way. I remember passing the stop for Verona wondering what it was like there since I hadn’t heard much about Verona, (except for Romeo and Juliet). Verona is one of the most beautiful places in Italy and I am upset with myself for not bringing my lady on this trip to Italy, but with the economy being what is it, we decided against it this year.

My second exhibt in Italy was sponsored by MIMA and held just outside Verona in Santa Maria,Zevio, a small province of Verona. At the exhibit opening were the Mayor and many of the wonderful people of Verona. Thanks to the entire MIMA organization for hosting a wonderful exhibit.

The day after the opening I taught a two day photography workshop sponsored by MIMA and Microsoft. There were 25 students in the class from areas around Italy, and even though I’ve given many seminars this was my first outside of America. I don’t speak Italian but I had a great interpreter who was fantastic and made the class smooth and easy in terms of communication. Day one of the class was devoted to discussing lighting and working with models. The students had the opportunity to shoot on set as well. Day two started with a field trip to the exhibit in Zevio and included a portrait session by me of my students. The portrait images are viewable on the Microsoft site, http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=EBB62A6D-364E-42CD-9F18-4419450048D8

The 2^nd part of day two was devoted to promotion and marketing with discussions about promoting in Europe. Both days the students had the opportunity to shoot and then discuss the session afterwards. Microsoft donated Expression Media software and other gift products for the students and we downloaded and edited images for discussion. I used my Sony A900 to shoot during the class and the students used varies camera to photograph the models. It was a wonderful time being in Verona and working with my good friends at MIMA. Thanks again to the MIMA staff and to Microsoft!

After the two day session I spent time with my Italian sponsors and enjoyed the beauty of Verona. Stay tuned for more!

Always Dream Big!

Camera: Sony A900

Lens used on location in Verona: 35mm 1.4 and 20mm 2.8 Sony Lens'

Day in the Life

Today was a hectic one. I started the day by sending off my first newsletter to art directors, beauty editors, creative directors throughout New York and Los Angeles. The newsletter is something new that I will do every other month to let my clients and potential clients know what's going on in my life. I want to make each one funny and filled with my personality so I wrote the first one myself but I think I will look for a writing student for the rest.

After sending all my packages out, which took all of last week and the weekend to put together, I came back to the office to prepare for a meeting with an art director at a big advertising agency. In LA every one wear's jeans to almost everything, but I put basis black and grabbed my portfolio's and went to the meeting. I was meeting with one art director and showing three portfolio's. The first was a beauty portfolio focused on clean skin and hair. The second was a celebrity book, and the third was my personal work. This was my first time showing the personal portfolio and I was curious to see what creatives would think. Once at the meeting things went well. The books were all looked at and then I was asked to stay for a while so others could come and meet me and see my books. In total four art directors came to view my work and I felt great about the meeting. Afterwards I went back to the office and wrote and thank you card to the first art director for taking the time to meet with me. Next it was back to working on my email blast to go out tomorrow via Adbase. This e-mail blast is going to editors and art buyers and in NYC and LA, but also for the first time to editors and art buyers in the UK. Adbase as added Europe onto their list so now I can market my work throughout Europe and just in time for my show and class. I leave Wednesday for Italy for my exhibit and class at MIMA in Verona, Italy. For more info go to www.Mima.cc

Always Dream Big! Time to pack.

Fashion Week in NYC

With Fashion week in full swing I thought it would be appropriate to share a fashion story I've recently shot. This shoot was photographed in New York City and all the talent worked for free as I am submitting the story for publication. My consultant worked with me on the concept and we worked to cast the models together. She was in NYC and I in LA so we had to go back and forth on models. In the end she saw them in person and we spoke about each to settle on the right models.

I shot in a studio in the meat packing district in Manhattan and used only one photo assistant on the shoot. There was no digital tech on this shoot and I downloaded as we shot to a drive to edit later. The shoot was done using my Sony A900 with an assortment of lenses. The lighting was done with one rofoto strobe head in an Octabank umbrella. At the start of the shoot my consultant wanted the background darker than I did but after speaking about it I went in the direction of the darker background and I think it was definitely the right choice. I had an amazing crew to work with including hair, makeup, stylist and models all donating their time to make a great story.

In this recession, and in good times, its important to always make your own story ideas and submit them. It is slow for almost everyone I know, including me but I am using my time to create stories and pitch them to magazines in the States and in Europe. Always shoot images you love and always dream big!

Editing

I was recently asked "what's the hardest part of your job as a photographer"? I have thought about this quite a bit, but hopefully if we do our job right as photographers the hardest job is editing to show the right images. I've recently fought with this while editing the shoot I did last week with the Japanese actress. She was such an amazing subject I had the hardest time deciding what to use. To be honest, I'm still vexed about what to use, but it's a good problem to have. The editing programs I use are Capture One Pro and Lightroom. Both have their pro's and con's, but my initial edit is usually done in Lightroom and then processing in Capture One Pro as this program does a much better, (and faster) job of processing files.

My first edit of last weeks shoot was cut from 1500 to 362 images, then to 82 and then to twelve. I looked at the 362 edit today and every image is still amazing to me. It's so nice to have this problem but I suffer as the images I select will be the one's that live forever.

I have the same problem with assignments as with my personal shoots. There are times when a client will select an image for their product or magazine cover but the images I like are different. My consultant explained this year ago to me and I will share it here now. As photographers we have our brand, or look that we are known for, but our clients have their brand. Sometimes the two are different, and for this reason I show images in my portfolio that fits my brand vs showing the images that were published. Always keep your brand in mind when editing your images. There may be images you love but if it doesn't fit your brand keep moving. I have to always remind myself of this when editing because it's easy to forget at times.

At the Richard Avedon show this past weekend there was discussing about one of his subject not liking the way he looked in the image but Avedon simply said, "this is an Avedon image", and I totally understood. The images displayed here are all selected randomly from my first edit of 362 to give you an idea of why I've been so consumed by editing this story.

If interested in seeing this actress in her latest work please go to www.lovedeaththemovie.com for a trailer in Japanese.

Always Dream Big!