Wedding - Mike & Rebecca's

Through out my business carrier I've always shied away from shooting weddings.  I would only shoot them for good friends and family.  However in the last 3 to 4 years I've been asked by many people, who have seen my work if I would photograph their wedding.  I still don't shoot many about 6 to 10 a year.  And I must say - I have been having a blast shooting them!!!  The creativity and energy is a BLAST!  

Here are a few pics from Rebecca & Mike's wedding I photographed last weekend.  

Recycled materials

I was asked recently to help create a book about recycling!  SO all these "things" attached to the models are being used for at least the second time.  :-)  We had a team of stylists in the studio creating and just having fun.  The ideas of what the models should be costumed in came from the art director - and the team followed.  

Letters from June

A few years back a a band called Splinter asked me to shoot their CD cover and a poster for them.  We had a lot of fun doing it.  Though some of the band members weren't happy with my choice of location.  Not that it wasn't "picturesk" it just was a bit nerve racking to have these guys climb up this crumbling tower of concrete located a dozen or so stories above the streets of Philly!  While I stayed in my cat-bird seat safe and sound!   Everybody was safe!  And no one got killed in the making of this photo.  

A while back Kevin Hill the drummer from Splinter splintered off from the group (I had to use the word splinter -it was to easy!) and started his own band with Joe Caliva,  called Letters from June.  He asked me to shoot their new cover.  A bit of a departure from his old band in musical style but wonderfully melodic just the same.  If you ever get a chance to hear them you should.  

Europe

Last week I was sent to Stockholm, Sweden to shoot for AstraZeneca.  I'm currently in Brussels, Belgium  and this afternoon will be flying to Manchester, England.  All for the European and global version of a day in the life of AZ.  To pull this together not only have they employed my services and my business partner's services, Peter Lien but many other photographers around the world.  In countries such as Japan, India, Australia, Malaysia and more.  

It's been a lot of fun and I have to say a bit tiring.  It's taken me days to adjust to the time zone. But now that I'm finally use to it I'll be leaving for the states in just a few short days.  :-(  I'll have been on this "tour" for eight days.

I've been shooting heads of AZ and some of their operations.  The people I've been photographing and meeting have been wonderful!  I want to show you a few of those pics but mostly some of the sights that I have enjoyed while traveling.  

Disney

I needed a bit of a break from this cold weather so I decided to look at some recent pictures from Florida to help me keep warm.  At least keep warm in my mind!  Here is my son Jake & I fishing and traveling to Disney!  

Warm & Sunny

I went down to SUNNY, WARM Florida last Friday to shoot for A Z.  This is a continuing campaign for Nexium where I've shot in Philadelphia, Chicago & now Florida.  I'm following a film/video crew to all these exotic locations where they're shooting patient testimonials.  At some point during the filming, when time permits I take the patient into my makeshift studio and have fun with them!  I set up anywhere there is enough space to shoot on a white seamless.  In Chicago I shot in a neighbor of the patients living room.  In Philly I shot in a bed room and down in warm Florida it was the garage!  By far the best & roomiest spot!  Chicago had no less then a foot of snow on the ground when I got there!  Needless to say Florida was a warm welcome!  So welcome I decided to bring my son along for an inprompto vacation.  I gave him a camera to shoot while I was shooting. He, we had a blast!   

The people on the white:  The client Tim jumping over the scooter.  Ron the film director - jumping!  And the patient's son Kyle standing on the scooter.  Then of course there is my son shooting me while I was shooting him.  There is a shot of me and Tim.  Then there is a shot of some of the clients beating me!  It's a rough job being a photographer! And the rest are just shots from around the shoot! 

Philadelphia Panoramic

A client wanted me to shoot a city scape panorama from their offices located about 15th & Market here in Philly.  The job was shooting their employees working and interacting with one another.  The panoramic was an after thought which I kind of thought would be fun.  We had to go to the building at night and shot this from their roof.  It's a combination of 18 shots put together to make the final image.  The image was used in their brochure.  When the building owners saw the image they bought it from me and blew it up to ten feet wide and it now hangs in their lobby.  

Kitty-Litter Cake

A few weeks back I was asked to shoot a job for Digitas Health for a product that helps with dry mouth. (They have drugs for everything!) The idea was to create a piece of cake that just by looking at it would make your mouth DRY.  The A.D. came to me and asked if I had any ideas as to how to achieve this.  He knew or thought the cake should be made of sand.  

I knew that it required a great prop?  SO I called my food stylist & chef exstrodinaire - Iris Richardson.  I use prop stylists as well but thought Iris would be a better choice as we were still creating a piece of "food".  Iris & I have been working together for years on food ads, menus & cook books.  So here was our first assignment together that we had to make something look like food but look un-editable.  She made a bunch of different cakes made of sand.  In person they looked - dry.  But once in front of the lens the sand took on the essence of sugar.  And they all started to look- editable.  We showed the client and brainstormed more ideas as how to make it look drier. 

SO back to the studio Iris went and thats when the proverbial light went off in her head.  Actually it was her cat using its kitty-litter box!  She decided to make the cake out of kitty-litter!  And that was the winner!  The Kitty-Litter Cake. 

Happy New Year

Way to long since I've updated this.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  

This past month I've been shooting for AstraZeneca.  They have sent me from New Orleans to Boston and many places in between!  Working on a project called The Day in the Life of AZ.  It's been a lot of fun.  All the shooting has been a photo-journalistic style.  It's a bit of a departure from how I normally shoot but I loved it!  Meaning natural lighting, a minimal amount of equipment to lug around and a very small crew.  We shot fast and as unintrusive as possible.   

I was back up to Boston this past Monday for the AZ shoot.  As I was sitting on my Southwest flight waiting to depart for Boston about ten secret service agents entered followed by Vice-President Elect Joe Biden and his wife.  They sat two rows in front of me surrounded by secret service.  Way to go Joe!  Flying coach on Southwest!  Sorry no pictures.