Hawaii -> JFK

On my way home from a weeklong cruise around the Hawaiian Islands!

It was absolutely amazing.

Over the course of the week we ate our faces off, hiked and drove and explored sites all around Oahu, Kona, Hilo, Kauai, and Maui.

We saw a bunch of waterfalls...

Snorkeled and swam. (I got a sweet new underwater digital camera.)

Saw amazing mountain ranges and valleys and sunsets

Made some wonderful new friends.

And met some beautiful Hawaiian people!

On our last day today we hiked Diamond Head in Honolulu.



I will try to post more. But I am so backlogged on editing work right now. It may have to wait.

Arrived in Hawaii!

Just in time to catch the beautiful sunset over Waikiki.

What a magical place!

I WAS JUST ACCEPTED TO SOHO HOUSE!!!!!!!

This is literally the best f*cking day ever. And off to Hawaii in the morning. I am actually kind of terrified my plane is going to crash because life cannot be this good.

ALEC BALDWIN

Fine. Maybe I will start blogging again. MAYBE.

Something exciting happened today. Very exciting. Like epicly exciting. So exciting that I have to return from my monthlong blogging hiatus to brag about it post it here so I will remember it forever.

I had two photoshoots.

The first shoot was for my dear friend Ms. Carolyn.

Carolyn is a fabulous high-powered lawyer who loves having DKHeadshots of herself taken. She comes to me for photo shoots like once every three months. Today I went to her law firm to take a group shot of her and her partners for an advertisement they are putting in some magazine.

It was an easy gig. Whatever. I was in and out in 20 minutes. (Parking uptown is NOT cheap. I paid $23 for 18 minutes of parking. crazy city)

Then I hurried back to my home to meet up with my 1 o' clock client. A young actor named Daniel.

As Daniel was getting his clothes prepped and fixing his hair in my bathroom etc I made my typical boring getting-to-know-you conversation. "How long have you been acting? Who is your agent? Etc. Etc.?"

Then I asked him, "soo....how did you hear about me?"

Usually people respond saying Backstage (I was voted "Favorite Photog" brag brag) or their agent sends them or they find me on Google or Yelp.

So his answer really caught me off guard.

"Alec Baldwin referred you."

I laughed. Haha very funny.

He didn't laugh back. So I paused. I was like, "Wait...Alec Baldwin ALEC BALDWIN?"

And he was like, "yeah". LIKE IT'S A TOTALLY NORMAL THING TO SAY.

I tried to play it cool, like Sir Alec Baldwin sends me peeps all the time, whatever.

This is the information I got out of him over the next half hour or so:

Apparently Alec Baldwin, out of the goodness of his big beautiful heart, gives back once a year or so by teaching young actors in an intensive 2 or 3-day acting class at some school or acting camp or something somewhere.

So this kid was one of the lucky few to take his class and Alec actually sat him down and SHOWED HIM MY WEBSITE. And told him to come to me for headshots.

"...because he thought you were the best."

WHAT. THE. F*CK!?!?!??!?!??!?!?

I have no idea how I came onto Alec Baldwin's radar. But however it happened. This made my day. This made my YEAR. Several years.

I literally had to stop my shoot and say, "I'm so sorry. I have to take a second to update my Facebook status to tell people what you just told me."

He laughed.

Alec Baldwin. If you're out there and somehow reading this. I love you. I love you so much. I loved you since Prelude to a Kiss. And The Juror. And I'm sure there's stuff older than that but you are a little older than me. And I don't watch 30 Rock but I hear you are amazing in it. And I hear you are good at Words With Friends and I haven't played in a while but if you want to challenge me I would totally start playing again. Anyway. THANK YOU for taking time out of your busy important A-List celebrity schedule creating entertainment for BILLIONS of people to recommend someone to my stupid little headshot business. (insert squeal)

If you ever need a photograph of yourself, I will hook you up.
Obviously.

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OK I'm off to Hawaii tomorrow, maybe I will blog again soon! MAYBE

Dave & Besa's Wedding

Dave and Besa got married this weekend at the Mansion at Timber Point. So many of my friends were there and when my friends are there it doesn't feel like work.

Besa looked incredible. And their first look was so emotional and beautiful. I rarely get choked up when things happen at weddings, but this choked me.

My friends are so purty.

And they had such a large wedding party. I love a large wedding party because posing them is always a challenge, but when you do it right it looks pretty awesome.

Oh and the rest of the NYC crew was on hand as well.

And Todd forgot his teeth.

Montreal!

So I kind of came up to Montreal yesterday without a plan, other than to sit somewhere pretty and grind through a bunch of wedding editing I'm desperately trying to stay on top of. (I'm in the middle of like 10 straight weekends of weddings. Which is superyay for my wallet, but not superyay for my wrists and eyes and fingers which do all the clicking and squinting and editing.)

So I was about to hit the border...and then it dawned on me that I had done zero research on what to see or eat or do...so I posted on Facebook and got a ton of amazing recommendations. Social media at its finest.

Within minutes of arriving in town, I was on my way to Olive + Gourmando, this funky little gourmet pastry/sandwich place that at least 4 people told me I HAD to check out.

I had the BEST Cuban sandwich I've ever had in my life. Seriously considering going back for another tomorrow.

Then I also went to another recommendation: Schwartz's.

For their signature Smoked Meat Sandwich. YUM.

I drove around the city a little...it's really really pretty.

The old port is pretty awesome.

And there's this housing project thingy Megoon recommended I check out called Habitat 67 or something. It's a bunch of concrete block apts. So very cool...

Anyway. I'm limiting my daily sightseeing to an hour by car.

 

So I went back to my hotel to do work by the pool. I'm so lame. Whatever. It's probably better than sitting in a yucky office all day.

And it's nice because in Canada my cell phone isn't working so annoying headshot clients and potential new clients can't call to ask me for answers to stupid questions that are all readily available on my website.

Oh also I had Poutine for dinner. And I'm still trying to decide if it was totally delicious or totally disgusting.

Closed Circuit Red Carpet!

I've branched out into doing red carpets!

A friend hooked me up with a contact and now I'm the go-to East Coast guy for a media outlet.

The pay isn't great. $300 per event. But they're only like an hour or two. And you get to spot celebs. So that is fun fun fun for me!

My first event was a screening for the new movie "Closed Circuit" starring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, and Julia Stiles.

It was a great one to start on because it wasn't like a huge premiere. There were maybe 30 other photographers (instead of hundreds) so the fight to get the shot wasn't as intense. Everyone gave each other time to get the shots they need before yelling and screaming to get the stars' attention and direct them.

And they were all SUPER friendly and helpful, offering tips on where to stand, how to not get in the way of others, how to shoot, general etiquette, etc etc.

The first people through were the director and screenwriter. These guys are noticeably less comfortable in front of the cammys. Plus they know none of us really care.

Then the stars walk in, introduced by their publicists so we know exactly who we are shooting and whose name to scream.

First up was Rebecca Hall who you may remember from her breakout role as Vicky in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (his best film ever) or in Ben Affleck's "The Town".

She was SO tall and STUNNING.

So literally as soon as they hit their marks, the flashbulbs go NUTS. Each of 30 photogs (in thise case) fires like 10 shots a second hoping to get their money shot. And because of this you get TONS of crappy shots where other people's flashes are throwing off and overexposing your shots.

Meanwhile everyone is screaming "REBECCA! REBECCA OVER HERE!!! TO YOUR LEFT!!! REBECCA 2ND ROW!!!! REBECCAA!!!!!!!"

It is cray.

Then came Miss Julia Stiles.

Then came Mr. Eric Bana.

It was definitely a learning experience. Excited to do more!

After they pass through the gauntlet of photographers. They hit all the news outlets and interviewers. Common etiquette is to not fire your flash at them while they're being interviewed so that it doesn't show up in the video.

Oops.

We LOVES Celebrities!!!

LOVES a red carpet!!!!!!