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!

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.

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!