Soldiers and Marines

It seemed an appropriate time to feature this story I shot as an email promo that I sent out to a big list of potential clients today with this grid of images and a link to www.sudsdiving.org where people could take a look at this amazing program to train injured soldiers and marines returning from the battlefield with life-altering injuries as open-water scuba divers, giving them another challenge and reward in what must be, without exception, a difficult transition into a new life.
Hopefully one or two were even challenged to support the SUDS efforts with a donation.
This group of images was edited down from a thousand, and sums up my time spent with them in the Keys.
Luke, Kent, Tim and Greg "The Colonel" Gadsen.
Heroes.

We Have a Winner!

Turns out a fellow musician from many years back recognized Jonathan Edwards right away. So the grand prize goes to Joe Deetz, who also happens to be the mastermind behind Visual Magnetics, which you can read about just a few blog postings down...... www.visualmagnetics.com
Jonathan Edwards, nicest guy in the world, came into my studio a couple weeks ago to have a rare set-up photo done for a Nashville music mag that was doing a feature story on him: M Music Mag
Quite a coup for me after hearing his current schedule: traveling to gigs, dropping a new album any day, and other very exciting developments you'll hear about soon...... www.jonathanedwards.net
Never know by looking at him, but this must be the hardest working dude in show business!

Not fade away!

Who is This?

CONTEST!
I shot this portrait in my studio this week for a..... magazine (can't tell you which one since that would give it away). Thought it would be interesting to see if you can I.D. this guy. Here are some clues: He's a hitmaker, always on the road, recently relocated to Maine, a veteran in his field, got his share of groupies, huge in Europe............
Another clue: While he looks intense in this image he's usually totally chill and easy-going. Almost as though he's just been laying about the shanty getting a good buzz on.
If you know, leave a comment.
The grand prize for the first correct response is....... the satisfaction you'll feel deep down just knowing you're right!
More images from the shoot in next post - along with the correct answer.

Visual Magnetics stills + motion

A recent project for an amazing company that supplies high-end large-scale graphics for the retail industry combined a stills shoot with video, and I'm here to tell you it's a beautiful combination, but nothing is simple in videoland.
It takes me about 4 people to make a great shot, takes them about 24!
This concept called for the video crew to bring my fashion shoot to life by recreating the hero image and animating it. Giant prints were made of my still image, and then the models in the shot walked into the video frame and rolled themselves right off the wall - way cool.
Credit to Barnaby Jackson, creative director at Hero Machine - What goes on in his head I don't want to know too much, but what comes out is brilliance!
Visual Magnetics, based in Mendon, Mass, has been the dream client, which makes sense when you talk to the President, Joe Deetz, about his past life which included several years in the photo industry building sets, props and models for the advertising industry in Boston when it was booming - a very creative guy who just makes big stuff happen.
animal studio was the production company, based in Providence, RI, and the collaboration between my fashion images, and their special fx video world is right now in the process of bringing an exciting new branding to the client.
Oh yeah, the models, Jasmine, Ariella and Rich, proved modeling is glamorous but hard work, and they were all amazing to work with.