Pink something or other

Yes, another diversion from my normal style of post. Actually, what is my style now that I think of it? I have been all over the map with my processing and subjects lately. Well, guess a life of chaos has a bit to do with that ..... hahaha!

Just another quick note. I would have never thought to "see" a scene this way of it weren't for a few of my faithful flickr friends and contacts. Thank you all for the comments and inspiration along the way!

My music choice for this evenings work was none other that Jamie Cullum again. Guess that's my latest kick.....check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN3hqtEvq9I&feature=related

Details along the coast

Quite often, I have noticed recently, the actions of the day help to shape the feeling of the post I happen to choose for the evening. This is certainly no exception to this. Next week, we load in our biannual lighting rig for a corporate recognition event (an intimate event for about 20,000!), as well as 6 other events. I was certainly hoping to have all these planned and put together by now, but by the looks of the emails I have finally received today, and the ones that I should have received by now, I am far from there. That being said, this seems to be a pretty fair interpretation of my brain and its clarity this evening. (Hey, I chose this crazy industry!)

Time to get back to the grind.

Hey, it's great to have work, so I guess I need to focus on that.   :)

An afternoon at Bok Sanctuary

Although I have returned to the hotel room exhausted and barely able to focus and type this blog, I still feel the strange need to post! This image was captured at a place called Bok Sanctuary in the middle of the state a few months ago. I think I am gonna take the long way home tomorrow and see what else I can find between Tampa and West Palm Beach.....but now, its time to crash! Look for images from our Superbowl Party to come soon.

San Juan Island-sunrise

As I finally make it back to the hotel after a late night load in here in Tampa for a Superbowl Party, this sunrise shot represents what is about to happen oh too soon!

Treasure Coast Wine Festival - Part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of some of the images from one of the the events we worked on this weekend. This is a shot of the main tent just before the guests arrived.

Here is a shot from out front at the control riser, just in front of the video camera.

Didn't think I had to do a lot of commenting as these images tell the story for me. Next stop, a party for the NFL team owners in Tampa. Stay tuned :)

Oh yeah, thanks for stopping by!

Treasure Coast Wine Festival - Part 1

Now that all the lighting is torn down and in the shop, its nice to be able to look back with pride at some images of the magic that we helped to create. The Treasure Coast Wine Festival is in its 9th year of raising funds for community resources such as The Indian River Medical Center, Visiting Nurses Association, Hospice, and the Vero Beach Museum of Art just to mention a few. This was our first year with these great people up in our neighbor city to the North, and we look forward to many more years together.

I have alot of images that I would like to share from this event, so please enjoy these few and check back tomorrow for a few more.

Just as the sun was setting and the guests were arriving to the valet tent, the canvas of the sky was being painted with this incredible scene.

The tent that connected the silent auction and cocktail tent had a treatment of Oriental lanterns, bamboo, and a fountain.

Inside the main tent, each table centerpiece was individually lit, the ceiling wash washed in color and texture, and the stage lights were waiting for the show to begin.

Beautiful table details were overseen by a team of florists from Miami.

Please check back tomorrow for more from the show as well as some credit links from the event vendors that we were fortunate to work with on this one.

Florida canopy

As is so often the case, the image has really nothing to do with what I feel like babbling about. So, about this one, somewhere in central Florida from a little photo trip I took a few months ago.
Hope you like!

And now for the babble....

As a business owner for the last 22 or so years, I have never been one to count the hours worked throughout the week. Just get whatever needs to get done at whatever hour of the day or night and try to balance some personal time in there when possible. I seem to have a perpetual problem with the latter part of that I must admit. I realize that again this evening. While driving home from our event this evening in Vero, I tried to count the hours worked this week just for fun....stopped counting at about 95! Even so, we ended the week on a real high note.

I feel like we made some great friends up in Vero at this event. What a great group of people to work with. A little appreciation goes a long way with me....it always has. Please check back tomorrow for some great images from the show :)

a work in progress

All right, one more quick post.
Quite a departure from my normal oversaturated HDR shots, but I kinda like it.

Musical inspiration from Jamie Cullum
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxe_8JS-nUM&feature=related

Thanks to Kevin to turning me on to this musical genius.

enuff for now....gnite!

An Inaugural Celebration, South Florida Style

Like I had mentioned in a previous post, as the Inaugural evening rolled around, I was reminiscing about my involvement on events in Washington from 4 years ago. Well, times change, clients move on, relationships sever, and life goes on..... 

I must say though, I have a couple of clients that I have been fortunate enough to have worked with for quite a while. Michael Ereshena is one of those. His work is always spot on and his attention to detail is one to be admired. This is a shot of the place card table just inside the entrance of the party.


Although, this was not an official Inaugural event or even an event from DC, it was still a challenge. An intimate party for about 250 people in someone's backyard certainly had its unique challenges. Obviously, the colors of the night were Red, White, and Blue!

Once the guests were finished with cocktails in the house, they were escorted to dinner in the back yard. The pool was covered in a lucite cover and tents of all sizes were custom fitted to the surrounding pool deck area by Premier Party Rental. Cindy and her crew worked tirelessly for about 4 days to install this installation.

As I have mentioned before, there is nothing like the calm before the storm. For me, the best time to capture the feel of the evening.



A little bit of table detail.

Clear top tents allowed us to light the perimeter foliage and tall Royal Palm trees of the home owners yard.

A little more detail.

Here's a shot from the back yard just before the guests arrived.

I hope you liked this little tour. It's a wee bit late now as I have just finished another fundraiser this evening up here in Vero Beach. We cranked out 7 events so far this week and all have been incredible successes. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get around to all of them. Once again, the real thanks needs to go out to my stellar crew.....thanks! One more to go to tomorrow. I hope to post a few from tonight in a couple days or so! 

a simple scene for a complicated week

In sharp contrast to the vast amount of information I have to balance and process this time of the season, I present this simple image,....... the sea oat....

Hmmm, that actually sounds a lot stupider than I thought it would!

Not really sure what to say...aaahhh...

I guess, check back tomorrow. I hope to post a few cool images from the Inaugural Party we did this week.

Thanks for stopping by :)

An amazing airport...an amazing bathroom!

An amazing airport...an amazing bathroom!, originally uploaded by Photomike07.

Try taking out a camera the next time your in an airport bathroom and see how many friends you make. Probably a good way to get your ass kicked in O'hara, or say, LaGuardia. This, however, was in Singapore. The airport in Singapore was by far one of the best I have ever been in. And the bathroom....geez, like something out of an architectural digest magazine! Luckily, there was now one in it when this goofball found it necessary to take out his camera and capture this very strange portrait.

"So that's the post for tonight Mike.....an airport bathroom....nice....."

Sorry, its late and I'm REALLY tired. FIve events down and 3 more to go this week. We're rockin'.....thats for sure. Feels great to be in the season. More from these soon :)

Along the French Coast

Just a bit North of Honfleur on the West coast of France is quant little seaside village called Etretat. I spend just enough time there to realize that I need to spend more time there someday. Even though the weather was a bit off, I spent a good 6 hours trekking up and down paths that hugged this incredible coastline. Yeah, I gotta get back there someday.......

This was taken with my little Olympus waterproof point and shoot by the way...and it kinda like it too, so I painted in a few textures. Hope you like :)

Sunrise on the Bund in Shanghai

A funny thing about me...
I so often wish to be somewhere other than where I am at the moment. A sickness?

Perhaps.....

The stress of the season?

Maybe....

A deep longing to see more of the world?

Aahhh....Bingo!

Anyway, its times like this.......tonight after arriving home after another successful event.....that I realize I am pretty lucky to have seen all that I have in my life, so maybe I should just be happy. I want to see so much more though!

For now, please enjoy this sweet sunrise from Shanghai, China that I was fortunate enough to have enjoyed. :)

Just a bit too close

While bouncing around through some images the other day from a previous trip, I came across this one.....and had to laugh. Looks like the smart car is a bit smarter than the drivers in this case. Yikes!

Democratic Convention Media Village

As I check out the latest coverage of the Inaugural Events, I really feel out of the loop! Sure, we are working on a local event.....quite a sizable private celebration none the less....but not quite like being in Washington. For me, its easy to recall fondly, my involvement on the last Inauguration.

I was there to design and oversee the lighting for a couple of events. There is nothing really like working on anything that the President is involved in. I have had the good fortune of lighting him at least 8 times. I must admit that the tension, stress, energy, and excitement that is in the air is quite intoxicating. To say that I miss it is kind of an understatement. All that being said, I wish the best to all involved and hope the event go off as planned.

Since I couldn't find any images worth a damn from four years ago, I present this one. While working on the DNC this summer (in a very small capacity I might add), this center gathering area in the secure media village area always seemed to come alive at sunset!

One more thing, let's all give this administration a few months to get kicking in before the criticism starts. The world has enough negative energy floating around doesn't it? Try focusing on what you can do and how you can be more responsible. Here's to the next 4 years!

reflections

In an ongoing promise this week, I am trying to post some simple and uncluttered images. Not sure why.....maybe because it's in sharp contrast to the week we have ahead of us at work....anything else but simple. As always, even with all the chaos that is bound to unfold as the week progresses, I am sure we will come out shining. We always do! I have a great team and after the last 2 days, I think we are off to a great start.

Anyway.....

This one was created while I was in the San Juan Islands a few months ago. I noticed Laurie Excel taking shots of boat reflections and decided to do the same. This one was created with multiple images and then layers were created in Photoshop. I then used layer masks, multiple blend modes, and.....

Ahh, who am I bullshittin', I can't remember exactly what I did at all!

My only regret is that I didn't capture more of these. I kinda like this one. Hope you do too :)

Not up North...thats for sure

Even though summer in Florida can be pretty brutal, you can't beat our winters. Here's a quick shout out to everyone up in Pennsylvania shoveling out their driveways today!

The sun is setting....quick.....where to go!

I can think of many times, too many times actually, that I have been scrambling to find a great location as the sun sets on the end of another great day. If I feel that the sky is about to explode into color, the heart beats fast, I start to sweat, and then drive like a maniac! (alright, maybe an exaggeration....)

The hard part for me frequently is finding a cool location or subject. As the sun was dropping like a freakin' bowling ball on this particular evening, I remember swerving into this area doing about 80mph, slamming on the breaks, and grabbing the camera. Alright, here I am....great lighting.....but what to shoot?

I didn't think much of it until I was in the right mood the other night and processed it this way. Hope you like :)

A few from the weekend - part 2

As promised, here are a couple more from the weekend. Although there seems to be a trend to cut back a bit this season on just about every event, a Carnival in Rio theme demands a bit of over the top color.

As the guests arrived from Cocktails, the room was alive with vibrant "Carnival" colors.

For me, there is great pride in seeing an event come together. The more I work on these events, the more I realize what a great wealth of details and subjects there are to capture. I remember a couple of seasons ago, around mid April it dawned on me that I was just working too hard and was a little burnt out to even take the camera to the gigs. I can honestly say that this blog has driven me to try to save as many events as I can in their eternal light. (All right, that REALLY sounded stupid!)

You get the picture.......

Enjoy :)

A few from the weekend - part 1

Well, the last time I posted a car image from here it was a Mazauratti. For this event, it was a Mini Cooper....and yes.....it did get auctioned this time! Sign of the times I guess. 

The theme of the evening was a Carnival in Rio.....quite a colorful night and perfect for HDR processing!

Each table's centerpiece had a unique mask and treatment. Colors from LED lighting created a contrasting background to the colorful decor.

Cocktails out by the pool on a beautiful Florida evening in January.

As always, the crazed photographer takes full advantage of the quite time before doors to capture the feel of the evening.....and of course, clown around a bit.

Look for a few more images tomorrow from this event!