All Images Copyrighted ©2010 G. Mitchell Davis
Welcome to the Blog…..
This is my new blog. I’m not going to bore you with everything I shoot, just some of the highlights. If you have never been here before I suggest that you start at the begining with my first blog entry (Click Here) and read forward. Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away there was a planet called Nikon………
Posted August 21st, 2009 at 4:32 pm.
Fearless Taylor….
Tonight was the opening night of the Taylor Swift “Fearless” Tour. What a great show and a shining new Star. I have never seen anyone take so long to go through a meet and greet. Taylor met and hugged each and everyone of her fans. Saw some familiar faces backstage. Taylor, hope you enjoy the book, Robert next time let me know your coming and I’ll bring the “bangers and mint jelly”!
Posted March 4th, 2010 at 9:15 pm.
You love my lady lumps…..
The Black Eyed Peas “Pump it up” with The Energy Never Dies World Tour. All I can say is it was “Fergalicious”!
Posted February 10th, 2010 at 10:03 pm.
John Mayer – The Battle Studies Tour…..
John turns out to be such a great blues guitar player that I just had to play with some old fashion grainy black & white images
Posted February 5th, 2010 at 11:21 pm.
Professional Bull Riders….
After watching these 2,000 pound bulls toss 200 pound cowboys around like rag dolls, you could not pay me enough to climb on one! I had a couple of close calls and I’m shooting from in shark cage!
Posted January 30th, 2010 at 7:16 pm.
Happy New Year…..
This year brings up yet another of life’s great questions… Is there life after death? What is the meaning of life? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a toosie pop? And now… is it Two Thousand Ten or Twenty Ten? The World my never know!
Posted December 31st, 2009 at 2:18 am.
NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship…
Penn State wins an unprecedented third straight NCAA Championship over Texas. For me shooting sports it’s always in the eyes of the players. That far away stare tells you everything.
Posted December 19th, 2009 at 10:38 pm.
93.3 Jingle Balls….
93.3 FLZ’s Jingle Ball is Tampa Bay’s holiday concert featuring a star studded lineup of acts. The performers included The Fray, Jordin Sparks, Pitbull, 3Oh!3, Sean Kingston, Boys Like Girls, Jason DeRulo, Iyaz, Ke$ha and We The Kings.
Posted December 13th, 2009 at 11:57 pm.
SEC/Big East Invitational…..
What is it about Basketball that makes grown men loose their minds. This sport has to have the craziest fans anywhere! Game one: Mississippi State beats DePaul 76-45 and then Syracuse over the Florida Gators 85-73.
Posted December 10th, 2009 at 9:50 pm.
Lingerie Football?
OK let me get this straight, girls playing football in lingerie. I covered the first game of the “LFL” Lingerie Football League between the Tampa Breeze and the Chicago Bliss. Girls playing football in bras…. they may have something here. Sorry to say that Chicago beat Tampa 27-18
Posted December 4th, 2009 at 9:31 pm.
KISS… my love gun!
The KISS train came through town this week. Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley can still rock it. Always a great show to shoot!
Posted October 21st, 2009 at 8:57 pm.
Shampoo rinse and repeat….
I worked with Metallica last night. Opening acts were Gojira and Lamb of God. METAL, METAL Hard Core METAL! As I was shooting the show I had to keep waiting for hair to blow out of the performers faces. And that’s when it hit me… all of the Heavy Metal tours are always sponsored by Budwiser or Jägermeister, so why not Shampoos? Can you imagine the budget for hair care products? Wouldn’t you use Lamb of God Shampoo? I’m just saying I think there is a missing market here. The Head & Shoulders Tour….
Posted October 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 pm.
Green Day Before the Lobotomy…..
Where’s Waldo? During the second song of this show Billie Joe Armstrong dove off the stage and disappeared into the audience. I actually lost him in the crowd. He showed up 3 sections and 20 rows away from the stage. The next thing I know his playing guitar sitting in a girls lap. He returns to the stage dragging a young boy behind him. It was pretty cool, I’m so use to meeting rock stars with gorilla like body guards surrounding them it was nice to see someone so close to their fans.
Posted August 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 pm.
SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament….
The 2009 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament took place on March 12-15, 2009 in Tampa, Florida at the St. Pete Times Forum. Mississippi State took the Tournament over Tennessee 64-61. You know as much as I like watching the players the coaches are a great subject to shoot.
Posted March 12th, 2009 at 8:32 pm.
Xtreme International Ice Racing….
Speedway bikes and quads are modified to compete on the hockey ice rink. There are over 2000 metal studs added to the tires and there are NO BRAKES!
Posted February 27th, 2009 at 9:34 pm.
Ruth Eckerd Hall….
I’ve now started working with Ruth Eckerd Hall over in Clearwater. It’s a really nice venue and a bit more intimate only holding 2,200 fans. Also the shows are a bit different for me, your not going to see Metallica here, it’s more on the lines of Broadway show. George Benson, Julio Iglesias, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Dame Edna, Jerry Lewis and Hairspray. The best part is I get to work with my favorite boss of all times Holly Brown!
Posted February 12th, 2009 at 7:38 pm.
The Forum’s busiest week yet….
The week of Super Bowl 43 in Tampa was insane. For the St. Pete Times Forum it was one of our most successful weeks ever. Three Concerts and a Lightning Game. Celine Dion, The Eagles, Dane Cook and the Lightning vs Philadelphia Flyers. Parties every night and oh yea a little thing called the Super Bowl. Next time I’m leaving town, it was crazy!
Posted February 1st, 2009 at 9:04 pm.
Dane Cook Super Bowl Weekend….
Oren Koules the owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning surprised Dane with a one of a kind, Gibson Les Paul Robot Guitar. Dane was actually speechless.
Posted January 31st, 2009 at 10:41 pm.
Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey Circus….
OK Superman had Kryptonite, My secret is I suffer from Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns.
Posted January 7th, 2009 at 9:33 pm.
Highway to hell….
How can you not love Angus Young. This dude just Rocks IT!
Posted December 21st, 2008 at 9:32 pm.
The Keeper or The Omen….
Today I brought home my new baby. She’s a 7 week old Rottweiler puppy, pure German Blood line, DNA registered with the AKC. She is beautiful, She is also the demon spawn of Satan himself. Never before have a had a dog that can get into so much trouble so quickly. Turn your eye for even one second and she has destroyed something. Don’t let that cute face fool you, she’s a Monster, A MONSTER I tell you!
Posted December 8th, 2008 at 9:38 pm.
Today my heart is broken….
Last night I had to put Kobe the wonder dog to sleep. She had contracted cancer and I thought she was doing well. It seems in one day she took a turn for the worse. I held her in my arms as she took her last breath. I had forgotten how painful this was. The next day I learned that it could be even more painful. It seems that at the SAME time I was at the Vet’s putting Kobe to sleep my dear friend Ernest Olds was taking his last breath. Ernest passed away from heart failure, I will miss them both more than I can say….
Posted October 13th, 2008 at 7:01 pm.
Arrr there be Pirates here Matey….
OK there are days at work and then there are days at work…. Today I was taken captive and forced by a client to spend the day at sea on a 2.5 million dollar, 65′ Marquis Yacht. This boat was sick, you could eat off the floor of the engine room. It was another shoot for Flair Magazine. The model was Orsolya and Kim Ulmer did makeup for me. Kim’s husband is my dive buddy Tony, all I could think about was if we hijack the boat we could be in Key West by sunrise!
Posted July 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm.
I’ll take the Lobster Roll….
Today I did another shoot for the duPont Registry with Vinny Lecavlier. This issue of the Tampa Bay Magazine was all about Tampa celebrities top 10 picks. We met up at Vinny’s favorite restaurant Roy’s. Vinny and I have a little private joke among ourselves. Seems there was this 360 Ferrari spider and a Dinan BMW M3 on the expressway one night. Guess who took their foot out of it first?
Posted May 30th, 2008 at 7:58 pm.
Barak Obama for America Rally….
I can’t tell you how proud I was to be able to photograph Barack Obama on one of his campaign stops in Florida. OK the Secret Service guys were a little bit scary but it was well worth the time…..
Posted May 21st, 2008 at 12:09 am.
Seether & Ddrums….
Today’s assignment was to run over to the House of Blues in Orlando and photograph John Humphrey, drummer for the band Seether. John turned out to be a very nice guy.
Posted April 29th, 2008 at 11:57 pm.
Bruuuuuce Springsteen and the E Street Band….
I’ve been shooting Springsteen for a long, long time now. I always get a laugh when someone at the concert ask me why is the audience booing. For those of you that don’t know when 20,000 people say BRUUUUCE is does sound a lot like boos. Who would dare boo Sprintsteen! Killer show, 3 hours none stop!
Posted April 21st, 2008 at 12:06 am.
Tarver vs Woods….
Antonio Tarver (27-4, 19 KOs) delighted his hometown audience by winning the IBF light-heavyweight title from Clinton Woods (41-4-1, 24 KOs).
Posted April 12th, 2008 at 12:05 am.
Women’s Final Four B-Ball….
This year for the first time the St. Pete Times Forum is hosting the Women’s Final 4 Championship. This was my first time shooting women’s college basketball. I’ve got to tell you I was surprised, I think the women hit harder than the men. Of course Stanford lost to The Tennessee Lady Volunteers and Coach Pat Summitt 48-64.
Posted April 8th, 2008 at 11:34 pm.
Stars on Ice….
This has to be the hardest sport I have ever shot. First of all they skate faster than Hockey players. But the worst part is there is always dramatic lighting. So try shooting a Hockey game in the dark. The great part is I get to shoot some of the biggest Olympic Figure Skaters in the world like John Zimmerman and Kyoko Ina, Katarina Witt and Jamie Sale & Davis Pelletier.
Posted March 1st, 2008 at 11:02 pm.
Skirt Magazine….
I’ve picked up a new client Skirt Magazine. It’s a magazine all about women, their work, play and families. The challenge is the turn over. I’m given one hour to do the shoot. It’s hard to be creative in that length of time. That’s why I call these drive by shootings. It’s a great magazine and I work with an absolutely wonderful Art Director, Chris Kuhn.
Posted February 28th, 2008 at 8:44 pm.
Code 5150…..
For those of you that don’t know LAPD uses the radio code 5150 when they send out the guys with the straight jackets. I wonder why Eddie Van Halen chose that name for his guitars and recording studio. Funny Eddie didn’t seem crazy to me. However the concert was crazy loud, the loudest concert I’ve ever heard.
Posted February 18th, 2008 at 11:00 pm.
NCAA College Hockey….
I started working at the St. Pete Times Forum / Ice Palace in 1997. Back then it was just concerts and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now a days it’s more and more. NCAA Women’s Final Four in 2008, the first and second round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship in 2008, the Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship in 2009, the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship in 2009 and the NCAA Frozen Four in 2012. In a warm up for the 2012 NCCA Hockey Frozen 4 we hosted the Lightning Hockey Classic, University of Massachusetts vs Notre Dame.
Posted December 29th, 2007 at 10:21 pm.
How fragile the world is….
While we were in Kenya they were having their first Presidential elections. Today the results came in and there are now Riots throughout the country. Police in Kenya have confirmed hundreds of people have die in the conflicts. Tonight’s news told a story of people being chased into a church in which the doors were chained shut and then set on fire. There are now dead bodies lying in the streets of the city I was just in weeks ago…..
Posted December 27th, 2007 at 10:01 pm.
NCAA Men’s B-Ball….
Friday night, the St. Pete Times Forum will get a preview of what to expect come March, when Tampa hosts the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Men’s and the Women’s Final Four Championship. Florida Gators vs the Vermont Catamounts. This is a good warm up for me since the Forum is getting March Madness next year. Scoreboard Gators over Vermont 86-61. Go Gators!!
Posted November 30th, 2007 at 10:21 pm.
There’s no place like home….
It’s our last day in Kenya, we check out of the hotel and head for the airport. Only to find out that once again British Airways has cancelled our flight. Now the problem is there is no hotel to check back into. So the only thing to do is sleep on the floor of the Nairobi airport. The next flight out of the country tomorrow afternoon. We make it to London only to run into the same problem with cancelled flights. So it’s a 4 hour layover in London. Eleven hours later we reach the US and land in Philly, only to find out that we missed the last flight from Philadelphia to Tampa. The next flight, tomorrow morning. Total travel time back from Africa 2 1/2 days. Thank God I’m back in the Land of cold milk, the 24 hour a day 7-11 and MY BED!
Posted November 26th, 2007 at 10:29 pm.
Motel Hell….
Does everyone remember the movie “Motel Hell”. The story is that of a farmer who runs a hotel where a lot of tourist would mysteriously disappear. The farmer also made prize winning sausage with a special “secret” ingredient inside. Out in the bush you would find these outpost every once in a while. There would not be another building or village for miles. So does anyone find this photo a bit disturbing? A Medical Center, A Hotel and a Butcher Shop…. I’m just saying…
Posted November 26th, 2007 at 9:41 pm.
African Safari – The People….
The people that we met on this trip was a very large part of our journey. I was amazed by some of the things I learned about other cultures. One man we met at the Samburu tribe, no one knew how old he was. The interesting part of the story was that the farthest he had ever journeyed in his whole life was to Nairobi, 45 miles away. Here I had traveled 8,715+ miles and this man his whole life had never been more than 50 miles from where he had been born. It’s a different way of life here. Click on the thumbnail to see 25 more photos.
Posted November 26th, 2007 at 8:15 pm.
African Safari – The Animals….
The Big 5… as it’s known, is the goal of all photographers on photo safari. The most sought after animals include Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalo & Rhinos. We were able to capture each and everyone. Thanks to our guide Alfred we even photographed some very rare animals and moments. I photographed a Leopard’s kill of a Dikdik, photographs of a very rare cat called a Serval Cat and even a Lion mating. Actually the only animal that we did not find was a cheetah but sorry to say they are getting more and more rare. Click on the thumbnail to see a slideshow of 30 of my images.
Posted November 26th, 2007 at 1:23 am.
The Kilimani Children Orphanage….
This was a day that I hope will change my life forever. Today we visited the Kilimani Children Orphanage. Every child here lost both of their parents to either the aids epidemic or to civil unrest. I expected the Aids and HIV deaths but what an eye opener the stories of the political rebellions. Now I know it was only a drop in the bucket but I had brought some Tampa Bay Lightning jackets that were going to be thrown away. So there were now 50 kids with new clothes. If nothing else we made them smile for just one day out of their lives. I even brought the Headmaster a team jersey. The hard truth is some of these kids would be dead within months themselves. Most were HIV positive. Makes you stop and think doesn’t it?
Posted November 24th, 2007 at 10:21 pm.
I’ll have the Ostrich with the cranberry sauce….
In what has to be one of the most surreal moments of my life, I’m celebrating Thanksgiving in the Masai Mara of Kenya Africa. We are at the Lake Nakuru Lodge and they have laid out a big feast for us. But here is the weird part, the gentleman at the table next to me is the spitting image of Salvador Dalí, right down to the waxed mustache. There is a strolling musician playing guitar and singing “Welcome to the Hotel California” with a very, very thick Swahili accent. Tony has, how do I say this, had a large number of “Tuskers” the local beer and is singing right along with the guitar player. And the cherry on top of this acid flash back is the fact that right outside the lodge is a 500 pound male lion that is having sex. So every 10 minutes you hear the lion roar so loud that it rattled the windows. Turns out that lions have sex every 10 minutes for a couple of days. Happy Thanksgiving, Pass the gravy please….
Posted November 22nd, 2007 at 10:28 pm.
Journey to the center of the earth….
Today we crossed the equator, latitude 0, the center of the planet, and of course there is a tourist trap there waiting for you. I was shocked, here we are in the middle of no where and there is a gift shop. Now the funny part is the natives will prove to you that you are standing exactly at the equator for the price of $1.00 US. This I had to see, so they walk you over to this sign that is the “exact” point of the equator. Then they will pour water on a rock and the water will run off to the left, next they pour the water again and it runs off to the right. “You see the exact center of the earth!” OK, P. T. Barnum was right there is a sucker born every minute. Then Frank whips out his GPS unit only to find that in fact we are still 15 miles away from Latitude 0! I was wondering where the dotted line was.
Posted November 21st, 2007 at 9:32 pm.
Oh My God, clean clothes…..
Believe it or not British Airways meets us out in the bush and hand me my suitcase…. clean clothes at last. I’ve been in the same clothes for almost 4 days now. I can’t understand why everyone makes me sit in the back of the van.
Posted November 20th, 2007 at 8:53 am.
For God sakes Frank give the monkey what he wants…
The safari lodge is nice enough that they serve us coffee and bagels each morning. It’s a very peaceful scene, sitting next to a river at sunrise until you realize that the river is full of crocodiles and there are lions on the other side of the river watching you. As the sun comes up you hear the sounds of nature, birds chirping, monkeys hooting and screeching. Here comes Frank for his morning coffee, there is a monkey sitting at his table. Of course Frank thinks the best thing to do is run towards the monkey to scare it off. Frank charges the monkey and it doesn’t move, it does not even blink, then Frank stops only to have the monkey charge him. I was laughing so hard as my buddy now runs like a little girl with the monkey hot on his tail. Seems the monkeys will attack the guest in order to steal the sugar bowl. Thank God we all got those Tetanus shots.
Posted November 20th, 2007 at 6:32 am.
Out into the Bush….
Today we start our journey into the jungle. Our first stop will be the Samburu Game reserve. First things first we meet our guide for the tip Alfred. Right off the bat we realize that this is going to be a great trip. Alfred is funny and very outgoing. So we pile into the safari van and off we go. Now one thing I did not take into consideration was the condition of the roads in Kenya. We travel down a dirt road full of potholes for 5 hours. Alfred is a great driver we should sign him up for the Baja 1000. 50-60 mph down dirt roads will wear you out. But we safely make it to our first lodge. It’s starting to sink in that we are in Africa, as we pull into the lodge we have to wait while elephants move away from the gate. Tony… I don’t think we’re in Kanas anymore!
Posted November 19th, 2007 at 6:47 pm.
Jambo Jambo from Kenya….
We finally make it to Nairobi and I can’t tell you how happy I am to be standing up. That was way to long to sit still. I’m going to have to be sedated for the return trip. So now we make our way to the airport baggage claim (if you can call it that). The whole trip I have been worried about one thing. My camera equipment. We watch them throw baggage off the plane and sure enough there’s my camera case. However we wait and wait and no more luggage. Great, I’ve been in the same clothes for almost 2 days now and they’ve lost my luggage….
Posted November 19th, 2007 at 5:50 pm.
Passport in hand here we go….
So as I drive to the airport it’s starting to sink in… I’m going to Africa! Lucky for me I’m going with some great friends. Tony is a trained Paramedic and Frank is an Attorney. What do you think I’m stupid or something? I’m not going to Africa without a medical and legal support team. So it’s a plane ride from Tampa to Philadelphia, 925 miles, then Philly to Heathrow in London 3,549 miles. There we have a 3 hour layover so we can have a nice dinner and then it’s London to Nairobi Kenya Airport. Or so we thought! You’ve just got to love British Airways customer service. Turns out the flight from Philly to London is cancelled, next flight 5 hours from now. So we catch the redeye flight to London and because we are late for the connecting flight we have to run through Heathrow airport. I actually saw London for 3 minutes and 25 seconds, they were holding the plane for us to board. So now it’s onto another plane for another 4,241 miles 12 HOURS! Total flight time 27 hours 32 minutes.
Posted November 17th, 2007 at 5:13 pm.
A shoot in Columbia….
OK not really, I’m doing another shoot for Flair Magazine down at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. The Columbia is owned by my friend Richard Gonzmart and has been in business since 1905. Best Spanish food anywhere and a great location to do a photo shoot. It was fantastic, killer food, great clothes and a fabulous model. It was my first time working with Adrienne, she was wonderful to work with. I think the shoot turned out well!! What do your think?
Posted November 5th, 2007 at 4:21 pm.
I’ve got good news and bad news….
OK the good news is now that I’ve had all my shots, I will never catch Yellow fever. The bad news is I may never be able to move my arm again. I’ve never seen anything like this. The yellow fever shot was 1/100 of 1cc, it was the smallest shot I have ever seen. My arm has turned black and blue and I feel like I let Muhammad Ali use it as a punching bag. OUCH!
Posted October 31st, 2007 at 11:51 pm.
I’m a pincushion, gotta face the facts…..
Why do I have that ZZ Top song playing in my head? Let see, well I’m leaving for Africa in a couple of weeks, so I had to go down and get my shots for traveling out of the country. Now going to Africa is not like going to France, so there were a lot of shots involved. I mean a lot of shots! Besides the normal stuff like a Tetanus booster I had to add shots for Hepatitis A & B, an Influenza shot, meningitis and a polio booster, Typhoid Fever, Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever. Now that I’ve had 7 shots, I have to start taking Malaria pills for the next 4 weeks and then the week after I come home. I just keep hearing the nurse telling me whatever you do DON’T drink any water. She says if you drink the local water it’s not whether you might catch Typhoid Fever, it’s YOU WILL catch Typhoid!!! What have I gotten myself into here?
Posted October 29th, 2007 at 11:41 pm.
Swoon 5…..
OK why is it that when a band like Maroon 5 comes to my venue all of the girls come out of the woodwork. Most of the Marketing Department at the Forum are women. Someone like Adam Levine comes to our building and they all get into fights over who’s going to meet the band. Each act that comes to our venue gets a Tampa Bay Lightning jersey with their name on it. So here I am backstage waiting with a bunch of giggly girls all blushing about Adam. At least none of them fainted.
Posted October 21st, 2007 at 10:59 pm.
ESPN Football….
Started shooting for ESPN and University of South Florida Football. It’s been a while since I shot sports so this is going to be a challenge. Walking through the tunnel at Raymond James Stadium it all started coming back to me. The roar of the crowd, the smell of the turf and oh yea college cheerleaders. I love my job! Quarterback Mat Grothe took the USF Bulls to victory 37-10 over North Carolina. GO BULLS!
Posted September 21st, 2007 at 3:14 pm.
Show me the bling….
I did another shoot for Flair Magazine today. I was tempted to slip out the backdoor of the studio. We had over $300,000.00 worth of jewelry on the set. I had a great crew again, I like working with Flair they really put together well thought out shoots. Alla the model worked out great but the truth is the star of the shoot today was none other then Mr. Darcy the wonder dog.
Posted September 10th, 2007 at 8:14 pm.
I’m going to go Postal….
Just give me what I want and no one gets hurt. I stopped smoking today, the good news is no one has died…. YET!
Posted August 8th, 2007 at 11:02 pm.
30 Seconds of Beyonce…
Here is the shot that I got at the Beyonce Knowles concert tonight. Now you might say “hey, I’ve seen that photo before”. And the truth is you have, in every city at every show she’s played. Every photographer was given the first 30 seconds of the first song of the concert. So if it was Tampa or Tokyo Japan every newspaper had the SAME EXACT shot….. Nuf said!!
Posted July 21st, 2007 at 8:37 pm.
Oh my God they killed Kenny…
Here is a show that I’ve been waiting a long, long time for, The Police! I’ve shot Sting at least 5 times but never the Police. Yet another of my top 10 best concerts. There I was shooting Stewart Copeland on drums, Andy Summers on guitar and Sting on Bass when it hit me, Oh my God it’s the POLICE! You just can’t miss that Copeland drum beat, it’s unmistakable. Then I busted out laughing, for some reason I would have never guessed Andy Summers as a South Park fan. Check out his guitar strap….
Posted July 11th, 2007 at 5:58 pm.
You can lead a horse to water…..
Today I did a shoot for Flair Magazine with my favorite Art Director Shelly Archbold, AKA “Tinker Bell”. Shelly is wonderful to work with and so much fun, it’s hard to call it work. We shot on location up in Brooksville at a horse ranch. Everything was great, we had killer wardrobe, a great crew and a nice location. One problem, no one asked the model about her phobia of horses! No worries, we just fed our model Willow some horse tranquilizers we found lying around and made it through the shoot. I think from now on that should be on every model’s comp card. Hi, I’m Buffy, 5′-9″, 36-24-36 and I have a fear of spiders!! Click on the thumbnail to see the rest of the shoot.
Posted July 6th, 2007 at 10:28 pm.
Celebrity Car Magazine….
Did another shoot with duPont Registry’s Celebrity Car magazine today. I’ve been meeting some of the greatest sports celebrities working with this publication. Boxing Champion Antonio Tarver, Motorcross Champion Bubba Stewart, Buccaneer Cato June, Indy Car Champ Dan Wheldon, wrestler Dave Batista, Buccaneer Derrick Brooks and now WWE Superstar John Cena.
Posted May 7th, 2007 at 8:06 pm.
Sonny Mayo for Mesa Boogie Amps….
While at the House of Blues in Orlando I put together a shoot for Sonny Mayo to be used by one of his sponsors Mesa Boogie amps. The same day we did a shoot for Morgan Rose and Ddrums. Then I finished out the day by shooting Sevendust for their new website. You got to love it, one day, three shoots, three different clients.
Posted April 18th, 2007 at 11:09 pm.
AVP Tampabay Open….
The AVP stadium went up in 2 days at the St. Pete Times Forum. Kerri Walsh and her beach volleyball partner, Misty May-Treanor won the tournament. I took pictures of the Men’s finals also, but who cares they don’t look as cute in their bikinis as the girls do!
Posted March 31st, 2007 at 6:01 pm.
Sevendust Alpha CD….
OK it’s off to a secret location somewhere in Atlanta Georgia to start recording the band Sevendust’s next CD “Alpha”. For a Music Photographer it doesn’t get any better than this. 3-4 days of just shooting what goes on behind closed doors. For me this is the exciting part because no one else gets to see this stuff. Add to that, this is the funniest group of people that I have ever met. If the music doesn’t work out for them they should all be stand up comics. My sides hurt from laughing all day..
Posted February 13th, 2007 at 9:42 pm.
Show Dogs and Rock Stars….
Something I love about my job is it’s different every day. One of my clients is the St. Pete Times Forum. One of the busiest venues in the US. So when I heard we were having the finals of the AKC Dog show I had no idea what to expect. There I am backstage trying to get some shots of the groomers and the dogs. Who do I see coming towards me but Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Turns out that Joe breeds German Shepherds. I took some photos of Joe, his wife and son with a Neapolitan Mastiff. This photo is not an optical Illusion this is a 200 pound dog.
Posted January 21st, 2007 at 9:56 pm.
Shoot Morgan Rose for Drum Magazine
Tonight is New Years night and I got a last minute call to cover drummer Morgan Rose of the band Sevendust for Drum Magazine.
Posted December 31st, 2006 at 10:39 pm.
Ferraris on Ice!
I did my first shoot with duPont Registry’s Celebrity Car magazine. The assignment, take hockey superstar Vinny Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning his $200,000.00 360 Ferrari Spider and his Hummer out onto the center ice. Can you say 400 horse power Zamboni? When the shoot was over Vinny jumped in the Ferrari and just tapped the gas, needless to say he lit the rear end up. You could not even let the clutch out without spinning the tires. We ended up pushing the car off the ice in one piece.
Posted December 4th, 2006 at 12:09 pm.
The Greatest Concert I’ve ever seen….
Ok without a doubt these guys are truly the Rock Gods. Out of all the concerts I’ve covered over the past years, I have always been away on assignment somewhere else when U2 came to town. This time I was lucky, not only did I get to see the show, I got to cover it. It was well worth the wait. There are Rock Stars and then there are ROCK STARS. Bono Rocks!
Posted November 22nd, 2006 at 4:56 pm.
Extra Starch Please….
Always trying new things, I put together test shoots. That way I can try out new lighting techniques, play around with the images in Photoshop without loosing a client. So after talking with my buddy Morgan Rose, I put together a shoot at a laundromat at 2 AM. Morgan needed some new promotional photos, so we grabbed his wife and off to the nastiest laundry we could find. The bad news is “A” cymbal company and “A” drumstick company thought the images were to hot to publish and turned down Morgan for using them. The only person brave enough to use them was Rob Warner of Head First Drums. I’ve got to move to Europe where nudity is not a sin!
Posted November 8th, 2006 at 7:41 pm.
I’ll take the cheese soup…
Well it’s off to Madison Wisconsin, the land of cheese, to do a shoot for Drum Magazine and Morgan Rose of Sevendust. This is going to be a rough shoot, I fly in at midnight, get up the next day, unpack equipment, shoot the cover, repack and then fly back that same night. Oh well who needs sleep. I have so much fun working with the boys from Sevendust. Me and Morgan go way back. I’ve know Morgan since he was 11 years old. It’s like working with your little brother. Everything was going great until Morgan came up with the idea of being held upside down over his drum kit…. we don’t like talking about the resulting accident!
Posted October 25th, 2006 at 8:40 pm.
Poster for Sevendust…..
This is a new promo poster put together for the band Sevendust.
Posted October 14th, 2006 at 10:10 pm.
My first CD cover….
Today Sevendust released their CD “Next”. It’s my first CD cover! A pretty cool feeling to walk by the racks in the record store and see your work staring back at you. Thanks Boys!
Posted October 10th, 2006 at 12:48 pm.
Lord Stanley McGraw….
OK this is an old one but a good one. The week that the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup we had Tim McGraw in concert. It was crazy, everyone was like little kids wanting their photo taken with the trophy. So here we are backstage with Tim and the trophy, what you don’t see is the line of people waiting to have their photo taken. And yes that’s me and the cup.
