I had recently finished shooting Mr.B’s cookbook in New Orleans, when I was fortunate to be called on to shoot an Asian cookbook in Telluride, Colorado. I worked with a wonderful restaurateur, Honga Im. Honga started her culinary career selling street food on a corner in Telluride. She worked her way up to opening a beautifully designed two level restaurant on the main street in Telluride. A prime spot, a prime price tag and beautiful mountain views. A hotspot where Tom and Katie Cruise popped in to eat as we finished our shoot one day.

For two weeks, the food stylist and myself were treated to life in the small (5x14 city blocks) quaint town of Telluride, set in a box canyon with one way in and out. Asian food lends it self to such beautiful photos. The food was amazing (entirely edible) and Honga was a true joy to work with. The book came out great!

At a time when I seemed to be shooting more in Florida then locally, I received a request to shoot for Seminole Casinos. Chris Miranda with Redline Media Group in Miami needed a lifestyle and property shoot at a Seminole Casino in Immokalee,Fl.

Immokalee,FL ??? I have not found a single person who has ever heard of Immokalee,Fl. I would have to drive through Alligator Alley in the Everglades to get there. We have alligators in Louisiana…they have more.

As remote as the casino was it’s demo was upscale snow birds from the northeast because of its proximity to Naples and the west coast of Florida. It does an amazing business from November through March and holds it’s own through the summer.

Even with 12 hour shoot days starting at 5am, it was a great shoot, the talent from south Florida was great and Chris and the other folks from Redline were always there to help and direct.

I receive an email one day to from Jason Holloway, a Creative Director with Navigant Marketing in Miami. He liked what he saw in my lifestyle work wanted me to do a lifestyle shoot for Wyndham Hotels in South Florida. It’s always a happy moment when someone finds me based on my web portfolios and wants to fly me to a place where many talented photographers reside.

Since then I’ve traveled to over 9 states and Canada for Wyndham/Navigant shooting environmental portraits of hotel owners for national franchising ads. On most trips, flying, driving several hours only to briefly setup, shoot and then head home. Sometimes hectic, but always satisfying to have out of town shoots that go smoothly through good planning and good resources.

The most exciting project recently for Wyndham Resorts was shooting stills along side a video crew taping national ads. When video and stills are combined it allows for a better talent budget and with a better budget you get really great talent. As usual, a hectic 3 day shoot starting in Orlando then to Jupiter and on to Miami Beach. The imagery was beautiful. Jason is a super talented Creative Director who can walk into any scenario and within minutes have a great plan!

I first met Emeril Lagasse when we were both very young, I was lucky enough to be sitting at the kitchen bar across from him as he prepared our meals in his first restaurant, Emeril's in New Orleans. It wasn’t until years later when I received a call to shoot for All-Clad Cookware that I would have the opportunity to work with him.

I had followed his amazing career and was pretty excited to meet him. A little intimidated as to how he would be to work with. I‘ve shot a few celebrities and had been pretty lucky making sure they were respected, comfortable and pleasant to work with. But Emeril, a local hero!

The shoot took place at his restaurant in the Island View casino in Mississippi, he was doing his part to help bring back fine dining to the Coast after Katrina. We were prepared to shoot an environmental portrait of Emeril in two areas of his restaurant, natural shots of him cooking in the restaurant kitchen, setups with him and the cookware and some food items. A fairly busy day.

When Emeril entered the room that morning, it was like we were old friends, he complimented me on my food photography and said he looked forward to working with me….he even asked if wanted a drink, since it was 8:30am, I declined. He made the shoot effortless!

In the last 10 years I’ve had the pleasure to shoot many properties for Marriott Hotels around the country. It all started with the local Marriott full service Hotels in New Orleans and the J W Marriott.

I met Michelle Servais who was the director of Photography for Marriott in 2006. She taught me Marriott’s standards for photography and room preparation that were the best in the industry. And she wasn’t afraid to put in the work to achieve great results. We worked 12 hour days and took the time to make every detail perfect from the bed linens to the perfect flowers in every setup.

With all the places I’ve traveled to shoot for Marriott, it’s particular pleasure to get assignments in my hometown. Sometimes clients fell it’s necessary to bring in a specialist from out of town when they don’t realize that a local photographer is considered a specialist when they travel to other cities to shoot.

Recently Marriott has transformed the style of their photography style to a newer more contemporary style and it really looks great. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the work I’ve done for Marriott locally, thanks to people like Michelle Servais, Heather Stone, Maria Delecamera, Mary Anne Warwick and Tim Johnson who were all great to work with.

Monument Valley

Maybe the first trip I put on my bucket list (when I started one) was to go to Monument Valley in Utah. As a kid watching all those old westerns shot in this mystical looking valley, always stuck with me. Every time I’ve walked into any convenience store… anywhere…and seeing the display above the cigarettes with images of the valley, it always called to my inner spirt to travel to this amazing place.

Finally, I got to travel there. On a trip with my wife, my son and his fiancé. It lived up to my expectations!!! The scenery in Monument Valley and the national parks in Utah is beyond description…Bryce Canyon, Zion National, Arches, Capital Reef, Canyonlands are some of the most beautiful areas in the world, with more European visitors then American visitors. ???

We hiked for 5 days and never wanted to stop exploring. I want desperately to go back…

but not before I make a trip back to that area to see my other longtime dream destination.

Antelope Canyon….. Google it!!!

I remember the very first trip over to a new little casino in Mississippi that had just been taken over by a private owner and had big plans for the future. It would be my first casino account and I was excited!

Fast forward 20 years and it’s gone through amazing growth to become a multi level resort, one of the first smoke free casinos in the country, with a High Rise Tower, Fine Dining Restaurants and upscale Buffet, lavish Pool and Marina with an outdoor water seating restaurant, and a magnificent Golf Course in a remote piece of wilderness.

Through destruction of the entire Casino, Restaurants, Nightclub Theater and Marina in Katrina, they rebuilt bigger and better. What a ride and all the while I’ve be fortunate to work with an amazing GM Keith Crosby, and the sweetest and hardest working marketing and advertising directors in Lisa Quirch and Jeana Tribble. Top Casino staff that stay for 20 years, Wow. Must be a great place to work!

After Katrina, when we all wondered when we would work again. A friend and super talented Graphic Designer, Matt Touchard started a personal project to create a book on guitarists and their passion to play. He has been working on it now for 10 years. Researching,

interviewing, writing, art directing the portraits, transforming them with retouching, designing and laying out 400 plus pages of what will be a truly magnificent book titled “GuitArsonists”TM.

Matt has always been a guitar freak, playing in bands when he was young, He became a national acclaimed designer working with such national interests such as Cirque du Soleil, his musical passion has lead him to design for Pat Benatar and other national and international musical performers. He currently has over 150 vintage guitars in his personal collection. So it’s natural that this mega guitar enthusiast is a “GuitArsonist” in his own rite.

I worked and traveled with him to shoot some of the famous and infamous guitarists he’s featuring in the book. Then we collaborated on a series of portraits of women with guitars. His vision for these portraits was brilliant.

One day I get a call from a new Casino Marketing Director who had just built a new department for the first new branded Golden Nugget in the country. Melissa Radovich went on to open the Mississippi property and then the new $750 million dollar property in Louisiana. She was a dynamo who seemed to never stop working. For the next year I seemed to be a Golden Nugget employee as many times as I would travel to shoot new property photos for both Casinos.

At the Louisiana property, it was a unique challenge shooting venues in a casino that was not yet open with 2,000 construction workers and employees training while we were shooting. But it was exciting creating the imagery for such an amazing property. Meeting and photographing the man behind it all Tillman Fertitta, was an inspiration. He was so hands on overseeing every detail to make the property the showcase that it is. Flying in his helicopter to shoot aerials wasn’t so bad either.

Marie Warren has worked in Marketing for Paragon Casinos for over 10 years. She is the Marketing Director, a super talented, hard working, fast walking workaholic who seems like she’s from New York except for the slight french cajun accent.

She’s talented enough to work in much bigger markets, but choose to keep her family grounded in Central Louisiana, to the benefit of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe who owns and operate what started as a small rural casino and grew in to a resort with a 500 rooms, a high rise tower with an atrium cypress swamp filled with live alligators ….Louisiana!!!

When working on assignment for MGM Resort’s Beau Rivage. I had the pleasure to meet and work someone I consider to a be a legend in the Culinary World. He name is Chef Joseph Friel, originally from Ireland he had spent years working in NYC and Las Vegas and was now the Executive Chef over the 7 upscale Restaurants at the resort.

He directed what I considered the best group of chefs I’ve ever worked with. It was the first time that I was able to shoot food and beverage photography with out a food stylist and feel proud to include it my food portfolio of food styled by top professional stylists.

Chef Joe, as he was know, had cooked for some of the top entertainers in the country and was on a first name basis with people such as Tony Bennett. He was a fiery Irish guy, quick with the wit and the demands. Someone you never forget working with. Even gave me tips on where to eat in Venice, Italy.

I also had the pleasure working with Stephane Hainaut their Director of Fine Dining Restaurants, originally from Paris where he worked as a Maitre’D at Guy Savoy and some of the top restaurants in NYC and Miami. He’s now the Director of Food and Beverage at the New MGM National Harbor. One shoot in particular we accomplished what would have taken a food stylist a week to accomplish in 2 days.

The only two weddings I’ve ever photographed were in Europe. When my friend Cat Wall/Aschenberg, a makeup and fashion stylist I had worked with, called and said she had met her prince charming and was going to get married at a castle outside of Paris and would I shoot her wedding, I was like, when!!! The event was magical! Paris was amazing! The food! The wine!

A year later my friend Matt Touchard had finally met his soul mate and asked me to shoot his wedding…this time in Montreux, Switzerland on Lake Geneva…how could I resist. Again a breathtakingly beautiful part of the world. I think I will stop at 2 weddings, unless I’m offered another one in Europe!