On location at Bok towers with Fused Fashion

Every time I get asked to work with Tammara from Fused Fashion and Sunha Fajardo Art of Beauty I jump at the opportunity, even if I have no idea what I'm getting into.

The approach to this shoot was to capture a past and present masked theme inspired from the Marie Antoinette era. For a location I chose Bok towers due to its beautiful gardens and great scenery.

Caught up in the idea.. like a rookie... I forgot to call the gardens prior to our shoot to ask permission to shoot there. Naturally on shoot day it didn't take long before administration caught on to what we were doing and asked us to pay a $150 location fee of which we narrowed down to $50. Who would of thought I'd get charged a location fee way out in Haines City!

Here is what we came up with:

Spring Forward fashion shoot for Orlando Magazine

When I was originally approached with this assignment I was asked to shoot in studio. Since this was my second cover shoot for OM I wanted things to sizzle a bit more than the last time around so I turned to my lovely fashion forward wife Lindsay. It was her suggestion to shoot at the Maitland Art Center and said to make things dramatic. After having a post production meeting with the crew from Orlando Mag at the art center they were convinced that this was the location to use.

On shoot day it must of been 50 degrees and naturally I felt bad for our model who had to wear spring clothes. Somehow she pulled it off and made things look warmer than they actually were. Equipment wise I ended up using all Profoto B2R portable strobes and went with 2 white beauty dish reflectors with grids for main lights and 2 magnum reflectors with grids for background and side light. The crew.. what can I say... Fantastic job! As they say.. it takes a village.. in this case a very creative village!

Here are the results:

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Cover shoot with police chief Val Demmings

When I was first asked to photograph Orlando's very own police chief I must admit it caught me off guard. The first thought to run thru my warped mind were the fun old days of my youth. Back when Raves were fun and Orlando was even more lame than it is today.

On shoot day my handy dandy assistant Ken Lopez and I set up at the police headquarters downtown Orlando. We had a very tight conference room to set up in with lots of heavy chairs to move around. Good thing is the photo set up was simple as I wanted the focus to be about Val.

Once Val showed up I was shocked at how beautiful and non-cop like she was. Turns out her husband is the police commissioner for Orlando.

The shoot itself ended up taking 15 minutes and this is what ended up on the cover.

Thomas Wynn & The Believers cover shoot

This cover assignment was for the Orlando Weekly. Shan the art director wanted a shot of Thomas Wynn dark and wistful not looking directly into the camera, something with more of an editorial feel.

For a location I had remembered an eerie deserted spot my handy assistant Ken had used in the past. On shoot day we all packed up and headed out to Sanford to this 'secret' location only to have found the property had been cleared out and converted to a paper recycling plant. We actually got kicked out by a 60 year old property manager with a hard hat and a bad sense of humor. This 'run in' reminded me of the old days getting arrested at Asbury Park for trespassing with my fellow photography friends Eric Sutton and Wheat Wurzburger.

This time around , due to time constraints , I had to act quick and found an open field with an abandoned train just a mile away from the original location. Ken and I acted quick, set up lights and went gorilla style.

This is what we came up with:

Nude Nite 2009 poster shoot

This is my second year in a row photographing the poster for Nude Nite. On this assignment I enjoy working along side art director Jeff Matz from Lure Design and Nick the body painter (myspace.com/thebodypainter). The theme for this years poster was slick futuristic so Nick decided to paint our model from head to toe in black paint and afterwards he covered her in baby oil. Talk about a mess!! Since I was officially scheduled to be out of my studio in December this was my last chance at squeezing one more shoot in before my departure.

Nude Nite as an event is a 3 night juried multi-media art event to celebrate the body beautiful. Held on Valentines day weekend every year, hundreds of artist show their works including photography, fine art, installation, sculpture, metal and more. If your thinking this is a raunchy event I'm afraid to say your mistaken. Expect a wide variety of people and some really cool eye candy.

For more info visit Nude Nite

Below are 2 of 4 posters in a series that Jeff designed plus some behind the scenes images of what the shoot was like.

Special Olympics Shoot

This shoot was for Orange Appeal Magazine commemorating the 6th annual Special Olympics Gala sponsored by Publix. The shoot took place at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel out at Universal Studios. Special Olympics is a true grassroots organization, made possible by more than 18,000 volunteers and volunteer coaches. To learn more about Special Olympics Florida, visit Special Olympics Florida

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..