P.S.

To my friends and clients who are anxiously awaiting their wedding photos. (Hi Dave!) I'm actually here in Hawaii, for a mini-job, yes, and for an adventure, yes, but mostly to get away for a week and work on a HUGE backlog of editing I have to do. More photos coming soon!

#JetSetProblems

You know your life is a little too cray-cray when your credit cards get frozen due to suspicious activity.

I just had to call AmEx and approve charges in Thailand, Hong Kong, Shanghai, NY, Los Angeles, San Francisco, NY again, and then simultaneous charges for a $5 bowl of udon Hawaii with a $2,800 charge for SoHo House Membership back in New York.

I have missed blogging!

The great thing about having a blog is being able to post the things that are way too obnoxious to post on Facebook.

Maybe if I have time I will post about all these recent adventures.

Don't hold your breath though. Miss you!

Arrived in Hawaii!

Just in time to catch the beautiful sunset over Waikiki.

What a magical place!

I WAS JUST ACCEPTED TO SOHO HOUSE!!!!!!!

This is literally the best f*cking day ever. And off to Hawaii in the morning. I am actually kind of terrified my plane is going to crash because life cannot be this good.

ALEC BALDWIN

Fine. Maybe I will start blogging again. MAYBE.

Something exciting happened today. Very exciting. Like epicly exciting. So exciting that I have to return from my monthlong blogging hiatus to brag about it post it here so I will remember it forever.

I had two photoshoots.

The first shoot was for my friend/repeat client Ms. Carolyn.

Carolyn is a beautiful fabulous high-powered lawyer. She comes to me for photo shoots like once every three months sometimes. She is just the best. Today I went to her law firm to take a group shot of her and her partners for an advertisement they are putting in some law magazine.

It was an easy gig. I was in and out in 20 minutes. (Parking uptown is NOT cheap. I paid $23 for 18 minutes of parking. crazy city)

Then I hurried back to my home to meet up with my 1 o' clock client. A young actor named Daniel.

As Daniel was getting his clothes prepped and fixing his hair in my bathroom etc I started my typical getting-to-know-you chit-chat. "How long have you been acting? Who is your agent? Etc. Etc..."

Then I asked him, "sooo....how did you hear about me?"

Usually people respond saying Backstage (I was voted "Favorite Photog" in 2012 brag brag brag) or their agent refers them or they find me on Google or Yelp.

Daniel's answer really caught me off guard.

"Alec Baldwin told me about you."

I laughed. "Haha very funny."

He didn't laugh back... I paused. I was like, "Wait...Alec Baldwin ALEC BALDWIN?"

And he was like, "yeah". LIKE THAT'S A TOTALLY NORMAL THING TO SAY.

I tried to play it cool, as if Sir Alec Baldwin sends me peeps all the time, whatever.

This is the information I got out of him over the next half hour or so:

Apparently Alec Baldwin, out of the goodness of his big beautiful heart, gives back once a year or so by teaching young actors in an intensive 2 or 3-day acting class at some school or acting camp or something somewhere.

So this kid was one of the lucky few to take his class and Alec actually sat him down and SHOWED HIM MY WEBSITE. And told him to come to me for headshots.

"...because he thought you were the best."

WHAT. THE. F!?!?!??!?!??!?!?

I have no idea how I came onto Alec Baldwin's radar. But however it happened. This made my day. This made my YEAR. Several years.

I literally had to stop my shoot and say, "I'm so sorry. I have to take a second to update my Facebook status to tell people what you just told me."

He laughed.

Alec Baldwin. If you're out there and somehow reading this. I love you. I love you so much. I loved you since Prelude to a Kiss. And The Juror. And I'm sure there's stuff older than that but you are a little older than me. I don't believe a thing I hear about you in the press and I know you're a good guy and I don't watch 30 Rock but I hear you are amazing in it. And I hear you are good at Words With Friends and I haven't played in a while but if you want to challenge me I would totally start playing again. Anyway. THANK YOU for taking time out of your busy important A-List celebrity schedule creating entertainment for BILLIONS of people to recommend someone to my stupid little headshot business. It is an honor for my name to exist in your brain. (insert squeal)

If you ever need a photograph of yourself...anytime...ever...I would HAPPILY take it.

Obviously. Sir.

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OK I'm off to Hawaii tomorrow, maybe I will blog again soon! MAYBE

Tumblr

I'm going to move my blog to tumblr soon. And update much more regularly. I bet no one reads this anymore anyway. I feel like I'm writing into a black hole.

Ps I'm in Thailand. Yayyyy

Dave & Besa's Wedding

Dave and Besa got married this weekend at the Mansion at Timber Point. So many of my friends were there and when my friends are there it doesn't feel like work.

Besa looked incredible. And their first look was so emotional and beautiful. I rarely get choked up when things happen at weddings, but this choked me.

My friends are so purty.

And they had such a large wedding party. I love a large wedding party because posing them is always a challenge, but when you do it right it looks pretty awesome.

Oh and the rest of the NYC crew was on hand as well.

And Todd forgot his teeth.

Multitask Mania

I've been bad. I said I was going to update more and instead I updated not at all.

Sorrrrryyyy!

This is going to be a quick post because I just feel like superhuman today and feel like I need to brag about how awesome I am and bragging on Facebook is lame but if you've come all the way here to read about my boring life you must be SUPER bored and so I will brag to you.

I got a call late last night from some VP at American Express needing emergency corporate headshots so I squeezed him in at 9am this morning. Got his shoot done by 9:15 in time to snag a parking spot before street cleaning ended at 9:30.

Booked it back to my apt, on the way grabbing some groceries and was home by 10:00 to wait for my new couch delivery which was supposed to happen between 10:41 and 1:41. (So random.) On top of that I was expecting a dude from taskrabbit to come at noon to help put up my new TV in my epic new bedroom.

Sat down at my computer, retouched some pictures.

Taskrabbit man texted me and said I needed to have some wall anchors for my room for him to install the wall mount on my new 46" TV. So I sprinted to the hardware store up the street, bought the anchors and was back by 10:30 to wait for the furniture guys. Of course the furniture guys didn't show until wayyy later.

At noon my taskrabbit arrived and even though he was super helpful I was supervising a lot and having to be helpful. At 12:30 the furniture guys arrived with our giant 6 piece sectional couch and I had to supervise them as well. At 1pm I forgot I had a headshot consultation and this girl came and I sat her down in the corner with furniture moving around us and hammering coming from my bedroom and still managed to do a 30-min headshot consultation and booked for her a shoot next week. (Woo!!!).

As soon as she left I went back to alternating between helping the movers unpack the couches and helping TV taskrabbit mount my TV and retouching pictures whenever I had free time. (There were lots of odd steps to the TV mounting and one of them involved me slicing pieces of tube plastic things and sanding them down to fit some screws.)

Furniture guys left at 1:51pm

And at 1:55pm my returning headshot client Leigh showed up for our session. She just needed a one look update (I've shot her 3 times now and she's amazing), so I shot her on our brand new couch while running in and out to help TV guy whenever he called me to help him lift something while Leigh changed up her makeup and stuff. We then did a look in my bedroom as well while the handyman pounded away at the wall behind Leigh. She was totally unfazed, as was he.

At 3pm Leigh left and handyman started finishing up. But then we realized the TV was a little crooked and handyman was a perfectionist and wanted to take the whole thing down and re-mount it properly. So I helped with that.

At 3:30pm my 3rd headshot client of the day showed up. I made her sit on the couch and fed her cookies while I finished installing the TV with the taskrabbit handyman.

We headed out on our shoot at 4pm. Picked up my car. Drove around. I usually don't like to shoot so late in the day because the sun gets really strong, but we figured it out and I got some kickass pics.

Finished with her at 5:30. Found an AWESOME parking spot around the corner where I can leave the car until Thursday.

Came back up to my apt. Vacuumed. Changed. And decided to blog a little because I'm feeling like a superhuman multitasker and also I've totally been neglecting this blog forever. It's been so busy, almost every day is like today to a less crazy extent.

Now I'm off to an epic steak dinner that I owe my photographer buddy Joe because he gave me a wedding he didn't have room for last weekend.

Maybe when I get home tonight I'll add pictures to this blog post.

Probably not. I gotta load all my pics from today and make space for a North Face event I'm shooting tomorrow.

Byeee

Montreal!

So I kind of came up to Montreal yesterday without a plan, other than to sit somewhere pretty and grind through a bunch of wedding editing I'm desperately trying to stay on top of. (I'm in the middle of like 10 straight weekends of weddings. Which is superyay for my wallet, but not superyay for my wrists and eyes and fingers which do all the clicking and squinting and editing.)

So I was about to hit the border...and then it dawned on me that I had done zero research on what to see or eat or do...so I posted on Facebook and got a ton of amazing recommendations. Social media at its finest.

Within minutes of arriving in town, I was on my way to Olive + Gourmando, this funky little gourmet pastry/sandwich place that at least 4 people told me I HAD to check out.

I had the BEST Cuban sandwich I've ever had in my life. Seriously considering going back for another tomorrow.

Then I also went to another recommendation: Schwartz's.

For their signature Smoked Meat Sandwich. YUM.

I drove around the city a little...it's really really pretty.

The old port is pretty awesome.

And there's this housing project thingy Megoon recommended I check out called Habitat 67 or something. It's a bunch of concrete block apts. So very cool...

Anyway. I'm limiting my daily sightseeing to an hour by car.

 

So I went back to my hotel to do work by the pool. I'm so lame. Whatever. It's probably better than sitting in a yucky office all day.

And it's nice because in Canada my cell phone isn't working so annoying headshot clients and potential new clients can't call to ask me for answers to stupid questions that are all readily available on my website.

Oh also I had Poutine for dinner. And I'm still trying to decide if it was totally delicious or totally disgusting.

RI/Boston!

So I came up to RI and Boston last Friday to shoot a wedding in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Home of the Mayflower.

My bride, Shannon, was so awesome and chill. At one point in the evening she got DROPPED on the dancefloor by her new husband.

She took it so well, laughed it off, then flipped over and did pushups. 

After the wedding I went down to RI to hang out with Dan and Emily for a few days and play with the kiddies.

Emily even left me alone to babysit little 6-month-old Ruby while she took Henry to daycare.

That was fun/terrifying.

 

 

I did not kill the baby, and thus I consider it a success.

I also hung out at my dad's house for a day just to get work done. (I have weddings the next 8 weekends or something like that.) 

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On my way out of town I drove by the house I grew up in: 106 Nayatt.

Still so pretty. Though they've let the trees and bushes get a BIT out of control.

Miss that house.

Even though it was full of ghosts and doing yard chores was like the worst thing ever.

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Came up to Boston last night to play with Dan! and Laura.

Dan! (and her husband CaseyCarson) recently bought a gorgeous new penthouse with an amazing roofdeck overlooking the city.

Now I'm off to Montreal to chill out for a few days before my wedding this weekend. 

I will try to update a little more often.

Or just check my Facebook and stop complaining.

Closed Circuit Red Carpet!

I've branched out into doing red carpets!

A friend hooked me up with a contact and now I'm the go-to East Coast guy for a media outlet.

The pay isn't great. $300 per event. But they're only like an hour or two. And you get to spot celebs. So that is fun fun fun for me!

My first event was a screening for the new movie "Closed Circuit" starring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, and Julia Stiles.

It was a great one to start on because it wasn't like a huge premiere. There were maybe 30 other photographers (instead of hundreds) so the fight to get the shot wasn't as intense. Everyone gave each other time to get the shots they need before yelling and screaming to get the stars' attention and direct them.

And they were all SUPER friendly and helpful, offering tips on where to stand, how to not get in the way of others, how to shoot, general etiquette, etc etc.

The first people through were the director and screenwriter. These guys are noticeably less comfortable in front of the cammys. Plus they know none of us really care.

Then the stars walk in, introduced by their publicists so we know exactly who we are shooting and whose name to scream.

First up was Rebecca Hall who you may remember from her breakout role as Vicky in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (his best film ever) or in Ben Affleck's "The Town".

She was SO tall and STUNNING.

So literally as soon as they hit their marks, the flashbulbs go NUTS. Each of 30 photogs (in thise case) fires like 10 shots a second hoping to get their money shot. And because of this you get TONS of crappy shots where other people's flashes are throwing off and overexposing your shots.

Meanwhile everyone is screaming "REBECCA! REBECCA OVER HERE!!! TO YOUR LEFT!!! REBECCA 2ND ROW!!!! REBECCAA!!!!!!!"

It is cray.

Then came Miss Julia Stiles.

Then came Mr. Eric Bana.

It was definitely a learning experience. Excited to do more!

After they pass through the gauntlet of photographers. They hit all the news outlets and interviewers. Common etiquette is to not fire your flash at them while they're being interviewed so that it doesn't show up in the video.

Oops.

We LOVES Celebrities!!!

LOVES a red carpet!!!!!!

Aerial Footage

Stolpman Villa Angeli from AeroOptix on Vimeo.

Stolpman Wedding

I just arrived in Vegas for a little break between California wedding weekends.

This past weekend was Peter and Jessica's Wedding on the Stolpman Vineyard up near Santa Barbara.

It was, of course, amazing.

You may or may not recall my last visit up here in the fall when we did Peter and Jess's engagement photos...well, since then, the villa has been completed.

And let me just say, if you happen to be engaged to be married. And you happen to own a vineyard. And you have the option of building a massive villa-mansion to host your epic wedding. DO THAT.

It was a beautiful and awesome wedding party. I dragged everyone up a hill on the vineyard to get this picture. The girls were NOT HAPPY to be walking up a dirt hill in their spike heels, but it was worth it.

The boys were wayyyyy too comfortable busting out feminine poses.

I <3 br="" them.="">

Funboys 2.0!

At the start of the ceremony, Peter walked down the aisle with his best friend, Baron.

The ceremony was in the backyard overlooking the vineyard. Stunning.

There was a super cute moment where Pete could not get Jessica's ring on.

These two are just adorable.

Since they both work in the wine business, and this wedding was all about wine. They ended the ceremony by drinking glasses of some super special $1500 bottle of wine after which they tossed the glasses out into the vineyard. It was so cute.

Congratulations guys!!!!

Crazy to think that this new villa is just the start of the rest of their lives. The future is SO bright.

Katie and Semmesey were present, of course. Love working a wedding when my besties are present!

The bridesmaids were a joy as well.

As the sun set, I noticed an incredible opportunity, so I ran and got the bride and groom. Dragged them out of the party and across the property under this tree on this barrel and staged this shot which I'm pretty proud of.

We LOVE sunset on a vineyard!

Oh...you want to see pictures of Funboys doing ladyposes?

OK.