one happy guy

florida, land of retirees who love to drive way to slow. i know i have a few grey hairs that i can attribute to more than my fair share of screaming at the little old lady in front of me. at times it seems the highways and byways in the sunshine state are covered with them.







recently my had my opinion changed. i was hired by "npr" to make some images for a story they were doing on senior drivers. i got to spend the day with thad seymour, who works for a company called itn, as he drove his clients around. thad is a volunteer with the company who assists those who can no longer drive. he was one of the happiest guys i have ever met. curious about everything, and nothing brought him down. he even talked me (not that it took much arm twisting) into having lunch with him at wendy's saying his wife never lets him eat there so we had to strike while the iron was hot.

after we finished with the reportage portion of the story he agree to have some fun with me as i shot portraits.

thanks thad

no one ever said i was smart

as i have for the past three years i traveled to homestead over the weekend to cover three days of the NASCAR championships. it is always a weekend filled with some cool people, long days, and throbbing ear drums. this weekend, however ended with with a twist.

sunday was the big race. i was the lone soldier for the paper i was working for (in years past i was one of three shooters) so i was running around like a mad man. i started out shooting fans in the morning, then just before the race started i found myself shooting the top two drivers (jimmie johnson, and mark martin) on pit road. i knew that after the national anthem was over i would need to make my way to the outside of the track to get some race action shots.

earlier in the day i had decided to try a spot that i haven't been at in a long time during the race. i normally go to turn one, but i wanted to change things up so i went to turn four. in order to get to where i wanted to be i had to walk about a half mile or so from turn one to turn four. there i would enter the gate that separated the fans from the outside of the track. when i got to the gate it was locked, damn!!!! i had two choices at this point i could walk a quarter mile back to the start/finish line and then a quarter mile to turn four (not really a great option as the green flag was going to drop in about 2 minutes), or i could jump the fence and walk about 30 yards to the spot where i would shoot. no brainer really. i had to jump the fence.

i had two cameras around my shoulders, a hip pack, and a 300 mm lens. i looked around to see if there was some one could help me out by handing my gear to me after i got over the fence, which was about chest high, and there was no one remotely close to where i was. meanwhile the cars are on the track and are on their last pace lap before the started of the race. so i jump the fence with all of my gear attached to me. as i am halfway over one of my cameras starts to fall. i reached to save it and in doing so i lost my balance and fell to the ground in full view of the grandstands......



......as i hit the ground i twisted my right knee (which was already bad due to a bmx injury i suffered when i was 9) and bent a toe on my left foot back. both hurt really bad. as i picked myself up i start hearing jeers from the thousands of fans in my immediate area, but i did not have the guts to see if they were cheering for the race or my own stupidity. i hobble my way, much like an old man, to the spot where i will shoot the race from. i got there just in time to shoot the start.....



....there was only one other photographer there at the time but i did get a couple of strange looks from him as i stood on one leg while i shot the race. i made the images i had to make, and then turned around and leaned up against the wall for the next 100 laps.

i decided that i needed to make my way back to the media center which was about a mile walk from where i was. needless to say it took me while. i got to my computer uploaded my images and nursed my wounds as best i could in prepartion for the trophy ceremony at the end of the race. the end of the race comes, and i knew i was gonna have no choice but to jump another wall, twice, and climb on to the tailer the track sets up for the photographer. needless to say i was a sight to behold as the "gimpy" photographer tried to make his way though the hordes of fans and photographers.



i was proud of myself at the end of the day. i managed to get the necessary images, despite have a really hard time walking. the paper was please. that's a good day in my book.

all is well now, and i am healing up nicely. but as my dad always said "no one ever said you were smart". oh how right he was.

sports, sports everywhere

over the past several months i have been lucky enough to shoot some of the biggest names in both the nba, and the nhl. the shoots can be stressful, as you normally get about 5 minutes with the player (if your lucky), but these shoots were a lot of fun despite some of the road blocks.

it all started with me traveling to cleveland, oh to shoot "the chosen one" for l'equipe, the sports illustrated of france.



there definitely was some stress involved with this one. i booked a last minute flight, bought some new bags for all of my lighting gear, and did some test shots before heading to the airport the day before the shoot. when i arrived at my gate if found out that there was mechanical delays in fort lauderdale and was told i would not make my connection until the next day (the day of the shoot). needless to say i was more than a little freaked. when i arrived in atlanta i found out that my connection flight to cleveland was delayed due to weather. THANK GOD.

the stress didn't end there. on the day of the shoot we found out that lebron was in town for lebron james day. according to the magazine we were gonna get him to ourselves, now every major media outlet in the free world was there and competing for time with the king. on top of that the pr guy in charge swore that he had no idea that the magazine was sending a photographer despite having spoken with the magazine for several weeks leading up to the shoot. he and chatted and i got him to agree to giving me some time and space to set up my lights as well as time with lebron. again THANK GOD. the area he gave me to set up the lights was by no means ideal. it was in the corner of a gym and had about 50 people milling around. most of the kept stepping into my gear, and some even stood right in the spot where i was setting up. really people? let's all be professional here.

it all worked out in the end. i was able to overcome all of the obstacles that the photo gods put up in front of me, and i got got some shots that both the magazine and i liked a lot.

below is a lighting diagram that shows my set up for the shots, as well as how the magazine used the images.







after all of the stress with lebron, which i am now glad i went though since it has perpared me to deal with anything that can happen while shooting the big names in the world, i was hired to shoot david booth of the florida panthers.



to my surprise i got less time with booth than i did with lebron, but i was already prepared for that since i had defeated all of the road blocks "the king" threw at me.

the booth shoot was pretty straight forward and i used the exact same lighting set up as i did with lebron. the client wanted something that showed that he is becoming the face of the franchise, and already had a very specific image in mind. they loved what i got for them.

below is how the images was used.



last, but certainly not least i spent a full day shooting the miami heat's dwyane wade and his teammates.





not only was this shoot a lot of fun, but i got to hire my wife as my assistant. deffinetly not a bad way to spend the day. wade is a super nice guy, and was willing to do almost anything i asked of him in the 7 minutes or so he spent with me. he made it really easy to get what the client wanted, and even joked around with my wife. now i just have to becareful that she doesn't get a taste for rich nba stars ;).

the story for this one was about wade's future since his contract is up next year. the client wanted something that was a bit moody and something that was shot from behind to show that he may leave next year. the team gave us no choice on where we could take the image, so i worked the situation and ended up with something that the client loved.

below is the lighting diagram, and how the final image was used.





in the end i learned a lot of valuable lessons, and raised the level of my game during these shoots. over coming obstacles is almost more important than shooting the image, almost. if a road block is put in your way you HAVE to overcome it or you will not get the image your client wants. i know i can overcome anything now. bring it on.

new attitude

i have changed up the design of both my "flash" and my "html" sites. they are now a bit more user friendly, and look just a bit cooler is i do say so myself.

plus if you navigate to photojosh.com from your iphone you can view the new iphone version of my site.





chiggity check 'em, and enjoy!

five....five dollar....

i must say that "businessweek" is one of the best clients i have EVER worked for. not only do they pay great, but they really take care of their photographers. andrew popper, the photo editor i worked with on my most recent shoot for them, was willing to chat with me at length about what they wanted. he listened to my thoughts and concerns and gave his input without being over bearing. you gotta love that!

i was hired by andrew one day after i visited the businessweek offices in new york. during my meeting most of the photo department stopped by to see my work. all of them were extremely upbeat, and made me feel like i was the most important person in the building. within about ten minutes of my arrival they were adding me into their system so they could use me as one of their hired guns. it's not often that you get that kind of treatment from a high profile client. did i mention they pay well?



andrew hired me to shoot some images for "a story they were doing on the subway guys who started the five footlong promotion" for the sandwich chain (who knew those guys were from the fort lauderdale area). on the surface the assignment was pretty simple. the magazine wanted to get some portraits of the three men, both individual and as a group. not too tough i thought, well that was before i chatted with the subject who was given to me as the point person for the shoot. he informed me that we could not shoot at the store he owned due to problems with the signage not being up to date, and that the only other available spot was a newer store down the road. not a big deal, right? well that was what i thought until i arrived at the store. it was literally the smallest subway i have ever seen. there was no seating inside, and no room to make any images of the group inside. i was pretty much out of options so i had to settle for shooting in two different spots outside. that's the name of the game though take what you given, run with it, and make it sing.





given the circumstances i am pleased with the way things turned out. the layout for the magazined worked well, looked great, and i was able to make solid images out of a hard situation. all in all not a bad days work.

plus i got a great new client out of the deal. that's a great days work in my book.