After a couple of days back in Dallas it’s time to hit the road again.  This time is off to Los Angeles (Palo Verdes more specifically) to shoot a project that was sidelined by yet another natural disaster, the LA fires.  This week I’ll be shooting the new Terranea Resort that just recently opened.  Should be a great shoot and I’ll try to post previews along the way.

This morning I finished my last shoot.  It’s been an amazing handful of days shooting down in Cabo and the Las Ventanas Al Paraiso resort.  I wish I could accuratly describe how great the team down here at the resort is and how stunning the property is.  Hopefully the imagery will do the resort’s beauty justice and you will just have to take my word for how great the people are until you hop the next flight to Cabo and experience it for yourself.

The shoot was an incredibly prolific one.  2,405 frames were shot, 48 videos, all generating a whopping 80 gigs of files.  Needless to say it is going to take a while for all the processing and post production.  I’ll try to post updates over the next few weeks but I will be mostly on the road shooting other projects so that might prove a bit challenging.  Until then I leave you with a candid shot from this morning on the edge of a 15ft stone wall while dangling my feet in the pool between shots.  Enjoy

A quick note and a stunning image from this morning’s shoot at Las Ventanas Al Paraiso.  The shot below is a prime example of what happens when you have a killer team (that and some great weather).  The resort was more than ready at 5:30 this morning with everything dialed in to the T.  Candles lit, chaises draped with rolled towels placed, umbrellas all perfectly opened, etc, etc, etc.  People never realize how much staging and adjusting goes in to creating these images.  I promise you next time you are at a resort, look good and hard at the chaises.  Are the evenly spaced, tilted to the same height?  The same goes for commercial shoots.  Think about your typical office chair and how many adjustments you have (height, arm height and tilt, chair tilt, chair back height, etc, now place 15 of them at a giant conference table and try to make them look perfect.  It’s the little things.  So here’s to a beautiful shot of a beautiful resort made only possible by the hard work of a beautiful group of people.

I arrived in Cabo San Lucas this morning to shoot the renowned Las Ventanas Al Paraiso and was greeted by beautiful blue skies with some really wild clouds.  As most of you know Cabo had quite a scare a few weeks ago with a nasty hurricane headed directly towards the coast.  Fortunately it died down and took a bit of a detour sparing 3 of the projects I was to shoot in the next months (Las Ventanas Al Paraiso, Capella Pedregal, and the One and Only Palmilla).  Needless to say it’s great to be here shooting with a week of great weather ahead.

I can’t begin to say enough great things about the staff here at Las Ventanas.  Rosewood Hotels has hell of a HR department to put together a team like this.  After a couple hours of walking the property with their head of PR Lorena Fabela and giving her a 2 page request list for the next few days of shooting she was unfazed.  Also hats off to Lionel Alverez the GM of the property for making this all possible.  Enough with the praise, there will be plenty more of that later.

I’ve got a 5am wake up call tomorrow so I’ll leave you with a couple of quick previews from the shoot.  Enjoy

At the airport heading back to the states after an amazing shoot here in Bermuda.  I’m at a loss of words to describe the island and my experiences here.  So until I can pull it together and write something a bit more descriptive, I’ll leave you with a couple of images from the shoot.  Enjoy

Well I must be doing something right these days because Hurricane Jimena headed directly towards my three projects in Cabo and I’m in Bermuda shooting and have been blessed with great weather. Thought I would share a few previews from the shoot at the Tucker’s Point Hotel and Spa. Enjoy

So I made it back from my shoot in DC last week in one piece after a very wet start thanks to Hurricane Bill.  Had a great weekend back in Dallas spending time with my wife and three rascly dogs.  When I woke up on Monday I got a very funny/sad email as I was getting my morning bagel that went a little like this:

to: blake
from: project manager
subject: hurricane jimena

email: can you get to cabo today?

For those of you who dont know, there is a doozie of a hurricane headed directly for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. For most people in hurricane season, news like this is shrugged off and you go about your day, that is if you don’t have 3 luxury hotels you have to shoot in the next 2 months, one of which just opened (Capella Pedregal, Las Ventas, and the One and Only Palmilla).

Needless to say a trip that day wouldnt of helped much for a shoot that will be a 5 day extensive resort shoot.  But I did admire the effort.  So right now everyone in the office and on property are crossing their fingers and hoping that the storm weakens and changes course away from our projects.

Ironically as we speak I am at the airport heading to shoot the new Tuckers Point Resort in Bermuda.  And if you remember correctly, last week while I was in DC feeling the wrath of the fringe of Hurricane Bill, the folks in Bermuda were bracing for a direct hit to the island.  Fortunately for everyone the storm died down and changed paths sparing our newly finished resort and only resulting in a few palm fronds laying around.

What does this all mean?  Be flexible and realize there is a good chance during hurricane season your plans will change often when shooting in tropical places.  Wish me luck in Bermuda, the weather is calling for random storms but usually those storms produce spectacular sunrises and sunset.  Just not solid grey days, those do not produce beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

I leave you with a shot of an approaching storm while I was shooting in Cabo a few weeks ago (post)

After a very wet day and a half in DC compliments of Hurricane Bill, I finally caught a break this morning/today.  Had an amazing shoot over at 300 NJ aka 51Louisiana as well as my other project Square 320.  I leave you with a quick preview from the 300 New Jersey shoot.  Enjoy