The new season of Cougar Town debuted last night in it’s new time slot. I was lucky enough to shoot Courtney Cox and show creator Bill Lawrence for Entertainment Weekly, at their favorite lunch spot in Culver City, as they discussed the show and how it has evolved. Click the pic above twice to enlarge the article or head to a newsstand now and pick up a copy.
A few tearsheets from the Men’s Health poster series that’s currently running.
I recently received Annie Leibovitz’s new book “Pilgrimage” and immediately thought “I think I have that same shot on the cover of Niagara Falls”. It’s one of the most photographed places there is and about a million other people have shot it too. I was there in Sept. 2010 on a cloudy day and stood in that special spot on the Canadian side and took a picture with my Canon S95 point and shoot like a good tourist. I just dug mine out of the archives and found Annie’s online and put them together. It’s cool to see how the two shots compare. It’s not every day you get to go apples to apples with Annie. Can you tell who shot which one?
David Duchovny
Morgan Spurlock
Anne Heche
Just a few shots from the first day of Sundance. I’m shooting at the Celebs.com Studio sponsored by Moviemaker. Check back tomorrow and the next day for more new shots from Park City.
A few months ago while sitting alone in the waiting room at the Romanian consulate in NYC (for reasons I’ll go into some other time), a man walked in and asked me to read something for him on a piece of paper. He explained his eyes weren’t very good. I happily did so and reassured him he was in the right room according to what it said. We started talking while we waited and it turns out his name is George and he is a Gypsy from Romania who has lived in New York for about 20 years. He is actually the Gypsy Baron for all of North America. That means he is their leader and judge in any disputes within the Gypsy community. I was intrigued and we ended up having dinner a few weeks later at a Romanian restaurant in Queens. One thing led to another and a few months after that I was invited to shoot portraits of the Gypsy community who live in Queens at George’s birthday party.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. George told me the party would go from 8pm to 8am. So I got to the restaurant with my assistant to set up at 6:30pm. The place was totally dead. As in, the waitresses were eating in the corner. But it was early. We got everything setup by 7:30pm and were ready to go. Still dead. 8:30pm, no one. At 9:30 we decide to have dinner since the kitchen seems open although nobody was there yet. At 10:30pm the band arrived to set up. George walks in with about 5 people around 11pm which was certainly reassuring since we were starting to wonder if we were at the right place. At 11:30pm about 100 Gypsies arrive seemingly all at once and head directly to the dance floor. The party was definitely on. For about half an hour there was a bit of a staring match as everyone was wondering what I was doing with my setup in the corner. So I found George and asked him to make an announcement saying I was there to take free pictures. He just casually leaned over to the person sitting next to him and said something and suddenly my photo set was mobbed. I photographed nonstop until about 3am when I think I shot everyone in the room probably twice as they were lined up 10 deep at one point. Great fun.
I had no idea what was going to happen before the party. The word “Gypsy” certainly comes with a lot of preconceptions for us all. What are the Gypsies like in NYC? How many are there? Where do they live? How do they dress? Traditionally or is it all GAP and Rocca Wear? I don’t have the answers to all the questions but it was a pleasure to hang with them and I am very grateful they would allow me into their world for a night and let me photograph them. Here are a few of the pictures but to see the rest of the series click here.
While on vacation in Lake Placid over new years it came to my attention that it was possible to take a ride down the Olympic bobsled track on a skeleton sled. I’ve done bobsled and luge there in the past but skeleton was never available to the general public as far as I know. Since the opportunity to lay on your stomach, head first and rocket through an ice tunnel at 40mph doesn’t come along very often I figured it’s one of those things you have to do. Luckily I had a helmet mounted Go Pro camera with me to record the experience. I’m especially proud of the fact that I only hit the wall once at the very beginning. Steering with your head actually does work. That’s my friend Nick in the orange pants who graciously agreed to go first.
The new issue of Entertainment Weekly came out today with the story I shot on the set of the hit TV show Happy Endings. Besides being a good looking’ bunch they are a lot of fun too. The show is doing very well and I wish them all the best for the future. A big thank you to everyone at EW, ABC and the crew at Paramount for all your help in making the shoot go smoothly.
