Guitar Legend George Lynch and 30 ESP Guitars!

The other week I was given the opportunity to shoot Rock Guitar Legend George Lynch. He was the original guitarist for the rock band Dokken and has since gone on to form the band Lynch Mob as well as start a line of custom, handmade guitars called "Mr. Scary"

For the shoot we wanted a rustic and gritty location. We found a great warehouse space that was exactly what we were looking for at The Charlotte Rescue Mission. Once we arrived at the location wee spent about 2.5 hours clearing out the space and setting up, as well as testing the lighting. The goal was to be completely set up and ready to shoot as soon as George arrived. He was coming to the shoot after driving up from their show in Atlanta the night before and right after sound check for that night's show, so he had very little time and was probably tired on top of all of it. We couldn't be adjusting the lighting once he got on set, we had to be ready to go.

So, when George finally arrived, he walked in greeting everyone. You could tell he was running behind schedule and was tight on time. Once we all said hello and he took some pictures with his iPhone of all the guitars (he seemed amazed at the collection), I stood him in the space we had prepared for him. He suggested some shots of him bending down by the guitars and we did those as well as him standing. He was a complete professional and nailed the shots extremely quick. The actual shooting time took less than 2 minutes. He then took a few pictures with some of the people on set, signed one of my guitars that I had brought and then headed back out the door to get ready for the show that night.
I was very impressed by how he acted and how nice he was to everyone, especially considering he was in a hurry and had a show to play that night and most likely was tired from 4 or 5 straight days of shows.

Here are a few of the shots from this shoot:

Campaign for Rack Room Shoes

A couple of months ago I had the fun experience of shooting for Rack Room shoes and Art Director Shara Knee. We shot for three days and got a lot of great images. Shara was great to work with. She knew what she wanted and we discussed options and angles to get the best images possible. I hope to work with her again soon.
TO achieve this look, we used one large Paul Buff parabolic umbrella  just off to the right as our main light and then we used two smaller umbrellas on the background, one on each side, pointed at the wall. We also had multiple V-flats to help reflect and block some of the light. We wanted to keep a very soft shadow on the floor and give a little depth and contour to the model and shoes. I think we achieved all of our goals.

Here is one of the images from that shoot:

Meineke Car Care National Advertising shoot

Here are just a few of the images I recently shot for Meineke Car Care's most recent National Advertising Campaign. It was a 3 day shoot where we were on location in a different setting each day. Day one was a neighborhood and home interior, day two was a park/camping ground and day 3 was at the Meineke Car Care store. It was a great shoot and I had the opportunity to shoot with both available light and artificial light, all with the objective of making each shot look as natural and unlit as possible.
Here are a few of the final images that have been released to me so far:

There should be more to come. I'll put those up as I get them.

Wrangler -Rock 47 Denim, in Las Vegas

I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and shoot one of Wrangler's high-end line of jeans, Rock 47. It was a quick trip, we flew in on Wednesday, shot all day Thursday and flew back on the red-eye Thursday night. We were there to shoot Rodeo Cowboys, Richmond Champion, Douglas Duncan and Cody Cassidy, as well as the first Native American to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, Kassidy Dennison.
Even though it was a quick trip, it was a fun one. An hour or two after we arrived at the hotel, we had a pre-production meeting and a quick dinner. That was followed by a trip to the rodeo to watch Kassidy do her thing, barrel racing. Thursday morning we started off shooting Kassidy and then spent the last half of the day shooting the guys.
When the shoot was over, we packed up, had dinner and then headed to the airport. I didn't see a lot of Vegas but I got some great images and I also got to go to my first rodeo!

Here are two of the ads from that shoot:

 

Shoot for Allen & Roth / Lowe's Home Improvement

I recently had the opportunity to shoot for Allen & Roth, a Lowe's Home Improvement company. We did multiple shoots, some in store and some in studio. I don't do a lot of shoots where I have to use strobes, but we did on both of these shoots. I loved the change from available light and the challenge that using strobes brought to the shoot. And in the end, the images turned out great!

Kids shoot for Ser Padres magazine

Here are some final images from a shoot I did for Ser Padres magazine. I love working with these guys. I ALWAYS have a great time with them. I wish we worked together more often, they always make it fun!

Lowe's Photoshoot

A few months ago I did a 5 day shoot on location for Lowe's Home Improvement stores. I had a great time shooting with those guys and really enjoyed working with the people from Lowe's and the production crew. We spent most of our days shooting from sunrise to sunset on a 250 acre farm where we had access to a pond, log cabins, a 1950's Chevy pickup, a couple of barns, horses, ducks, goats and a swan. It was a great place to shoot and we used as much of it as we could over those 5 days.

Here are a few samples of what we shot:

(you can see the images bigger by clicking on them)

                                      

                                

Rock-N-Roll Picture Show!

Most of what I shoot is Fashion and Advertising work, but years ago, when I was in my late teens and early  20's, I shot a lot of pictures for local rock bands (I'd even sometimes smuggle a camera into shoot some of the national bands, like Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Guns-N-Roses). It's something I really love to shoot, but I hadn't shot anything like that in many years. Then, the opportunity came up for me to shoot a Rock Show! It was for my favorite local bands, who I hadn't worked with in close to 20 years! I was a little anxious about how this reunion would turn out. Could they all play as well, sing as well and perform as well? The answer to all those questions was Yes! It turned out to be a great show, the musicianship, the stage presence, the light show, the sound, everything was as good or better than the last time I saw them play. And best of all, I was able to do something I love to do and hadn't done in many years, Shoot a live rock show!

So, here is a small sample of the over 400 images I shot of that show. Everything from backstage, on stage, to out in the audience. Overall I had a great time and I hope to do it some more!

 

1st NASCAR Driver shoot!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of doing my first shoot with a NASCAR driver, Bobby LaBonte.
As with most busy celebrities and business people, we had a limited time to do the shoot. We showed up an hour before Bobby was to be there and started to set up the lighting and backdrop. We had a 9 ft. white seamless backdrop setup on  portable backdrop stands. We then set one light head on each side about 7 ft. away from the backdrop (no umbrellas) and then used a 6 ft. Octadome as our main light, set just off to the left side approximately 9-10 feet away from where we would have Bobby standing.
Once the lighting was set up, we did a few test shots and dialed in the exact light I was going for.
This way, when Bobby showed up for the shoot, we were ready to go!

The shoot was a complete pleasure, and fun. Bobby showed up on time (no entourage), went straight to Heather Hawkins to make sure his hair looked good and he wasn't shiny, then the shoot began.
It was a straight forward shoot and Bobby knew exactly what to do.
At the end of the shoot, everyone was very happy with the images and I had a great time!

Here are 3 sample images from the shoot:

                       

                                      

                                                                            

                                     

   

Play Time

Here is a Lifestyle shoot I did with Justin Barringer, Kendra Staub, Taylor March and Teela.
Styling was by Victoria Melvin and the car was provided by Norma Hanson. We had a great time shooting this. The motel was a little sketchy, but it made for some great images!