Things are moving at a pretty fast pace these days. I have so much work I’ve shot and most of it being publication work, I have to wait… and wait for release. Nevertheless, a shoot like this comes along and its quite the opposite. Shoot, Edit, Share. Time is everything.

Chris Caswell contacted me a month or two ago to shoot another campaign for Heyman Talent Agency. The last campaign was such a success and so much fun, I immediately cleared my schedule and agreed.

Not only would the advertisement be for Heyman, but also a portfolio piece for the 6 models that are set to head north to New York City for agency meetings at the end of June. Planning started immediately and we came up with several ideas and locations. It wasn’t easy by any means! We went back and forth on who was apart of the team, where we would shoot it and what date the shoot would be scheduled on.

That seems to always be the hardest part, it’s never the execution, its simply the planning beforehand to make it happen. After a week or two and a couple of meetings we finally landed on a date and had our team in place. But, location was still up in the air. First, we had our eyes on a rock quarry on the east end of the city, then we had plans to shoot at a beautiful poolside location called Lakeside, both turned out to be broken leads. Chris finally made the executive decision and set the location to a remote part of Waterfront Park. Honestly, I wasn’t confident we could make it work, but, we had to make the best of it. 

Since Heyman Talent photographer and coach Chris Kaufman would be on board and on location, whom mentored young stars like Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence and Nicole Scherzinger famed Pussycat Dolls, we reached out to WHAS11; a local news channel to potentially cover the shoot. It wouldn’t be the most enthralling news in the world, but future stars and any news about J-Law can attract an audience quickly. The bouncing of dates and locations made scheduling a live report nearly impossible to plan. Nevertheless, after a plethora of emails, in the end we were able to get a crew out to film the shoot and work a couple of interviews.

Day of the shoot; I woke up worried about rainy weather, I went to bed worried about the deathly sunburn I had received as a result of the head pounding sun. The day was flawless and everything went off without a hitch. We managed to squeeze in two very different sets on the Waterfront without the result looking as if we were actually in a park.

For months I’d been eyeing a Westcott Scrim Jim and it finally arrived a few days before the shoot. I was anxious beyond belief to break it out on a hot mid-summer day, this was perfect opportunity. The 2-3 stop silk created a gorgeous overhead light and its the sole reason these image came out as they did.

The entire team played a crucial part in the success of the day. I want to personally thank the fantastic team we had on board that day, as well as a special thanks to Cheryl Franck who brought in a king’s feast of food for the models and staff.

Below, I display the side by side comparison of the SOOC version and the edited version. This is a composite image and I spent a lot of meticulous time with the highlights and color.