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.

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.

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.

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.

"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!

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.

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.