Our shoot with platinum recording artist Sean Kingston took place in Miami/South Beach at the very stunning Hotel Victor. The crew and I got there the day before the shoot to finalize pre-pro. Initially we were limited on where we could shoot, what areas we could shut public access down, etc. That quickly changed when I got a call from MTV saying they were coming to the shoot to film it for an episode of My Super Sweet 16. Hotel Victor bent over backwards to give us what we needed and what we needed was the Penthouse. It took up the entire top floor but darn, it was booked the day of the shoot. Again, another stroke of luck it was booked by an NBA team who wouldn’t be there until the evening. SCORE, literally.

Come shoot day we were ready for action. At 7am we had six different lighting setups pre-lit and ready for Sean WAY ahead of time. Wardrobe, hair and makeup people were ready to go and as with all celeb shoots, there is a bit of a waiting game. Kinda like Christmas, you wait to wake up bright and early only to have everything unwrapped in a matter of minutes. Around noon Sean arrived with his own crew in tow, his hair was trimmed up, makeup check, wardrobe was predetermined based on the coloring of each room/setup we established, time to bang out the photos and send him on his way. Rumor has it he was going car shopping for his birthday after the shoot so I didn’t want to keep the big fella any longer than he wanted to be kept. We had an hour with Sean and for celebrity shoots that much time is a luxury.

The well oiled machine working on this shoot killed it. From lighting to styling everything ran super smooth. The best part, shooting tethered and Mr. Kingston expressing his approval. In my humble opinion, that’s better than a Christmas gift any day.

Poetic Rage had mixed needs for their shoot. We needed to capture a fun, sexy energy for the print ads. Then for the look book we needed the energy of each shirt to come through. Here’s a sampling of what we came up with.

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano doesn’t just design couture, check out the limited edition t-shirt he designed for HRC/Human Rights Campaign. The photos you see here were used for a national ad campaign, outdoor, print and web.

It’s cool to shoot someone as successful and talented as Akon. It’s even better when they are a classy guy and thank every member of your crew personally at the end of a fast paced shoot. We didn’t have much time to get the shot and his people had some major multi-tasking going. Akon was being interviewed for Jamrock Magazine, his tour manager was in the middle of securing a venue for a big show and the designs for his clothing line (Konvict Clothing) needed to be approved. The jacket you see here is part of the Konvict line. Here’s the kicker, after the shoot he was so stoked with the results that he hooked me up with this exact jacket (only mine is in bright green). Very P.I.M.P. Thank you Akon.

The judges dubbed her as the one to beat, you can check out my client and friend on MTV’s P. Diddy Starmaker. Congrats Monet!