It's not all work

Battling the elements for 2 days can be rough, so Terry Richardson's crew blew off a little steam at the end of our shoot day. Watch at the end, that's New York producer, Leone Ioannou exiting the ship out the backdoor.

Many Many thanks to Lucy Ridolphi at Sundance Resort and Renee Huang and Steve at Talisker Deer Valley

The images are going to be great and it will be exciting to see the November issue of Harpers Bazaar.

Ram Truck Ads featured in Archive Online

The Richards group and Andy Anderson created some incredible ads for RAM Trucks last year. They are being featured in Archive Magazine this month and in Heather Elder Represents Blog and now here. Although I was only fortunate enough to work on a couple of the ads, the Olympics in February 2010 interrupted my involvement with this project, Peg Diaz and Joe Wolek did an amazing job filing in for me. The first ad was shot outside Henderson, Nevada, where the power lines travel through from the Hoover Dam to Las Vegas and Beyond. The Second ad features the now completed Hoover Dam bypass Bridge aka Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, an amazing engineering feat, crossing 840 feet above the Colorado River below.

Scouting Winter Wonderlands

Not to ruin the surprise I am scouting for a magazine to be named later. The idea as pitched is "Dr Zhivago" Winter Scenes. So I broke out the winter boots and headed out into yesterdays storm. What a spectacular day here in Utah, reminds me of why we chose to live here.

The Rocky of Hockey

Login onto to Google Maps and look up Trail, British Columbia, Canada, it's about 120 miles North of Spokane, WA. I am here with Dominic Disaia, shooting a photo essay about small town hockey in Canada and particularly the Trail Smoke Eaters, a 100 year old hockey club, with it's little place in Canadian Hockey history.

We have met and photographed the current Junior A Smoke Eaters, a great bunch of kids and yesterday we started digging in the vaults to hear some of the folklore from the horses mouth. With the help of Sarah Benson from the Trail Historical Society and the current management of the Smoke Eaters, we tracked down a few players from the 1961 World Championship Hockey Team. Our first visit was to Norm Lenardon's house outside of town, overlooking the Columbia River. An outstanding person and great story teller, for any hockey fan like myself it was a dream, I could have stayed all day and Norm would have had no issue with that. But we had work to do, off to Cal Hockley's place, the captain of the 61 World Champs for more stories and great portraits. They may not be household names, but what you need to realize is the the 50's and 60's there were only 6 Teams in the National Hockey League, 16 players per team, that's 96 professional players (compared to today's 720 NHL players) and these guys were the next best players to the pros.

The Rocky part about the story comes from the fact that the '61 Smoke Eaters lost the Canadian Championships to Chatham Maroons, who would have represented Canada at World Championships but declined to attend for financial reasons. The people of Trail went door to door to raise funds to send the team and the Cominco Mine where all the players worked agreed to pay the players while they were off work. And against Hockey Canada's governing body and the hockey writers of the east, who said "We need to send the best team to represent Canada, not the 4th or 5th" Against all the odds the team from the little town in the Canadian Rockies were crowned the best hockey team in the world.

Tomorrow we'll meet another legend from Trail, Gordie Robertson, who was on the last team prior to Canada's 2002 Olympic Championship to win Gold in Olympic Hockey, the 1952 Edmonton Mercuries. For his portrait he will wear his 50 year old jersey and hold the Olympic gold medal in his hand.

I was trying to be ironic when I posted on Facebook that I could scratch visiting Trail off my bucket list, but this trip truly has been a hockey Pilgrimage.

Steven Currie and Norm Lenardon, Trail, B.C., January 28, 2011

How many estimates does it take to land a project

I have often wondered, how many estimates it takes on average before a job turns into reality and is awarded? So I decided to keep track in January, at least for the first 3 weeks, as I am headed of on the road again, I have to publish my results now.

Inquires; A phone call or email, checking availability or questions about a possible project

Estimates; When an inquiry turns into a request for an estimate of costs on the possible project

Pending: Jobs that have been estimated, but a decision on moving forward has not been made.

Awarded; The project and budget were approved and the job was produced or will be produced.

In conclusion, for this sample its about 4 to 1, inquires that turn into projects. Which seems about average, I have had better months and much worse months. And if I can land one of the pending projects for a hotel chain, I won't have time to keep track of estimates or make pie charts and line graphs!

Shooting with Andy Anderson, literally.

A little recreation after shooting (photographing) for the Biltmore Estate. The Biltmore Estate is more than a winery and museum, there are many other activities, including clay shooting and the Land Rover Driving Experience, which we enjoyed on our day off.

From left to right; Brian Linder, Art Director, The Richards Group, Shaun Fenn, Photo Assistant, Jimmy Bonner, Creative Director, The Richards Group, Andy Anderson and Me. All holding Beretta over under 686 White Onyx's, nice!

Extending the Holidays

The best way to extend the Christmas spirit is by spending the week at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC shooting their Holiday display.


Photographer; Andy Anderson, Agency; The Richards Group, Creative Director; Jimmy Bonner