American Mystic

I survived an intense day on only three hours of sleep. Last night I wrote yesterday’s post until late at night and got up this morning at 5 AM to make it on time to the shoot. There was no traffic going over the Williamsburg Bridge. At seven o’clock I was already at the Victoria’s Secret store on 34th Street and Broadway, half an hour before schedule. My good friend Marco gave me a hand today and I could not have done it without him. It was an intense morning. We had a lot of rental equipment that we had to bring from one side of the store to the other what left us a little bit over 20 minuets to unpack and built the set. But with Marco’s help we made it possible.We shot the Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr. Miranda was very sweet and with shoes taller then me (I am 6’2). There was very little time to shoot. I had all together 10 minuets for two setups five minuets for each. In between Miranda was interviewed by a video crew. I am still impressed by her self-confidence. She is truly one of the most self-confident people I ever met.We were done; it was time to break the set down. I think in all the years I have been doing this I never set up or broke down a set as fast as today. We were done. The set was broken down and packed away ready for pick up by the rental company. I got some great shots out of today’s shoot what I mainly credit to Miranda’s beauty.It was still morning. We took a taxi with the equipment I brought but this time not to Williamsburg but to 44th Street on the East Side close to the water. My friend Lucy went to Europe for a couple of weeks and I am house sitting her apartment on the 18th floor with big outside deck with direct view at the Chrysler Building. Thank you Lucy! ☺We went out and bought pasta and vegetables. Marco was cooking since I am a terrible cook and I tried to find a solution to get the blue monster couch out of Michael’s apartment. We sat on the deck having lunch on one of the most beautiful days of the year so far.Marco had to go. I first met with a friend and then went to Williamsburg to pick up some of my stuff to bring to Lucy’s apartment. I went to the gym to meet Tony. After that I went to my friend John Shannon’s CD release party at the “Living Room”.I met John over a year ago when he was the guitar player in the band “Haale”. When he branched out on his own he signed up with “Obliqsound”. When it came to shooting a cover for the album he thought about me. We spent one afternoon in the studio and had at the end an image that we both and Michele the owner of Obliqsound really liked. Since then I shot two more artists for them and probably a third one this weekend. So far I always came up with a couple of great images at the end of each shooting day. This is why Michele promoted me to be the “Official Obliqsound Photographer”.John’s performance at the release party was superb! I can only highly recommend listening to his music and to go out there and buy one of the “American Mystic” albums. This blog is mainly about self-discovery and breaking out of the dream. John’s music follows the same path. The difference is that he plays and sings and I write and shoot. I am very proud to have had a small part in the “American Mystic” project and wish John all the success in the world with his album.   "American Mystic" Manhattan/New York City/Living Room 04-17-08 at 08:30 PM

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