Biodiesel Motorcycle

I've been shooting a number of interesting stories, but many of them are being held for upcoming issues, so I can't show them just yet.

This guy is an ASU professor who built a custom motorcycle that runs on biodiesel that he himself processes from used cooking oil... I was hoping to meet him at his home and get shots of him in his garage (for some reason I pictured him having a crazy laboratory-looking set up in a garage), but he told me he doesn't process the fuel at his home and that he preferred to meet at a Phoenix Starbucks... So I settled for the alley behind the coffee joint.

Halloween Cover

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted anything. I've just been so busy. Here's my latest cover. This was shot at Papago Park in Phoenix at dusk. There were five models, each with two outfits and sunlight was fading fast, so this shoot was a whirlwind. It was more a shoot for the style pages on different Halloween costumes, but I came away with a cover.



Here are a few frames from that shoot.

State Fair Cover

I shot this cover last week in Gilbert, where feed hay farms are still common. I liked the hay bails because they made a simple, clean background and still sort of communicated "State Fair." My other idea was to shoot on a carousel but I had a hard time setting that up with my time constraints.


Here are a few more shots from this shoot.

Oktoberfest & The Irish Festival

Here's a sampling of my weekend.... I had to shoot both the Way Out West Oktoberfest and the Arizona Irish Festival. Tough assignments, I know.

The Irish Festival featured bagpipes and beer...

While Oktoberfest featured polka music and beer... I'm beginning to see a pattern.

Back to Shooting Covers!!

Here is my first College Times cover since getting the new model release forms from our legal department. This was shot in Phoenix at two separate locations on September 21st... I couldn't post any of these photos until the paper had hit the stands today. I shot another cover last night, but you won't get to see that one until next week either, so hang in there.

Here are a few of my favorite alternatives. I was hoping to get a good beer splash photo, but the model was a petite little thing and had a hard time handling a full stein of beer (it took three beers to fill this thing!!). It wasn't until the stein was nearly empty that we got a good splash.

Edgefest

Edgefest was way out at Schnepf Farms again this year. I kind of rushed this assignment so I could make it to my editor's house on time for his charitable bocci ball tournament. Aside from the 105-degree heat, it was another fun event.

There were The Kooks.

Mickey Avalon.

Mosh pits.

Civet.

Authority Zero.

And crowd surfers.

ASU vs. Georgia

Saturday ASU took on Georgia at home at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. It was no surprise that the #3 nationally-ranked Georgia Bulldogs dominated over the ASU Sun Devils. It was sort of a big game so it was nationally televised and they had one of those cable-suspended TV cameras that hovered around over the field, which is always pretty cool to see.








UGA brought along their beloved mascot... That's a handsome bulldog. (This was supposed to be a GIF animation file that is apparently not working.)

On My Own: Nicole & Justine

Last night I met up with a couple of local models who contacted me through ModelMayhem.com for a shoot a few weeks ago. I location scouted last week and found the most perfect below-ground parking garage in Phoenix for the shoot, but when we arrived we were kicked out by some young rent-a-cop who called it in and was told to escort us off the premises. I didn't see him there last week when I scouted it.

We improvised and ended up at Steele Indian School Park in Phoenix. The girls had scheduled to have a makeup artist, hair stylist, and a wardrobe stylist involved...

It turned out that the hair and wardrobe stylists canceled on us, so the makeup artist sort of filled in the other roles and this is what we ended up with...

ASU vs. UNLV

Saturday night ASU took on UNLV at Sun Devil Stadium. UNLV was definitely an underdog coming in, but they pulled off the upset, beating ASU on their home turf in overtime.

Lowriders and Tattoos

Friday night I went to the Mesa Arts Center for the Lowriders and Tattoos Show.

Some of these cars are true pieces of art.


There were also tattoo-inspired art pieces, as well as tattoo artists inking people up.


I was amazed at how powerful the hydraulics are on these things...Awesome.

Product Shots

You may notice that I usually have significant lapses in my posts. It's not that I'm not shooting everyday; it's more that I often feel that what I'm shooting isn't necessarily post-worthy. I've decided to look past that notion and show you some of my day-to-day work load.

Here are some examples of the product shots I regularly do for our style pages. I used to use a white cloth backdrop draped over a chair, but found that the opaque glass desktops in the office make for a much better backdrop since I can light through them.