Senator Mel Martinez cover shoot

On this assignment I was commissioned to photograph Senator Mel Martinez, his wife Kitty and daughter for the cover and spread of Orange Appeal(December issue). The location for the shoot was at The Menello Art Museum which boast a colorful and complex backdrop of art.

Lighting was a challenge as 99% of the paintings were oil based and caused major glare. Thanks to the hard work of my superb assistant Ken Lopez and artillery of equipment I rented from Central Florida Strobe we were able to tackle the pre-light just in time for the Senators arrival.

This is what we came up with..

Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine shoot

Have you ever been on an airplane and picked up the magazine that's wedged in the seat pocket in front of you? Well this last assignment was for Southwest Airlines magazine Spirit

Oddly enough Southwest found me on the internet in search for an Orlando based photographer. The subject I was commissioned to photograph is Captain Damien Kia who is a native of Maui, Hawaii and now resides in Orlando FL. Damien was selected 'star of the month' for December 2008 by Southwest and is the reason I was chosen to photograph him.

Just to get Damien on the phone was a chore mainly due to his busy flight schedule. Once on the phone Damien sounded pretty serious with a deep bass voice and no interest in having his picture taken.. (intimidating) ... After several minutes of convincing that the shoot was legit and I would only keep him for 10 minutes max he agreed to a sitting at my studio Focustudios

On shoot day Damien arrived in a battery orange Toyota XB with a ukulele in one hand and some authentic Hawaiian Leis in the other and all smiles inbetween. After our sitting Damien admitted that he was nervous to have his picture taken and is the reason why he was so difficult to pin down for the shoot.

This is what we came up with.

Tiger Woods spotted at Publix

Today I was strolling thru Publix in hopes to stock up the kitchen's supply for food. Out of curiosity I took a glance down the magazine aisle and low and behold there was a Golf Digest / Tiger Woods cover shoot I worked on with Dom earlier in the year at Reunion, FL.

The story behind this cover shoot is somewhat amusing.   The original agreement was that Dom and I would have 15 minutes with Tiger and the other 15 minutes would be shared with the great legend sports photographer Walter Iooss. This would of been a total of 30 minutes. What you should consider is our set up alone consisted of 12 strobe heads, 6 packs, a 12' backdrop + a 9' backdrop. Not to mention a 8x10 camera and a few long lens angles high up on ladders. All this tech talk means it took us a full 12 hours of set up and another 6 hours of rehearsal so that when Tiger walked in we were efficient and wasted no valuable time.

On shoot day our time with Tiger was cut short. Dom and I ended up with roughly 7 minutes to get 'the shot'.

Below is the cover image Golf Digest ended up running + what our set up looked like.. Fun times!

Photo Retouching

I'm happy to of recently reconnected with my dear friend Alan Bremner who currently lives in Solihul U.K. I first met Alan nearly 10 years ago in London on assignment for Sony Music UK. For anyone who follows the dance music scene Alan was part of Brothers In Rythm who also consist of Dave Seaman and Steve Anderson.

More recently Alan has taken a strong liking to photography and retouching. So much that his personal work caught my eye and I insisted he help retouch my Orlando Magazine story and a few images on my site. Not only does Alan have a wicked hand with the WACOM tablet but is also a real down to earth type dude.

Check out more of his work here - sproutphotography

Tiger Woods shoot in LA

This past week I spent 3 action packed days in Los Angeles helping my good friend Dom Furore set up for his annual Golf Digest shoot with Tiger Woods. Dom has been a senior staff photographer at Golf Digest for over 20 years. He's one of those old school film guys (graduate of Brooks) that still enjoys shooting 4x5 and the occasional 8x10. On this particular shoot we were at Trump National Golf Course just outside LA . We had 4 sets to nail down with a crap load of rental gear we got from Samy's. This meant long hours of setting up testing lights and going thru the set up without a glitch for shoot day.

The quicktime movie was shot with a Nikon D300 and a 14mm wide angle lens. We used a Pocket Wizard to remote fire the camera every 15 seconds over a 48 hour period. The movie displays what goes into a 8 minute shoot with Tiger Woods.

Orlando Weekly cover shoot with Billy Mays

We all know this guy from those ridiculous late night infomercials. The shoot took place at Billy Mays mansion on the west coast near Tampa. Having Billy greet me at his doorstep felt daunting as I've seen him on TV for years now. To my surprise he was very humble and down to earth and proceeded to show me around his 8,000 square foot mansion. One of his great passions is cars so he showed off his 550hp Bentley that I was able to get a portrait of him in front of. The cover shot ended up being in his laundry room where he stocks Oxi Clean, Kaboom and all the other household products he endorses on TV. Apparently Billy will have his own reality show airing next spring on Discovery so stay tuned for more of Billy Mays!!!

Orlando Magazine cover shoot

This was my first cover assignment with Orlando Magazine.   We shot at the Hard Rock Hotel @ Universal Studios.   What made this assignment interesting was a combination of shooting in the middle of hurricane Fay and waiting 4 hours for the make-up artists and the models to show up.   Only later to find out that BMG (talent agency) had given the talent the wrong day!   My biggest challenge was keeping 2 editors from freaking out and Charlie my assistant from falling asleep. Once we finally got going things seemed to gel nicely. If you ever have a chance to visit Hard Rock Hotel make sure to check out the Graceland suite.

Welcome to the blog!

At last!  Welcome to my blog.   My plan is to use this as a means to document and share people places and things I encounter in this crazy thing we call life.   Rather than drown you out with words my plan is to keep it simple and visual so stay tuned.