The Real Bosses of Las Vegas

Since we’re in the middle of Women’s History Month, this vlog is apropo. My dear friends JR & Veleta are extremely driven, creative, and inspirational women that have been making their mark on Las Vegas for years. I met JR twenty years ago when I used to work on cruise ships. Back then, she was a singer in the production cast and I was the broadcast tech that was responsible for the TV and video operations. Since then, JR has continued to perform all over the world. Over the years, we’ve kept in touch and most recently, she invited me out to Las Vegas to help with her new live production called “The Boss” a musical review of Diana Ross.

It’s always fun getting to work on musical projects. I know “The Boss” is going to open a lot of doors for JR.

Veleta in the The Virgin Hotel lobby photo by me

A few years ago, I met Veleta through JR’s sister, Jada. They’ve all been apart of this community of professional women that organize around professional development and spirituality. So, this year, Veleta also hired to me to capture some video marketing assets. Veleta organized a podcast shoot along with a workshop she conducted called “The Influential Woman”. Please make sure you follow her on Instagram to get updates on her podcast and next workshops.

I breakdown both shoots in more detail in the vlog. Enjoy.

These women embody what it means to be a Boss and they do it with such grace. I’m honored to be their friend and I’m grateful they’ve trusted me with their work. Viva Las Vegas!

Prince's Post "Genius Period" Greatest Hits

Prince has one of the greatest bodies of works in music history. His catalog spans 4 decades with 40-50 albums and tons of songs written for other people. Prince is the truest definition of an artist. He was always creating and always had something to say. As the famous album liner notes says “produced, arranged, composed & performed by…”. With any artist, athlete or anyone who has does anything at a high level, there’s always a discussion of when was their prime? The years someone performs their craft at peak performance at the peak of their powers. Some primes last longer than others while some primes are short. Prince’s was a decade.

The impetuous of this blog is a quote from ?uestlove where he says that Prince’s “genius period” was from 1978 - 1988. I don’t disagree with this take. It’s accurate. Prince gave us his best work in those years. However, for the years after, I always felt like Prince gave us a legendary single every few years that we overlooked and forgot. Songs that on their own were quintessential Prince gems. Songs that had everything we loved about his music. Sultry baselines, high pitched screams, dirty lyrics, just all the stuff we loved. Sadly, time moves on and everything changes. Change in culture, musical taste, and an entire generation of new artist entered the mainstream. By the end of the 80’s, the tides were beginning to change and maybe Prince’s popularity.

One thing I always wanted to do was make a a greatest hits of Prince’s songs after his genius period. Back in the 90’s, Warner Bros released a 3 disc greatest hits of Prince’s work. It was a 3 disc set consisting of 56 songs if you bought the entire collection together or you could buy the first 2 disc individually. I know this because I had the first 2 disc that I played into the ground when I was in high school.

That greatest hits was the perfect recap of Prince’s career up until that point. I’ve always thought it was really important if we had a post-genius period greatest hits or as I would like to call it “The Second Wave of Genius” which are the best songs from 1989 - 2014. These are the twenty-four songs that I think sums up Prince’s career after 1988. A number of these songs were on albums I bought. One song was on a New Power Generation album which had a music video but was never an official single. One song was made famous by a young Tevin Campbell. And one was remixed by Shock G of Digital Underground. I say all this to say that the hits kept coming even if the charts said otherwise. Real artist will always create and Prince was the most prolific.

Partyman - Batman Soundtrack
Scandalous - Batman Soundtrack
Thieves in the Temple - Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds & Pearls - Diamond & Pearls
Cream - Diamond & Pearls
7 - (Love Symbol) Prince & The New Power Generation
Sexy M.F. - (Love Symbol) Prince & The Power Generation
The One - New Power Soul
Shhh - The Gold Experience
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World - The Gold Experience
Love Sign (Shock G’s silky mix) - Crystal Ball
The Greatest Romance That’s Ever Been Sold - Rave Into the Joy Fantastic
She Loves Me 4 Me - Rainbow Children
U Make My Sunshine - The Chocolate Sunshine
Call My Name - Musicology
Cinnamon Girl - Musicology
Reflection - Musicology
Black Sweat - 3121
Chelsea Rodgers - Planet Earth
Better With Time - MPLSoUND
Lavaux - 20Ten
Anotherlove - PLECTRUMELECTRUM
Breakfast Can Wait - Art Official Age
Xtralovable - HITnRUN Phase Tw

If you’ve enjoyed this playlist, you’re welcome because I had to download these songs from YouTube. A couple of these songs aren’t on any available albums so I did the work for you. I’m so curious how many of these songs you remember or know? Hopefully, I’ve helped you discover your new favorite Prince song.

What have smart phones done to us?

There have been numerous articles and essays written about the negative impact of smart phones and our addiction to them. Whether that be for work or play our day to day, hour to hour, and minute to minute consumption of information and entertainment is at an all time high with the no end in site.

Not until I recently, accidentally left my phone at home did I truly see the weight of this problem. When I got a block from my apartment, I realized I left my phone. As I thought to myself, I didn’t need it nor did I want it. So, I spent the next few hours roaming the streets of NYC without it. In a lot of ways it was freeing but I also couldn’t fight the urge to go looking for my phone every few minutes.

As I walked the city with my camera, I couldn’t help but notice so many people were zonked by their phones. It some cases people were sitting or standing in place but so many more people were walking down busy sidewalks and even across busy streets, which is scary. As I stated in my Instagram post, “Since I’m making “social commentary” about phone usage, I’ve decided to white out everyone’s face as an artist element to show the impact the phone has on us all and also not to shame innocent people”. I hope these photos illustrate the power these devices have over us. I also hope these photos help us to have a healthier relationship to all of our devices. There’s so much magic waiting for us as soon as we get out of our phones. I never would’ve have this idea if I was glued to my phone that day.

I’ll spare you the “mansplaining” about phone usage, screen time and loss of socialization. We’re all adults and can govern ourselves. However, this is a relatively new phenomenon that has dangerously, creeped into our daily routines without really understanding its longterm impact. I’ll leave you with this, PLEASE don’t drive and use your phone. It could save lives.

DON'T DRIVE AND TEXT

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DON'T DRIVE AND TEXT ***

Creative Projects from Spring/Summer 2025

Writing anything about the end of Summer makes me extremely sad. It’s like being told recess is over when you were a kid. Nonetheless, professionally, my summer was pretty slow but I managed to get some work in and create some personal projects as well.

My summer got a off to great start with with an amazing trip to Istanbul, Turkeye in late Spring for a three day, chamber music series. On trips like these, I like to sharpen my documentary storytelling chops. Although I wasn’t hired to be there, I still captured a pretty special event and made a beautiful recap.

If you’ve ever spent anytime at any of the “The Ivy’s”, you know how magical their campuses are. Chanel Cathey, Founder & CEO of CJC Insights, brought me in to work on this project with one of her PR clients. This was filmed in mid Spring, so it wasn’t technically Summer, but I wrapped editing in May. Laurence Ralph is a professor and author at Princeton University. We spent the day with Ralph at Princeton documenting the day in the life of a professor. We captured an on camera interview, headshots and other assets that he’ll go on to use when he’s booked on TV segments and featured in articles. This was great project to work on with a really fascinating guy.

Community involvement has become a huge source of storytelling. For the past couple of years, I’ve created a series of videos for the Friends of Buswick Inlet Park. I’ve been documenting their Weeding Wednesday’s sessions as they do some pretty serious community gardening. This organization does incredible work in revitalizing and maintaining Williamburg’s water front park. I highly recommend everyone come out to volunteer at least once. I’ve also been know to make surprise visits with popsicles. If that’s not incentive show up, I don’t know what is.

The other community I’ve fallen in love with is the Dance is Life community. Every other Monday evening at sunset, Natasha Diggs and Abdiel, host the most beautiful dance party in NYC. It’s an amazing melting pot of every culture and background in a celebration of love and joy. For fours, everything is right in the world. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend.

Just last weekend, I had a fabulous photo shoot with the board members of The Debt Gala, an organization that raises money for people with medical debt. The organization is comprised of comedians, dancers, magicians, musicians and more. This was a fun time that will ultimately help a good cause. Since photography has never been my main thing, sometimes I forget I’m a decent photog.

Williamsburg has it’s own resident photographer and his name is Matt Eller. Matt has turned the corner of Berry & N 4TH into his own public art gallery and it’s awesome. Matt photographs people from the neighborhood and wheat paste them to the adjacent walls on that corner. I’ve documented his process and parties for the past couple of years and it’s a fun project to be a part of. Every neighborhood needs a guy like Matt.

Alex Corporan is one of the few people I’ve met when I first moved to the city that I’m still cool with. Although, I only ever see him in passing we always show each other love. Alex is one of the OG skate kids from the city from the early 90’s. Like literally kids because he was in the famous movie called Kids. Alex is an all around creative, author, designer and recently co-prodcued a new doc that just aired on ESPN called “Empire Skate” which is about the early days of skateboarding in NYC. I caught up with him and interviewed him on World Skate Day earlier this summer.

In late Spring, I caught up with artist, Heather Hutchison, who I profiled about eight years ago. Heather was having an art opening in Chelsea and I had the pleasure of interviewing her again. Heather is always a good interview and her work is always striking.

Back in May, Chanel Cathey, reached out to me again about working with another one of her clients. This time we would be cutting together a sizzle for Zeal Capital, a DC investment firm, to announce their $82 million raise. This was a challenging project because I would be making a video from mainly photos and not a lot of video. I think it turned out great. Zeal loved it and we will be working a second video in just a couple of weeks.

Pepcom has been of my favorite ongoing clients for over fives years now. They host events in NYC two to three times a year and they always reach out to me to document their trade shows. This is a recap video for their Spring Spectacular event.

And like usual, in my down time, I like to channel my inner Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist) with my fashion focused, street photography. This has been a great exercise in getting me up from my computer and keeping me creative while walking on average 6.5 miles a day.

Usually in the Fall, things pick back up. The vacations and summer Fridays are over so people are back to being serious. Hopefully, my phone will start to ring again. Until then, I’ll keep finding ways to stay creative.

The Secret World of Istanbul Camera Shops

As I’m writing this, I completely understand how naive it is for me to call something on the other side of the planet a “secret”. It’s western world privilege however it’s new to me and the people who don’t live there. I recently spent seven days in Istanbul, Turkey for a three day chamber music event entitled, Tertulia. I’ll make another post specifically about that later but that was the catalyst for our trip. We went to the same event in Berlin last year. During that trip I found two vintage cameras and discovered an entirely new way to find vintage cameras at a good price. So this time around, I was on the hunt again. And to my surprise, I struck gold again.

One thing I want to mention that I also mentioned in the video is that this blog and video was inspired by this article written by Stephen Dowling in 2023 entitled “The Hidden Camera Shops of Istanbul”. I found the shops he mentioned and took the adventure further to find more.

In short, I found an “underworld” circuit of small camera shops and a couple of lone antique shops. Watch the vlog to hear all about it.

I only took four rolls of film with me and shot three of them on point and shoots and the other roll on one of the cameras I bought in Istanbul. Shooting film is simply delayed gratification or delayed disappointment. Disappointment because sometimes your shots don’t turn out. The gratification is a little memento to your future self and because of its inherent science and texture, film shots feel more like memories more so than the million photos in your phone. Here are some of those images.

This first set is from the Hanimex shot on Fujifilm 400 color negative film.

This second set is Ilford 400 black & white film.

And this third set is from the Ricoh 300 I bought in Istanbul.

In closing, Istanbul was a fantastic trip and definitely a place I’d revisit for the culture, food, experiences and definitely for the camera shopping.

Heather Hutchison: Seeker, April 17th - May 31st at Winston Wächter Fine Art

I first met Heather Hutchison seven years ago when I was commissioned by Sam Alfstad of Alfstad& Gallery, to create an interview with Heather at her Woodstock home. Before moving to NYC ten years ago, I used to produce a lot of interviews of the featured artists at Alfstad&. So after I moved to NYC, Sam kept in touch and had me shoot with all the NYC based artists including Heather. I remember it was the first time I took the train upstate along the Hudson River. When I arrived in Woodstock, it was a cold, rainy, enchanting day. We filmed the interview in her studio/barn. Heather walked me through her back story, process and what inspired her. It’s a pretty cool video. Watch below.

Fast forward to last week, I see that Heather was having a show in the city over in Chelsea. It was one of those opening night events where all the galleries in Chelsea are having big parties and you walk in and out of galleries all night. I recommend everyone do this at least once while living in NYC.

I go to the show and reintroduce myself since it’s been awhile. We briefly reconnect and I ask if I can do another interview the next day. She says yes, and here we are. We filmed the interview inside of Winston Wächter Fine Art. She described the new show to me and broke down some of the newer work. I’m pretty happy with how this short notice video came together.

Like usual, I carry my Fujifilm X100VI everywhere with me. So, I got lots of good video shots from the opening night party as well. Remember, always be shooting.

Vita Coco Latin Heritage Month

Another series of videos are in the books for the Vita Coco Supporting Local Communities campaign. This season of videos we visited California and New York City to highlight Latin specifics businesses. The focus of the interviews are on entrepreneurship and what it means to own a business and how culture has influenced it. I love the range of stories we get to tell. Below is a screen capture of the landing site for the campaign and below that are all the videos. I can’t communicate this enough but interviewing and capturing stories are my strongest and most valuable skillset as a Video Producer. I’m still thinking about the sandwiches from Uptown Provisions.

Behind The Video: Blossoming Beyond Bars

I love working in video because it opens me up to new worlds and communities. Such as the case of a recent shoot where I got to document a day long conference centered around women re-entering society after being incarcerated. Kevin Paulin from Winning Ways LLC along with his two partners, Kevnesha Boyd LPC & Dr. Janet Garcia-Hallett produced an entire day of programming, learning and networking. Over 75 women were in attendance along with several organizations to help with basic needs such as housing and counseling. Video projects like this are fulfilling because the creative output has a direct impact in helping others.

I look forward to working with Kevin again in the future and to creating more socially, impactful work.

Behind The Video: The Mend

About a month or so ago, I was in my old neighborhood of Crown-Heights Brooklyn meeting up with Kerry so we could go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. As usual, I was early. So I decided to kill some time and walk around. As I’m walking in front of the Brooklyn Public Library, I see a guy with an old sewing machine. No matter where you go in the city, there’s always someone with a public art project. So, I walk over to see what’s going on. After listening in on his pitch, it sounding pretty interesting and the prefect thing to make a video about. Plus, his outfit was pretty dapper and would look great on camera. I introduced myself, told him what I do and he was game. After I got Brandon mic’d up, we started and stopped a couple of time because of so many people coming up to talk to him so I took that as a perfect time to capture some natural audio of him speaking with other people which turned out to the be the perfect idea because I opened the video with the natural audio. The interview itself probably took about ten minutes to capture. I’ve gotten pretty good at getting right to the point when interviewing. After the interview, I got a few more b-roll shots and then had all the ingredients to make this video. Brandon was a great sport. I think he was a little hesitant of me at first but I think I ultimately won him over. If it was up to me, I would spend the rest of my career making videos like this. Slice of life, no fuss, high quality productions.

It’s interesting, between Facebook and Instagram, the video has over twenty thousands views but those people have never seen the wide version, they’ve only seen the vertical version. At this point, I’ll take the views how I can get them.

Throwback: 2006 Street Photography

I got into street photography back in 2006 when I was working on cruise ships. I was traveling to some of the most amazing destinations in the world and I wanted to document what I was seeing. My girlfriend at the time, bought me the Canon XTi as a gift. It was the first legit camera I ever owned. Back then, I gravitated to people and all the random things that happened on the street. People at markets, interesting shadows, graffiti and anything I thought would photograph well.

YouTube and Instagram in the past few years has been inundated with a new generation of street photographers. Many of them have been highly influenced by the same five to ten famous street photographers. Winogrand, Frank, Cartier-Bresson, Web, Gilden and list of many more. And that’s fine. We’ve all been influenced by someone. However, when I started shooting “street” in 2006, before IG and before "first person YouTube street vlogs’, I was only influenced by the handful of times that maybe I saw a street photo somewhere. I wasn’t yet buying photo books, I didn’t have IG as a way to see the latest trends, gear or techniques. I only had real life in front of me to inspire me. Flickr was hot at the time but I probably didn’t get an account until about 2008.

Looking back on it, the work wasn’t very good but it wanted to be great. I guess Ira Glass was right about your early work hasn’t caught up to your taste.

That definitely didn’t keep me from shooting. Every new port I visited was an opportunity for me to get better. A lot of the photos turned out to be just really bad tourist photos but at the time, I thought I was print publication bound.

I’m glad I still have all the photos from back then. One, for memory sake and secondly, to see how far I’ve come since then. In some ways, my aesthetic hasn’t changed. I won’t wax poetic about the history of street photography and all the lesson I’ve learned since but I did want to share my earliest street photos.

Billion Oyster Project Oyster Installation

On probably the most humid and foggiest days of the summer, The Billion Oyster Project was installing reef balls into the East River. It was day one of three as they plan to introduce ten million new oysters into New York Bay. I had the opportunity to speak with Shinara Sunderlal, Direct Student Services Manager of The Billion Oyster Project about the process and what’s involved.

Swelter is an understatement of how it felt this day but it was pretty captivating watching them drop reef balls into the water. There was a lot of driving in circles and turning the boat around to get the exact placement. I was only planning to go one day but I’m curious what the next two days will have in store.

This biggest story for me was asking about a statement that The Gothamist made about The Billion Oyster Project in a recent article and Instagram post. Many in the comments of the IG post said that this was “textbook bad reporting with an inaccurate and sensationalist headline”. In the video from 5:15 - 6:00, Shinara clarifies where The Gothamist reporting went wrong.

image from The Gothamist Instagram account.

I decided to go capture this story as a follow up to a video I made a few years ago when The Billion Oyster Project held a volunteer session where people took out oysters, measured them and put them back in the water. I’ll stay updated on New York City water ways and oysters over the coming months and report back if anything new unfolds. This is turning into a fascinating story.

Fun, Film, and Failure

I got bit by the 35mm film bug just like every other digital creator looking for a new and interesting creative outlet. You know, something to separate us from “all the other creators”. You know, something that would make our work “standout" and “be different" that would evoke emotions the way gliding archival photos in a Ken Burns doc makes you feel. As the old Kanye said, “it’s hard to standout when everyone is dressed the same” and thats basically where a new community of photographers have found ourselves. Shooting the same type of images, on the same film stocks, using the same cameras for the same insane prices it takes to develop film. Nonetheless, it’s still fun. And that’s why we do it. For me, how much longer is the big question?

What I really want to talk about is my latest film camera purchase, the Konica C35 V. A 70’s era, range finder. I bought the camera out of a flea market bin in Berlin

The camera looks really small because I have big hands and shot this on the wide setting on my iPhone.

I had been on the search for a new film camera ever since my Olympus died. I have a cheap point and shoot which is pretty great but I wanted something with a few more manual controls. When I saw the Konica, I instantly knew I was going to buy it. However, it had years of dirt & dust caked on it. After a good cleaning with soap and water, I brought it back to life. Now, the next step is to see if it works. Before I bought it, I tested the shutter and the advance and it all seemed to be good. Not really being familiar with range finder cameras, I had to get used to the settings. With this camera, the shutter speed is automatically adjusted with the f-stop. Naturally, I figured shooting at a smaller aperture (f-16) would give me the fastest shutter speed which should then give me sharper images. No. For some reason, most of the images out of this camera have been extremely blurry. Not out of focus blurry but like camera shake blurry. I’m not sure if thats because of the 200 speed film or if it’s because there’s something wrong with the camera. And most of the images from the first 2 rolls were over exposed which I didn’t think you could do with 200 speed film.

I’ve now put five rolls through it. I’ve gotten a few sharp images but not as many as I should have. I’ve even done some test where I’ve shot the same thing and changed the settings and I’ve still gotten similar results. With the few sharp images I’ve gotten, I think the camera has a sweet spot for a specific range that I haven’t quite consistently figured out yet.

Since I only paid about 25 euros for this camera, I didn’t have the highest hopes for it but now I’m obsessed with figuring it out. Developing film is also not cheap. Shooting test roll after test roll can really start to add up without the reward of getting good shots. But much like anything else, you have to fail at the beginning to really learn. As they say in the startup world, “test, learn, iterate” and the faster rate you can do this, the better off you you’ll be. I think I’m going to use 400 speed film next since it’s more sensitive to light.

One important note I’d like to add is that I’m not one of those people that believes just because I took a shot on film that it’s always better. Digital is the greatest thing ever. However, film does provide a certain thing that digital can never.

The images I captured at the Puerto Rican Day parade were the worst. I don’t think any of them were not blurry. I was in the flow that day too. Maybe I just need to get better at zone focusing or not moving so much while taking photos. I think I’m pretty spoiled by Fuji X100 series cameras where I can’t take a blurry photo if I tried.

For now, I think I’m going to continue shooting with the camera simply because it’s so much fun. I just love the sound of releasing the shutter and advancing. That rhythm is so satisfying. Moral of the story, keep trying until you figure out the problem and solution. And sometimes it can be as easy as, it’s broken get a different camera. The journey continues. I’ll make an update soon.

Community Content: Weeding Wednesdays

If you ever find yourself inside of New York City parks and notice that some of them are better kept than others, it’s because state parks get very different funding than city parks. In some cases, these parks are sometimes right next to each other like in the case of Marsha P. Johnson & Bushwick Inlet Park. My girlfriend is a community volunteer with The Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park on the Williamsburg waterfront. This organization looks after the park with the help of volunteers. Since her involvement, I’ve been learning about the allocation of park funding, weeding and why it’s important to make sure you vote in your local elections if you want to see a difference in your neighborhoods.

I recently interviewed Katherine who’s behind the The Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park to dig a little deeper into what it takes to maintain. Katherine has been a champion of city parks for many years and was a great interview. The two videos are great examples of what local storytelling should feel like and the importance of creating awareness. Producing videos like this allows me to wear my interviewer, director, videographer and editor hat all in one. Most times, I feel I’m a better interviewer than the other three titles.

For each of these videos, I created a vertical version for Instagram. As a result, they both got really good engagement in a way that may not have happened if they were only on the organizations’ website or YouTube. Being a horizontal video purist, I’m learning in some cases, vertical is sometimes better. Also, I’ve been filming in a way that everything can be cropped for social. I do think a time is coming where short form, horizontal makes a comeback but until then, I work with the trends but never forget my traditional filmmaking rules.

Moving to Williamsburg last year has allowed me to be much closer to an active community with so much going on. I look forward to covering more park volunteering and other local stories.

Vita Coco Supporting Local Communties

For the second year, Vita Coco has asked me to create a series of videos highlighting black entrepreneurs. Getting to interview so many different types of people and learn about their backgrounds has been extremely fulfilling. I think it’s really important to showcase the hard work of people we often overlook. As a filmmaker, that’s why I love the work that I get to do. Every shoot is like a new adventure in story telling.

My strongest production skillset is interviewing and talking with people on camera. As a small team, we go into these productions with an outline of questions but once I get going, I end up capturing so much more interesting information than we intended. This year, the campaign took us to Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Fort Worth. Going into these cities and learning the impact they’ve had on their communities has been the most heart warming.

The creative and social media team at Vita Coco are so fun to work with. They do an excellent job at cultivating and planning all the shoots so that all I have to do is show up and do what I do best.

Below is a screen capture of the micro-site featuring everyone we interviewed. You can visit the actual site here. Below this screen cap, I’ve included all the videos. Photos on the micro site are also by yours truly.

Behind the scenes image of me directing/shooting/interviewing at Hotel Dryce

Behind the scenes image of me directing/shooting/interviewing at Fruvee

The videos were posted as Instagram stories. Four were posted during the month of February and one each month afterwards.

Behind the Scenes Jazz photos with Raffi Garabedian

Nothings makes my heart warmer than seeing old school, contrasty, black & white photos of jazz musicians. It could be old album covers, performance shots in smokey jazz clubs or in the recording studio. Regardless, there’s always something very timeless and nostalgic about those photos. I was looking to capture that same feeling in this session with Raffi Garabedian.

Raffi is a talented, Bay Area Saxophone player who is also the brother of my friend Noah. Clearly, jazz runs in the family. A couple of years ago, Raffi reached out about me documenting the process of him and his band recording his latest album. I was totally onboard. I love projects like this when I get to bring my “fly on the wall”, candid style of shooting to the table. Plus, I got to listen to great jazz for a few hours. I put myself in the shoes of someone who was shooting Miles Davis in the studio…how do I make them look like the coolest, bad ass there ever was? I think I got some really great timeless photos that captured the process and the moment.

In addition to the photos, I shot some video as well. They don’t call me “Video Guy” for nothing. The video gives a taste of the music and some motion to the recording. I should have written this piece almost 2 years ago but some how I forgot to. Later today, on May 1st, I’m shooting a very similar project with another set of musicians. Having that shoot later today, triggered me into quickly writing this before then. You can listen and purchase the album “The Crazy Dog” at this link. https://raffigarabedian.bandcamp.com/album/the-crazy-dog-2.

What we learned from the Professional Bull Riding Circuit 2024

Yeehaw!! We’re back again at the Professional Bull Riding competition in NYC. This time, we’re more experienced and prepared, yet we still have so many questions and concerns. Last year, Kerry and I co-wrote a blog about our experience so this year I decided we should make a video about it. So, sit back and enjoy the vlog. Afterwards, take some time to enjoy the photographs.

When I attend an event like this, I’m always torn between taking photos and shooting video. If the story idea is clear before hand, I almost always shoot video. However, sometimes, I’d rather let my inner Gordon Parks let loose. Luckily, on this night, I brought 3 digital cameras and one film camera with me. Since I don’t own a good good zoom for my still cameras, I waited until I got close to my subjects before I took any pics. Which is probably the best rule anyways for good photography.

I really hope to shoot more documentary style photos like this in the future. If only for fun. I loved the run and gun nature of shooting like this. Having access is the biggest privilege to getting good shots sometimes.

Until next year, “Save a bull, ride a cowboy”.

Media Day with Fraser's Mathematics Solutions

Working with Frasers Mathematics Solutions takes me back to when I worked in education at St. Petersburg College where I helped faculty and department heads with educational content. I’ve been working with Jaliyla for a few years and her shoots are always always a lot fun. FMS flagship product is the “Dope Math Notebook” which bridges the gap between the classroom and homework time with parents. The “Dope Math Notebook” covers all grades and age groups.

Over the years, I’ve produced a number a video projects for FMS including student field trips and teacher workshops. This time around, Jaliyla held a media day so we could capture photo and video assets that she can use through out the year. Some of those assets include product shots, headshots and a marketing video. On a shoot like this, I have to go between shooting video and photos which means I have to think quick on my feet. The photo assets need to be captured in both vertical and horizontal formats. Also, “white space” needs to be factored in for text and copy additions that will be added later.

I would definitely recommend that all early stage companies host a media day. It’s a great way to build team morale while having a fun, creative time. The team shots were the most fun to capture. It was a good combination of fun and seriousness. The final team shots look like a high end fashion campaign.

For me, the video portion of a shoot like this is the most important. Capturing the most impactful talking points on camera are vital to the overall communication of the Fraser’s brand. Although, we had detailed bullet points of we wanted to capture on camera, it’s also really important to ask good questions during the interviews so that we can dig a little deeper into the answers. Sometimes, the best soundbites aren’t written. Working with educators is always great because they’re ultimately working for the betterment of the students. The Frasers Mathematics team consistently demonstrates that students are their number one priority.

The Etiquette and Culture of Street Photography

I’m about two weeks removed from an awkward interaction of being called out for taking a street photograph. In the moment, it was tense, stressful and unnecessary. However, for the record, it is not illegal to photograph public life. There are no privacy rules when you’re in public. Hence the business of paparazzi and journalism. It protects the right to document and archive. However, the real question is, how moral are you when taking street photographs? What’s the artistic intent?

The goal of a street photographer is to catch that moment whether its funny, sad, chaotic, colorful or weird. Over the past 60+ years, there have been a handful of photographers that have made this style/genre famous. In the early days, it was all about contrasty, black & white photos of shadows and street landscapes. Then it was about “documenting American life” or life from wherever the photographer was from. Then it became about storytelling and voyeurism. Then about symmetry and color. Now, all these styles and aesthetics have become the new gold standard in terms of what makes a good street photograph.

The two extremes of street photography that best demonstrates the very best and the very worst of this genre are Vivian Maier and Bruce Gilden. Vivian gave us beautiful, black & white, romanticized shots of a nostalgic time gone by while Bruce gives us hard, aggressive, New York City in your face, rude, and harsh photographs. Today, most street photographers find themselves between these two styles.

Tatiana Hopper recently gave one of her best academic breakdowns of Gilden’s work. Tatiana has done a great job with her YouTube channel breaking down the work of photography icons of the 100 years.

Typically, street photography happens in big cities where people live their day to day lives on the street. These people can become the main characters in the compositions of photographers depending on the scene, how good the light is or how well they’re dressed. Bill Cunningham is probably best known as the “Mr. Rogers” of street photography. His niche was primarily fashion and what people were wearing on the streets of NYC. He was beloved by all and respected by everyone who knew his work. People posed and stopped for him because of the reverence he gave his subjects.

Scott Schuman, better known as the “Sartorialist”, took the proverbial baton from Bill and created his own take on street fashion and became an international icon himself. I would say my style and aesthetic has been influenced by these two the most. Some would say fashion and good looking people are “low hanging fruit” for street photography but I say “when it’s good, it’s too good to pass up”.

There’s an entire list of photographers that I’ve left out simply because there isn’t enough time to mention them but I want to say that it’s okay to be influenced by all the different types of styles and cherry pick the nuances of each to use as your own. This is how we create the bottomless gumbo of creativity.

Paulie B. has done a great job with his YouTube channel by interviewing the community of street photographers that are currently on the street everyday. This was an excellent interview that touches on a lot of the topics amongst the community.

The Wrong Side of the Lens recently just came out of nowhere with an incredible 20 video documentary series of street photographers. Similar to what Paulie B. is doing but more dramatic and raw. These are definitely a must watch.

Below are some of my own street photos. These aren’t my street fashion shots that I’ve been capturing recently but more of a candid series. I’ll write a separate blog about the street fashion shots.

Some street photographers are trying their best to be as inconspicuous as possible. Not because their doing something wrong but because they don’t want to to disrupt the scene. Their goal is to capture life as it plays out while they assume the role of a fly on the wall. Some street photographers feel like it cheapens the art if they play a role in affecting the scene. Then there are street photographers that will ask and interact with their subjects to get the exact photo they envisioned. As a result, there lots of varying schools of thoughts and approaches when it comes to street photography. My rule is simply…have fun, be creative and be respceftul.

Artist Profile: Anne Patterson

I met Anne Patterson seven years ago when I was creating artist profiles for Alfstad& Gallery in Sarasota, FL. I interviewed her for her gallery opening of Airidescence. Since then, we’ve done a number of videos together for her various installations.

Anne recently contacted me about documenting the process of her latest work entitled “Divine Pathways” which is a textile installation consisting of over 15 miles of ribbons suspended from the ceiling in The Cathedral of St, John Devine. Over the course of four days, I documented her and her team of artist cutting, tying and installing ribbons to a truss that was hoisted to 95 feet in the air. Watch the video to get the complete experience.

This is The Cathedrals press release for the opening…

Divine Pathways is a stunning, site-specific textile installation created by artist Anne Patterson for the vaulted Nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Divine Pathways will be created in concert with communities and organizations from across the Morningside Heights neighborhood, New York City, and the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Community members are invited to write their hopes, dreams, and prayers onto the ribbons that make up the piece. Individual prayers will be anonymous and beyond the viewer’s sight, but their collective presence creates an experience that is both intimate and immense.

Opening night was exciting and everything you want a New York City art opening to be. Cheese, wine and a who’s who of NYC. Anne gave an exceptional speech about the work and there was an exciting dance number from the Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. The film played on two big screens inside the cathedral.

I built out a new rig that I used for the first time during this shoot. I recently got a matte box system with a side handle for a more professional look and functionality.

This entire project and process was a lot of fun and I look forward to creating another behind the scenes of Anne in the future.

Lush (the soap company) paid me to go to Afro-Punk

Back in May of this year, I was walking around Union Square when I noticed a white tent that resembled a book store or a library. I stood there for a moment to take a look at what was going on. I walked into the tent to find out it was an art installation sponsored by Lush depicting books that had recently been banned across the country. Visually, it was a pretty powerful installation that was entirely white with pops of black writing and stats centered around the banned book crisis. As I always do when I see something like this, I find a person connected to the event that can give me an on camera interview of what’s going on. I shot and edited the video below.

After, I made the video and sent it to Seth, who’s featured in the video. He shared it with the Lush team who loved the video. They then sent me a thank you package. I replied with a thank you and a “if any other events come up in the future, please let me know”.

The future arrived and they let me know. In early August, I get an email from the Lush team asking if I would like to assist in shooting video for Afro-Punk. I happily accepted and a couple of virtual meetings later, I was in.

Afro-Punk is a two day musical festival which takes place on the Brooklyn waterfront. The festival has really turned into an alternative arts festival more so than it’s previous iteration as a black rock festival. Regardless, it’s two days of music, food and the most creative outfits you’ll ever see.

Lush’s involvement as a sponsor meant that they had the biggest activation there which was called Club Lush that consisted of a mini retail space, full beauty salon and a bubble bar.

During the festival, my job was to assist their in house video team with documenting the activities inside of Club Lush such as product demos, talks and much more. Normally, when I get hired to create videos, I’m also hired to produce, shoot and edit but this time around I was simply a second shooter.

During my down time, I had the opportunity to walk around and enjoy some of the performance. However, the highlight for me was capturing photos of the incredible people. I could have spent the entire two days just doing that.

In addition to the photographs, I caught a few live performances as well. A couple of acts I’ve never heard of, and a NYC band that was really great that I had heard about. But the one performer I always wanted to see was Tobe Nwigwe. Based off his music videos and visuals, I knew the live show had to be pretty dope. And it was.

After the final night of the festival, I got invited to the official after party in Bushwick. It’s been a whole hot minute since I’ve been to a club but when I get the invite to things, I try and go. I went to go check it out and it was cool. I didn’t stay long. One drink, a few pictures and I was out. But I’m glad I went because I got to see the video team one last time before they headed back to Canada and a few other people from the team I met.

The entire experience was incredible. The Lush team was extremely nice and fun to work with. The weather was perfectly hot and sunny for two days. I left with a bunch of Lush products that’ll keep me feeling good and smelling good until at least February. Below are a few of the final videos that Lush produced. Although, only a handful of my shots made it into these videos, I was just happy to get paid and to be apart of it.

The next two videos below are vertical. If you’re viewing this on your computer, click full screen to watch.