I have not written much at all on here, which I simultaneously regret and also enjoy. I had one of the most productive summers of my life, so am loathe to say that I was 'too busy' to write up here, because I believe people who say they're busy just can't manage their time properly (wink wink) so let's just say I put myself under enormous pressure to pull off a ton of projects in a short amount of time, because, well, if not now, then when? Here's a quick recap of what I was up to since the last blog post.
I taught an architectural photography workshop in the Bahamas, in which I taught 20+ aspiring interior and architectural photographers everything I know:
Right after the Bahamas, it was time to buckle down and focus on getting my Kickstarter campaign off the ground. That alone was one of the most intense and focused periods of my life, and I'm happy to say that it succeeded. Those who know me know that I am my own toughest critic; and while the campaign did well I know we couldn't have possibly reached everyone, so I'm even happier to announce that the book, LA AIRSPACE, has been noticed and picked up to be published and available to the general public through retailers thanks to Angel City Press. So yes, that is extremely exciting on all fronts. Successful Kickstarter, followed by my first published book. Just awesome.
In addition to the LA AIRSPACE Kickstarter, I suppose that this is as good a time as ever to announce that some of my image from the LA AIRSPACE project and my Architecture of Iceland project have been awarded a spot in the Luerzer's Archive 200 BEST Ad Photographers Worldwide 2016/2017 edition. This has been a career goal of mine, so to say that I'm excited is a little bit of an understatement. I'M FRIGGEN STOKED!
Sometime during the Kickstarter campaign in June, I made off to Brazil for 8 days to begin the biggest assignment of my life, which will take me all over the world to airports on every continent. The second (I actually photographed in Dubai International earlier this year) airport and first on this summer's mega-trip is the Sao Paulo/GRU Airport in Brazil. What an experience that was; at the risk of turning this into a travel blog, Brazil surpassed my expectations in every way. Had a wonderful, if not stressful, time watching the weather and hoping for the best, but in the end it turned out fantastically, nailing our shot on the last day we were there with some legendary light giving us a nice hand.
After Sao Paulo, it was back to LA for a sum total of something like ten days to wrap up the Kickstarter,and shoot a really cool assignment with America's Styrenics here in LA.
After a whirlwind week it was across the country to South Carolina for a brief family visit, and then off to Amsterdam for 6 days, Frankfurt for 5 days, Zurich for 5 days, Innsbruck for a weekend, Munich for 5 days. Quick flight to Tokyo for a week, overnight to Syndey for another week, then across the little pond known as the Tasman Sea for 18 days in New Zealand to photograph (you guessed it) more airports. I was fortunate to get access to amazing never-before-photographed locations at many of these airports, which was so much fun to experience. The enthusiasm and help that these airports offered in terms of helping me find the best locations for each assignment was just amazing, and is going to make for some really unique images. Here are a few behind-the-scenes snaps...
At some point during this assignment, Air New Zealand arranged for me to get a ride in the jumpseat of one of their mainline flights between Auckland and Queenstown. More to come on that front when the entire project is wrapped, but let's just say that was the absolute coolest moment of my entire life. Not sure how I can go much higher than this, honestly, I think I've peaked :)
Two months later, back in Los Angeles and immediately into shooting some pretty great architecture and interiors. Restaurants, residential, and pretty much everything in between have been on tap. Here's a quick rundown of some of the architectural gigs I've been on since wrapping up the first half of the airport project:
Even got the chance to go to Indiana to photograph classic British cars under a 30 foot Chimera softbox. The absurdity continues - this was so much fun and with any luck this won't be the last of my automotive and transport based work. Here's a quick sneak peek at what I was up to...
Who knew that there was a crossover market for the architecture-aviation-and-automotive enthusiast? Going to start calling myself AAA Photography or something equally cheesy.
A couple more architectural shoots to wrap up October, and then it's travel time AGAIN, this time to Cuba for eight days to guide a tour around the island. My head is spinning too, don't worry.
And for a little icing on the cake, I learned I've been invited back to Dubai in February to teach at Gulf Photo Plus. For those interested in workshops, this will be my only one for the foreseeable future after my Cuba workshop in a few weeks. And that's that. I will try to be a little more pro-active on here, but I've got buckets of editing to do to catch up! More to come...