Thursday, November 8, 2012

CISCO - National Security Technology Piece



I shot this video for CISCO Systems and Ironbound Films in September in Tampa and St Petersburg, Florida, at the launch of the Republican National Convention and the encroaching Tropical Storm Isaac.


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City from Richard Patterson on Vimeo.


I had the pleasure of working with Amy Lawday Productions of NYC in creating these intimate portrait films for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. The video series provides a look into the stories of some of the Big & Little “matches” that Big Brothers Big Sisters brings together in America’s oldest and most cherished mentoring program.
It was a day well spent.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

ARTE News - Gas Fracking Story



In September, ARTE's NYC news correspondent Renaud Dumesnil asked me to shoot a piece on gas fracking in Dimick, PA, a town at the center of this controversial topic.  Our story began with an interview of Josh Fox, the film director whose award winning documentary Gasland shed a new light on this topic.  The following day we traveled to  Pennsylvania to see the process for ourselves and interview some of the people effected by the process.  It was an educational and compelling story of money verses nature.  The methods used to extract these natural gases submerged miles within the ground are potentially invasive to the land and use millions of gallons of water and toxins.  Gas fracking is being strongly considered for the Hudson River Valley of New York State.  This could be a pivotal moment for the ecosystem of the area and the watershed (supplying 90% of drinking water to over half the state's population).  I'm grateful for learning about this important topic through the lens and motivating my civic responsibility.

The video can also been seen here on ARTE's website: http://www.arte.tv/fr/etats-unis-victimes-du-gaz-de-schiste/6925594.html

Monday, September 24, 2012

1,000,000 and Counting

This past weekend, Fat Joe's PRIDE AND JOY - BEHIND THE SCENES video broke 1,000,000 views on YouTube / Vevo.

This is a milestone for me and although a laughing baby can giggle out one million impressions in less than a day, I'm still happy to break the mark in six weeks!

Friday, August 10, 2012

Fat Joe - PRIDE AND JOY - Behind the Scenes



I've enjoyed Fat Joe's music before doing the Roc-Away on the floor in 2004, so when I found myself prepping my cameras next to the accomplished Hype Williams, the director of Mr. Joe Crack's newest video "Pride and Joy," I thought the day couldn't get better.

The mood was very relaxed on set as Hype, Joe, and Kanye West caught-up and told stories from year's past.  Suddenly, the calm was thrown into full throttle as Busta Rhymes stormed onto the sound stage on his way to the airport.  Paying his respect to the song, he jumped in front of the A-camera (Sony F65 - such a beautiful camera) for his cameo appearance, nailed the performance, and flew out the stage door with the same intensity as his intro five minutes earlier.  As the day progressed, Hype and his crew easily moved through the shot list for the day... a line-up that included Ashanti, DJ Khaled, Jadakiss, Miguel, and Roscoe Dash.

I used my Canon DSLRs, a Glidecam x-22, and a Sony EX3 to capture the behind the scenes footage for the video.  The sunset intro shots of NYC were captured with a GoPro Hero mounted to a taxi on my way home to Brooklyn.  My post-production was done entirely on Final Cut and I used Magic Bullet for my color correction.

I hope you enjoy the video.






Friday, July 27, 2012

The First Lady and an Ambassador



May and July lead me to Washington, D.C. for two inspiring shoots.

The first was at the Lincoln Memorial where I was introduced to a true gentleman, Mr. George Haley.  I shot the video and interviews of Mr. Haley for Reader's Digest along side my friend, Jeffrey Salter, who made a series of compelling photography portraits of the 86 year old lawyer, diplomat, and younger brother of the Pulitzer prize winner Alex Haley.  The weather was nearly perfect and despite a long shoot day, Mr. Haley's biggest concern was our well being.  It was a real treat to meet him and hear his stories of the seven Presidential administrations he served.

Later in July, I was commissioned by the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum to photograph the winners of the 13th Annual National Design Awards and a group of select high school students at The White House with Michelle Obama.  Dining on the Presidential chinaware was pretty cool (a definite step-up from the Ray's Pizza I ate the night before), but I'd have to say meeting the First Lady was the most memorable part of the afternoon.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012



Summer in NYC screams live music. This season I'm happy to announce I've been commissioned to produce, shoot and edit the LACOSTE L!VE concert video series in Williamsburg Park for the brand. The line-up is pretty awesome and I hope to see you at one of the shows. Watch out for the crocodiles! http://WWW.LIVELOVESMUSIC.COM/


Coming this month:
Jane's Addiction - August 17th
Antibalas, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - August 18th  
My Morning Jacket - August 19th 


See you upfront by the stage.


Friday, June 1, 2012

Aloha!

It was nice to return to the Island of Oahu once again for work.  Here are some images from my recent project which was shot at the Disney Aulani Resort and Spa, and the Ihilani JW Marriot Hawaii.  I haven't been back to Hawaii since shooting B Camera / Steadicam on the Jamie O'Brian surfing video with Vincent Laforet in 2008.  The weather was beautiful and my daily post shoot brain freeze from the icy cold beverages (sidecar included of course) were memorable.


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Oak Street Bootmakers - Made in the USA

Oak Street Bootmakers from Common Machine Prod. on Vimeo.


The craftsmanship is excellent and the smell of the small factory is an amazing collection of genuine leather including Horween Chromexel. A very cold wind blows outside of the cinderblock walls where empty fields dot the landscape of a small town called Bangor, Maine. This is where Oak Street Boots are assembled by hand. It was a great experience to meet the workers on the line; to document their pricked fingers and rough hands.
Shooting this piece with Common Machine proved to be an education into the importance of domestic manufacturing, but also a rewarding peek into the lives of the talented cobblers found on the factory floor.
Hope you enjoy.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

"Not Over You" - Gavin DeGraw music video


The stars of a show can be such pigs sometimes, especially when they're about 100lbs and hungry all the time.
When Director David Fishal told me that he'd like to shoot a music video for Gavin Degraw around New York City, I said "sure!" When he told me that the day of the shoot revolved around the availability of the animal wranglers, I said, "interesting."
I've heard working with animals can be tedious or tough, but Buddy the pig brought his A-game and was often a one take wonder.
Note to self...I'm bringing fresh carrots to all my shoots for now on...it seems to get the job done!


Monday, January 23, 2012


I had the pleasure of working with aerial specialist Tabb Firchau on a Vincent Laforet surfing piece "J.O.B. First Look" in Hawaii in 2009.
To see this technology in action and the focus required to fly one of these awesome machines is very impressive. But what's even more incredible is to review the dailies it produces.
Check out the video. The visuals are stunning. Congrats Tabb.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Travel Channel "Hidden City NYC"



The cold hands of winter have firmly wrapped themselves around NYC tonight, but I'm excited to stay in this evening to watch the premiere of "Hidden City New York," hosted by Marcus Sakey at 9PM EST on the Travel Channel.

"Hidden City" explores the history of several cities throughout the U.S. through the crime stories of the late 1970s and early 1980s. God knows NYC has a couple of noteworthy tales to throw into the mix. It was cool to work on the show and I had the pleasure of creating all of the time lapse footage.

All of the time lapse for this episode was created using a Canon 5D Mk II, Sachtler CF 100 M tripod, intervalometer, and a motion control head for the tilt and pan moves. Over the course of three days I created 25 various shots from the Financial District to Harlem, and in most situations I travelled by bike. In post production I managed all of the files using Adobe Bridge and FinalCut Pro in order to deliver the production house a .mov file as reference.

I can't wait to see how the show was edited.

Stay warm my friends.