Lewis and Clarke in Indiana.. No wait it is Steve and Erin on a beach in Indiana

Getting lost is a good thing… Well if you have time to kill…

Erin and I got lost in Indiana on our way to a job just outside Yellowstone National Park. We decided to take the longest route possible to my assignment in Livingston, Montana… The best route was route 20 West; we left New York after zig zagging up and down and over crossing into Canada under Niagara Falls and then heading back down through route 20 West and we drove at sunrise, at sunset, at night with no cares in the world, we had 6 days to just.. just beeeeee free…. When we left we knew it was going to be a cool ride and slowly we drove stopping every three minutes or so to take a picture or just go down a road because the name rolled off our tongues as we passed it. One of these days we were in Indiana just being….. passing farms, cool old antique stores, mom n' pop food stands, lemonade stands, peanuts, corn, strawberries, eggs, bread, cheese, cars, tractors, gas stations….everything on this route was for sale; everything but the children…(We have seen a sign at a car dealership that read: “”We will take anything in trade except your kids”” That is another story for another day)

Today, we are in Indiana passing some of America's greenest pastures and towns that could be nominated as the town with the most churches or chemical plants in it. Then there is something that seems lost in Indiana or misplaced like something that was created by some affluent billionaire and like a child that got bored with his toy, just left it for whom ever.. On that day we found an amazing oasis right smack in the middle of where ever we were in Indiana. We find the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Beach… Say what…. sand dunes in Indiana…. A beach in Indiana…Sand….. Beach… Indiana?…No F***ing way! We pull over and Preeta the dog starts to climb out the window and we all exit the car leaving our flip flops in the car as we hustle down a rocky path through someone’s back yard and then over the rock piles or" wishing spots" as I have come to know them. I have noticed them in Costa Rica, Aruba, San Fran and a few other exotic destinations but umm... this is Indiana. As I approach the wishing spots the sand is some of the smoothest, finest, coolest to the touch, lightest, extra fine sand that ever rolled off my toes... and my fingers when I went to feel it. Indiana… I am in Indiana…Yes I am … As I look off into the distance along the lake there is another site…. Either a chemical plant or a water treatment plant or some other industrial plant that takes this oasis like dream away and brings me back to reality and why we are the only ones on the beach. Why it feels like someone just left this place…

The memories of Philipsburg show there faces in Miami...

Weeks after Leaving Montana... .The memories of Philipsburg

It has been almost a month since I have returned to Miami Beach and as I walk my dog and my girlfriend holds onto my arm and then slides down to my hand, we joss around thinking how we used to have to wear a sweatshirt or sneakers as we walked through the chill of the night air. We had stopped many times while walking around in Philipsburg to say hello to the townspeople, to look at the brilliant stars, or just to run into a bar to grab a shot to cut the cold. On the many occasions of the late night walks or early morning walks that we went on there seemed to be a voice that would come out of no where with a hello, a good morning, a good evening or do you have time for a joke, a smoke, a drink.



Tonight on Miami Beach it is 87 degrees, there are no stars, no chill of the cold breeze, no sound of the leaves rustling in the background. But as we are walking under the droplets of rain some of our recent acquaintances words or accents or jokes arise in our talking and bring back the ever welcoming community of P-Burg… Where some of the coolest nights Erin and I spent just happened on these long walks at night in the mountains of Montana in the belly of the summer during the month of August:

Found but not lost images from a funny moment on a shoot for Mallett Inc.

One of those days that I thought death was going to descend on me and thinking that the cold dirt would keep me warm … Working with one of the most respected Antique Dealers in the world, I almost died working under a one of kind antique Amber Glass 18 Branch Chandelier by Venini, hand blown glass chandelier that had a arms that spanned almost 6 feet in diameter. The story goes like this...

I will skip the details of how I got the assignment or what it was for and all the other glories of getting a job… The start of it was when I was heading in a cab to meet the team and I realized that I was not going to be shooting on Madison Avenue but in Queens at a warehouse…. Yes that is where this one of kind antique Amber Glass 18 Branch Chandelier by Venini that had arms that spanned almost 6 feet in diameter was resting in a giant crate before it was scheduled to be shipped to a buyer.
Well, running late or later than late since traffic over the 59th street Bridge was brutal my cabbie was irate yelling that he is going to run out of gas and whatever else he was yelling in his native tongue. So lying in a box waiting upon my arrival was the Chandelier. The warehouse chief and his two helpers along with the team from the Antique store are waiting to unpack the Chandelier and then put it together after wiring it and testing it. The next phase would be how and where we are going to hang her..

I arrive at a secure vault-like warehouse with all my equipment and a 9 foot, white seemless roll of paper which has been hanging out the front window of my cab. Exiting the cab and entering into the building I am greeted by a security guard asking me for my ID. I Follow the guy through two monster doors. I am now in an old meat-locker sized elevator that could hold two 4-door sedans and we're heading up to the 4th floor. Somewhere in the maze of triple-lock doors, security cameras and hidden vaults is where they keep some of the worlds rarest items for socialites, celebrities, investors and antiques dealers. I am walking behind my elevator operator and personal security guard, Jessy from Ireland around this maze of vaults… Somewhere in the back I see a door that is open and I hear English, Irish and/or Scottish accents as I enter. A group of workers have rigged up the base of the Chandelier between two ladders and I notice that this is going to be a longer day then I could have expected. As the workers are assembling the base to a ladder and a rig from the ceiling, I see one guy has begun to put the octopus tentacle-sized arms on. The electrician is testing the wires and the light bulbs in the distance. I begin to ask where this area is that we are going to hang the Chandelier because this area is only 7 feet wide while the rest of the vault is 25 feet by 19 feet; we are going to need space behind it and around it so we can hang a white backdrop to cover or camouflage the floor to ceiling art racks which are filled with paintings that are covered in sealed crates along with other unknown covered and impeccably labeled treasures. Fast forwarding to the three different riggings, two hours setting up the Amber Glass 18 Branch Chandelier along with replacing the bulbs, the removing of finger prints on the glass another 2 hours, three hours of telling two guys to hold the Chandelier steady and then have them quickly remove fingers and duck the Chandelier in between the two 12-foot ladders as I press the shutter each time. Watching the Chandelier shake, rattle and move as the ladders were kicked, knocked into or just moved with the building when the trains pass on the tracks. It is dark outside and 12 hours later I am waiting to for my car service.

I have since refrained from shooting objects made out of glass that are larger than five feet tall or five feet wide or both. I will never let anything over a $100,000 swing from a ceiling’s cross bar or held steady and upright with ladders. And most important I have learned never never never take no for an answer from anyone that tries to walk under something hanging from ceiling’s cross bar and held steady and upright with ladders and two guys. Drum roll please for the biggggggest of big lessons of all: You can never have too much insurance on any job… Big or small

Mallett Inc. is one of the oldest antique stores in London and they also have a large presence here on Madison Avenue in New York City. Mallett Inc. is a dealer of rare English and Continental furniture, paintings and decorative objects.

The Amber Glass 18 Branch Chandelier was the last antique I recall shooting.






Cheers to the Brits!

Random gas stops turns into trespassing in “South of the Border”

Random gas stops turns into trespassing in “South of the Border” and a picnic not in Mexico but in South Carolina. After heading up to NYC and back down to Miami so many times, up and down the East coast I can barely remember anything more. Like so many other times when driving and seeing endless nothing for hours you finally get a glance at something! Well this is one of those times when I noticed something cool or odd about an abandoned hotel/motel while driving 80 mph on I-95 North. Seeing out of the corner of my eye was an abandoned playground’s old see-saw and a stubby rusted slide alongside a set of chain-linked swings secluded and with no seats. A long stare later and I return my eyes to the empty road off into the distance; I see an exit.



With or without a map, any road will get you there, to this place where I am now with Erin and the dog, Preeta. We are driving over a curb and up a road where someone had driven before us through the locked gate and left only pieces of its remains. Posted next to where it used to stand is a hand written sign: No Trespassing, No Stopping, No Idling, No Camping, No Parking…

Once again we are on the other side of the No To Entry, No To Trespassing, No To Parking. We are in the middle of this small village with a few lost stores, a hotel, a restaurant, and an old liquor store. Slowly we are entering a road between the gas station and a motel.




Tall grass lines a dirt road that leads us to a grass driveway and takes us straight to the base of an “erector set” type of a playground. Surrounding it is this deserted, semi-grand 100 room, two story family hotel /motel. It was called “The Family Inn of America” which now lies dormant, broken and shattered leaving behind only this huge playground and an oversized pool now green and half filled. Nearby, almost every single guest room window has been blown out. We start to take it all in and walk around. Our foot steps echo against the walls and in the distance I can hear the familiar sound of semi-trucks rumble past. We are alone, we are hungry, and we are going to run around like to two kids… climbing, swinging and yelling as we slide down the slide, we are kids again and our picnic can wait.

Part of the experience or traveling on assignment! Time to and from..

My many assignments have taken me:::::

While sightseeing and getting lost in America I have seen many things, thought very strongly one way and ended up believing in a totally different way after leaving. After traveling around the world and through out the USA I was taught many of life’s lessons and I am now a firm believer that we are doing something very wrong…



The wonders are not so new but friends in the sky:

Camera’s on almost ever street corner and cameras in almost every business. While these cameras are busy watching us, the corporations, the government, the senators in congress continue to pollute the waters, power plants continue to pollute the air and the senators are polluting the soil that we are planting our seeds in. In an attempt to bring some awareness to words like "organic", "pure" or "all-natural" I will ask you does a field worker in a field picking strawberries under a backdrop of a nuclear power plant sound "Pure, All-Natural or Organic" when 24 hours a day one, if not both towers are running and feeding clean chemicals into the air? Or, farmers growing organic veggies next to a water and sewage processing plant and shipping half dead or almost dead animals to slaughter? Most genetically altereded and processed seeds end up as either grain for dairy cows (yummy milk), or flavor-injected, colored beef (delicious), and lastly the fattier yet somehow healthier turkey's. The list is endless….




What is not endless is the pain of trying to pronounce the new forms of cancers, those new forms of "yet to be named" diseases that seem to hit someone we know. The "it" is a very rare form of cancer and after your so-called diagnosis you get a statistic of 1 in every blah blah.

What is important is that there is a new drug out on the market that treats, cures, or numbs every known or not yet known medical condition. The only problem is that you get 10 different conditions or ailments as a side effect of that medication.



So I am asking this question. If the government is watching us, who is Mother Nature watching? Are we going to only be left with photographs and painting of what once was...

Carl's Patio Shoot for Hearth and Home Magazine

A few months ago prior to my second road trip out west I had the pleasure of working with the team at 'Hearth and Home Magazine' again. I was called upon to shoot a story about Carl's Patio Furniture. The 12-part series titled "Shops That POP" focused on visual merchandising and store design and Carl's Patio Furniture Store was selected to be showcased in this series.

The cover of Skin Inc Magazine September 2009

The cover of Skin Inc. Magazine September 2009: Continuing my relationship with Allured Business Media and Skin Inc.