I didn't post any blogs for all of December and January because we were literally shooting everyday (including many weekends) for most of those two months. The biggest job we were working on was Choice Hotels with Arnold Worldwide out of DC which in the end was 23 days long not including all the pre and post production . It was one of the best assignments I have ever had the pleasure to work on. The Agency and Client were a dream to work with as was my crew and while we worked our butts off we also had a ton of fun. So here are some shots of the production along with a few of the finished images.

Mike was overjoyed at being down in San Antonio, Texas at a Quality Inn

It was, as Crystal put it "all about the bedding" so here was a finished version

Then we shot some with models sleeping (you can see the ad on my website in the advertising section) and afterward they looked so comfortable I decided to join them...

at which point everyone else wanted in:
( from left to right: Me, Crystal from Choice, Julia and Bryce from Arnold and Mike my assistant)

The lobby shot set up in the Quality

Setting up for the breakfast shot in the Quality, here Mike and Raymond, my assistants as my stand ins while the models get ready:

"are you getting an idea of Mike's personality yet"?

The final breakfast shot using our professional, talented and very funny models Dee Dawson and Phil Laws who kept the whole crew cracking up the entire time we were shooting

Jenna and Mike working very hard...

Shooting in Winnie, TX at the Comfort Inn

Mike and the Senior Art Director Chris Sheldon (who should be a creative director in case anyone he works for is reading this and then while you're at it Julia should be promoted as well) having a moment while waiting for our models to arrive:

after which they decided to check in

and a couple of the finished versions:

So here we are in Texas, where it is supposed to be warm and we need to do a pool shot with one of our families and the entire week we were there it never got much above 45 degrees and even snowed one day. On the day we scheduled to shoot the pool it was 40 degrees and overcast. The talent however, was magnificent and was totally game to give it a go.

Here's what it looked like in real life: look at all the crew in winter coats and hats.

But it needed to look warm, so I used every light I own. These were on the front of the hotel only all the others were on the pool itself.

Here was what the finished version looked like, with no retouching:

These talented models were so great to work with: Nellie Gonzales, Christopher Garcia, Sophie Maneth (who even made the crew cookies one day) and Travis Barnett. They worked so well together you would have really thought they were an actual family. Christopher and Travis even jumped in at the end! And that Sophie was the cutest, most talented young girl you could ever imagine. I really believe she is going to be famous one day.

The whole crew, minus all our models and our hair and Make up stylist, in Winnie on the last day:

Then it was back up to Boston to my studio for the food shoot part:

Catrine Kelty my food stylist hard at work:

One of the finished shots

Then it was on to Tennessee and South Carolina, where once again it was freezing cold and grey. I needed to light my bedroom set up in Tennessee from outside because "it was all about the bedding", but the room we had to shoot was located on the second floor. So we had to rig a makeshift 2 story light stand to get it up to the height I needed...and it was raining. Mike earned his salary that day:

after that everyone was jumping like Mike:

So when the shoot was finally over (in south Carolina) and ended with the pool shot we all decided to jump like Mike, or rather Crystal made the suggestion and everyone else jumped on it... literally

Then it was back to Boston two weeks later for the final shots at the Clarion in Hull. Which was the perfect ending to a great shoot!

and Crystal I hope you don't mind but we stocked up on pens along the way. The hotels don't mind that do they?