Preparing to Zoo

I am getting very excited to shoot an editorial spread in the San Francisco Zoo this coming week, and these amazing images are encouraging the enthusiasm for my backdrop. The artist is Nick Brandt at: http://www.nickbrandt.com/.

The Garden went Twisty

My botanical landscape was not quite the floral pastel quality of some Tim Walker inspiration but rather lent itself to a graphically focused arrangement for much of the framing and composition. The grounds were filled with funny little outcroppings and niche areas. I could not resist their charm and contrast; viva el rojo.

If You Build It, It Will Come...

... To your mind, hopefully. The imaginative American artist Tony Duquette certainly found in way of seeing a precious world to build the amazing founded on beauty, not luxury. He holds the honor of the first solo American artist to be housed at the Louvre, and since that time in 1951 has used found objects to dazzle the eye and invite the mind to play and build on his worlds. In my own pursuit of set building and scene creating photographic capture, I find his way of marrying artifacts into the unique space of stunning dreams to be most inspiring. May I have the good fortune and prop closet space to house my own growing collection of just such found objects of desire from attractive discards to natural wonders.

Enamored of all his work, I am especially stunned by his holiday windows. There was nothing everyday about these dream boxes. Now, where to find and how to build with red coral, antlers, anxious monkey statues...

English Garden

Tea party, tree shade, Tim Walker... I am reaching for ideas to plan for next week's shoot at the botanical gardens and floristry grounds of a college here in San Francisco. Immediately I go to my beloved Avedon's long-time assistant who now leads the British Vogue syndicate in fanciful and elegant spreads. May these images conjure up some beauty befitting the botanical wonders we are sure to behold!