No gnocchi. Solo pesce.

I had the gastronomic good fortune of shooting restaurant mogul Scott Harris, "the Don" of the growing empire of Mia Francesca Italian restaurants for Chicago Magazine. We shot him in the back room of his newest endevour, Salatino's in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood.



Food was styled by chef, Joeseph Farina. The 6 pound lobster (estimated to be +/- 25 years old) was eaten with butter and lemon. Lost to the crop were a dozen giant shrimp, pasta marinara, lobster tail and 6 other drop dead seafood dishes. On top of it all, the restaurant sent the whole crew home with their choices off the menu for dinner. Maybe being Calabrese myself does have its perks.


Styling: Angela Finney
Hair and Makeup: Morgan Blaul
Photo editor: Megan Lovejoy
Retouching: Tim Blokel

Evelyn!

Evelyn is a character in a campaign I recently shot for Anthos (an International flower bulb association) with the fabulous Woodbine Agency. She's one of three lovely ladies, for who planting bulbs is the easiest way to rock their home spaces.

This was a hilarious project that spanned several days in studio shooting multiple print assets and my directing 6 motion/sound pieces.


Print ad for Anthos, Dig, Drop, Done campaign

Check out frisky Evelyn tell us about how her neighbors gardener "Roberto" inspired her to get those bulbs in the ground one day.

http://www.digdropdone.com/about-us-the-ladies-evelyn.html

Agency: Woodbine
Art Direction: Vickie Canada
Styling: Lani Paul
Art Producer: Liz Stovall
Account Direction: Ashley Dillon

Directing "Dig, Drop, Done!"

I recently completed a week long motion and print project promoting tulips and bulb flowers with Woodbine agency in Winston Salem. We shot the project in a North Carolina studio where I directed each of three characters to represent different kinds of gardeners. Marcy is the young mom planting in her yard with the kids. Juliana is the single, urban fashionista who plants in pots on her patio. And Evelyn, our empty-nester also plants in her yard, but with the help of her gardener, Roberto. He's so hot!




The videos are a riot. Check one out below and be sure to watch them all . Click on it.



Stay tuned to see the very expressive print pieces running in magazines.




Agency: Woodbine
Art Direction: Vickie Canada
Styling: Lani Paul
Art Producer: Liz Stovall
Account Direction: Ashley Dillon

A city by another name.

There's water out there (Los Angeles), and there's water over there (New York), but what some forget is that there's also water right here! Chicago, or The Second City, has another lesser known moniker which is The Third Coast. (Truly I don't bother with either to describe this fine chunk of asphalt)

None-the-less, many take their own names from this reproach to The City of Broad Shoulders. Third Coast Percussion is one of them. They are a energetic and creative four piece percussion ensemble based in the Windy City. I may go so far as to call them Post Rock cut from the same cloth as bands like Tortoise and Explosions in the Sky.



I recently photographed Third Coast Percussion under threat of rain near their rehearsal space. They were clear not to be be shot playing, so my concept was to photograph them instead with their instruments magnetically raining down from above.

With the help of creative folks like these, today my Sweet Home is better known today for things like Oprah, Wilco and This American Life than being the Hog Butcher for the World and as far as I'm concerned, that's just fine with me.

Who needs books?

At a time when school libraries are checking out iPads and Kindles to kids, do we fear the loss of the printed book? This was the question posed by School Library Journal in a recent cover feature about the subject. I photographed all-star librarian John Schumacher with his (borrowed) iPad for the May 2011 cover.

Cows and ladders.

Along with being good for strong bones and teeth, Horizon brand milk can do other amazing things for children, like offer them the occasional height advantage. Here's one of two cute ads I shot for Leo Burnett with our custom-made cow.



We interpreted "Happy", the 2D airborn bovine on the packaging of Horizon milk as a sculptural piece standing on all fours. After weeks of design and building, Happy was shipped with her extra head to Atlanta where I shot. I'm happy to say that I'll be seeing Happy again this summer where she'll be making more cameo appearances in the developmental lives of children.

Leo Burnett creative team: Nick Fantl and Chris Julcher

Reader: Refreshed

I've been shooting for the Chicago Reader since it was a four section, black and white entertainment weekly. Back then, there was a whole section dedicated to classifieds! Over a few re-designs and three owners, the Reader is still available weekly but now refreshed as a color, single section with a new glossy double cover. Whoa!





Art director Paul Higgins and I collaborated on how to create an image about the Reader's redesign, our new mayor and city council and the coming of summer in Chicago. We settled on making one big splash.

With the help of Isa from the ChicagoLooks, we found Karen who was a super sport letting us hit her with two gallons of (warm) water over and over again. The image was expertly retouched by Paradigm Color. You can watch a sorter, 7 second splash video here.

Make-up: Jennifer Brown
Digital tech: Tim Blokel
Splash Artist: Derick Smith