VT House Upstairs

I swung by the VT house last week and wanted to show how the upstairs rooms turned out, places I love to spend time in when I'm there. In the kitchen, we put in a new fridge that finally opens all the way and is flush with the cabinets, which makes such a huge difference. The one that came with the house not only didn't work, but was standard sized and stuck out 6 more inches beyond the cabinets and was unable to open all the way, rendering it rather inefficient for its 35 year life. The new one's a Liebherr from Germany, a cheaper alternative to a Sub-Zeron, and such a cooler fridge, if you ask me. We also mirrored the backsplash which opens up the space even more and adds to the whole 70's vibe. My grandmother made the Rya shag rug on the floor, while the dining room table, wall hangings and the deer head were finds at my favorite Long Island thrift sale. It all came together quite nicely. I love it.

George Carlin RIP

I had the honor of photographing George Carlin a few years ago in Los Angeles. He was not the happiest guy when he realized that he had to sit down for portraits with me, but he did his best and even allowed me to get in super tight on the last shot. Here it is, that last frame, from the twenty images I took that evening. Rest in peace George, you'll be missed.

Gay American Road Trips

I started a new project in February finding and photographing inspirational OUT Gay American Men from every state with great stories or wisdom to share. It has been a truly amazing experience so far and I hope to finish by the end of this year and turn it into a book. I have done 17 states and embark tomorrow morning for my longest road trip to date, hoping to accomplish at least a dozen states before returning home. I will probably post a new portfolio of the men on my site next month. Here are a few snaps from my last road trip...my cousin Justin's son Jack in WV, the Giant Peachoid water tower in SC and some shots from my Aunt Debbie's farm in Kentucky.

Tiger Woods Revisited

I went back last week to reshoot the Tiger Woods billboard and now I can say for sure that it was for a new Tiger Gatorade. Better branding for him than the drink I think. Here's what I ended up with. Love the collection of people and the chip eating gal up front.

Tiger Woods Adscape

Last week as I biked downtown from the apartment to run some errands, something I do weather permitting, it's a nice ten mile loop, I spotted this new ad up on 50th st around Times Square and stopped to shoot. I am not sure that I nailed it and may go back next week. These two I like best for some reason, without people. And they are kind of nice with this color treatment. The ad was for some green sport drink, which is what runs down his head looking like sweat. But does it? I can't even tell you what the name of the drink is. Noticeable advertising, but not effective it seems.

Full Moon Fever

Dancing with the moon a bit after a couple beers resulted in these cool images taken from the Mastic Beach Section One Beach looking over Narrows Bay on Monday night. The moonscapes evolve.

May Adscapes

Some mew advertising images from the streets of NYC last week.

Retna Tribeca Film Festival Portraits

I shot at the Tribeca Film Festival on saturday for Retna, my celebrity syndicator, doing promotional portraits, a service they offer to the casts of films on the festival circuits. I hope it was the first day of many. I had a great time, did it without an assistant and on a tight budget, which proves that you don't need a lot of fuss to take nice portraits. The actors are from a film called The 27 Club, starring Joe Anderson. There are also shots of James Marsh and Philippe Petit, the director and star of Man on Wire. Philippe is the acrobat that illegally walked the high wire between the Twin Towers in the 70's. He's in the second photo, just after Joe. These are some pretty lucious portraits, if I do so say myself.

Jay Peak

This is Jay Peak's incredible mountain top on Monday, photographed from the top of the triple chair. It sits about three miles from our VT pad and six miles from Canada, as far as the crow flies. If you have never skied here before, you are missing out on some of the East Coast's best, not to mention 419 crazy inches of snow this season. The 65 passenger tram house is perched up on top, which you have to take to access the steep wooded face seen above. If that is a little much for you, there is the Vermonter trail, which is on the left and offers some great views looking west towards Big Jay and the valley below. I have still to ski the face, but am setting my sights on next year...

Black Cat VT Safari

Went up to VT this last weekend for, as it turned out, some great spring skiing up at Jay and outdoor fun around the house in 70 degree sunshine. Now that my Kachina is no longer around, I have started taking the cats on little hikes, climbing rocks, trees and jumping over streams, all close to home. It cracks me up to have them follow me through the woods. Here's a shot of each of them in action and then a group photo of all three before we headed home.

Here Little Ducky...

Looking at those recent drawings and their monster like features made me remember this shot of a rather creepy little stuffed animal that was a prop on my Comedy Central Stella shoot. I shot it close up at the art director's request. I remember her saying that a puppet maker from Sesame Street had made it. Funny. I also am posting a tearsheet that ran in Penthouse with an image from that set up.

Actor Ron Livingston

This guy will forever be the lovable Jack Berger from Sex and the City to me. He was also great in Office Space, a trippy Canadian flick. Check it out if you can. This is from LA a few years ago, on set from a Dinner for Five taping, another of the still many portraits that keep on resurfacing from that great job. I like how tight it is, his intense slightly off expression and the little bit of motion there is. Nice.

One Minute Picasso

In a recent exercise at Platon's workshop, we had to draw a person in one minute without taking the pen off the paper, nor your eye off the person, all the while never looking down. This resulted in some pretty interesting sketches completely throwing off the left and right brain that would normally be very challenging to do. Here is one of my favorites from the day of a classmate named Leigh Ann. A great way to train the eye to the truly important features of a person.

Alan Streets Painting

I bought this painting after my Grandmother died along with another one from a street artist named Alan Streets, really that's his last name, a well know British artist working in NYC. It hangs in the hallway outside the bedroom and I look at it every day. I love it. It is not properly framed, instead simply hung on the wall as it was when I bought it. This guy's work rocks and so does his story. Like any good artist he is a bit crazy.

There are many interviews with him on Youtube, including this one which was made the day I bought this painting: Interview. The funny thing is that I also bought the one on the easel he's painting in the interview when it was half done, really liking it in its primitive figural state and the fact that it was around the corner from the studio. But when I returned to pick it up at the end of the day, it was not what I had fallen in love with earlier. Somehow it lost its beauty after the sale was made. But I took it none-the-less. I should have swapped it out for another that he had then and there that I quite liked, even though he considered them crap, as evidenced from the interview if you watch it. After trying to live with it for a while, it bugged me that I didn't love it, so I contacted him and he agreed for me have a look at others as an exchange. Well, when I went to his storage space, I couldn't find any that I really liked, as a dealer had just taken his best, he said. And now I live with another painting I exchanged it for, which now sits packed away somewhere in my own storage. Kinda wish I had just kept the original one. It is at least immortalized on film.

Most importantly, I am very happy with the one above. I love the colors and its fun cartoonish architectural scene of 2nd Avenue and East 7th St in the East Village, painted on Oct 18th, 2003.

Red Cross Redux

Some shots that I tried of my NYC Red Cross phone booth ads and their original models, Stelianie and Emanuele nearby. I never really did anything with them. Kinda too set up, but an interesting take on the adscape idea.

Spring Moonscape, Mastic Beach

A new lunar moonscape from Saturday morning at dawn down at the beach in front of the house.

Ed Asner

Not to compare turkeys, but I was reminded of this portrait of Ed Asner that I recently put on my site. It's from an LA episode of Dinner for Five from a few years ago. I love it, but am sure that some people do not. Probably Ed himself does not like the angle or point of view. A lot of people do not like to see their true portraits, but rather idealized versions of themselves. An interesting line for me to walk as a photographer.

Mastic Beach Wild Turkeys?

Some spring wild turkeys out at the beach house ran across our yard, into the neighbors, then continued down the beach. I love that we see such things in Mastic Beach. Most people would never guess. It's not a common sight however. Only the second time in nine years I've been coming here.

Painted VT Mountains

Amazing painterly light on the northern Green Mountains from our deck out back tonight. We had something like 21 inches from the latest storm, but high winds kept the lifts down for all of the day on the upper mountain yesterday, so skiing was limited to those diehards who hiked for their turns. I was not one of them. I waited until today and powder was hard to find. Bummer, you snooze you lose. Have to head back to the city tomorrow for an IFC shoot, with a special guest star Joan Rivers. I'm psyched as she has agreed to sit for portraits for me. Cool. Wish me luck.

ScottyP by Platon

Much to the disgust of my fellow classmates, I'm guessing, Platon chose me for his one demo at the beginning of the week. It was made on a Hasselblad with traditional Polaroid film and rocks. He thought I looked regal here, like a king.

Kachina Peak @ Taos

Finally hiked the Peak at Taos after all these years. Not easy, especially coming from sea level. There was a little more wind than I would have liked and ski boots really suck to climb in. Vertigo bigtime. But the payoff was fantastic. The mountains are so spectacular up there. Some shots with my friend Katherine from our epic journey.

Rockon Platon!

I just got back from two weeks in New Mexico, where I took a week long workshop with the photographer Platon. I feel privileged. He is not only one of the best portrait shooters in the world, but also a great teacher and a super cool person. I have a new man crush. Check out his site, esp his Greek stuff... platonphoto.com Here are some of the shots I took from the week. We worked in his style photographing each other with only one light against white seamless paper. This was at the Santa Fe Photography Workshops, where I taught last year. I love that place. Reid, the director just told me that he wants me teaching again, which makes me smile. Here's a link to a post on their blog about my course last year... santafeworkshops.com