Saturday comes, and I get a call in the early morning from Tristan. Russ is feeling better and is going to go outside come hell or high water. We packed our bags, loaded the trunk and headed off for an afternoon in lovely Allentown, Pennsylvania. Russ was a trooper, standing in the still cold just barely out of Winter weather while I made the two of them run all over this lovely park just off the main drag. We hopped in the car a few times to warm up, but the chilly weather was more than worth it. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the session.

I have no idea if anyone lives in this house, but it sure is cool looking.

The shot on the right is my favorite. I just love a good black and white photograph. It just looks timeless.

I promise, after this shoot, no more tall grass for a year. I swear.

I tend to fall into water, which is why I don’t do too may reflection shots. This one turned out quite nicely.

The horse wasn’t planned, and I couldn’t stop reciting that Old Spice commercial. “I’m on a horse.”

This is Allison’s favorite shot. The way Tristan is staring at Russ with those adoring eyes is just lovely.

Our all around favorite shot from the session. A gorgeous couple, stunning light, and a really cool looking wall. I need to get out of the city more.

I was recently asked who I’ve photographed the most. The person asking was more than likely referring to what band I’ve photographed the most, which isn’t too hard of a question. It’s either Bad Religion, H2O, or the Bouncing Souls. Though I think the Koffin Kats are edging higher and higher on the list.

But the person that I’ve actually photographed the most in the past few years is Jonathan LeVine, owner of the contemporary art gallery in Chelsea bearing his name. Juxtapoz reached out to me about five years ago to start photographing his art openings and I’ve been a fixture at the gallery ever since. I did a short search though my archive and found close to 50 photos of the man, below are a few of the decent ones as well as a short piece I wrote for Juxtapoz about the anniversary show. Click here to check out the photos from the gallery opening.

Above is a quickie portrait of Jonathan that I nabbed about five minutes before the doors opened for his latest exhibit. I think I nailed that one and a close up with two minutes to spare. Stressful? Nah.

I spent the first half of the decade seeing ads for Tin Man Gallery in the Philly area and swearing thatI was going to make the pilgrimage. When I finally had a critical mass of friends in the City of Brotherly Love to give me a reason to head down past exit 130 on the GSP, I realized it was too late. Tin Man Gallery was gone.

To say I was a bit excited to hear that Jonathan LeVine was opening a gallery consisting primarily of artists I loved was an understatement right in New York City would have been an understatement. Manhattan was in dire need of a low brow make over and Jonathan was the one that was going to bring cool art work to a city that seems more concerned with hopping onto the latest hip style and riding it to the ground.

LeVine came and kicked ass. Providing an outlet for both established artists like Shag and Camille Rose Garcia, and introducing the world to up and younger masters that I would never have heard of before. Five years in and LeVine hasn’t compromised his beliefs nor has he been swayed by trends.

Mr. Tiki of the Florida Keys

Anyone that knows Allison and me personally, is well aware of our fascination and love for all things Tiki. We’ve spent the past five years or so traveling the world visiting dozens Tiki bars and collecting related mugs and ephemera. Alas, the large three-foot-tall Tiki god in our hallway has started to split in half. I assume it’s from the dry air in our apartment, but I’m sure the cats had something to do with it. Though I can’t prove it.

While not my favorite Tiki in our collection, it does have an interesting story. About a year ago, Allison and I were traveling back from Key West when somewhere between Key Largo and Islamorada, we stumbled across an old man carving giant Tikis on the side of the highway. Allison freaked as a I screeched the rented Focus to a halt and jumped out of the car ranting wildly.

Turns out that there is a group of carvers that spend their days carving these gorgeous statues under the blazing South Florida sun using chain saws and chisels. We spent a few minutes chatting with the gentleman and purchased our favorite totem pole for about a hundred dollars.

A few weeks past and the effigy hadn’t arrived. I called the number on the receipt and got a voice mail. After a few more weeks, the voice mail also disappeared. Figuring we had been had by a guy with a great story and a collection of prefab Tikis, I gave up the hunt. Until a month later when I received a random email from someone I didn’t know, rambling about how sorry they were that I didn’t get my Tiki.

It turns out that the carver died the day after he sold us our Tiki from numerous cancers and that ours wasn’t mailed out because he died before he could deliver it to the post office. I gave the person my condolences and my address. A week or so later, the Tiki arrived and has spent the past year on top of the subwoofer in our living room watching over clients and guests alike.

The photo at the beginning of this post might be the last photo ever taken of the carver. I don’t know even know the guy’s name, but I’m sure he has a family out there that misses him. I completely forgot about the image. It wasn’t meant to be a portrait, just evidence of what we bought in our travels. The plan now is to find the guy’s family and send it to them. Let’s hope I have some success.

Sadly, the Tiki has split all the way down the middle lengthwise and halfway into the circumference. The goal now is to restore it using wood filling, sandpaper, and some luck. Any advice would be great. Part of me is doing this to save a cool Tiki, but I think I’m really doing it out of respect for the Tiki Carver of the Florida Keys—whoever he is.

Me & Grandma

For most people, the Super Bowl is the ultimate sports spectacle. People crowd into parties to watch their favorite teams smother each other with gleeful delight, chow down on Buffalo wings, and pound back a copious amount of alcoholic beverages.

Me & Grandma Maria

For me, for the past four years, the Super Bowl has been synonymous with the passing of my grandmother, Margaret Javellas. After a long struggle with oldness, she succumbed to the non-disease after months of traveling wearily back and forth between my parent’s home and a nursing home.
This isn’t meant to be a depressing post. My grandmother was the most important person in my life and I miss her more than anything, but she lived a long life and died peacefully. My only regret is that I never took the time to take a proper portrait of her. Here I am, somewhat skilled at capturing peoples’ visages on film, but I never even considered taking a photo of someone that meant so much to me.

And you’d think I’d learn my lesson—of course not.

For the past few years I’ve been trying to get my wife’s grandfather to pose for me for a portrait. The guy was a legit zoot-suit swing artist and I had these dreams of getting him dressed up in one of his classic suits and photographing him with his cane or guitar. I waited too long. Two months ago he also died of old age.

There was no sudden disease or surprise. I just forgot and let the moments pass me by, and now it’s too late.

Grandpa Dan

The one advice I have for any photographer—pro or amateur—is to make sure you stop and think about the people in your life that you see every day, and often forget to photograph. Be it your grandparents, mother, father, sister, brother—these people might not be here tomorrow and you won’t get another chance to do something as simple as take their photo.

Every time I cover a wedding or family event, I make it a point to confirm with the bride and groom if their grandparents will be in attendance, and then do everything in my power to photograph them. I’m not the biggest fan of posed portraits, but I never miss the chance to capture a granddaughter or grandson embracing or sharing a moment with a grandparent.

As for myself, I’ve got one grandmother left (an in-law, but she’s still awesome). I plan to photograph her as soon as she comes up from Florida. This past Christmas, I got my father in laws dad to post for a portrait. He’s an army vet who hasn’t had his portrait taken for quite a while. I thought he’d be a bit more apprehensive, but Grandpa Dan just smiled and thanked me for the shot.

Do yourself a favor, take a moment this week and photograph a loved one. It doesn’t matter who they are or how close you are—one day they’ll be gone and all you’ll have left to remember them by are the photos and memories. Luckily photos don’t fade too much. And when they do, they look even cooler.

As luck would have it, this past Saturday was a bit timid for NJ January weather at 44 degrees, allowing for a brisk shoot through Verona Park. We brought along some colorful balloons to brighten up the gray surroundings and finished the day with only a mild case of frost bite (kidding) and some fun images.

Rita & Ron

This engagement session was particularly special for me since the bride-to-be is my sister Rita. She’s been enamored with having her photos taken at Verona Park since well before she met Ron, so finding a location was not a problem. Interestingly enough, I had my engagement photos taken there by the lovely Kristin Reimer some four years ago, which pretty much resparked my love of photography. I’m also shooting the wedding, and have no idea how I’m going to photograph myself in the formal portraits, but I’m sure we’ll work that out somehow (Photoshop works wonders).

I just wanted to take a few moments wish everyone a happy holiday and a Merry Christmas. This has been a crazy and fun year and can’t wait to jump into 2010 head first. Thank you to all our wonderful clients, friends, and family. You guys are the greatest and we love you all. Have a blessed holiday and hope to hear from all of you next year. I’m going to make a concerted effort to blog more in 2010, but you can also follow us on our new Facebook fan site and on Twitter. I’m a little more active on both of those sites.

Enjoy the holiday card. It was 100 percent Allison’s idea. For those that care. The shot is a composite of two photos, using two lights for overhead and fill, and two kookie kitties. We love them both. I’ll post the outtakes tomorrow.

A few weeks back, my good friend Nicole asked me to shoot some photos of her for a Mad Men contest that AMC was running to promote the new season. At the time, I had never seen an episode, but I was aware that the series took place in the early ’60s and everyone on the show is dolled up in swank outfits. I thought it would be cool to do a spoof on the name and have mad women (or in this case, murderous housewives) instead of mad men.

Yes, I now realize that the show is called Mad Men because its about ad execs on Madison Avenue and not angry husband, but I must plead ignorance.

Anyway, I got Nicole and her very understanding fiance Jared to work with me on a series a shots that subtly show Nicole’s (evil) intentions. The biggest problem was eliminating enough modern crap from my office to make the scene period specific and believable. Sure, I have an awesome Eames chair, but I also have piles of books for Dummies hidden in that book case. I also couldn’t shoot wide because the iMac would come into the shot.

To get Nicole’s expression I took a mirror out of the hallway and stuck it where I usually hang a painting. Why anyone would hang a mirror above a chair is beyond me, but it really worked to bring out her devious looks.

I offered to turn the shots into a “Save the Date” for the wedding, a la Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra, but I was told that the respective families might find them too morbid. Anyway, I’m looking to do more Murderous Housewives shots and am looking for any ideas or couples to get involved. Just drop me a line.

Typically, when you go into a corporate shoot the chance of a good backdrop is slim to none. I went into this assignment knowing that the company had built a zen garden in the common area of the office, but was prepared to shoot against a pop-up back drop if need be.

Luckily, the zen garden was more than adequate and Daiichi installed these giant, circular light fixtures in the ceiling that resembled UFOs. After a quick pow wow with the magazine’s art director (the fabulous Laurel Petty), we decided to capture Sjovall in the garden with the parallel circles in the ceiling and on the floor.

Sjovall was a trooper as I tried to balance two Nikon SB-900s with the ambient light that casted a very pretty yellow/green glow. The job was made a tad harder as reflective walls on behind the subject made it hard to hide the strobes.

The final shot was tweaked a bit using Nik’s dynamic skin tool and the background was blurred in post, but the exposure and lighting is pretty much as it was in camera. Cheers to Daiichi Sankyo for giving me an interesting scene to go with a great subject. Now if all pharma companies could switch out their drab white walls for some color and mood lighting…