don't buy Levi's

Yea they were brand new. literally. I'd had them for less than 24 hours. Memorial day weekend blog coming as well as a night shoot in dumbo, and the streets of the west village. Off to Spain on Sunday, so expect those too. I gotta head to uniqlo or something....

NYC in the Spring

I just have to say, that the ONLY time I recommend coming here is in the spring. The weather is perfect, the summer tourist crowds haven't hit yet, and everything is just great.
I went on a three hour bike ride with my friend Anthony down through battery park, up the westside highway to Harlem, back down through the park, barely survived the ride down 5th ave, and then back to Williamsburg. Couple that with a long night of partying outdoors with friends, and a hungover movie eating really shitty food at the theater while skipping out on work makes for a great week.

Throw in Bar hopping the next night with the BMX gang, riding all over brooklyn on pegs/handlebars and at least one person crashing in front of our favorite bar and you've got a really great week. It really is the best time to be here.

Song: Digital Love by Alphabeat (Daft Punk Cover)

So we went to LA sometime last week, rocking a ridiculously early flight out there on saturday morning. I flew solo which I always enjoy and slept for most of the flight out. Upon arrival I was greeted by a friendly SUV driver from the middle east who after mistaking my friendliness as an invitation to talk politics, led into literally a 45 minute rant about how the world is ending. His wife cheated on him but got everything in the divorce(after seeing his temper i'm not surprised), people are too dependent on gasoline (I actually agree with that), everyone is straying from religion (finally!), and a black man can't be the president (Really? cause I'm pretty sure he will be and it will be a good thing). Don't get me wrong, he was a nice guy but I really don't want to talk about that kinda shit when I'm driving to my hotel with a total stranger (thats his head in the picture below).

After a rather intense, absurdly traffic hindered (on a saturday at noon?) drive I arrived at the sunset towers hotel which was nothing short of spectacular. I had a great suite with two rooms and a great bathroom. It overlooked the pool, which I wasted no time in enjoying. I had dinner and drinks with my friend Katrina which was fun but I was exhausted and had to get up at 6 the next morning to head out to the desert.

We awoke really early to head to location, and I drove the two hours it took to get out of there. Two hours quickly turned to 3.5 when while following the client (I wasn't leader...not my fault) they missed the exit and drove 30 miles past it. Our looping back solution (1st assistant....not me again) ended up taking considerably longer, and we arrived at location around 11. No big deal as we shot with HMIs and setup wasn't difficult. The shoot was at this crazy "outdoor studio" (oxymoron I know) with these big sloped white walls and pools of blue water. Very graphic and cool. It was mothers day so we all emailed light test pictures to our moms and the day had a great vibe.


Driving back after a 12 hour day was pretty exhausting, but I managed to muster up enough strength to open up my mini bar and crack some Ketel One with Katrina, before heading out to our usual drinking spot in Hollywood....Barney's Beanery. I seem to remember it being karaoke night and I seem to remember jaeger bombs because of the fatigue. Thats pretty much it. Oh, also I think Nachos may have been involved.

The next morning I awoke to the hotel reminding me I had to check out at noon, a legitimate concern because I think I dropped off some client disks and prints at 2 am and probably couldn't speak coherently. I packed my shit and waiting in the lobby for 4 hours....waiting for my car. Awesome. Thanks production...I love taking a 8 pm flight home from LA. Especially when I have to be on set in Inwood the next day at 7 am. Needless to say I tried to sleep on the flight (unsuccessfully) and slept at the office once back in NY. I got a record 3 hours of sleep before I had to get up for call time the next day. Or same day I guess if you want to get technical.

Oh LA....I really do despise you. Croatia got cancelled due to some customs issues, but fortunately we're headed to an island off the coast of Spain instead. I promise some good posts from there....still working on better music, I'm having a bit of a dry spell on new stuff. Time to clean the office.....this shit is getting ridiculous.

soon soon i promise

not shooting at all this week (except wednesday) so I'm going to play catchup. I did a funny test shoot with my roommate today though that yielded some great light tests....

this shits starting to get weird.

delightfully trashy

I have to work AGAIN all weekend (this will be the 4th weekend out of the last 5) so tonight is my Friday. I'll be keeping it real Northwest style. For those of you who don't know what that means see below.

At work today....

Another great jumping shot.....these always make me happy. We were shooting some canadian clothing thing in Tribeca, and as usual, hair and makeup was driving us crazy....

BILLBOARD!!!

So two cool shoots we did (well one....the celebrity one is kinda lame) are out in print now. One is for Bebe which was pretty much uneventful except for me making an ass out of myself in front of a pretty well known desperate housewife....



But the other one is a fucking BILLBOARD on Houston and Broadway (thats the gateway to Soho for you non-new yorkers). Its crazy to see a shot that you were literally working on blown up to the size of a building. Its a painting of the picture we took, but there are other billboards of the actual shot out around town. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow....I'm freaking out.

Editorials in Miami

Song: "Dogs Slip Away" by Barth....Good song, very cinematic. I like it. Enjoy.

I seem to remember hating Miami to some extent, usually due to circumstances involving the physical abuse from my last job. This time going to Miami was like going home. The terribly laid out airport, the even worse cab drivers, fake tits, faker personalities, and the poorest excuse for hotel hospitality I've ever experienced (THANKS MIAMI STANDARD!)....all this seemed so familiar that it made me happy. (sidenote: when did I become so negative?).

Anyways...I got in late wednesday night, and pretty much went straight to bed (after a bottle of chardonnay in the photographers room as per usual for our travel jobs). I managed to get a few hours of sleep before the 6:30 call time, and it was just a quick drive over to the house we were shooting at. Apparently the house we shot at used to belong to hulk hogan during the filming of some show he was on that I never saw, and is now owned by some dude called michael bay who directed transformers. Not that great of a movie, and I have to say he doesn't have that great of taste in home decor either.


But who am I to judge.....I don't have a ridiculously inconvenient "bet you can't get to my front door" stepping stone labyrinth (I might be exaggerating, but you try lugging 500 pounds in oversized equipment cases across this bitch) .


This was a particularly ambitious shoot, because we were shooting the same model for two days, doing the same shots both days. Why you ask? Well it sounds a little cliche, but we were putting the model dressed as two people in the same frame. This proved difficult because Michael REFUSED to have any tape put on his floor, and how are we supposed to relight 12 shots without knowing where everything was? Thank god our local assistant JP (awesome dude...I've worked with him a few times) came up with the idea to use stickies. Suck on that location managers. On my end, I got to do some great overlays to have while we were shooting the second day that really helped move the shoot along, and it was great to have everyone on set realize how hard I work everyday. It was just that they could see my work as we were shooting that made them realize that I'm not JUST a computer geek. Actually lets be honest. Thats pretty much me. All the time. Everyday.

I hate to jinx things like this before they go to print, but the shoot went fucking perfectly and I would love to post the comps I did of the final images, but that just wouldn't be right. I will however put a few of the images where I was a stand-in, and acting like the badass i'm clearly not.....




The nights during this shoot were particularly draining. I can't believe how much we drank. Seriously it was embarrassing. Its getting to the point where I feel like this is becoming a party blog. I mean the night before the second day of the him/her shoot....jesus. I'm still hungover from that. Between the AD, photographer, hair guy and me, we drank THIRTEEN bottles of wine. I mean probably three of those were drank by a few random crew members who stopped by, but 10 bottles between 4 people is just obscene. I literally drank heavily for all 4 nights we were down there. Thank god one night ended in a drunken makeout session in the pool at 4 am. I would have been ashamed of myself if I couldn't party that much and not get any action.

The second shoot we did at isle morada for one day and was just a totally different vibe, but equally creatively stimulating(ly). It was a more traditional editorial story, but was just beautiful. My photographer is really starting to take it to a new level with his editorials. Its really a great work environment. MC Chandler (nickname for my favorite prop stylist) built this amazing Moroccan style desert tent on the beach and we shot this gorgeous Arabian story. Such a chill vibe, and I can't articulate how much nicer it was to be out of the studio shooting something everyone was excited about. Things are going well and Im headed to LA for a quickie shoot on Saturday. Then we're off to CROATIA. You know how I love travel and this should be one for my record book. Of awesomeness. Sweet action....

expect awesomeness

When I get time to write about this Miami shoot I think you'll enjoy it. There will be great pictures. I promise.